My tryst with the NANO for 4 months

 

Exterior Cute is one word but looks are subjective.  I personally like the looks except maybe the front.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Excellent space and seating comfort.  Space for more than 4 people.

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Highly inconsistent engine performance.  Idling noise keeps varying.  Can't shift to top gear before reaching 45 kmph so fuel economy inside city suffers (and defeats the purpose of this car).  Highway fuel economy with a/c is good but performance with more than 2 people is questionable.  Gearbox is good.

 

Ride Quality & Handling Have to slow down to 5 kmph over smallest of speedbreakers. On anything less than perfect roads, ride quality becomes very uncomfortable. Poor a-pillar visibility can throw nasty surprises in city conditions.  Handling is good though.

 

Final Words Not good for highway use and for full capacity runs with a/c. Storage space is behind backseat and with no boot, makes it inaccessible.  Have to offload backseat passengers to reach luggage area.  Accessing luggage area is another chore.  Servicing by local mechanics will be a challenge as you need to be a yoga expert to reach the engine bay.  I heard this car cannot be raised on a ramp (never seen one on a ramp on so many of my frustrating visits to concorde motors service...so prospective buyers please check).  Other issues I had was 1) failure of a/c twice, battery was bad from day one giving staring trouble but it took them 4 months of negation to accept the problem.  Even the started motor was changed.  I experienced brake failure once at low speed and was told it could be due to a faulty coil (which was reported in other nanos) And, 2.05 lacs on road, there are much better options at only a few thousands more.  This car is just not worth it.

 

Areas of improvement TASS remains the sinlgle biggest grouse.  Till that is sorted out, buying any tata product is buying trouble.  Apart from that, nano is strictly work in progress.  Battery placement under driver's seat is not a good idea I hear.  Lack of left ORVM is another bad thing.  Differently sized front and back tyres with stepney only for front wheel spells doom for highway runs.  Tata says you can run the car at 40 kmph with the stepney fitted at the back.  The question is, do you want to be in such a situation at all in the first place.

 

Easy to drive, interior spaceProblematic, ineffective a/c, performance with full load on highways