Tata Nano Road Test

7/29/2019 Tata Nano Road Test

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God ofsmallthingsTatas little Nano put to the big test

Words Sirish ChandranPhotographyGaurav S Thombre, Martin Alva

Awinner. Plain, simple

and without any beat-

ing around the bush

thats the Nano or

you. A sure-shot winner. A car -

a proper car at that - which will

transorm the countrys auto-

motive landscape orever; uel

the car-buying dreams, desires

and aspirations o a billion peo-

ple. We have driven the car and

I cant get over the act that, my

god, Tata Motors has really doneit! This is no joke, no embarrass-

ment o a car. This is an against-

all-odds story; the story o what

the world said was impossible,

what our own count rymen (and

women!) trie d thei r damnde st

to scuttle and o a motivated

and talented bunch o engineers

proving everybody wrong. And it

started with Ratan Tata watch-

ing your average Indian amily -

ather, mother, two kids - rid

through the rain.

Thus began the genesis

the one-lakh-rupee car, Ind

Peoples Car, the car dogged

more controversy and on wh

more has been written than

in the history o the automob

A car that evolv ed rom b

no-rills transportation into

astonishingly normal car. I k

stressing on this because, le

be honest, what do you getone lakh rupees these days

good motorcycle costs a la

An autoric kshaw costs alm

two lakh rupees. And Ind

cheapest car which is as no-r

as you can get, costs over

lakh rupees. I expected a che

compromised, utilitarian o

wheeler. W hat I drov e was a

that I will, eyes closed, reco

mend to anybody.

www.OVERDRIVE.in april76 april 2009 www.OVERDRIVE.in

TestTata Nano


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STYLINGIt all starts with the way the Nano

looks because (and these are Tata

Motors own words) there can be

no better USP than love at rst

sight. Over the past year Ive seen

countless Nanos being tested all

over Pune but the novelty value

has yet to ade. So when ten

Nanos bumbled on to the test

track at Tata Motors Pimpri ac-

tory, all in light and bright shades,

seasoned, hardened journalists

let out whoops o joy. Its a happy

ace. You might have issues with

it (Singur, environment, conges-

tion - take your pick) but just like

a happy meal puts the glint back

into a childs eye, so I guarantee

when you rst see a Nano on the

road you will smile. It melts your

heart. Its like the brat with the

mischievous glint in her eye; you

know you should slap her into

shape but all you can do is hug

her harder. You will want to give

the Nano a big bear hug rst thing

in the morning.

Justin Novak when he was

with IDe A (now at Triton design

along with most o the crew

that worked on Tatas projects)

penned what will go down as a

design classic. Like all cars born

o unctionality and shallow wal-

lets, the Nano is inherently right.

It has a simplicity to the design in

which lies its ultimate appeal. No

matter what your nancial ability

you will love it. This w ill become

the ultimate classless vehicle;

something that will appeal to

rich, middle class and poor olk

alike - and which could spawn a

whole rang e o cool mug s, toy s,

T-shirts and more stu.

For a cheap car there are very

many hints at sportiness nota-

bly in the side air-intake (like

Porsche and Ferrari), fared wheel

arches, rear roo spoiler and cen-

tral exhaust. The sharp crease on

the nose (cant call it the bonnet

because theres no engine under-

neath) and vertical tail lamps link

back to the rest o Tata Motors

amily. All Tata cars are also

amed or their interior space and

to achieve that the Nano is tall and

upright though those proportions

are well masked by the drooping

roo, egg-shaped silhouette, or-

ward visual bias and the wheels at

the extremities. Next to no over-

hangs gives it a robust stance and

prevents the Nano rom looking

like a toy car on toy wheels (and

giving rise to questions on saety

and stability). O course hav-

ing the engine at the rear means

theres practically nothing at the

nose allowing the driver and

windshield to be pushed r ight up

ront creating a perect mono vol-

ume shape.

INTERIORSThis will really shock you the

space inside is huge! The Nano

measures 3.1 metres in length, is

1.6 metres wide and 1.65 metres

tall. The wheelbase is 2230mm

and track widths are 1325mm at

the ront and 1315mm at the rear.

Tata claims the Nano is eight per

cent smaller than the smallest car

in India (Maruti 800 obviously)

but within these constraints

There are three variants o

the Nano standard, CX and LX

the main dierences being the

trim levels. The standard is bog

standard rexine seats, no air-con

and no rills. Our test car, the LX,

gets air-conditioning, power ront

windows (rear remai ns wind-

down), central locking, ront and

rear og lamps, ull abric seats

and rexine/abric door inserts.

But theres no let hand side wing

mirror which I missed through-

out the drive. The air-con uses a

60cc compressor which delivers

enough cooling power to keep

the voluminous interiors cool,

though you might nd it strug-

gling a bit in mid-aternoon drives

on the highway where the engine

is being worked hard.

As with all Tata cars you walk

in and out o the car; engineers

had to ensure Ratan Tata didnt

crouch or scrabble in. Ingress-

egress is easier than even in the

Indica and with the high-set seats

the H-point is naturally higher

and that means you can spend

long hours in the back and not su-

er aches and pains. The seat back

angle is well thought out and head

room is generous, way better than

an A-Star and almost Santro-like.

In act passengers will love the

rear seats, at the ront leg room is

compromised by the wheel wells

intruding into the passenger

compartment.

Every inch o space is optimised

and so the seats are mounted on a

rail running horizontally which

eliminates the need or a seat

rame and enables passengers to

tuck their eet under the seat. The

rod also serves as a side impact

beam reducing intrusion into the

cabin - a novel and cost eective

solution.

On the LX the rear parcel tray

is bolted to the seat back and the

whole set-up tumble s to liber-

ate 80 litres o boot space - good

enough only or two or a maxi-

mum o three shopping bags. The

engine is beneath this and it is

worth remember ing that it can

get a bit hot and best not to leave

any ice-cream. With the seats

olded storage volume rises to 500

litres. The engine is accessed ater

tumbling the rear seats because

the rear hatch doesnt open, the

battery is under the drivers seat

and the spare wheel is in the nose

along with the uel ller cap.

Anot her surp risi ng aspe ct

is quality o the

interiors which

are unexpectedly

good. Having

only a ew mod-

ules means there

arent many

panel gap issues

to deal with but

on this ront it

actually eels bet-

ter put together than the In

Vista. T he plastics are cheap

crucially not nasty while the t

tone grey on the dash and the

our o the seat abrics make

cabin look and eel light and a

In such a small car the centr

mounted speedo actually bre

the monotony o the design

obviously this also means

dash can be used in let and ri

hand markets. Giving the spe

company is a digital uel gau

odometer and a bunch o warn

lights, one o which is a cute l

yellow outline o the Na no w

a spanner running across it;

cutest warning lamp in the wo

The central console is fanked

scooped-out dash which can h

odds and ends and everything

rounded edges to make it sae

a crash. There is no glove box

there are two cup holders

small map pockets in the door

The doors are ultra light (

o course eel fimsy) and h

an integrated armrest, door

and coin hol

The three-sp

steering wh

is unique to

Nano (sta

ard versi

get a two-sp

whee l) and

trimmed in

touch plastics

I GuaRaNTEEwhEN YOu fIRSTSEE a NaNO ON ThEROad YOu wILLSmILE. IT mELTSYOuR hEaRT

theyve managed to liberate 21

per cent more interior volume and

astonishingly or such a small car,

our adults can t in comortably.

It is so spacious inside that Martin

(a giant at over six eet tall) could

sit behind me. And I (not exactly

a dwar at 5 10) was sitting as I

always do; very comortably. The

seats themselves are designed to

be comortable without eating too

much into interior space and both

the ront seats slide and recline

allowing very tall drivers to t

in behind the wheel. The driving

position is comortable and well

thought out, ergonomically eve-

rything is where it would be in a

car and visibility is o course very

good with only the centre stack

hump obstructing the let hand

view slightly.

Fairly simple das wit central speedo anked scooped side sections. Air-con on deluxe versi


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SafETYA key actor o t he Nano, and a

key criticism, has been saety

and Tata engineers are keen to

stress than she meets all current

regulatory requirements in India

including ull rontal crash, head

impact on steering wheel, body

block impact on steering and seat

belt anchorage strength. There

are crumple zones in the ront,

waist reinorce ment in the doors

(which doubles up as the support

or the door rame) and the Nano

has also been subjected to roo

crush tests.

The base is a unique hybrid

monocoque

construction

in which two

cross members

are welded into

the monocoque

and this robust

understructure

takes most o

the road loads. It

allows the super

structure to use

thinner sheet

metal and thus be

lighter. A side benet is that this

also lowers the centre o grav-

ity and aids stability. Being rear-

engined, the Nano doesnt need a

central transmission tunnel but it

is there to add rigidity while also

allowing or the brake, uel and

air-con lines to pass through. The

roo is ribbed to increase strength

and xed rear glass and hatch also

adds rigidity to the structure.

Scalability is a key actor in

the Nanos construction and Tata

claims it can be easily upgraded

to meet orthcoming rontal

oset and side impact crash

requirements in India. Theres

also the Nano

Europa that will

be sold in India

next year and is

being developed

with the aim o

achieving a min-

imum three stars

in EuroNCAP

crash tests.

ENGINE &TRaNSmISSIONThe engine is a

brand new development - a 624cc

all-aluminium parallel twin pet-

rol engine that makes 35PS o

power at 5250rpm and max

torque o 48Nm between 2500

and 4000rpm. It has all-square

cylinder dimensions o 73.5mm,

runs a 9.7:1 compression ratio

and there are two valves per cyl-

inder actuated by a single cam-

shat. A special low-cost ECU

developed by Bosch handles uel

injection duties and the engine

meets BS III emission norms

while tuning is underway to meet

BS IV norms (equivalent to Euro

III). The engine is unique in that

it uses a single balancer shat to

cut vibrations, the rst time such

a set-up has been used in a pas-

senger car.

On the move, NVH levels are

never bothersome and very little

engine vibrations enter the cabin.

The exhaust note is unique - like

an autorickshaw at idle (only qui-

eter) and then taking on a pleas-

ing phut-phut when revved hard.

Its a unique sound which, rest

assured, you will be hearing a

lot o. That said I wonder how

it would sound with a ew holes

drilled in the exhaust!

The engine is limited to

5600rpm but it revs so well that

invariably I kept hitting the rev

limiter in rst and second gear.

And third and ourth , come to

think o it. The crucial aspect is

that power doesnt tail o ater

peak in the torque curve is hit

and the engine revs cleanly and

strongly till its redline.

The gearbox too is a pleasant

surprise, the our-speed cable-

actuated manual box being sur-

prisingly ree o vibrations. It is

short in throw, precise and its

slick action makes easy work o

keeping the engine on the boil.

Overall its much nicer to use that

the gearbox on the Indica! The

transversely mounted gearbox

can handle up to 50Nm o torque,

has synchromesh on all our gears

and is mated to a single dry plate

clutch. A CVT transmission, mod-

eled along the lines o a scooter

CVT (low cost and no steel belts)

is also in the pipeline and might

be ready by the year end.

The engine has 10,000km

dRIfTING aNaNO mIGhT bEThE SILLIEST ThINGIN ThE wORLdbuT IT ShOwShOw NEuTRaL,baLaNcEd aNdpREdIcTabLE ShE IS

Tree-spoke steering weedeluxe versions, standard gets a two-sp

Wind-down windows at te rear. Notice te batteryunder te ront seat and te orizontal seat-mounting rod

Single wiper saves costs and tewaser nozzle is fxed to te wiper blade

Roo spoiler on deluxeversions adds even more sportiness

Fuel fller in te nose, te cap on te rigt,as is te spare tyre wic is te narrower ront

Side vents cool teengine, and look cool!

Twin-cylinder enginemounted under rear oor

Vertail lamps a

visual link too te Tata ra

Cute little rubber matsare on te options list

Digital uel gauge andcute little engine warning ligt105kmp and tats it!

Narrower MRFtyres at te rontTis is pure simple power-oversteer, assisted o course by

some loose gravel. Its a ridiculous test but yes, you can drit a Nano!

Cup olders and power window on deluxe ver

Rear seats ip dowrelease 500 litres o storage sp

Centrally mouexaust looks

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TestTata Nano


4/6

service intervals, like any nor-

mal passenger car engine, and

the warranty is 18 months or

24,000km whichever is earlier.

Tata Motors is so condent that

the car doesnt need any mainte-

nance that it has deliberately made

it dicult to get to the engine so

that the cover is not opened and

closed regularly (or improperly)

which can lead to noise and heat

entering the cabin. Ease o serv-

iceability is ensured by a blink

code (the engine warning light

blinks the ault code number)

and can be used to diagnose

aults in remote areas where a

Nano dealer is not available. Also

average uel consumption and

average vehicle speed or the last

ve drive cycles are stored and it

is claimed that all the sensors are

robust enough or very rough use.

Theres also a limp-home mode.

The engine is mounted on a sub-

rame that allows quick and easy

assembly o the engine, trans-

mission, exhaust, cooling sys-

tem and suspension on to it and

then to the body. The corollary

is also true - six bolts need to be

undone to slide the subrame out

rom under the body to work on

the engine.

pERfORmaNcEBest not to expect much rom

35PS, but to its advantage the

Nano only weighs 600kg and that

gives it a respectable power-to-

weight rat io. Initial acceleration

is sprightly, it gets going rather

smartly and 60kmph comes in

a respectable 9.8 seconds. This

makes her great un to drive in

the city and worked hard she can

keep pace with ast moving city

trac. However as speeds rise

the engine has to work harder

and to hit 100kmph she needs

almost a kilometre and 35.1 sec-

onds. Theres no tacho but when

you hit top spe ed (105kmph) the

limiter cuts in and the engine

check lamp and temperature

gauge start to blink.

Compared to the Maruti 800

the acceleration is not that ar o,

100kmph is just three seconds

slower. But importantly the 800

can do well over 140kmph and

that makes it ar more suited to

the highway. Peaking at 105kmph

makes it unsuited to any highway

work and in strong side winds the

Nano is all over the place.

Torque is not a strong point

o the engine and in ourth gear

when aced with an i ncline the

car loses steam and requires

downshiting to keep going. Also

because its so light, every extra

passenger, every extra shopping

bag has an adverse impact on

perormance. In act i you want

the astest Nano, youd be well

advised to stick with the standard

version that is 60kg lighte r and is

noticeably quicker in initial accel-

eration; a Nano Super Light i you

wish! This is probably the car

tested (with a eather-light driver)

or their claimed 0-60kmph time

o just eight seconds.

Emission are claimed to be 12

per cent lower than any motorbike

in the country and CO2 emissions

are less than 110g/km. Fuel e-

ciency is also a strong point with

a claimed and ARAI certied uel

consumption o 23.6kmpl. We

couldnt veriy these gures but

ater a whole days driving and

perormance testing, the 15-litre

uel tank had just slipped into

reserve. Back o the envelope cal-

culations put our uel consump-

tion at around 17kmpl which is

damn good or all the sustained

ull-throttle driving we put the

Nano to.

What could be a bit o a bother

is braking; 180mm drums are

used ront and rear and the deluxe

versions get a vacuum booster.

Surprisingly the brakes were more

Egg-saped sillouette is peraps te Nanosbest angle. Note roo spoiler but no let wing mirror

NANO EUROPAThIS cool looking Nano is te Europa, and it is coming to India! Okay, not justyet, but Ratan Tata promised OVERDRIVE tat all te goodies tat go on teEuropa will come to India.

Goodies? Te Nano cannot be sold in Europe unless it meets teirbasic saety norms and anti-lock brakes, electronic stability program andyes, airbags will ave to be engineered. But you can orget te $10 airbagnon-sense; Tata as clarifed it will be ceap, but not so ceap. Otercanges include muscular bumpers to improve cras protection, larger13-inc weels and a wider track to bolster andling. Te aim is to score aminimum o tree stars in EuroNCAP cras tests wit our stars being ideal.

A tree-cylinder petrol engine is being developed or teEuropa and tere migt even be a diesel engine. A CVTtransmission is certain. Tata opes to ave te Europa ready by 2010-2011.


progressive on the standard ver-

sion, on the other cars it was very

dicult to brake smoothly and

progressively - most o the time it

was either ull braking or no brak-

ing. And on our

brake tests, rom

100kmph, the car

showed an alarm-

ing tendency

to wag her tail

(maybe due to the

42:58 ront-rear

weight distr ibu-

tion) and would

come to a stop

slightly crossed

up. Its the only black mark on the

car, as ar as we could nd.

RIdE & haNdLINGWhether by design or accident,

the Nano is

extremely good

un to drive and

it is rear-wheel

drive, what all

enthusiasts swear

by. I even man-

aged to get her to

powerslide on a

bit o gravel and i

a urther 500rpm

and a ew more

IT IS SO SmaLLThaT IT wILL fITINTO ImpOSSIbLYSIzEd GapS INTRaffIc aNd INThE cITY NO caRcaN kEEp up

One-piece seat backs. holesead rest make it look like a rall

Generous rear knee and ead room, andtats wit a tall driver sitting comortably

Driving position is comortable,ergonomic and visibility is great all around

horses could be extracted rom

the engine, it could develop into a

potent drit tool. Driting a Nano

might be the silliest thing in the

world to do but it showcases how

neutral, balanced, predictable

and orgiving she is. The car does

look disproportionately tall but

hard as we tried there is no dan-

ger o toppling over.

To large part it is down to di-

erential tyre sizes; the ronts are

135-section 12-inchers, while the

rears are 155-section (and lower

prole, 65 compared to 70) 12-

inchers. The tyre slip points are

calibrated so that t he ront tyres

slip beore the rears and so at

the limit it will understeer pre-

dictably and will only oversteer

i deliberately provoked into it.

The spare is a 135/70 and

tyres are tubeless MRFs bo

by just three studs to save

(and allow quick pit stops

The rack and pinion ste

non-collapsible and non-

but with little to no we

ront you never eel the n

power steering except a

ing speeds. Steering is di

quick in responses, almo

go-kart and that makes it

un to drive in the city. Th

dimensions are so smal

will t into impossi bly siz

in trac and in the cit y no

keep up with the Nano -

they tried Tatas enginee

Indica couldnt keep up

Punes chaotic trac. It

inely good laugh-out-lo

Grip is decent allowing it to baround wit surprising verve. Bo

pronounced but it never eels like itll land on

TestTata Nano


5/6 www.OVERDRIVE.in april

to drive and the turning circle

at just eight metres allows it to

pull U-turns in impossibly tight

gaps. It also takes some learning

especially since theres nothing

in ront and you invariably stop a

good couple o eet behind trac

- i youve driven a Maruti Omni

you will know what I mean.

The Nano rides on conven-

tional MacPherson struts up ront

while a semi-tr ailing arm is us ed

at the rear. It o course has a very

short wheelbase and that has its

own limitations on ride. On the

road it tends to bounce around a

bit, like it is over-sprung, but the

crucial thing is that everything is

progressive. There are no sharp

spine jangling jolts transmit-

ted to the cabin and the robust

underpinnings and 180mm o

ground clearance means rough

roads can be tackled with ease.

Over roads that will have an 800

running on its bump stops and

murdering passengers backs,

the Nano will be able to motor

through at decent speeds and

that will be a crucial actor work-

ing to its advantage in rural and

semi-urban India.

OVERaLLThere are hundreds o ques-

tions everybody will ask o the

Nano, most o which weve tried

to answer. The only one let is

will it be reliable enough? Tata

Motors is condent that it has

cracked this too - three million

kilometres have been clocked

in prototypes all over the coun-

try and as ar as Australia, New

Zealand and Germany to get it

right. And it doesnt look like

there will be any obvious prob-

lems - everything eels right and

well put together. In act the only

time we noticed anything nastily

cheap was while trying to get the

og lamps to switch on (a ddly

knob on the light stalk). And on

our last lap o the Tata Motors

test track, the ront seat worked

itsel loose, holding us back rom

giving it a glowing assessment. I

guess all the pressure and harsh

(and unwarranted) criticisms

have made Tatas engineers put

in that extra eort to get eve-

rything right on the Nano and

it shows.

It shows in the act that this is

no cut-price embarrassment o a

car, this is a car as we know it but

at a price we never thought pos-

sible. It looks lovable, it is huge

un to drive and can seat our

in comort. Crucially there are

no external signs o cost-cutting

(save or the omission o a let

hand side wing mirror, cheap

rubbers and average paint qual-

ity) and thats something that will

make the Nano appeal to every-

body rich or poor, city slicker or

rural armer.

As o going to pres s inal

prices were yet to be announced

(though as you read this reams

o newsprint will have been

devoted to it) but we expect the

standard version to still have a

dealer price (excluding taxes) o

one lakh rupees (steel prices have

crashed). The deluxe version we

tested will top o at Rs 1.5-1.6

lakh and that is still mind-bog-

glingly good value-or-money.

Our recommendation? Jump

on the line and book one today

- the wait or the Nano has been

well worth it.

SpecifcationType 624cc, 2-cylinder

inline, SOhC,

4-valve, petrol

Max power 35PS@5250rpm

Max torque 48Nm@

2500-4000rpmInstallation Rear, RWD

Transmission4-speed manual

Brakes 180mm drums

Tyres(F/R) 135/70R12

155/65R12

MRF tubeless

Suspension (F) Independent

MacPerson strut

wit gas carged

dampers

Suspension (R) Independent

wit semi trailing

arm wit gas

carged dampers

LxWxH (mm) 3099x1620x1652

Wheelbase 2230mm

Kerb weight 600kg

Fuel tank 15 litres

0-60kmph 9.8sec

0-100kmph 34.8sec

0-400m 23.7sec/91.5kmp

Top speed 105.58kmp

100-0kmph 60.17m/4.29s

Fuel e 23.6kmpl

(ARAI fgure)

Price Rs 1.5 lak

(estimated)

+Te ceapest car in te wordl!-Waiting lists will be never end

Tis is te basic one-lak-rupee Nano wit black bumpers, rexineseats, no air-con and because it is ligter it is actually noticeably quicker!

ThIS IS

NO cuT-pRIcEEmbaRRaSSmENTOf a caR, ThISIS a caR aS wEkNOw IT buT aTa pRIcE wE NEVERThOuGhT pOSSIbLE

TestTata Nano


6/6

Were not trying to be unny ere - armersdont pay tax and will easily be able to aord te Nano

Te solution to parking problems?

Te solution to all our parking problems - two cars inspace o one. Now youll need to learn to drive like Jackie C

hey diddle diddle, te cat and te fddle, tecow jumped over te Nano, te little dog lauged

to see suc un and te dis ran away wit te spoon

Anoter prospective Nanocustomer. And no, were still not being unny.

Small car sould mean al teTrafc ligt grands prix. Not te Nanos strongest suit

Okay, maybe nowanimal ting is getting out o

And tis picture will soon crop upon orums across te worldwide web

Yes, te engine is at te back!

Aree waa,isme AC bi e!Good tings come in small packages

Does lane discipline apply to te Na

Nano takes to PuneAnd stirs up a storm! Everywhere we went the car wasmobbed, a million questions were fred at us and were thisour car we could have sold it at ten times the cost!

Time or an upgrade?


TestTata Nano

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Tata Nano Road Test