A North American scoop: The Car Guide drives the Tata Nano!

Pune, India – There are moments in your career when you know that you’re experiencing something rare and invaluable. November 26, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, will remain etched in my memory as my first encounter with the Tata Nano. And if I’m not mistaken, I’m the first, and thus far the only automobile journalist anywhere in North America to have taken a ride in the car that, at $2,150 US, claims to be the least expensive car in the world.

I was vacationing in India, but I couldn’t resist the call of the Nano. The opportunity was too great, and the giant Tata (which manufactures cars but also dabbles in steelworks, communications and even…dishes) very kindly organized the meeting.

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A closed circuit…fortunately

A Tata Indigo and its driver came by my Mumbai hotel to get me and bring me to Pune (pronounced “Poo-nay”) where the largest (9,000 acres) of the three Tata automobile plants is located.

It was still early, and Mumbai was barely awake. Families were still sleeping on the sidewalk where, for lack of a fixed place of residence, they spent the night. Traffic was flowing toward downtown, where rickshaws, cows (!) and tuk-tuks (three-wheel, door-less taxis that abound in India) are all prohibited.

Nonetheless, it takes us more than three hours to travel the 170 kilometres that separate Mumbai from the city-sized Tata manufacturing complex in Pune. On this national day of mourning, the employees have the day off and the sheer size of the place is equalled only by its calm and inactivity.

My contact at Tata, Mr. Arup Mukherjee, finds that the timing is perfect for me: I’ll have unlimited access to the closed circuit and I’ll be able to take advantage of all the time I need to tame the Nano. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to be able to drive in a “controlled” environment. Indeed, the combination of the right-side driver’s seat and the bumper-to-bumper traffic that is rife in India, where the horn is used liberally and cars save themselves at the last second, would hardly have helped me experience the little Nano in peace and tranquility…

Bigger than the Smart

“Little Nano”? I must say that the cheapest car in the world (100,000 rupees for the base version, about $2,150 US) isn’t that small. In fact, it’s almost a half-metre longer  than the Smart and, although it’s six centimetres narrower, it’s still 11 centimetres taller.

While the Smart has only two doors and two seats, the Nano is a four-door, four-seater. At first, I was sceptical, but I must admit that the Nano accomplishes the same feat as the Smart: its interior space is maximized to the point that you’ll be surprised how much head room and leg room there is. Four adults can fit comfortably on board and a child could even slide in the middle of the rear bench, although there’s no seat belt there.

Obviously, to be offered at only twice the price of motorcycles sold in India, the Nano has to cut somewhere. First, there’s no power steering, so turning is going to take a little elbow grease. The steering wheel isn’t adjustable either, and it has front and rear drum brakes. Your right foot will find that stopping the car isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world, to say the least. (I don’t know about you, but I’m too young to have experienced driving vehicles without front disc brakes…)

The Nano has an independent suspension, but the 12-inch wheels that it rests on are too small for it to be as comfortable as it could be. However, the ground clearance (180mm) is high enough to offer a good command position and excellent peripheral vision.

Also, the 2.3 metre wheelbase is a third of a metre longer than that of the Smart (yes, the Smart again) and the vehicle handling is stable enough overall. There’s no doubt that the Nano has the same quirks as all other tall, but not very long cars, however, on that day, we were more concerned with the blazing hot sun than anything else...

From 0-100km/h… in 41 seconds!

Low price and low power go hand in hand, and this two (!) cylinder, 0.6-litre engine located behind the rear seat of this rear-wheel drive car tries to beat gravity  ...with only 35 horsepower. The engine sounds like a moped and is paired with a four-speed (not five) manual transmission that I find slightly lazy. Unless it’s my left hand’s fault, since it isn’t really used to having to shift...

At 4.2L per 100km, the Nano’s fuel consumption is as low as its price. That’s 50 miles to the gallon. Tata maintains that it emits 12% less pollution than the 2-wheelers currently sold in India. The manufacturer also claims that the Nano meets and even surpasses Indian standards in collision tests.

When I asked how many seconds it takes to go from 0-100km/h, I was told that they calculated the 0-60km/h time instead.  It didn’t take long for me to figure out why. Although the Nano is a featherweight (at 600 kilos, it weighs easily 150 kilos less than the Smart), it takes 11 seconds to reach 60km/h.

And accelerations are even more arduous after that, as it takes another ten seconds to hit 80km/h. Believe it or not, it took 41 seconds before the Nano’s needle reached the 100km/h mark, so you can forget about high-speed passes.

As for the rest, the Nano can’t go faster than 105km/h, and even if it could, it wouldn’t really have had the chance since, in India, open highways where you can hit cruising speeds are a rare. Besides, there’s always a cow somewhere to halt your momentum…

Go for the Nano deluxe

At first glance, the front seats are comfortable and they can be moved forward and backward, and the seatbacks can be reclined. The version we tried, the “luxurious” LX was equipped with air conditioning and power windows and locks. However, there was no audio system, CD player, and certainly no smart drive.

Surprisingly, it’s this “high end” version (and the canary yellow paint job!) that is most popular among buyers. I should say that the base version is really, really basic – imagine, there’s no heating, cup holders or assisted brakes…

At 140,000 rupees ($3,000 US), the fully equipped LX version of the little Nano remains less expensive than any other vehicle on the Indian market, including the popular (and smaller) Suzuki 800 (which starts at 250,000 rupees). That is extremely encouraging for Tata, which pockets more for each unit sold as a result.

Improvements already in sight

Improvements to certain aspects of the Nano are on the way. The manufacturer is planning on adding a second exterior rear-view mirror, this one on the passenger side, and also thinking about making the hatch detachable. Right now it’s fixed and items must be loaded into its small cargo space through the rear doors and by lowering the rear seatbacks.

Sure, the interior surface coverings are cheap, but they’re well put together. The layout of the few controls on the dash is simplistic and the instrumentation is made up of the speedometer and the fuel gauge (no, there’s no rpm counter and definitely no on-board computer), but it’s all functional and it displays a little Toyota-style cachet – is it because of the round air vents or that T decorating the centre of the steering wheel?

The only moment when you feel (just a little) like you’re in a car five times cheaper than our Chevrolet Aveo or Hyundai Accent is when you notice those wires and ties visible above the three pedals, which as it happens, would be too close together for our feet when wearing winter boots, and the battery is very noticeable under the driver’s seat.

Jolly and round

Visually, this small car’s jolly and round little face (don’t you find its nose looks like that of the Prius?) is what the Nano team did best. The style is modern and you’ll like the dividing line in the rear flank, which is enhanced by the air intake. This intake is very necessary if the heat emanating from the engine during our test drive is any indication...

Without question, the Nano is setting itself apart in the Indian automobile landscape, which, let’s face it, is a lot more conservative than the American one. Automobile “fashion” is not the order of the day when most of the population isn’t eating enough...
I’m not used to the all of the models of Indian cars but on the basis of my experience with North American cars, my biggest surprise with the Nano remains that, for the price, they were able to produce something complete that is so charmingly out of the ordinary. The interior space is impressive for the small dimensions and while there are no extras, it has everything you need.

On the whole, the Nano succeeds at what it was created for: helping families with a very little money to spend not only to get from A to B, but to do so safely and sheltered from bad weather.