Tata Nano, first experiences in/with the car

Yesterday I happened to visit a Tata motors showroom and saw the  ’Nano‘, here in Hyderabad. Since I’m following Nano very closely from the beginning, I looked at it from every corner and found a few interesting facts. It happened to be a basic model of Tata Nano that was just landed in the showroom.

First, what should I call the car? It’s not a hatchback since there is no door to open at the rear end. It should be called a ‘Nano’, a new term for this segment. And because of no rear door, the luggage in the boot can only be accessed from the rear seat. When I got into the car, my first impression was the space inside the car, much more than its closes rival, M 800. The head room too is quite good and in fact is more than Santro xing, the tallest small car. Since there is no engine in front, the leg room was pretty good for the front passenger. The dashboard console was at the center and has a Speedometer, an odometer besides turn indicators and a few Engine lights.

The petrol tank capacity of Nano is only 15 litres but the mileage of greater than 20kmpl equals 35ltrs capacity of other small cars (or nearly). The fuel-tank is placed below and slightly behind the front passenger’s seat. The battery is placed right below the driver’s seat. The cute little front bonnet had a spare tyre, a window washing liquid container, brake fluid and a fuel-in point. Since this is the basic model, there will be no Air-conditioner, but a condenser would also be here under the bonnet if it was a LX or CX.

Power steering was absent in this variant but there is very little need for it for such a light vehicle and that too with no weight in front. If engine had been placed at the front, then due to its weight, there could have been a need for a power steering but not in this one.

The tyre sizes too were different for front and rear to cope up with weight distribution. The rear tyres were slightly larger in width compared to the front. The rear view mirror were hand adjustable using a simple ball-socket joint.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to have a test drive, since it was the only car available. But I was promised to have one soon and I’ll be updating about it here.

And if you’ve missed the booking process of Nano, head here.

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