Tata Nano First Drive

Questions, questions and more questions. How much will it cost? Will it be an embarrassment of a car? Is it worth two 100cc bikes? Is it half an 800? Will it cause congestion and choke us all to death?  Everybody has something to ask and a lot to say about the Nano so here are ten things you simply must know about the Nano.

1. It looks fabulous.
Love at first sight, that’s what Tata Motors set out to do (no, really) and Justin Novak, formerly of the I.D.E.A design house and now with Triton design in Italy (along with most of the old I.D.E.A crew that worked on all of Tata Motor’s designs), has penned what will definitely go down in time as a classic. Much like the Beetle and Fiat 500 the Nano is inherently right, a small car of such appealing lines and a happy countenance that no matter what your financial ability you will love it. This has the ability to become the ultimate classless vehicle; something that will appeal to rich, middle class and poor folk alike – and which could spawn a whole range of cool T-shirts and stuff! Until it becomes a common sight clogging up our roads (and it will, but that’s not Tata Motors’ fault now, is it?) this will turn more heads than Bipasha Basu streaking across the road.

2. Interiors are as impressive.
Okay it is all very simple and functional but in such a small car having the speedo in the centre actually improves aesthetics. And it has the cutest warning light in the world, a little yellow outline of the Nano with a spanner running across it – beautiful! The standard Nano gets rexine seats and a single spoke steering but the deluxe version we spent a day in has full fabric seats (rather good looking with that hole in the headrest much like a rally cars!), a three-spoke steering wheel with a rim in soft-touch plastics, two-tone grey dash with very good fit and finish and air-conditioning too. The air-con uses a 60cc compressor but delivers enough cooling power to cool the voluminous interiors quickly.

Fit and finish, and I kid you not, is very good. Of course having only a few components means there’s not many panel gap issues to deal with but on that front it actually feels better put together than the Indica Vista. Having the speedo is the centre obviously means this dash can be used in left and right hand markets. The central console is flanked by a scooped dash which can hold nick-knacks and everything has rounded edges to make it safer in a crash. There is no glove box but there are two cup holders and map pockets in the doors.

The doors are ultra-light (and of course feel flimsy) and have an integrated armrest, door pull and coin holder. It uses a combination of rexine and fabric and at the front there are power windows on the deluxe version while the rear gets manual wind down windows. The deluxe also gets central locking.