[Nanolover]

Model owned : Tata Nano LX (sunshine yellow) BS4
Purchased : Nov22,2010


This review includes over 3000 kms highway driving (mostly bangalore-mysore) and the rest in Bangalore traffic and I have come up to the following conclusions.

Daliy running- 30 kms roundtrip
Avg. fuel efficency - 15-17 kms/litre with A/C


What I like :
. Pleasing and cute design especially in yellow
. Space on offer & legroom
. Tight turning radius
. Nippy in the city
. High seating position

What i Dont :(quite a lot perhaps!)
. No external hatch ( u need to be gymnast to hold the two catches that release the rear seat)
. Rev limiter set too low (just when u rev it up to speed and the fuel cut off switch is activated)
. Noise ( cant do too much about that i guess)
. Headlight high beam needs more throw for highway driving
. Front seriously undertired...too much understeer
. Bumpy ride
. A/C not so effective on a hot day ( understandable given the glass area and small engine)
. Fuel tank wooefully small (needs to be filled up every week)
. Brakes need a good shove to work ( even with that stopping distance is pathetic for highways)
. Steering too heavy at parking speeds
. Service ( lets better skip this one)

Parts Replaced (under warranty)
1. Headlight combination switch
2. RR left door central lock actuator

Services done and cost : 2 free services (1000k,5000k)..Cost Rs210/-

Extras added : PU seats and leather steering

Will be adding Stereo , tints , alloy wheels, graphics and will then update pics

Conclusion : Works best as a city car and at a pinch(!) on the highway.

Overall impression : quite satisfied

Will post detailed review in a weeks time once my Nano is fully pimped up!

Happy motoring..

[Captain Slow]

How are the gear shifts and the clutch? Another Nano owner was complaining to me about very hard gear shifts and hard clutch.

[selfdrive]

While driving on the highway did you note any veering or was the ride a bit unstable? I can imagine the drive would be more sedate.
Were you able to drive in any ghat sections with/ without full load?

[RAC]

Are you satisfied with the pick up in 2nd gear with the AC on?

[Nanolover]

The clutch is on the heavy side compared to the featherlight ones in santro/i10 etc, but the gearshift is light and positive.The worst thing is that the clutch makes some kind of weird creaking noise everytime we depress it ( got to get WD40 but this is inexcusable in a brand new car)

Regarding highway, I have done mysore-bangalore stretch with 5 up and luggage plus ac...it gets to its top speed pretty fast and i do 100 plus ( road traffic permitting) or 80+almost all the way (especially morning).Today morning also started from Mysore @ 5.30 and was in office near whitefiled by 8.30. The only problem is slowing down for the unmarked bumps along the way ( wish it had better brakes). It does get a bit floaty at the front past 80 , but i guess it is mostly due to the scooter sized front tyre.

Will be going next week again to Mysore and before that will have to do another airport run( have to do acrobatics again to open the boot). By this month end i will be nearing the 7k mark.Nano is very fuel efficent for sure, but for my kind of running i think i should have gone for a diesel. Me being from Kerala, i thought i wouldnt have much running when i shift to bangalore, so the cheapest car would be the best here and I have been proven wrong. Need a big diesel hatch for the weekend and nano for the city. Now for Vitamin M...!!!!

pick up in 2nd gear is very poor ( just the situation here with bangalores innumarable speed humps). Anyways i always have/will shift into 1st gear over bumps or slow speeds when a/c is on as i dont like to load the engine in any car.

HI selfdrive, i drive a bit on the faster side (!) and luckily the new nanos dont have that irritating speed beeper. Instead the fuel injection light just blinks furiously until the fuel is cut @ 106 km/h.I have not felt any stability issues as long as the road is straight. When it gets a bit curvy, you have to slow down because the grip from the front tyres is dismal and understeery.

[Captain Slow]

Thanks for the honest feedback Nanolover. You say that the car is fuel efficient, can you share the figures ?
Does the car bottom out at speed breakers?

[samarth.bhatia]

Hi Nanolover.

The Nano seems to be treating you very well, indeed.
Good to hear that it's not shown any problems as such on your seemingly regular Mysore-Bangalore runs.
I remember my innumerable trips down Mysore road in my college days. I remember the smooth roads with the nicely cambered bends. How well would you say it copes with the bends on this stretch, being a little tall?
And I do believe that the AC would be more than sufficient once you put on some tints. Bangalore's quite hot around Feb to Apr if I remember correctly. Did the AC perform well enough before that?

Cheers and drive safe.
Sam

[Nanolover]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Thanks for the honest feedback Nanolover. You say that the car is fuel efficient, can you share the figures ?
Does the car bottom out at speed breakers?

Hi Captain, with the nano there is absolutely NO fear of bottoming out thanks to the stiff suspension, short overhangs and generous ground clearance. I have never once bottomed out even with the full complement of passengers. Fuel efficency inspite of my spirited driving is around 15-17 km/l with a/c ( shell petrol only)

Originally Posted by samarth.bhatia

Hi Nanolover.

The Nano seems to be treating you very well, indeed.
Good to hear that it's not shown any problems as such on your seemingly regular Mysore-Bangalore runs.
I remember my innumerable trips down Mysore road in my college days. I remember the smooth roads with the nicely cambered bends. How well would you say it copes with the bends on this stretch, being a little tall?
And I do believe that the AC would be more than sufficient once you put on some tints. Bangalore's quite hot around Feb to Apr if I remember correctly. Did the AC perform well enough before that?

Cheers and drive safe.
Sam

Sam san- Like you said the roads are awesome except for nasty speedbrakers and jaywalking villagers. You DO have to slow down in the nano for curves because like i said the front scooter sized tyres have no grip owhatsoever.
A/c i beleive is sufficent but the large glass area lets in a lot of heat especially the panorama front glass making the job difficult for the a/c. I will be putting in tints soon (so far i was reluctant but the harsh sun in bangalore made me think othewise).

Coming up - stereo, tints and alloys ( hopefully!)

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team : Please use the "edit" button if posting within 20 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

Also use "Multi Quote" option for quoting Multiple posts.

[ACM]

Nanolover

Nice and to the point review. Have you checked with TATA regarding a Tyre upgrade for the front tyres. I guess you do not want that part of the warranty to be void right now. a tyre size upgrade upfront should give you the stability that you are searching for, though ideally the way the Nano is designed the rear tyres too should be upgraded so that the rear remains a size larger than the front for better stability while cornering.

Once you are out of the warranty period you may be able to experiment a fair bit on the nano.

Tints will make the AC more effective.

Suggest you get the Stereo work done at the authorized centre itself, though it will cost a bit more, the warranty will continue and since they would be doing a socket based connection the installation will be safer.

Even if you do get the Stereo work done outside, pls ensure that no wires are cut and that this is a socket based installation.

[freakmuzik]

Hi Nanolover, that's surely a very good and unbiased review. And congrats on owning this cute little car! I too have the same model in the same colour! :-D

As ACM has rightly pointed out, go for some good tints and it helps a lot in cooling the car better. As the glass area in the nano is quite huge, tints are a necessity. And I do agree with most of your points, especially the ride is very bumpy and it filters in almost all the undulations. But as the car gets old, I guess it would get better (or atleast in my case, it's so), but still not satisfactory. And I felt the car to be really silent on the time of purchasing and it has gone after a few weeks! And the noise level still remains the same. But never felt it distracting though. And could you please mention the FE that you get during your highway runs?
Tc and wishing you many more happy miles with the car!

Cheers!

[bigautobuff]

@Nanolover : I also think the tints might help push the performance of the ac in the Nano. Especially, like you mentioned, with a large front screen. I found your review to be quite an interesting one overall. Tata has similar ones in their Nano Diaries section. Read a few good ones on their site some days ago. Give it a shot i say. Good chance of your review featuring on the site

[Nanolover]

Thanks for your feedback guys. I forgot to mention one more thing changed under warranty (silent recall?). The engine cover of my car was changed to a new on which they said is thicker. They came to my office and changed it. Since the dealer is nearby. My dealer is K.H.T motors.

Will be ordering alloys soon. Guess looks are more important than music

[cosmos]

Originally Posted by Nanolover

The only problem is slowing down for the unmarked bumps along the way ( wish it had better brakes).

Hi nanolover,

Nice review. Is the new nano equipped with disc's at the front? 80kmph to 100kmph is on the higher side. Can you be more specific about the mileage? I mean highway/city separately?

Thanks,
cosmos

[Nanolover]

Nano is equipped with drums in the rear. in fact when i first got delivery there was this horrible vibration under braking from the brake pedal @ aroun 80-100 km/h. Low speeds was fine. Somehow Tata sevice guys have fixed it and now no problems.

I have never been specific about my milage because i drive pretty fast and never off the engine at signals and i shift into 4th only above 60km/h so as not to strain it. (4th gear is too tall). In spite of this ,daily city commute (HAL- whitefield) i average 16km/l with a/c. On mysore run once i got 21 km/l in the morning and once during noon with a/c on 100 % of the time it dropped to 18km/l overall. Myabe if u drive @ wround 80 km/h , milage will go up

[cosmos]

Originally Posted by Nanolover

On mysore run once i got 21 km/l in the morning and once during noon with a/c on 100 % of the time it dropped to 18km/l overall.

21 is pretty good though considering the way you drive. Did you ever feel cross-winds affecting the stability of the car on highway?

Thanks,
cosmos