[deetjohn]

Guys, I don't think we have even a single ownership review of the Nano AMT, unless I have missed missed it completely.

Quite a few here have lapped the car up and it will be great if we can have a few reviews penned down.

[sjcherian]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Guys, I don't think we have even a single ownership review of the Nano AMT, unless I have missed missed it completely.

Quite a few here have lapped the car up and it will be great if we can have a few reviews penned down.

Most owners have been posting directly to this thread. Do ask any questions you have. I have started writing my notes for a dedicated thread but that will take some time to compile. Want to drive for some more as well.

I'm currently at around 130 Km on mine. Last night took close to 1.5 hrs in bad traffic and it made it through nicely. Takes some getting used to the power (or lack thereof) but in traffic even a V12 will be pottering at 20kmph. Stuck mostly to the middle lane.
The power steering is so light and easy to use it makes my Swift steering seem like that of a truck. I worry now about driving my Thar. After a couple of days of office commute (1hr plus trips each way) and a full weekend of grocery buying and tuition pickup and dropping I am happy with the car. It totally fills the need for a super compact city car.

My question to other owners - does the AC stay on "morgue" setting for long or does it loose effectiveness after a while.
Another question was whether to believe the DTE which after two marks on the fuel gauge is now showing around 170km left. FE guage still shows 3 yellow and one red marking. Initially it showed 386 till empty but suddenly dropped. Been driving in normal Auto mode with gentle throttle except for a couple of steep ramps that I did in Manual mode.
Yesterday got to see 5th gear at around 60+ kmph. IFE was showing 30ish at the time.

Had my first panic stop yesterday when a school girl jumped across the road without looking and was surprised that my left leg on reflex (without realizing) went for the nearest pedal! The brake! Screeched to a stop. Car didn't stall but kept running. Found that I had shifted to N in the panic as well. Luckily car behind managed to stop without hitting me. Now realize have to be extra cautious and mindful when driving this with large feet and driving manual cars as well. Barring that incident the rest of the drive with it was uneventful.

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by sjcherian

does the AC stay on "morgue" setting for long or does it loose effectiveness after a while.

As long as you keep the filter clean - that needs doing more often than in other cars - it stays effective.

[sjcherian]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

As long as you keep the filter clean - that needs doing more often than in other cars - it stays effective.

Thanks. Is that a DIY deal or does it need to be taken for service ?

Also anyone know what magic one needs to do to set the clock ? The manual is very cryptic on this. Just says use set and mode buttons.

[Sawyer]

It can be a DIY deal if you are able to bend your back to get under the steering wheel to access the filter box. At the age of my back I cannot, so I get the service guys do it for me once in 3-4 months.

[suzuki san]

Originally Posted by sjcherian

Thanks. Is that a DIY deal or does it need to be taken for service ?

Also anyone know what magic one needs to do to set the clock ? The manual is very cryptic on this. Just says use set and mode buttons.

Hi sjcherian,

You need to have a lot of patience to set the clock.
When you are in clock mode press the set button for about 5 seconds till the "hour" digits start flashing. Now give a quick press of the "mode" button. You will now be able to adjust the "hours". Another quick press of the"set" button will take you to the "minutes" setting. Do the same as above. Press "mode" to exit.
It may take you - it did for me - several attempts and quite a few swear words to get this right but once you've got it figured out, it's easy.
You may also want to adjust the "brightness" of the display which is pretty much useless in bright sunshine. This procedure is fully explained in the booklet.
Both the above to be done with "ACC" switch on only (engine not running) and for the "brightness" the parking light switch has to be on.
Hope this helps.

On another note, a friend of mine who purchased a new Nano AMT a month ago is getting a really low mileage of 10 Kmpl. First service has been completed with no change in mileage. Any other owners facing this issue?
In fact he was horrified with the service station and the quality of service - something I had warned him about specifically. In fact I had told him not to buy a "Tata" product simply because of the rubbish service stations.
He says the service and the garage itself was worse than pathetic - and he's right. I know the garage he is talking about. They did not even wash the engine bay. Sadly, this is the norm in Goa where the standing joke about "Tata" is that you need to really "Trust in God" before you enter a "Tata" service station.

Much as I like the little "Nano" (my second one), I will definitely not buy another one - not in Goa anyway - as one just has to compromise too much.
1. Pathetic to Poor Service from booking to servicing.
2. Dirty, shabby customer "lounges" (Actually using the word "lounge" is wrong - it should be waiting room) in the service stations.
3. Dirty toilets in the customer "lounges".
4. Fitting of electrical accessories - more powerful horns / headlights / stereo systems - is a major issue.
5. Body shop / paint booth non existent. What Maruti do in a few hours, Tata takes a couple of days - provided the painter is available!!
6. Time taken to fix minor issues is way too long. 3 hours for a power window switch!!
7. Lack of knowledge and incompetence of service station staff. Two examples - it took one year for them to find a kinked clutch cable on my new Twist. They took off the silencer cover of my old Nano because it was rattling and left it in the back of the car - claimed it was not needed!!!
8. Zero follow up after service.
9. Poor mileage - 15 Kmpl is not acceptable for a 624 cc engine (non AMT) running on Goa's village roads which are pretty good and have basically very little traffic. My SX4 with a 1.6L engine gives me 11.0 - 11.5 Kmpl on the same roads.
10. Restricted top speed.

Regards,
SS

[Sawyer]

Sorry to hear about the Nano in Goa experiences - it is otherwise a perfect car for there. I was fed up driving my Civic in the Baga Candolim area recently, for both its size and having to negotiate the million speed breakers very carefully in it. Nano is for those places!

Concorde in Pune do an excellent job - not Toyota class, but not too far behind Maruti.

[KTM_aravind]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Guys, I don't think we have even a single ownership review of the Nano AMT, unless I have missed missed it completely.

Quite a few here have lapped the car up and it will be great if we can have a few reviews penned down.

Nope! there are no ownership review yet. I planning on writing one!

[dextertuned]

Hi Guys!,
After all the hassles of sales and delivery, we finally received our Nano XT last week, Saturday. Have finished around 500 KMs so far.

Have not faced any issues as of now. While the delivery experience was far from being at least 'OK', the car in itself is pretty fun. Got the blue one, with black alloys, leather seats and remote boot opener.

Since I drive a Stage 2+ VW Vento, I'll soon be posting a review of the car from my perspective without being biased. The car is just too much fun to drive.

[sjcherian]

Originally Posted by dextertuned

Hi Guys!,
After all the hassles of sales and delivery, we finally received our Nano XT last week, Saturday. Have finished around 500 KMs so far.

Have not faced any issues as of now. While the delivery experience was far from being at least 'OK', the car in itself is pretty fun. Got the blue one, with black alloys, leather seats and remote boot opener.

Since I drive a Stage 2+ VW Vento, I'll soon be posting a review of the car from my perspective without being biased. The car is just too much fun to drive.

Welcome to the Nano Owners list and do post some photos here while your thread is getting ready. Also time to update your signature.

[sakha_bhau]

Originally Posted by sjcherian

Most owners have been posting directly to this thread. Do ask any questions you have. I have started writing my notes for a dedicated thread but that will take some time to compile. Want to drive for some more as well.

@sjcherian,

You are spot on about the light steering wheel, just the other day when I was driving my Indica Vista and a Friends Honda City both of them felt like they lack power steering

DTE :
I too have found the DTE is not very accurate, although the AFE seems pretty close to real, so far I have only gotten about 14.3 KMPL for the 600 odd kms i have driven her, which to me is very low for such a small car. Then again cars with smaller engines are actually less efficient, according to this article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...l-economy.html) as opposed to what is believed in conventional wisdom,

5th Gear:
Incidentally I too got to ride on an open stretch in western part of Pune and was able to finally see the 5th gear on my little red riding hood

Brakes :
I have had these experiences atleast twice or thrice so far with the car finally coming to a screeching halt with a very small margin to the next car. Also I have had instances where the default reaction was to try to down-shift and in the process shifting to N, so I can relate to what you are talking about.

Originally Posted by suzuki san

Hi sjcherian,
You need to have a lot of patience to set the clock.

Hi suzuki_san,

You are spot on about your observations. Alhough the lounge and the toilets in the local Concorde dealership here in Balewadi in Pune is pretty good.
Service sucks though, I mean I was forced to take the car in to the dealership to get the license plates fitted when I was ready to even pay for someone to come down to my workplace to fit it, but that was not even an option.

Now compare that to the Alto 800 that my neighbour bought where he gets his regular servicing done at his workplace, with regular service reminders, after service followup etc. TML has a long way to go to get there.

Also the fuel economy sucks, I really feel the next version on the Nano should atleast have a 1 litre engine, that would make it the most perfect small and affordable car on indian roads.

[Jred]

At last, after few back and forth, I received a call from the sales person that my vehicle has reached the showroom and ready for inspection tomorrow. I have been given the following VIN: MAT612XXXFKPXXXXX. The manufacturing year does seem like it is 2015, although I am not quite sure what P stands for, as the VIN thread doesn't have any representation for 12th position for P. Does anyone know what it could be?

[X_T_A Rose]

Originally Posted by Jred

I have been given the following VIN: MAT612XXXFKPXXXXX. I am not quite sure what P stands for, as the VIN thread doesn't have any representation for 12th position for P.

Congrats Jred on your new ride. As per the VIN thread it is a Dec 2015 manufactured car. Wishing you many miles of happiness.

Originally Posted by dextertuned

we finally received our Nano XT last week, Saturday.

Congrats dextertuned on your lovely new car. Wishing you many miles of happiness.

Originally Posted by sjcherian

Took delivery of "Sylvie" on Jan 20th.

Congrats sjcherian, Sylvie is a nice name. Not seen many in that shade. Wishing you many miles of smiles.

Below is a snapshot of the updated VIN decoder.

[Jred]

Originally Posted by X_T_A Rose

Congrats Jred on your new ride. As per the VIN thread it is a Dec 2015 manufactured car. Wishing you many miles of happiness.


Below is a snapshot of the updated VIN decoder.

Thank you X_T_A Rose. I went ahead and finished the PDI earlier this morning. Except for the dust, I couldn't really find any fault. Crossing my fingers, getting the car delivered tomorrow as against today (28 Jan).

I am not sure if I will be driving the car enough for an ownership review, I will however try my best to come up with one, if no one does by then.

[alphahere]

It's been a long time since I have posted anything on the thread as I am presently out of the country and not using the car now. But till the last moment that I had to leave India I had to settle a lot of things with the car and TASS! Heres a list of stuff that I had to get done:

1. Replaced both the headlamp units. From the first week that I owned the car I had been noticing a few minute cracks on the lens. These cracks were getting more prominent as the car aged. As far as I know these were freak cracks and not caused by any external force. I had to visit TASS multiple times for this and many mails and photos later warranty was approved for both and were replaced.

2. One of the foglamps reflector got faded and that too was replaced under warranty though without any drama unlike the headlamps.

3. The fuel guage got stuck at full level once and the float was taken out once and adjusted. The next full tank it got stuck again for sometime and then started showing erratic readings. Decided that enough is enough and asked that they replace the float. This was also done in warranty and the whole fuel pump assembly in the tank was replaced as it was a single unit.

4. I noticed a shake in one of the front wheels in certain positions and probably it is because of a defective wheel bearing. The other front wheel had this problem earlier and the bearings were replaced in the first month itself. Since the problem was not apparent in the service center when the other works were done the bearings were not replaced even though I asked them to. On reaching home I found the slight shake was back.

Apart from these problems that are obviously quality control issues, there have been no other problems with the car. The last odo reading that I saw was about 8000 kms. Average FE was about 14 to 15 kmpl tops always in the city. Brakes even though they take a bit of getting used too have always been reliable. And as fellow bhpians have pointed out this car has one of the "lightest" steering wheels in the country! In all the car has been a good mode of commute in the traffic choked roads of our country and it couldn't get any better than this for us save for the niggles.

Another point to note is that the number plate blocks the flow of air to the condenser and cooling efficiency of the ac decreases. The difference is very apparent when the car had been parked in the sun for a long time and the ac is used. If the number plate is removed the cooling efficiency increases by a noticeable margin in the city. I do not know if it is just my car or just my feeling.