The Worlds cheapest car !

India's Tata Motors has launched Nano, the world's cheapest car.
Hormazd Sorabjee, one of the first journalists to test drive the car,
says it feels more expensive than it is.
I have to admit I had a nagging fear that the Tata Nano wouldn't live up to the media frenzy that's been surrounding it.
It's been the most awaited car in the world and the delay in
putting it on the road - due to the relocation of its production
facilities - only increased the sense of anticipation.


Now, 14 months after the Nano was unveiled to a reception fit for a
rock star, the moment of truth has come for the world's cheapest car.
There's been an apprehension that Tata's self-imposed price
target of 100,000 rupees ($1,979, £1,366) would make the Nano an
apology of a car and sceptics expected a glorified golf cart.
However, after driving the Nano in the western Indian city of
Pune - home to Tata Motors - on the highway and rural back roads, it's
turned out to be quite the opposite.
The Nano feels significantly more expensive than it is and a car you certainly won't be ashamed to sit in.
Well designed
Questions like, "Is it a proper car?" can be dismissed once and for all.
Getting in and out of the Nano is easier than in an Mercedes
S-class and that's no exaggeration. The doors open wide and high seats
allow you to slide onto them with the utmost ease.

The well-designed but basic interiors are far from Merc
luxury, but you can't miss "luxury" touches like front-power windows
and air-conditioning on the deluxe version - which must be another
first on such a cheap vehicle.
The seats are flat and hard with simple, hard-wearing fabrics designed like a seat in a bus.
Don't forget that in India, if a car is officially a
five-seater, it's unofficially twice that number - which leads me to
another great thing about the Nano - its ability to take heavy loads.
For a car that weighs a mere 600kg, the Nano feels incredibly robust.
You expect the doors to rattle, the seats to squeak and those
dinner-plate sized wheels to buckle driving over rough Indian roads.
But instead, the Nano feels rigid, well-screwed together and deftly darts from one pothole to another with ease.
The suspension copes with any sort of surface and the Nano's massive ground clearance can shame some off-roaders.
Sprightly
As expected in a car with such dinky proportions, the ride does
get a bit choppy on uneven surfaces and there's a tendency for the nose
to bob up and down but those graduating from a scooter won't have cause
to complain.
Crank the Nano's 623cc engine and it fires with a muffled "pud,
pud, pud". The thrum of a two-cylinder motor is obvious but again, it
doesn't make the racket I expected.
It feels sprightly off the mark and comfortably keeps up with the flow of city traffic.
In fact, the more crowded the street, the better the Nano gets.
The turning circle is astonishing, possibly the tightest on any car.
The ability to hang a U-turn on any street, the high-seating position
and great all-round visibility only add to the Nano's
user-friendliness.

But while the Nano feels completely at home in a congested, low-speed driving environment, it's out of sorts on an open road.
The little Tata runs out of puff quite quickly and progress after
70kph (44mph) is painfully slow and top speed is limited to 105kph.
This certainly isn't a highway car but that's not going to stop people from using it as one.
Pocket science
That's the concern Tata engineers had as well and have worked
quite hard to ensure that it's fairly stable with a full load at
maximum speed.
The brakes are reasonably effective as well and do the job. I
had to keep reminding myself that I was driving a car that costs just
over 100,000 rupees to judge the Nano in the right perspective.
It thrilled me with its "proper car" feel and I also learnt to
forgive it for its shortcomings. I can live with the ridiculously small
15-litre fuel tank because the car's phenomenal efficiency (18-20
kilometres to a litre) would give it decent range.
However, I would have liked a bit more power to make overtaking
less of a planned operation and the glass to open at the rear like a
conventional hatch. The only way to put the handful of bags in the
Nano's "boot" is by flipping the rear seats forward. I found that
cumbersome and annoying.
Of course, for this incredible price the Nano is bound to have
compromises but the brilliance of this car lies in the way Tata has
finely judged exactly what Nano buyers expect and what they don't.
That's where the foreign car companies would fail. The Nano,
made by pocket science and not rocket science, is a triumph of Indian
ingenuity.












Do you like this car ?

Designed to get the sub-continent's families off their mopeds and motorcycles I think it's a remarkable product.Let's just hope we don't run out of oil too soon

It'll beat the hell out of having a 'swarm' of tut tuts coming at you on the wrong side of the road. :-) .....I think!!!!!!

it would do well on our roads with those giant bloney green buses that think they own the roads.

It's supposed to be a 5 seater !

Five size sixes. :-)

In my youger days I used to sell Citroen 2CV6 and it was a reliable and cheap car, I often wondered why they stoped making small engine similar vehicles, this looks to be a 2009 version of that concept and I would be very suprised if it fails to sell in huge numbers.

Me too the saddest day of my motoring days was when my beloved 1988 2CV Dolly 'popped it's cloggs'..........unfortunately this new car doesn't have the 60's feel that the Citroen had.....but I expect in generations to come they will be bemoaning the demise of this one - same as 2CV and Beetle owners (and no IMO the new Beetle does not reach THE SPOT)

I just drive them till they stop...than I go, sobbing, and spend some more on another one...Camry that is...