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The center aligned instrument cluster is to save costs incase they export the car to LHD countries.

Personally I find it quite good that there's nothing behind the steering wheel even slightly blocking the front visibility or something to twitch your eye to look at because the steering blocks the view of the instrument cluster. Infact I'd now prefer the center instrument cluster. IMO thats such a good use of the space as it frees up space for another glovebox too.

Hatch door : the cost of designing and moulding another door just wouldn't have kept costs low. (Hence the inexistence of a fuel lid) Infact at 1 point the engineers contemplated using bars like rickshaws, but then the top management wanted a 'proper car'. Then IIRC the nano was originally supposedly going to come with just 2 doors. But then, even though the costs would increase drastically, Ratan TATA personally insisted a proper car would have atleast 4 doors.

As long as some design modification doesn't hamper the functional capability to a drastic extent, then IMO it's more important to demand for things like better dampening & sound insulation etc.

Why is there a clamour for a diesel engine in the Nano ? I'm not sure how that would help sales ?

1. Already many feel the Nano is no longer a cheap car. Putting a diesel engine will bump up variant to variant pricing by at least 50-60k

2. Diesel - Petrol price gap is narrowing and a car in this segment usually doesn't do a lot of running to justify a diesel

3. Everyone will then clamor about the high maintenance costs which is inherent to diesels

I feel the nano is just fine with a petrol engine and just needs a repositioning and some smart marketing ( which by the way doesn't necessarily mean a lot of TV ads )

I agree with you as it does save a lot of costs when a RHD car has r be made compliant to an LHD one. This kind of Dashboard will keep costs down.

How much of the glove box would you be using all the time that you need another one opposite you. And the point of a instrumentation console obstruction your front view isn't correct IMO. That will hardly be an issue if the seats are adjusted properly.

No offence to you. Just my opinion.

I agree here as the in-cabin NVH is pretty high for a 624cc engine. Tata should do something to this and control the movement of the silencer when the accelerator pedal is pressed and released. The upwards and downward movement is not bad when seen from rear.

Anurag.

Even if the price of petrol becomes same as price of diesel, Diesels give better mileage. Where the difference in mileage is just 4-5kms, and difference in price is 1-1.5L, only there it isn't worth the difference for low usage.

For a small engined car like Nano, where the difference in mileage is 10+kmpl and price is just ~50k extra, then the break even point is MUCH MUCH earlier than others.

A major reason why people buy cars, is for the feel good factor (and supposedly something called Ijaat - dunno what it is, but some people keep saying that word :p) , and a cheaper fuel that makes the cost of travel ULTRA LOW would've been a rave, but then nobody knew the Nano would plummet like it did.

Maybe since the very beginning itself TATA should've chosen to develop an engine that uses the subsidised fuel that even gave high mileage - maybe a (silent and well insulated) 2/3 pot would've sufficed as diesels are inherently very torquey, but then they'd have to ensure the chassis can withstand the vibrations, which would've costed extra. And ofcourse TATAs thought it'll be a runaway success anyway, so why bother to give something the customer never demanded.

IMO, if it was a Diesel making the same amount of noise, with mileage like 35-40kmpl then people would've surely ignored the sound and even Image factor, moreover Diesel price itself in 2009-10 was ~35/L and running would've been like 1 Rupee/km - a figure that the Indian consumer absolutely loves.

Nice quick n short review - to the point!
IMO the Nano has failed as a cheap car for the masses.
So it's time TATA re-position (re-launch, re-name, re-whatever...) the Nano as a fun city car for the well to do.

It's no point taking your Fortuner to the city square for a date night, when you can do it in your neon colored 2 door nano (2 door - 2 big front seats, the tiny rear bench can keep the handbags in comfort - it's a date night remember!), which is easy to steer and park (having PS), can play some nice music, and does not sound like a 'chota haathi' TATA ace.

Time is ripe for TATA to be proactive instead of reactive!

Wow. This is much better now. Actually i would have liked such Nano from day one !!! This looks more like a complete, well finished car. Power steering is certainly a welcome move. It was needed, specially for ladies. But why only one model? I guess Twist should have made with base model as well. Cutting few accessories like power windows, music system etc would have made it more economical & attracted more buyers.

In my opinion, Tata still missing on 2 main things in Nano. First is car like fuel filling option. Opening front bonnet for refuel is really bad and gives you cheap car fill. Secondly they should have refined the engine more and should have removed the vibrations along with that putter sound. Alto like smooth, vibration free engine is most welcome. If these changes are made, i will buy one immediately for my family. Overall nice effort, Best of luck Tata clap:

No I mean updated interiors, better quality and may be improved exteriors as well. Adding some small changes in my mind does not add up to a new variant with new branding.

Updated interiors + better exteriors +better quality = higher cost . It will not be an affordable car anymore. Instead of shelling out more money for nano , people will consider buying Alto and nano will loose its edge.

Nano was initially meant to be a 1L rupee car ,you can only get what you pay for .

No wonder people can't appreciate what the Nano offers. You are still clinging to the false notion propagated by the media back in 2009. Wake up! It's 2014!

The Nano offers a far better space management and a far better FE than any other hatch today. I suspect it also offers a much more composed rear seat ride but then I haven't much used the rear seat.

I wish people realize the value the Nano offers instead of living in the past.

First of all, a whole lot of appreciations to the Nano team at Tata Motors for all improvements made to Nano clap:. Seriously guys - how many of us see a car on the roads of India (or in fact anywhere in the world for that matter) that take every voice of customer constantly, incorporate them into a vehicle that has gone through n number of engineering changes till date, iterate, re-iterate and not stop until it becomes the best any customer can buy. For that mindset, kudos to the team again!

Coming to the car, from the time it was launched till date, I would say the efforts to make Nano a better car is just phenomenal. Yes, Nano did leave a 'cheap car' feel with its price and many other weirdos it came with. But now it seems, wiping that 'cheapish' wear off the car, would slowly get Nano some numbers and keep that Singur plant running now and busy later. And hence, I believe, is the host of new features and its linear relationship with price. I would say, that equation, if not today, would slowly get the car back to good shape and would find more homes in the days to come.


That's some well done homework I would say! I mean, there are B and C segment cars we can easily name that doesn't weigh up with speed. An exact equation of power-assisted steering.

Someone would maybe not feel good about buying a Nano but Nano already is anyday bettering Alto in terms of equipment, value for money, interior quality, and fit and finish. The only factors weighing down are its A$$ which Tata can work it out and the cheap-ness which would sure go away with time.

ACC and SMAC are a little far-fetched, don't you feel? I guess, Tata knows now where to position Nano now! Somewhere not in the 'cheap' segment both price-wise and looks-wise. That's what I believe they're working on. :)

Correct, but the efforts are all fragmented - if all of them had been clubbed into one 'new' model they may have done better in the market.

We see this across the board for all Tata vehicles - over a course of 2-3 years they are updated so many times, yet people will never appreciate this fact. At the back of the minds people still have the 'original' model with all its issues - because there's never been a model change but a series of updates.

This is a serious mistake they are making. All they need to do is to look across the Indian camp to the other manufacturer who 'brands' every small change as an 'mSomething' and creates enough noise to make people think its a new model even if it is the same old vehicle with just a couple of mods.

And when Tata do try to do something similar its too late - like the Storme. A capable vehicle in its own right, but it took way to long to make its appearance for a model with just a few perceptible changes - nobody took it seriously even though it is indeed a very different vehicles. TML haven't learnt the trick of packaging, and of creating new models fast - instead they have a few hundred variants of the same vehicle, leaving the customer confused. End result - they may have made big changes, but to the end customer it is just the same.

With the Nano I think they should've waited for the new engine and packaged the power steering with it as a new model. This twist isn't going to be good enough for the market.

I wonder if existing customers can get an upgrade to stick on the glove box.

Any comments from TBHP experts on if the older models can be "upgraded" to incorporate the power steering ? stupid: It would be so fantastic if Tata comes up with that option. I wouldn't mind spending 20K to do an upgrade.

One of the aspects that was hyped was the engineering that went in to achieve the low price point. With the actual price, looks like there was nothing great except for the space part (which with no trunk space and engine below rear seat is not too great an achievement).
Personally for me, its a dream gone bad for Tata and his countrymen.

No trunk space? Have you even seen a Nano?

If we look at the current variant list, indeed it seems like there are now more variant than required with the introduction of XT.

The Lx version can be axed since the XT had all its feature plus the power steering at just 15k increase.

The Cx can be retained with probably the addition of the power windows with a bump of a few thousands retaining the black bumpers etc.

The base version can still be pitted as the cheapest car sold san any feature.

This would clear differentiate the three variants both in terms of features and price since the price differential would be around 40k between them (i.e XT > Cx > Base)