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-   -   Tata Nano Twist XT : Driven (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/146600-tata-nano-twist-xt-driven-33.html)

Agreed.

I like Nano as a city vehicle. However, Tata have a horrendous reputation in quality of their build/service. Has it improved? Wonder if people have had good experience with their latest offerings?

Got busy this week with work and hardly had any time to go online.
Took delivery of my Nano Twist XT on 06th Jan from Concorde motors. The delivery process was done extremely well. The car was clean and they had already fit the seat covers, mud flaps, streering grip when i reached the showroom. The sales exec gave the banner sized key for the photograph, like they do in TV shows. (will upload that one soon).

Folks were clapping when we started driving out of the showroom, which was unexpected:).

Drove the car for about ~250kms and the experience is so far good. Avg. mileage is around 17.5 in Chennai city. Mostly drive back from office is devoid of traffic hence rarely need to slow down.

Very difficult to maintain the speed limits prescribed. This is Max speed they mentioned to maintain till1000kms.
10Km/h in 1st gear
25Km/hr in 2nd gear
40Km/hr in 3rd gear
60km/hr in 4th gear

But 2nd gear starts pulling only from ~20kms or so, 3rd gear is ok, 4th usually gets lethargic at 40km/hr.
Trying hard to keep it within the limits till the first service.

Initial observations:
- Very easy to drive around in traffic. Peppy to keep up with the rest of the traffic and to wriggle through available space. Using correct gear is the key here.
- Powerful headlights and fog lights. Headlights are 65W and fog lights are 55W i think. Lights up the road pretty well
- Finding difficult to get the correct seating position. Sit too close, and due to lack of under-thigh support getting a mild back pain, sit a little far off the steering and gear lever or too far away to reach comfortably. Hoping to find a comfortable position soon :)

Two little quirks till now:
- There is a shrill grinding noise behind the dashboard while on the move. This is inconsistent and happens only if the car was driven for a while and stopped, then started again. Happens only when the car is moving. Not while stationary. Not with the AC, speakers etc, tried switch off everything. It seems to emanate from behind the speedometer console, but can't say till we check it. Not sure whether to wait till 1st service to report this. Anybody else got this issue?

- 1st Gear and reverse gear or notchy and difficult to engage. Ended up grinding the reverse on a couple of occasions, needs patience sometimes. Other gears are smooth.

Need advice on the following:
I assumed that i will get invoice/bill for the total amount that i paid. For example:
A = Amount paid
B = Amount on tax invoice
C = Amount on other items such as logistics charges, accessories etc.
Isn't A = B+C?
In my case there is a sum of Rs.7250 which is unaccounted for. The sales executive is not giving a convincing explanation , he says that the freebies given need to be accounted for, hence there is this amount. I still dont get it since this amount is not more than the total cost of accessories given. Waiting for some proper explanation, else planning to take it with Tata Customer care. Any thoughts?

Got our Purple one on 20th Dec 2014, fun to drive in the city and parking in the tiniest of spaces is one of the perks!

No grinding noise for me, but sometimes there are random clicks from the dashboard, like some ancient relays are being opened or closed. But there is nothing blinking or any electric malfunctions, just the aperiodic "ticks" that tend to annoy. I am planning to check it out during the first service since it is not affecting anything. The grinding may be more serious since it could be from undesired contact of some rotating parts, would suggest at least calling the service folks in case you cannot get the vehicle to the service center. I am no expert, so this is a guess, the thing rotating in that area that can make an audible noise would be the power steering mechanism.

This could be the radiator fan relays kicking in to reduce coolant temp and/or the AC clutch relay. These are both normal.

Please get these checked immediately, and don't wait for the first service. I haven't faced these problems after 3 years of using the vehicle.

I get this tick too. It usually happens when the steering returns to center position or away from center position. But not always. I thought it was an actuating mechanism for the EPS. One of my collegue's Zest has the almost the same issue. Will check it out anyways.

Hi all

This is my first post on team-bhp :)

I bought a new Purple Nano Twist (from Aadya motors, Bangalore) as a surprise gift for my wife on Dec 30th 2014.

I've driven ~700kms till now.

One major issue I'm noticing is with the Power Steering.

Every time the engine is switched off and re-started again, the power steering becomes unresponsive, and the auto-return does not work for a while.
The vehicle continues to go in the direction the steering is turned, and does not return to center position when the steering is released.

This happens for the first 100 to 500 meters (sometimes longer) and then it becomes normal and auto-return starts to work.

I checked with the service center and the say it is normal, but I don't think it is good. This can be dangerous, in traffic when the vehicle is re-started at traffic signals, and the steering doesn't behavior normally.

wanted to know if anyone here has noticed this behavior.
Please share your experience/thoughts on this.

thanks,
GP

Hi gpnofear,

I own a Tata Nano Twist XT and have completed 9800 kms so far. February 17th 2015 will be the first anniversary for this awesome and exciting ride.

Regarding your concern - i have noticed this too and was worried initially. But then i observed that this does not occur if you allow the speedometer needle to go all the way till the 120 mark and come back, before actually starting the engine.

I guess this is the time when the ECM checks for any errors (faintly recollect reading it somewhere).

Hope you are enjoying your ride! Drive safe!

Regards,
Jayesh

First glitch in my 2013 Nano - remote/central locking stopped working. Turns out that it was a blown fuse, fixed by Concorde quickly enough.
I am surprised to read about the power steering preventing the return to centre for a while. Steering mechanisms are self centring, with or without power steering installed or operational. I can understand that the power boost becomes available after a while, but that shouldn't prevent the self centring from working. I don't know any car that will go around in circles with hands off the steering wheel!

Hi Jayesh,
Thanks for your reply.
I always allow the needle to do its round trip to 120 before starting the vehicle. After seeing your reply, i took another drive to re-confirm.
started only after the needle comes back from 120 and then allowed few seconds too. but the result is the same. the steering does not return to center for some time :Frustrati

Request others to check if this happens at your end too.. if not i'll go back to the service center with your feedback.

Note: Last time I complained about this to Aadya motors, the engineer said it is as designed. he also showed me another twist in which I saw the same behavior :( but i'm not convinced if it is acceptable.

Hi Sawyer,
Thanks for your reply.
If i'm not wrong, the auto return feature works only with power steering and not with regular steering. All cars i've driven till now are powered steering.. so I don't have much experience with regular steerings

Ideally, this shouldn't happen, but looks like it is happening with my car..
will try and capture the whole scenario on video.

@gpnofear, you are right and I too face the same issue with nano twist. Allowing the needle to come back etc has no bearing on it. The issue remains. It goes away after the Nano is driven few meters. I plan to take this up with service folks. This issue was not present earlier and has cropped up later.

Hi Guys,

Had my first problem with the new Nano Twist. The reverse light switch failed. Was a bit embarrassing as it is connected to the reverse sensors and, as I was relying on the reverse sensors, (which were now not working and I was not aware of this) almost reversed into another car.
Anyway, got the switch replaced free under warranty. Took two hours to drive to and from the service station and two hours to replace the switch.
Understand several Nano's have had the same problem so would suggest Twist owners check their reverse lights.

Regards,
SS

Welcome to the forum.
Congratulations for the car and also for the color choice!

I tested it, no such issues for me.

Switched on the engine and let it warm up, after about a minute switched it off. Restarted it, powersteering was immediately available. Moved it out of the basement, stopped and restarted, PS is still active. 50 meters and took a 90 degree turn, the steering centered without my input.

We had taken the car out to get my wife used to the fine art of getting the vehicle moving after stopping in an upward slope. So naturally there were a few stallings and for each restart the PS was instantly available (I was trying to get her used to an U-turn in a slope). The active return was always available and our practice runs were in a closed loop that was less than 500 meters, so distance was not a factor.

Our's is an October made model with less than 300 km on the ODO.

Hi friends,
Looking at so many happy owners in T-BHP, i was convinced to go for a Nano twist.

After being mocked by friends and colleagues (who have only seen a nano on the roads) when i told about this idea, I gave them back with all facts and ownership blogs.

I called TAFE dealership at Pallikaranai and asked if i could come for a TD. The dealership guy told that i can come by 7.30pm as the TD vehicle had to come from another dealership 30kms away.

I and 2 of my friends went there at 7.30pm to see a showroom under renovation. We were greeted by the lone in-charge and asked to be seated. We started fiddling the new Tata Bolt.

Then the guy told that the vehicle won't be available as the other guy is yet to start. I was furious and shouted at him for wasting our time by making us drive all the way. He promised to bring the car to my home tomorrow.

Then i asked him to give the Bolt diesel for TD. He gave the keys and we happily took a ride. Whats ridiculous is that a car that came into sale 5 yrs back is not available for TD, where as the one yet to go live was on offer :Frustrati

I asked for the quote for Nano XT.
Ex Showroom: 2,50,969
Tax + Reg: 27,397
Insurance: 10,039
Logistics: 3,000
AMC GOLD (2Y/20K kms): 3,500

On road price: 2,94,905

Discounts:
Corp -3000
2014 mod -30,000
2015 mod -0
I didn't feel that spending 30K extra on 2015 model made any sense. Hence knocking if out of the equation.
2014 model price: 2,61,905/-

Can someone please suggest if this offer is good?
Is it possible to get more discount?

Thanks SSD2122 for confirming that this issue exists. Yes i too noticed the issue after few days of driving.

Thanks sun_king :)

Thanks for testing. Good that your car is performing as it should :thumbs up

Mine is also October 2014 model, now approaching 900 kms.

The steering issue is persistent, and sometimes doesn't start self centering even after driving 1 km at speeds over 40kmph :Frustrati

The service engineer said, it will be disabled when the vehicle starts, and will get activated as speed picks up. I don't see any relation to speed or distance driven, as it is getting activated at varying speeds/distance.

Waiting to complete 1000k, and will take it for first service. Hopefully they will be able to troubleshoot the issue (if the accept there is an issue)

BTW... as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to post a video of the steering not responding... am i allowed to post a youtube link? (moderators please advice)

It is disappointing to see service folks give such answers. Page 18 of my Owner's Manual clearly says that the PS is active upon engine power up. Does the service engineer know something that the folks who wrote the manuals don't?

Page 69 (Trouble Shooting) too reflects this, it identifies one of the problem causes being the engine not started.
There is a relation in some cases. Overheating! There is a protection mechanism built in to avoid the steering motor overheating and if that happens the PS is disabled till normalcy is restored. So you might need to run a bit without PS for the system to be restored.

I will hazard a guess here and say that for some reasons the overheat sensors might be triggered on a restart and thus the lack of PS till it thinks it is back to normal. Just a wild guess.

In any case I would suggest getting it cleared at the earliest. You paid for it, it is the Twist's USP and there is no reason for you to be denied that privilege even for a moment.