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How a Tata Nano came into our lives in 2014: Long-term ownership review

25th April 2024, 16:36 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

We were surprised by its fuel efficiency of 15-18 km/l with the AC on during our normal usage. Our Maruti Wagon R used to return 8-10 km/l in the city.

BHPian cheeku recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This review is of our *now-sold* Tata Nano 2013 LX - nicknamed Mooshak since this was one of the first cars that I had learnt driving in and I spent a long long time behind the wheel as well as maintaining it during a ~10-year period.

Somewhere on the country roads of Kolar where the nano felt right at home

Here is a quick summary of the ownership tenure:

Year of birth at the Tata factory: 2013
Year of Welcoming It Home: 2014
Year of finding a new home and bidding goodbye: 2023
Variant: LX (The 2012 facelift that was officially reviewed by Teambhp over a Lonawala drive) - Non-power steering
KMs driven at the time of being sold: ~25,000

Prelude to the purchase

We were on the lookout for a second car for the household starting in 2012 since there was a need for a car that could do the in-city runabouts with fair ease and be light on the pocket as well.

Requirements

Small footprint
Good mileage, preferably ~15 in the city with the AC on
Petrol
Had to be available in white

That was about it, and we had begun our search.

Showrooms visited

Tata Motors for the Nano - Test driving the Nano was an underwhelming experience, the test drive vehicle didn't have its AC functioning and had rattles. We understood this may have been a one-off but we continued the search.
Maruti Suzuki - The Alto 800 didn't impress us with its looks and it was rejected right there without a test-drive. I didn't mind it though but it was vetoed.
Enter Hyundai, Residency road for the i10, Eon - We loved the way Eon looked, felt and drove, the D-lite model was booked right away with the awareness that it lacked a power steering. We just needed a car, and I was okay with anything that was new and drove.

A couple of days passed by after the booking and after some good long family drama over the lack of power steering, instead of upgrading to a higher variant, the booking was cancelled.

The search continued for another car that fit just right both to our budget and requirements (but we did end up buying an EON a few years later and it has been a joy to own)

After the unsuccessful search in 2012, came a 2 year period when there wasn't really a need to have a second car around due to low usage and changing work commitments.

Come 2014, I was preparing for my entrance exams when suddenly I noticed momentum in the automobile discussions at home with the word "Nano" being thrown around often.

I didn't think much of these discussions until one fine day my father randomly asked for the keys of the Nano from my brother's friend to test-drive it. It was a yellow colour one from the very first batches and he had driven it for more than 50,000 kilometres by then. He came back happy from the drive but we didn't know that smile would transpire into a purchase in the next few weeks. The only statement I remember hearing was "Iss gaadi mein toh power steering ki zaroorat hi nahi hai" (There is no need for power steering in this car at all!).

In the next month or so, when I was innocently preparing for my exams, doors closed in my study room, the decision had been made and I was informed that a new Tata Nano was on the way already.

Wait, where was it bought from? Neither had anybody visited the showroom, nor any finance-related discussions took place at home.

As it turns out, this was from unsold dealer inventory of December 2013, a few months old by then and we had received word of this deal via someone who was known to handle the vehicle fleet at my parents' workplace.

Questions I asked at home when I helplessly heard this purchase taking shape:

Q: How will it arrive home? Will we have the ribbon to cut? That big key handover like in the Girias / Pai newspaper ads, do I get to be part of it?

A: It will be driven home by the fleet owner, he is driving it from a far away yard, you can cut the plastic covers from the seats and take the keys directly from him.

Q: Wait, what about the smell of a new car?

A: We have told him to clean the car, and since this has been in the yard for a few months, there may not be any of that lucrative new car odour. * My heart sank here *

Q: Which colour? Not yellow, please? Top-end right?

A: It's white, and yes it's the LX. * A bit happier *

The car arrives in a few days and the usual formalities are completed in the next few weeks. This was a direct delivery from the dealer and was more of a spinny-type delivery of recent times when the car was handed over at home.

Initial ownership period of 2014-2017

Accessories added

ICE

Blaupunkt audio system - single DIN
Front speakers - Blaupunkt
Rear speakers - Sony

Convenience

Sunfilm within the legal limit of visibility (I was told that ) for a completely glass area since the Nano had the steering right under the windscreen and I didn't want to use up all the sun-screen at my home every day protecting my arms.

Interior

Leatherette seat covers, pre-stitched and fit
Steering cover

Things that impressed us during this time

The mileage - Owning it alongside a WagonR F10D that returned 8-10kmpl in the city, this was a surprise, it returned a steady 15-18 kmpl with the AC on during our normal usage conditions.
The footprint and manoeuvrability - Could fit in anywhere without a sweat.
The suspension - We were regular users of bad roads in the city, and the Nano's suspension handled them well every day. The faster over those uneven patches, the better it handled.

Things that didn't impress us much during this time

The brakes - good in the city but beyond 60, braking to a halt needed a heavyweight press and the brake bite felt wooden, got them checked and it was diagnosed to be a brake cylinder issue. The part was changed.
The ergonomics : Power button windows needed a bend down to be operated, the wiper stalks had a weird order of control, the passenger side seat adjust was towards the driver console
The small fuel tank of 15 litres - We realised the importance of a large fuel tank once we used the vehicle more often in the city, a usual week's drive sometimes consisted of 300-350 kms and it needed a refuel stop mid-week.

Things that fell apart during this 2-year period

The hazard light switch - It had the weirdest design where one had to pull the knob up, it fell apart in a few months and when we requested the service centre to fix it, they mentioned they needed to change the whole assembly. This was fixed later.
The rubber clamps that held the parcel shelf at the back.

Things that went really wrong during this time

Oil pump failure and radiator malfunctioning

Left us stranded mid-way home at a traffic signal. We had to let the car cool down every couple hundred meters, covered the last 4 kms in moderate traffic with many stops.

There were symptoms of failure earlier during a drive to Nandi Hills in September 2014, when the car switched off during a bumper-to-bumper jam uphill and refused to start.

Luckily, there was a parking space right behind the spot where it had stopped and used the downhill momentum, we could parallel park it. 2 hours later, it started up just fine and we drove 70 kms without a hiccup.

Looking back, it would have been a good idea to record the symptoms and show them to the service folks. The oil pump assembly was replaced along with a few other parts.

AC malfunction

The AC had its own mind, the compressor would sometimes switch on and sometimes it wouldn't. After a couple of ignition cycles, it would start working and would stop.

This issue could never be fixed by Tata's service centre, the folks just failed to diagnose it. This was fixed much later in 2019 (covered in the later part of this review)