Source: Overdrive magazine Title: God of small things Author: Sirish Chandran April 2009 A winner, plain, simple

and without any beating around the bush thats the Nano for you. A sure-shot winner. A car a proper car at that - which will transform the countrys automotive landscape forever; fuel the car-buying dreams, desires and aspirations of a billion people. We have driven the car and I cant get over the fact that, my god, Tata Motors has really done It! This is no joke, no embarrassment of a car. This is an against all-odds story; the story of what the world said was impossible, what our own countrymen (and women!) tried their damn dust to scuttle and of a motivated and talented bunch of engineers proving everybody wrong. And it started with Ratan Tata watching your average Indian family -father, mother, two kids riding through the rain. Thus began the genesis of the one-lakh-rupee car, Indias Peoples Car, the car dogged by more controversy and on which more has been written than any in the history of the automobile. A car that evolved from basic, no-frills transportation into an astonishingly normal car. I keep stressing on this because, let us be honest, what do you get for one lakh rupees these days? A good motorcycle costs a lakh. An auto rickshaw costs almost two lakh rupees. And Indias cheapest car which is as no-frills as you can get, costs over two lakh rupees. I expected a cheap, compromised, utilitarian four-wheeler. What I drove was a car that I will, eyes closed, recommend to anybody.

Source: Car India Title: Phenomenon Author: Amit Chhangani April 2009 I would have given up a drive around the Nordschleife in a Nissan GT-R for this. The Nano, in bright yellow with its tiny bonnet open, was gulping fuel down its petite throat at the gas station where most on-test TATA vehicles usually take a halt to refill. Even a Lamborghini Reventon wouldnt have attracted half as much crowd as this tiny TATA. Hordes of people had huddled around it within moments and thats a car that costs less than half the price of an Ariens Zoom Landowner lawn mower I saw on the internet the other day. And does it look sensational! If there was a human being who didnt know anything about the Nano, he would probably mistake it for the most advanced Kei car powered by the fuel thatll replace hydrogen. Well even if I am exaggerating a bit, from a distance, the Nano looks phenomenal outclassing most other small cars running on Indian roads in terms of design and aesthetics. The beauty of that stunning design is that it doesnt compromise an atom of functionality for those gorgeous looks. The most striking design feature is the air intakes behind the sharp recess in the rear door, la Lamborghini Murcielago. Not only does it make this small car look terrifically sporty and chic for its price and size, it also feeds much needed air to the claustrophobically packaged engine. The curvy rear with slim vertical tail lamps and a massive rear bumper with a sporty mesh in the centre further augment the snazzy, sporty look

of the car. The Nano, as one may wrongly assume, isnt really a hatch. The rear windscreen is pasted on the body shell and there isnt a fifth door in this car. The sharply raked front windscreen merges seamlessly into a diminutive bonnet with a central ridge and finally into the bumper, giving the Nano its unusual, we face. Hundreds of bright young Indian engineering brains have burnt the midnight oil to make that front end smaller. Extremely clever engineering details are meant to maximize the in-cabin space without extending the wheelbase too much. Where you usually have the engine in such small cars, you have a spare wheel, the fuel filler hose, the air conditioner air intake, the steering box and the brake and windscreen washer fluid compartments in the Nano. Thats quite a few items but they still take up substantially less space than what an engine and transmission would have. The compact powertrain has been pushed at the back, behind the rear seats to release invaluable space, and the trick has worked wonders for the cars in cabin volume. This means that the centre console, the steering wheel and consequently the drivers seat can be pushed forward by a few good inches, releasing hundreds of litres of space for the back benchers. The amount of room you have inside the Nano needs to be experienced to be believed. What augments the feeling of space inside the cabin is the cars tall-boy design that offers generous headroom while the high seating position for both front and rear passengers translates to a good all round view. Throw in four big windows to allow ample air and light, and the Nano easily becomes one of the most spacious small hatchbacks, no, cars in the country. But the boffins at TATA didnt stop at just that to optimize cabin space for passengers. They realized that thick seat trimmings eat up precious knee room. At the same time, they were determined to keep costs low for this phenomenal exercise in design. So they came up with a special design and material for the cars seats that not only took up less space owing to its thinness, but also reduced seating costs by a humongous margin, that too without compromising much on comfort. In fact, as we realized, the front seats of the Nano offer superb comfort and back support and match the ergonomics of some of the more expensive cars. The bench seats at the back, though liberal in terms of knee and legroom, arent quite as supportive as they ideally should be and make one slide forward. The high positioning of the seats, however, makes it incredibly easy to get in and out of the car and there is ample space to accommodate even three adults if need be. For both the front passengers there are massive troughs on the dashboard to accommodate anything from bottles to wallets to sunglasses. They are reasonably deep with pronounced boundaries to prevent the items from falling down even under massive acceleration (ahem!) or harsh braking. It may look like a simple design detail but the functionality of it is terrific to say the least.

Source: Auto India Title: For the people Author: Bob Rupa April 2009 When Tata announced that they would build a peoples car that would be fuel-efficient and low on emissions and would cost just one lakh of rupees, the response was scepticism and disbelief. Almost everybody said that this couldnt be done. It wouldnt be a proper car. Then the Nano was shown at the Auto Expo in Delhi in January 2008. Suddenly everyone was interested. It was a proper car, and a very good-looking one at that. Representatives of international car manufacturers crowded round it to get a closer look. It was splashed in the media all over the world. The question on everyones lips was will they be able to stick to

the promise of the price? And more importantly, will it drive and run properly? Well, here are the answers. Get into the Nano and the first thing that surprises is the space. Four adults can sit comfortably and thanks to the high H-point, getting in and out is easy. Despite its small footprint on the road, the unconventional layout of engine at the rear has allowed for very short overhangs with the wheels placed at the four corners, resulting in maximization of interior space. The interior design is simple with a centrally stacked instrument cluster made up of an analogue speedometer along with digital readouts for fuel level and odometer. There is a warning light and buzzer alarm for high engine temperature. The one-piece moulded dash design is such that it will work for both left and right-hand drive versions. In fact a lot of the design has been done keeping this in mind. The seats are thin and somewhat flattish but are yet surprisingly comfortable. Plastic quality is much better than expected and the fabrics are quite decent. But the carpet is a downer. Luggage space is 135 litres and with the rear seat folded, increases to 500litres. But to get to the boot the seat has to be folded as the tailgate is fixed. Access to the engine is even more difficult with a panel having to be removed after opening six wing nuts! And to replace a bulb or taillight, the rear panels have to be opened up! Tata are working on a releasable glass hatch like the on the first gen Maruti 800, to make access easier and this will be seen in the future. In fact, even the present Nano has holes punched in the all-metal body to accommodate the struts. Start up the Nano and you immediately know its powered by a two-cylinder engine placed at the back, under and aft of the rear seats. The two-cylinder 624cc unit is an all-aluminium square unit with identical bore and stroke of 73.5mm. With two valves per cylinder and SOHC, the petrol engine makes 35PS (34.5bhp) and 48Nm. It has an engine management system supplied by Bosch and a single balancer shaft. Its not the smoothest or most refined of engines and sounds a bit like a lawn mower. Although Tata have obviously worked at isolating the sound from the passenger compartment, they have not managed to isolate all the harshness. At idle you can feel the engine rocking and under hard acceleration the vibrations are quite evident. The gear lever has a smart design with the top being rounded and the sides cut flat to allow you to use the thumb and middle finger grip with the index finger resting on top for shifting. The four speed gearbox placed transversely at the rear has two push-pull cables operating the shifter mechanism and the shift quality is light, precise and pleasing. Push down on the accelerator and the Nano gets going with all the grace it can muster and the low first and second gears along with the engine fuel flow cut off at a somewhat low 5600rpm, which means you have to shift up quickly. The lack of a rev counter also means you most often end up revving it to the point where the engine management system starts cutting fuel supply. Tata say that their focus while setting up the engine and matching the gear ratios was fuel efficiency, low emissions, engine life and drivability in the low speed crowded urban driving conditions of India. And in our test we found they have done that very well. With a full load of four adults and the aircon running in the top-end LX version, we were easily able to merge with the traffic. Of course without the aircon the Nano feels sprightlier and is slightly quicker whilst accelerating. Tata say that unlike other cars the benchmark for the Nano was not accelerating from 0 to100kph, but as its an urban vehicle it was 0 to 60 and 70kph. In our tests it got from 0 to 60kph in around 10.12 seconds and took 14.30 to get to 70kph. Crossing the 100 mark took all of 32.6 seconds!