Test-drive world's cheapest car

  
Comfort on a budget: test-driving the world's cheapest car

Tata's Nano, built for functional frugality, is striking if not beautiful and does the job of people's car admirably

Randeep Ramesh in Pune  guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 March 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/25/tata-nano-first-public-test-drive/print

"It is nippy, has a small turning circle and the horn works. After taking the Tata Nano for a spin, Randeep Ramesh says he would buy the world's cheapest car

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Taking the world's cheapest car out for its first public test drive by a journalist makes for a surprisingly smooth ride. Thrifty transport is not meant to be this comfortable. Tata's Nano purrs from zero to 40mph in eight seconds and its gearbox changes with ease. The brakes are solid, bringing the car to halt smartly.

True, its 623cc engine whines a little like a blender when pushed to its top speed of 65mph and the body leans like the Tower of Pisa when cornering at speed. But the wheels will give out before you can tip the car over, the Guardian was assured by Tata engineers...

The Nano resembles Doctor Who's Tardis. Outside it is just three metres long - smaller than hatchbacks such as the Fiat Panda and the Toyota Yaris and only a tad longer than the original Mini. Inside, the Nano is big enough for four 1.8 metre-tall (6ft) adults to sit in comfort. At 5ft 10in, I had plenty of room. What is amazing is the Nano's turning circle - its tiny wheels can spin it around in the same space as a London black cab.

The car for the common man is an ode to the ordinary. Priced at 100,000 rupees or just £1,350, the Tata Nano appears on the surface the most under-engineered car for decades. ..

Tata built the car to put the developing world on wheels - leading some to smirk that the automobile would be little more than a rickshaw with windows. That is far from the reality. The Nano looks and feels like a real car, remarkable given that costs less than a high-end laptop....

Tata began with a blank piece of paper: the only taboo was that the price could not be more than 100,000 rupees. Engineers toyed with designing a car with no doors, or a vehicle made of plastic. These were rejected, however, and the Nano is made out of a single sheet of steel, aerodynamically moulded, with a rear-mounted engine...

The car is being subtly re-engineered to meet US and European safety standards. Those new versions will see airbags added as well as updates that will meet western regulations for crash protection for people inside and outside the car.

The sparseness of the Nano is in some ways a welcome counterblast to costly add-ons found in the west, where cars are becoming almost as intelligent as their drivers. A range of increasingly sophisticated vehicles has hit the market, packed full of video screens, internet connections and adaptive cruise controls, pushing prices into the stratosphere.

The Nano is about innovation at lowest cost. The fuel efficiency is remarkable. It manages 67 miles a gallon (24km a litre) and emits only 101g of carbon dioxide for each kilometre driven. Those figures make it among the cleanest, greenest automobiles in the world. Despite this, it is hard to see how India's already congested roads will bear what could be an extra million cars a year.

True, the Nano is designed to do for India what Ford's Model T did for America almost a century ago. Here in India it is not factory workers who will be its buyers but families who want to upgrade from a 125cc motorbike to a motorcar but could not previously afford to.

Having made a dream real, Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata group, wants to sell a European version by 2011 and an American one by 2012. And an electric version of the Nano is already in the pipeline. Few would bet against Ratan Tata. He is a man who appears to have the knack of timing. The Nano is the right car at the right time at the right place."