Got them keys, unlocked the car, opened the door - felt strange as the door is pretty light & if left ajar then tries to close by itself! Sat in drivers seat, turned the key & cranked the engine!
Observations:-
1) Vehicle exterior looks very cute & will melt anyone's heart, sure fire hit with the ladies
2) Vehicle interior is quite disappointing, quality of plastics is clearly very agricultural & makes the spartan interiors look quite boring
3) Carpeting material used to cover foot wells & firewall is pretty rotten & will not last for even a single monsoon season
4) Steering Wheel feels like that of a toy car! Quite small & amusing i found it to be. Turning radius fantastic as one can turn the car in really small places & maneuver the car is small gaps
5) Seats quite comfortable for their size & quality of materials used
6) Fantastic head & leg room for tall people with driver seat adjusted to my requirement(read as pushed right back), still had decent legroom for another person of my height to sit comfortably behind the driver seat
7) Airconditioner cooling was pretty amazing as it was hot & humid outside
8) Engine does get strained with the AC switched on, acceleration does suffer, but then what can you expect of the little heart of this car
9) Gear shifts quite mechanical, mainly due to the amount of linkages involved, since powertrain is located at the rear, felt very similar to that of the Omni Van.
10) Engine quite buzzy & sound + vibrations make one quite stressful after a period of time, especially for passengers seated on rear seats
11) More than adequate performance for city drives, managed to just about hit 100 kmph, which itself was quite astonishing for me as i felt it would max out @ 75 taking AC load into consideration.
12) Brakes quite disconcerting as they either suddenly retarded the speed or sometimes did not make one feel as they are working! Not a good thing at all to feel, i must say
13) Stability quite good, even at speeds above 80 kmph
14) Suspension quite good too, soaking up bumps of rough roads with ease
15) No luggage space at all!
16) Bonnet release mechanism a real pain to disengage, found this problem to be common with other Nano's too as faced similar problem when i checked out display vehicle at a dealership earlier
17) Removal of Spare Wheel/Tyre a breeze as mounted in front on the firewall, filling fuel quite dramatic too as filler pipe located inside bonnet
18) Battery located under drivers seat
19) Doors interior panels stamped with 'L' & 'R' on corners - Maybe the guys at the plant get confused with Left & Right Sides!
20) Excellent visibility from drivers seat, due to large windshield
21) Single wiper huge & looks really big for the size of the vehicle
22) Driver side Wing Mirror taken off a sports bike, that small it is! It felt so odd to even try to look through it, plus felt that with slight impact it will come in ones hand, that delicate it is!
23) Pedals feel bunched up & people having big feet will find the foot well space very restricted
24) CX model - Body Coloured Bumpers, A/C, Central Locking
Have tried to share as much of my observations right now, will add some more as i remember them!
I drove the Nano for 12 kilometers, tried to test as many parameters as possible in that distance & limited time frame. No matter what all short comings the Nano may have, it still gives such a thrill to the person driving it/owning it. I just could not have imagined it having such an effect on me. Its such a head turner that who ever saw it, their eyeballs were just stuck to the car.
As for the Major question of FE, it is giving my friend an average of 20 kmpl (AC always ON).
![[:)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Smile.gif "Smile [:)]")
![[clap]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Clap.gif "Clap [clap]")
![[shock]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Shock.gif "Shock [shock]")
, but then since Nano is built to a price, lots of things like this have be ignored, what else can i say!