Tata Nano LX 2012 (Final Report)

January 2012 – that’s when this Papaya Orange Tata Nano first rolled into our crowded office parking lot, and boy, has time flown by since then. Just about everyone in the office has spent time with it in the months since, even the boss – who likes swapping his E-class for it every once in a while for a change of pace. But I can safely say that over the last 17 months, no Autocar India staffer has put more mileage on its clocks than I have. So now that it’s time for it to go back to Tata, I’d like to bid it farewell.

The car so far has covered 7,400km and almost all of it has been city driving in and around Mumbai and I am glad to say that, except for the light coloured seats which get dirty easily, the car still looks as good as new. The light coloured dashboard with matte silver inserts gives it a more upmarket ambience compared to the dull grey interiors of the older car. There’s hardly any squeak or rattle despite the continuous torture from constant driving on Mumbai’s infamously potholed roads.

There’s no escaping the choppy ride, thanks mostly to those tiny 12-inch wheels. You do get tossed around a little and that sometimes gets pretty uncomfortable, but after this long, I’ve learnt to ignore it. The roomy cabin is a pleasant place to be in except for the engine noise which filters through. You can also quite easily tell exactly when the engine fan is on or not, thanks to the racket it makes.