New Tata Nano Twist review, test drive

It is best not to use terms like ‘all-new’ and ‘next-gen’ when it comes to each successive Tata Nano, as that is not Tata Motors’ strategy for this car – at least for now. Like we’ve seen over the years since its launch, the company prefers to give its small city car sequential updates annually to make it more appealing, rather than massive overhauls. That’s understandable, as a whole load of updates at once would push the price of this car up and prove counter productive.

So, over the last few years, we’ve seen the addition of gloveboxes, a left wing mirror and an audio system, to name a few, and improvements to the suspension, seats, ergonomics, engine and gearbox – basically just about every single part of the car. Which means, in essence, this Nano is far improved from the one Tata Motors launched back in 2009.

Now, for 2014, there’s just one mechanical update, but it’s a big one, and one that’s been a long time coming. As you may have guessed from the suffix given to this latest version – Twist – the Tata Nano is now available with power steering. It’s a brushless electric power steering (EPS) unit that’s been developed specially for the Tata Nano Twist by ZF in collaboration with Bosch. This may be the most affordable car in the world, but there’s no stinting when it comes to essential bits; these suppliers are some of the best in the world.

So what has it done for the Tata Nano? In a nutshell, it’s made it much better suited to its purpose – of being a compact runabout for the city. On the non-power-assisted car, you have to wrench the wheel around at parking speeds and low-speed agility is really poor. All the effort and concentration required meant you often preferred not to change course and just dive in an out of gaps. Not anymore. Continued..