Nano owners' tales

What would you do if a bunch of people gives your car a chase? Check: Are they armed? Then hit the gas. Have you just knocked down someone? Hit the gas, and surrender to the cops later. For Balakrishna Mohite, both the answers were in the negative. But when he saw the crowd running after him, he knew what they were after.

Mohite is one of the 16,500-odd proud owners of the Nano on India's roads, almost as sought-after as the Men in Blue or Bollywood stars. Not for who they are, but for what they drive. Not everyone is mobbed, like Mohite was, but they are fair game for questions-from the street hawker who can dream of buying only a bicycle to the driver of the Ford Ikon caught alongside at the lights.

Questions that Nano owners are only too willing to answer. So, what's the big deal about the Nano? After all, unlike the Eighties, when the Maruti stood out in stark contrast to the rivers of dull Ambassadors and Fiats that ruled India's roads, today the market is crowded with the world's best names as well as India's homemade stars.

Could it be the Tata badge? Nope. Tata Motors' Indica was never such a star, even though it was the truckmaker's first passenger car. Could it be the looks? Almost no nose, tiny but tall, engine in the rear? So maybe the Nano radiates the pride of being the world's cheapest car, at Rs 1 lakh when it was promised. Today, every big name in the world of automobiles is making small cars or wants to make one, even if it is not cheap.

Questions? Fire Away
Madan Singh, an assistant commandant with the Border Security Force (BSF) who resides in the Bijwasan area near Delhi, is just the sort of Indian who inspired Ratan Tata to dream up the Nano. Singh upgraded from a motorcycle to the Nano. He is so happy with the car that, while he still owns his motorcycle, he takes the Nano to work everyday.

"I've taken the car down to Rajasthan for a holiday as well, which was a great experience, because everywhere we stopped people asked me about the car. Even people who owned Rs 20-lakh cars asked and everybody turned their heads... That was a very proud feeling," recalls Singh. Mohite, the man who was chased by a crowd on the campus of Bangalore's University of Agricultural Sciences, is used to being buttonholed, being one of the 200-odd Nano owners in the city of over seven million people that is India's tech capital. "Sometimes I feel inconvenienced, but patiently answer all queries from people. I can understand their excitement," says Mohite, who runs a chit fund.

Mohite is among several faceless ambassadors of the world's cheapest car. The questions they face are mostly about mileage and the onroad price. (He paid Rs 1.87 lakh for his CX model and gets a mileage of around 20 km per litre.) Not all like to be grilled, though. Tapan Datta, a 55-year-old businessman who lives in north Kolkata, says: "You know, I don't mind if another driver asks me questions about the car, but it does get irritating when someone who cannot hope to buy even a bicycle, walks up and asks me, 'Dada, how much did you pay for it? Were you the first buyer?'"

What Do You Care What Other People Think
While there are many bike owners like Singh whose first car is the Nano, quite a few Nano buyers have owned many cars in the past, mostly moving up the price points. But the Nano's uniqueness has prompted many of these owners to step down the price point just to own a Nano, forget the money status.

So you have a Ford Ikon owner like Datta, whose first car was the Maruti 800. It was love at first sight. That too, on a blind date! "I had seen a big ad in the papers announcing that the Nano would be on display at the Lexus Motors showroom, so I told myself, why not go and have a look?," recalls Datta. He stresses that he just went to see the car, definitely not to buy it.

"But I was attracted by its looks and finish, and I told myself it is worth the price," says Datta. The next day, he was back to book a Nano-but he made it clear to Lexus that he would buy it only if his name was on the first list, and take a refund if put on the wait list. As it happens, his name was right on top.

For Mamta Bhandari, a Montessori teacher in Chennai, the convenience came ahead of the "looks". Driving has been Bhandari's passion since her teens and her family owns a Skoda Octavia, a Honda CRV and a Maruti Swift. But her most recent buy, the Nano, has become her favourite car. "You can't get a better car for a city drive. It is a lovely driving experience. It squeezes its way past the traffic beautifully and… parking is a lot easier as it occupies very less space," she says. She uses the car mostly to drop the kids at school and for shopping.

She bought it because "it is the most wisely-made compact car". She has a top-end model. "I don't miss anything in the car. It is a comfortable family car with good speed control and a mileage of 12 km per litre," she adds. The Nano's size and manoeuvrability also make it great for Bangalore's congested roads, says Mohite, who has to meet quite a few people every day. No wonder, he "upgraded" from the Swift and the Indica.

"The car is reasonably tall so I don't need to bend to get in. The AC is good, too,'' says Mohite.

The Other Side: If There is Any
So far, the owners have had little to complain about hard stuff like the engine, gear box and so on. Their grouses relate to softer aspects. For example, Singh wishes that access to the engine did not involve removing the rear seat (the Nano is the first car in India with a rear-mounted engine.) "The rear-engine is a bit unusual, It is a bit difficult raising the seats and all to get access, but that is the only thing," says Singh.

Mohite has just one grouse: lack of a boot. His three children live and work abroad, and every time they come home, Mohite has to take his 20-year-old Omni along to carry the luggage.

Chennai's Bhandari has nothing bad to say about the Nano. Needle her and the closest she gets: "Nano is fine for a city drive. But for long distance drives I prefer a bigger car". So it is with Kolkata's Datta, who has driven his Nano all the way to Medinipur, where his parents live, without any problems. On long drives he gets 22 km per litre, in the city, he gets at least 17 kmpl. No problems so far.

- K.R. Balasubramanyam in Bangalore, Somnath Dasgupta in Kolkata, N. Madhavan in Chennai and Kushan Mitra in Delhi