Dear Mr Tata, is my Papaya Orange Nano a Lemon?

Dear Mr Tata,

Despite the warnings of my friends and well-wishers I went ahead and purchased a Tata Nano on 29 Feb, 2012. I thought that I should support a car that is supposedly something India can be proud about.

My car was delivered on Friday, 16 March, in the late evening, with 92 kms on the odometer and today, with less than 150 kms on the odometer, I am already worried about my purchase and wondering if my friends and thousands of Indians are perhaps right in avoiding the Nano and instead choosing even a 25-year old vintage car from Maruti, the Maruti 800.

[caption id=“attachment_250615” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The writer’s car broke down while driving up an incline. Reuters”]  [/caption]

I will deal with the delivery experience later. But as I write this, my car has already broken down on a gentle incline going upwards. In less than 60 kms since I drove it! I got delivery on Friday, but started driving it only on Monday morning since I left Mumbai for a weekend getaway in my Maruti Swift which has never broken down in the past 6 years that I’ve driven it.

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The good part is that when I called the Tata Motors toll free number I got through within a minute and in a few minutes was promised on-road assistance within 30 mins. But before the 30 minutes were up, since the first person I called was the Tata dealership (who was less than a kilometre away) and since I did some tough talking, someone from there got to me first.

Now begins the fun. The chap who came to attend to the car told me that the clutch plate was perhaps burnt! Within 60 kms of my using it. I know that machines fail, but here’s what really worries me: I’m a fanatic about maintaining the engines of the vehicles I own, and I made sure in this case that I did not rev the engine too much since I knew that it was a new engine and running in norms require that the engine not be revved heavily.

If the clutch plate on the Nano is so flimsy, that is very, very worrying. Second the chap tells me that I most likely tried climbing the gentle incline in third gear. When the car stalled, it’s possible I was. I’m used to the Maruti Swift’s superb gear shift. But having driven for years, that was the first thing I checked when the car stalled. I disengaged the gear and put it back on first gear just in case I was trying to climb a gentle incline on third gear. But the chap said said any such gear shift would ’loosen’ the gear cable and mechanic would need to put it right!! If a common occurrence like this (wrong selection of gear) brings a Nano to its knees, that’s another major, major worry for me.

And worse, another person from my dealer Fortune Motors told me that it was also likely that my accelerator cable had snapped. When I wondered if such things happen within 50-60 kms of use, he said it was common with the Nano and said Tata Motors was changing the cable across Nanos. When I reminded him that my Nano was delivered 3 days ago and I had driven barely 60 kms, he told me that it was very likely my car had the older accelerator cable! He had no answer to my query about how a brand new car would be factory-fitted with a component that is proven to be defective and is being changed across Nanos.

At the workshop, I was now told told that the clutch is not burnt but that the gear cable did slip. A works manager drove the car around for a few kilometers and said he believes the mechanic was wrong about clutch plate being burnt. They have said they will rectify the gear cable issue and have asked me to drive for a day or two, before they do a complete check to see if components need to be replaced. They also blamed what the mechanics said on blue collar workers who don’t know how to communicate properly, but I won’t brush off what a blue collar worker says, especially since he works on cars day after day.

And oh, in the larger scheme of things, this may be teenie-weenie, but my rear seat lock has suddenly stopped working. I just had the exhilarating experience of braking slightly, only to have the rear seat come crashing down and along with it my parcel tray, cutting speaker wires. This was the one installed by your dealer, just in case you want to blame third-party accessory retailers.

The bottom line is this: I’m worried. Very worried. I don’t have the basic confidence required to drive my Nano, leave alone drive any great distance. I don’t have the confidence required to ask my wife to drive this car because I dare not have a lady face this experience on Indian roads.

To be frank, I was initially impressed with my dealer experience. When I got delivery of my top-end Swift ZXi 6 years ago, my Maruti dealer Vitesse pretty much handed me the keys and said goodbye. At Fortune Motors, I was given a box of sweets, the car had cute bows and ribbons stuck all over, a photograph of delivery was taken and later e-mailed to me, documentation was explained twice over. Since I’ve had some problems with music system installation (no manual, remote missing, wrong brand speakers installed despite paying for a better brand) but that’s been taken care of, or at least they’ve promised to. The car was also delivered with grease stains on the door fabric and seats, but yesterday they also dealt with that within 30 mins.

The dealer delivery and accessory issues are comparatively minor niggles in car delivery but the greater question is of basic reliability. Let me illustrate: The difference between the basic 25-year old Maruti 800 and my modern top-end Swift is of features like ABS, airbags, alloy wheels, climate control AC, and of course larger car, better engine, etc, etc. However, I’m dead certain that reliability of basic components like the engine, gearbox, etc, is similar. I’m certain that the Maruti 800’s components won’t fail within 60 kms or that each time someone accidentally tries to start on third gear instead of first gear that I will need to call emergency assistance because the car is stalled and needs a mechanic to open up the engine compartment and tinker around.

I love the looks of the Nano, the incredible spaciousness, the AC that’s awesome, the peppiness and more, but basic reliability comes above all of these. If a user can’t have that, I’m sure you’d agree that a Maruti 800 of 25-year old vintage is superior, despite the Maruti 800 not being capable of passing modern crash tests, being a car with cramped interiors, difficult to get in and out of and which looks like a bedraggled stray, compared to the pedigree looks of the Nano.

So, coming back to the point–is my Nano reliable? Great emergency assistance, etc, is much appreciated and applauded, but let me re-emphasise–basic reliability counts above all that. And after my horrid experience today, how can you assure me of this?

I look forward to hearing from you because I suspect this is the answer thousands of other Indians also seek as they consider the Tata Nano.

Sincerely,

Ivor