Information Madness

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The word is out and the people's car - Tata Nano is ready for prime time. There has been a big hype, curiousity and demand for Tata Nano. I know people will be dying to buy this car but I thought I would put some information and facts about Tata Nano out there for the new buyers, first time buyers.

Things To Know Before Booking Your Nano

-- You can book your Tata Nano Online or Offline
-- Online booking will cost you Rs.200 for application form
-- Offline booking will cost you Rs. 300 for the application form (Imagine if 5,00,000 people book Tata nano, Tata will be making 15 crore only from the application itself)

-- Bookings will start on the 9th of April 2009 and will continue till 25th April 2009, both days inclusive.
-- You will require Photo ID, PAN CARD (Form 60/61 if no PAN CARD)
-- You will require to pay 95% of the car cost at the time of booking. You can use demand draft, Pay order or Cheque for the payment

-- 1,00,000 successful applicants will be selected using pseudo random number generation technique.
-- The prices declared on March 23rd will be application to only those selected 1,00,000
-- Any cancellations received by TML after 30 days of announcement of allocation would attract a cancellation charge of Rs 2999/-

-- Tata Motors has entered into agreements with 15 preferred banks/NBFCs. A Tata Nano can then be booked by paying Rs 2, 999.  The chosen financier will directly submit the application forms to the State Bank of India.  

Check out the rate sheet for different banks for Tata Nano Finance. The list of banks to offer Tata Nano Finance are India Bank, Andhra bank, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank Of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, Union Bank of Patiala, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank Of India, Corporation Bank, Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank.

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Things To Know About Tata Nano

People are excited about tata nano because it is definitely better to drive a car than drive a scooter or a motorcycle with a family of more than three. But don't expect Tata Nano to be a luxury. it's a tiny car.
--The dimensions are nine feet long, five feet wide and about five feet tall. So if you are taller than 5.5, it might be conjusted
--The Nano is pretty bare-bones: It has a manual transmission, and no air conditioning, stereo or air bags (If you want you can buy an airbags at extra cost)
-- It only has a single windshield wiper which might make it difficult to drive in rainy season.
-- The car gives 23.6 kilometers per liter
-- It comes in three models Standard, CX and LX.
-- If you are planning to drive this car on express highways for above 80 km/hour speed, expect to pay more for the car maintenance.

So the Rs. 1,00,000 car will not be actually Rs 1 lakh car for everybody. Only the first 1 Lakh selected customers will get that price. After that the prices will go up. Check out the Nano Price matrix for Delhi, Mumbai and Pantnagar.

(image credit - The Hindu )

Now consider adding accessories to your car and that would add up to approximately 2,00,000 easily.  Why pay 2,00,000 for the car that is pretty bare bone.. I would rather buy Maruti 800 which is more spacious and can run for years. My dad has been driving Maruti 800 for more than 10 years without any problem. I would not count on Tata Nano to last that long though.

If I would buy this car at all, I would definitely wait for a year or two. After every new launch there has been recalls and enhancements. Look at the iPhone. The first generation iPhone was missing so many things and it had quite a few drawbacks which Apple fixed in the 2nd generation of iPhone and now the iPhone 3.0 will have much more functionality than the first generation.

Surely for Rs. 1,00,000 - Tata Nano is the world's cheapest car and that makes it really a strong candidate for city drive.