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Monday, September 10, 2012

Tata Nano LX- A Complete Overview on My Experiences- Part 3

My Long drive experiences in Nano:

Whether you believe or not, me and my other 4 friends used to roam in city in my Nano frequently. The space was sufficient for 5 of us. We felt comfortable in motoring with Nano. Every one in office who came to knew I am owning a Nano started asking my experiences and the comfortness of the car. Everytime I shared them my experiences how it made me feel so so so good, they got more interest towards the Nano. I can explain this in terms of movies hit range at the Box office

Type 1: Heavy brand image, superb opening collections, getting hit even if its average
Type 2: Almost zero image, superb content, getting more craze day by day with mouth talk and becoming huge hit!

I can bet you, Nano belongs to Type 2. With the positive user reviews , the craze increased day by day. Especially with the image of the best car suited for city usage, many went for test drives and booked Nano eventhough they owned some expensive vehicle already. Those who wished to buy a car also showed huge amount of interest in Nano.

Still the low price tag created negative impact on Nano in the following ways

1. Lower the price, lower the quality
Basic mentality of many people who just go with spending more bucks just for the sake of brand name feeling that higher the price higher will be the quality. Nano proved many people wrong that a better quality can be provided at reasonable price.

2.Promised price is 1Lakh but the base model itself is costing 1.7 Lakhs on road
I dont know why people used to tell like this, when ever I hear such statement, I get angry on them. Simple reason, promised price is 1 Lakh ex showroom(1.35 Lakhs on road) for Nano Base model in 2007(released in market in 2008-09), if you expect the same in 2011 its fundamentally thier mistake. They want double digit hike every year in thier salary, but the same should not be applicable for Nano. Each car manufacturer increased price of thier cars by atleast 15% from 2007 to 2011, but Nano's price should remain as 1 Lakh(even for LX Model they expect to be 1 Lakh). The same people are ready to pay what ever the price is told for any other car models. It is an irritating and senseless statement by these people. I apologize for using few harsh words here, but I feel those are appropriate for this case!

Really I feel Ratan Tata had delivered what he had promised. Prices will catch up for various reasons- inflation rate, price hike in materials, wage increase to labour, overhead cost increases which cannot be controlled. The price increase Nano had from its inception on road in July 2009 to Aug 2011 was quite reasonable and highly acceptable.

I had a friend, who travelled quite often in Nano, knows all my experiences with Nano, but still felt its of not good quality because its cost is too low compared to other small cars. He always keeps telling me that only branded items will be of good quality. My response to him was quite simple, if you feel quality and price are directly proportional , you are not right always. There are many cases where you can get the same product at same quality for a lower price, the cost mainly depends on the brand image rather than quality alone.

One simple way I used to explain him for above price -quality relation was from the textile industry. Being educated from Engineering college from Erode district, I had fair amount of knowledge about Tirupur textile manufacturing and the exports they do for many of the world famous brands. The same material will be available with a local brand name for much lesser cost in Tirupur,Erode, Coimbatore. Same product, Same manufacturer,Same quality but huge variation in prices. Is it because of the brand image the cost varies that much. The branded versions are having brand ambassdors, world wide advertising, marketing etc which adds to lot of overhead cost which has to be recovered from thier products only. I am sure that no one will deny this fact.

My second trip which had a travel of 100+ km in single day is to Wonderla again . This time with my gang of 5. The round trip was 140 km from Whitefield railway station to Wonder la via Silk board,Bannerghatta road,Nice Road. I asked my friend to drive. It was the first time my car was not driven by me. He was asking for quite some time to give him for a drive, I was waiting for my 1st service so that the engine will get set properly. While going through Nice road, he throttled to full speed and my Nano clocked 114 kmph(max meter reading 120kmph) for almost 90 seconds before the blinking of coolant started. Later I touched this speed many times during my long drives as well. We maintained speed of 90kmph for most part of the Nice Road which is quite sufficient for long drives.

His response after returning back home - " I never thought Nano is such an excellent car for the price tag it has, really its awsome and much better than what I had thought. I didnt believe that you clocked 110 kmph last time, but today after I clocked a little more than that, I could not believe it is a NANO!"

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