Friday, 8 May 2015

Tata Nano GenX Drive - A Drive To Remember

A week back Indiblogger announced this amazing event sponsored by Tata Motors where 24 bloggers from Mumbai and Pune would be selected to take the GenX Nano easy shift AMT around Pune city to complete challenges. Needless to say I was darn excited. Firstly because it was a drive and secondly because this drive was in Pune. I have spent some beautiful years of my life in Pune. Undoubtedly this city holds a special place in my heart.



Without further ado I registered and keeping my fingers crossed awaited their reply. A day later I got a call that I was selected. There was nothing communicated about the event except that it would be a lot of fun! It surely was..


Although I was enthusiastic about this drive it took me a helluva self motivation to turn up for this event that required me to sacrifice my precious Sunday sleep. The drive en route Pune was a nostalgic one; it brought back memories of college times.

Tata Nano's lined up for flag off
Mumbai Bloggers


When we reached Pune it was 10.15 am. Our stop was this huge property of Tata Motors called 'Tata Lake House'. After a hearty breakfast we had Mr Sachin Singh giving us a walk through of the all new yet to be launched Tata GenX Nano. Following which we were given a brief description about the drive and were divided into 8 teams. Each team was given a Nano and challenges were thrown at us by people from all over the world. The aim was to complete maximum number of such challenges.

Tata Lake House


I , Divsi, Srinidhi and Magali were clubbed in one team named 'F'. Srinidhi and I took turns driving the Nano. We were given a trial round where a Nano expert explained us the operations of this AMT(Automated Manual Transmission) car.  As soon as all teams got familiarized with GenX Nano the drive was flagged off!

Team F ( From Left to Right->Srini, Divsi, Me and Magali)


Ten minutes of driving and I had fallen in love with this cute thing! It was very easy to drive and maneuver. I didn't have to bother about changing the gears every now and then. After so many years, I was truly enjoying the drive. To add to this enjoyment, there were interesting challenges thrown at us. One such challenge was to break into a flash mob in middle of a road.  Another hilarious one was to record a video where all team members chanted Jai Mata Di. :P

Me in awe with the GenX Nano

 Before I proceed further, here is my summarized feedback of Tata Nano GenX after the drive.

Pros :
1. The design is cute , vibrant. It is available in plethora of colors.
2. At a price like this getting an Automatic Gear is undoubtedly a great deal.
3. There is comparatively better leg room, head room and elbow room than the previous Nano
4. This Nano has a special mode for heavy traffic called the 'Creep Mode'. It lets the car crawl when break  and accelerator both are kept released.
5. It has a  provision to switch to Manual mode as well.
6. The boot space is increased.
7. The fuel tank is increased to 24 litres in Gen X Nano.

Cons:
1. The battery is placed just beneath the driver seat. Its so out of the place!
2. The start sound of car was similar to a bike's kick start. This sound was very irritating.
3. The speedometer is at the center. It becomes inconvenient and so unnatural to turn your head to left each time you need to check your speed.

Lunch was arranged at Mezza 9, Hinjewadi. After the scrumptious lunch we headed back to the Lake House where there was an interesting line up of events!

A special track was designed where each team enjoyed a couple of laps testing the claims made by product design team during the presentation. One of the claims was Nano GenX has the smallest turning radius of 4m for easy maneuverability. Indeed it has! Also the steering proved to have an active return function as declared in the presentation.

Here is the picture of the track:

Track


We were now back to the morning venue where Varun the founder of Taal Inc was waiting to treat us to his enthralling drumming performance. After which, we participated in a drum circle where we all played the djembe.

Varun performing


Oh what a lovely evening it was. Sunset by the lake, Music and Cupcakes!


The event concluded by a group selfie and numerous goodies being distributed to the bloggers. How I wish we were given a Tata Nano GenX to drive back home. ..... :P

 Seems like the Tata Nano GenX  has bewitched me completely!  Go Test Drive it on its launch date i.e. 19th May, I am sure you will like it too!