Close Encounter with Nano: 1st hand review

The other day while coming back from Shirdi, some 20 kms from Pune, a small toy like car zipped past me. I cried in excitement to my wife who was sitting next to me. "Hey, that's Nano"!! The Nano emblem shining brightly on the bonet of the white, bright car, it raced ahead. Suddenly there was excitement on the road. Like me, few others had also spotted the car. Negotiating the traffic, I tried to step up on my speed to catch up with the car. It was nearly dark and the the commercial traffic was high on nagar road so I had to watch out for all the trucks on my side of the road and overtaking them was not that easy. But for Nano it was a different ball game. The car took advantage of its size and criss crossed between trucks to take up pole positions among other cars on the road - something I just couldn't digest. I mean here I was driving a relatively heavy sized big brother Indica Turbo and this new born cousin from the same family zips past me without giving me much maneuvering chance! Finally as the traffic cleared I managed to catch up with the car and got a good look inside. Drove for some 15 kms along with the car, sometimes over taking it from the left, from right, staying ahead, behind - so that I could get detailed look of the car, its exteriors, interiors, etc. The test driver just gave me a smile, probably understanding what I was upto. My observations about the car: 

- It rocks. It's a tiny, exposive device and has a pretty good grip on the road even on speed of 70kms ph (that was my speed while I was trailing the car for some kms) 

- It's size can be advantage for traffic situations where you need to zip through vehicles. 

- The test driver's height must be 5ft 9 inches and his head was not touching the roof - so that way it's good.  

- I could see orange colored illuminated panel - and there was a small green colored small LCD rectagle box glowing in the instrument console panel - probably the tripmeter which might be electronic. 

- the car was driving on high beam on road and I could see that the light was quite strong - so no problems in that department. 

What I didn't like: 

- As many of you might be knowing, the engine in the car is in back side. I could see some part of the exhaust 'hanging' out - just like it's there in some of the petrol rikshaws. 

- Probably the model that i was racing with was low end as the bumper was very basic dull colored greyish plastic one 

- The bumper in this model was not 'shielding' the part of exaust/engine which I could see dangling out. On few bumps, the exaust 'shook' along with few other parts near the rear end. It gave the feeling as if the entire pack has been loosely tied. It would be interesting to see how the car performs in true Indian conditions, where there are many potholes/bumps on the roads. I suspect the car's belly is prone to attacks from sharp stones or big potholes/gravels  as the ground clearance is not that high. 

Overall, still it's a good car. My wifey certainly liked it and said that she would certainly learn how to drive car provided if I book Nano for her! Personally I feel it's a car more suitable for women, eldery people as they would definitely treat the car with kid's glove.