The Nano is no box on wheels, which seems to cower in the face of criticism and fall back on its built to a price excuse to retain any sense of self respect. It's an engineering marvel and an absolutely fantastic looking car under the circumstances. It's already being hailed as the Model T of the new millennium, which is high praise indeed.

It's crucially important for a car to appeal on an emotional front – and that's exactly what the Nano has done. It's also what Tata's competitors hoped it would fail to do. They expected to see a rudimentary and basic means of transport with little resemblance to an actual car. What the Nano has done is provide that all important utility, but in a spectacular package considering its asking price – one that appeals on many levels, whether through its visual appeal and smiling face or accommodating and spacious interiors. Not to mention the fact that it's a ground breaking car the likes of which the world hasn't seen in recent times. But perhaps most important of all, it's the brainchild of an Indian automaker. The Nano maybe be small in size but it makes a very bold statement about the engineering capabilities of our country. On a more universal level, it also points to just what you can achieve if you dare to dream or innovate, and then have the conviction to turn those dreams into reality.

From behind the wheel, the first thing you notice when you step into the Nano is that its interior plastics are surprisingly good – in fact a lot better than what you find inside a Maruti 800 for instance. In addition to that, there's plenty of room as well, which has been achieved by pushing the wheels to the absolute four corners of the car, as well as putting the engine effectively under the rear passenger seat. With its rear engine / rear drive layout, it'll be interesting to see how the Nano drives. I for one will be looking forward to it – could even be fun.

In terms of driving dynamics, an ideal situation exists when the weight of a car is equally distributed over the front and rear wheels. The vast majority of cars on our roads, however, are front engined / front wheel drive, and therefore have the bulk of their weight over the front end. In an emergency maneuver, when the car looses adhesion from the road surface, it tends to understeer, which is to say it diverts from its intended course and goes straight on instead. In a rear engined car where the bulk of the weight is over the rear end, the opposite tends to be the case and it resorts to oversteer, which is to say the rear of the car begins to slide in an effort to swap ends with the front. Of the two evils, oversteer is slightly more tricky to control for the average driver – assuming that a lot of first time drivers will strap themselves into the cockpit of the Nano, that may not be an ideal situation to have. However, in this case, with only 624cc and 33bhp to contend with, for now at least, it shouldn't be much of a problem. There will be more powerful Nano's in the future however, so Tata Motors have to get the setup right from the word go. And that's exactly what the engineers aim to do. They've mounted the engine in such a way that the majority of its weight is towards the center line of the car. They've also placed the fuel tank and battery under the front row of seats. In addition, the Nano also has slightly wider wheels and tires at the rear as compared with the front, as well as a very advanced suspension setup for a car of its type – featuring fully independent suspension, consisting of coil springs at the rear and MacPherson struts and a lower control arm up front.