Critics Bowled Over by World's Cheapest Car

India unveiled the world's cheapest car this week, and a few lucky drivers took the $2,000 Tata Nano for a test drive. Their reactions:

• “A surprisingly smooth ride. Thrifty transport is not meant to be this comfortable,” writes Randeep Ramesh in the Guardian. “Built for functional frugality, the Nano is a striking if not a beautiful car.”

• “Despite being a fraction of the size of most economy-car engines, the all-aluminum engine provides reasonable pep. Engine noise is also far less than one might imagine given the size and simplicity,” says Nick Kurczewski in the New York Times.
• “The Nano zipped around farming tractors, beat out lumbering buses, and maneuvered around bicyclists,” notes Emily Wax in the Washington Post.
• “To drive India's new $2,000 automobile is to consider all the things you thought you needed in a car but really don't,” writes Erika Kinetz for the AP.

(More Tata Nano stories.)