[RavenAvi]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Congrats nitin.rai. I always thought to have my next car with beige interior. I have to say black interiors looks good on City- it gives a distinct character.. For me it looks like a mini Cruze

Also, my personal opinion is to leave the ORVMs in black. They look good with blackened B-pillars

The dude abides!!

For the City Corporate in white color, I agree with this. Black ORVMs and black door handles look great with the white City - they add a real nice dual-tone touch to the look of the car. My advice to anyone who is going for a white Corporate - don't get the paint job done if you are a lover of dual-tone looks.

Originally Posted by nitin.rai

My 12 City CE ownership thread & pictures - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post2656076here.
Would personally have wanted to post a lil more detailed review but short on time these days so posting a short one for the time being with pictures.

Just went through it, buddy. Thanks for posting!

Originally Posted by nitin.rai

I was able to extract cushions & car cover

Well, I sat down for 3 hours with my Honda dealer yesterday to finalise everything for my City Corporate delivery next month. After a lot of haggling, he agreed to give me mud flaps for free. Let me see if I can extract something else from him.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

There was one thing in the '08-'11 City that I was especially proud of : the bumpers of EMT and SMT (the variants which didn't have fog lamps as standard) did not have a plastic fitment to cover the place where fog lamps would normally have been. The bumper didn't look cheap as it normally does in the case of cars which don't have fog lamps.

I pointed out the very same thing to my Honda dealer when he had the Corporate parked alongside an older white VMT yesterday. The oval lamps on the older variant look much more classy and rich and well-integrated with the body, compared to this rubbery/black monstrosity which looks like a cheap aftermarket fitment.

He was of the opinion that Honda did this based on the feedback they got from the customers - most customers prefer to fit the fog lamps anyway and this would be an easier install, compared to cutting out two pieces from the bumper of the older variant. I asked, what if someone decides not to get anything fitted? Won't that make it look outlandish - as if two pieces of bumper metal have disappeared and two rubber corks have been stuffed in to make up for them?

He had no answer.

Originally Posted by nitin.rai

Nope, got my 12 city delivered on the 19th. The service manual now mentions 3 months / 5000 kms; whichever is earlier.

This is true. I told them I can't travel 300 kms frequently to get my car serviced in such short durations, and I can only bring it in every 6 months. The workshop manager said that it's okay if I don't attend the first one (after 1 month), but the second one after 3 months is compulsory, since they change the oil then. After that I can bring my car in at 6-month intervals, no problem.


I visited my Honda dealer yesterday evening en-route to returning home from a conference in Agra. He had a White Corporate with him which was due to be delivered to a customer in Bhilai later in the night and they were preparing it for him. (first City Corporate in Chhattisgarh)

A few pointers from my inspection of the Corporate (sorry, couldn't take pics as both my Galaxy S and Blackberry had run out of battery juice) :-

- The black ORVMs and door handles actually compliment the White color on the Corporate, and look great in a dual color tone combination. For those who are thinking of booking the white Corporate, check out the looks before deciding on going for body color paint job.

- The interiors are nice. The fabric of the blue-black seats seems good to the touch and is of the same feel as the biege interiors of the V MT. The sewing quality is top-notch, and you can actually use the car without any seat covers easily!

- The central console's AC controls look very tacky. All-black plastics are hard to the touch and feel as if they belong to a Rs. 2000/- washing machine. They should have given chrome knobs at least to make them look richer. These black ones feel very cheap.

- The missing HU space makes the speedo look much better. When the HU/Speedo are lit up in the V MT (that was the car in which they dropped me off at the bus depot), it looks very outlandish. The soft orange backdrop of the HU is the exact opposite of the bright blue/white background of the speedo - a real eyesore at night. It will make many future E MT, S MT and V MT owners really unhappy - I think most of them will be looking to change their HUs soon. Nothing like a nice little 2-DIN player with blue lighting to compliment the superb speedo.

- Coming to the speedo, it looks really fantastic at night! Finally the City looks like it's the younger brother of the Civic (from a driver's point of view). The blue lighting is actually soothing to the eyes, and adds a lot of class to the interiors. The meters are the same as the older City variant.

- The steering is bland, and devoid of any chrome whatsoever. The V MT's steering gets chrome bits on the radius, but the Corporate's steering is completely black. It's still nice to hold and gives a firm grip, so you can skip on a steering cover initially. The horn is still weak as before, and needs an upgrade.

- The dashboard plastics, space, glove compartment, etc. are the same as before. There are 3 separate spaces in a row (one behind the other) for storage between the driver seat and the passenger's, and two more spaces side-by-side below the central console. All good enough to hold 1-litre bottles. The rear doors sadly don't have any storage spaces.

- The switches on the driver door are all-black and look cheap as well. The Corporate has been built to a cost, and it shows more than once. Electrically adjustable ORVMs is a nice touch, but auto-fold is missing. All 4 doors have power windows, with switches on the driver's door. No compromise there.

- Plenty of space in the rear seat for rear passengers. I am 6'0" and I sat down in the rear seat to check how much head space is present between the top of my head and the ceiling. It was about 4 and half fingers heightwise - more than adequate. The rear armrest is plain and doesn't have cupholders. Very spacious and comfortable for 2 passengers in rear - 3 might be a bit of a squeeze. The plastic below the rear windshield looked a bit cheap as well and was hard to the touch - another example of cost cutting. Floor hump is visible but not a bother. It is present but it's snugly covered by the floor carpeting.

- Speaker spaces in all four doors are round - tough to get oval speakers fitted at rear. Future Corporate owners are advised to go for round co-axials than oval ones for rear doors.

- Single cabin light at the center is still a big downer. They should have provided separate cabin lights for front and rear. I went to check the V MT if it had two but the V MT had one in the center as well. For an 8L on-road car, this is a big missing feature.

- Also missing are vanity mirrors in the sun visors. Could not check if they are present in the V MT.

- Internal rear view mirror is strictly average. For those of you who are nervous when reversing, my suggestion is to go for either the reverse camera or sensors. Camera is the better option.

- Boot is cavernous as before. The City's boot is not as pronounced as the Vento's, yet it is more spacious than the VW's. Boot lamp is present in the centre and illuminates the boot space adequately.

- The tail lights look slightly out of sorts. I prefer the older variant's tail lamp cluster compared to this one. The two LED-like white slots in each of the tail lamps aren't that bright as they convey to be during the daytime.

- The rear bumper gets an additional black plastic under-bumper which houses two plastic reflectors. Useful if someone tailgates you at night.

- The front bonnet looks a bit more aggressive, coupled with the new front grille. As mentioned before, the fog lamp casing is the only outlandish eyesore in the front's looks. If you are thinking of fog lamps for the Corporate (or E/S MT for that matter), get them fitted. Otherwise the tacky casing in it's place looks really odd.

- The engine is the same - the lovely sweet-sounding i-VTEC. The damping under the hood is restricted to covering the engine part only - compare this to other cars which have complete under-hood damping. The air-dam assembly is different and is of cheaper plastic and is fitted on the underside of the boot - a change from the older variant.

- Michelins are available on the Corporate. The one I checked out had Energys on. The V MT had MRF ZVTVs. Someone else had seen Goodyears - which means all 3 are available for the new variant and the Corporate as well. The tyres look skinny though. It is advised to upgrade to 195/60s.

- The ride quality is still superbly smooth. To test out the new improved GC (of 165 mm) I asked 4 other SPs to pile up inside the Corporate as we went out for a TD. I passed a few big speed breakers and slowed down to a crawl to see if it scraped - the car didn't scrape with 5 people onboard (about 400-425 kgs between the 5 of us). The boot was then filled with my suitcases (2 big Aristocrats, 1 Safari and 2 Skybags) and I tried the same speed breakers again - no scraping. I checked the distance from the car's underbelly to the road surface and it felt like it was the same as earlier (160 mm), but the City now has a stiffer tweaked suspension IMO. This is a very good move (and a welcome one) by Honda and now you can drive the City without apprehensions of scraping. Of course, adding 195/60s to the wheels will add that extra bit (4 mm more) of GC, if you are still apprehensive.

- Mileage after a spirited run (which included about 10 kms of city driving and 35 kms of open stretched roads) of about 45 kms showed 12.9 kpl overall. It was around 16.3 kpl when we were touching 80 kmph - a testament to the i-VTEC frugal mileage. (All you petrolheads obsessed with "kitna deti hai?" should be amply satisfied, if not refer to mdsaab's superb City ownership thread for fantastic FE figures and how to achieve them! )

- The dealer said that right now, as per the recovering manufacturing capability of Honda's plants, only a select number of Corporates are being made. All dealers in India have been given quotas of delivery for Corporate Citys - my CG dealer is slotted to get 1 CE every month. January's CE was delivered, and my CE is coming in February.

The reason for choosing white and silver for the Corporate is because these two colors are easily the most popular for the City and body paint is readily available and in stock. More exclusive colors for the other variants (particularly the Sparkling Brown Metallic & Carnelian Red Pearl) will be made strictly on getting orders/bookings for the same. Prospective City hunters for these two colors can find deliveries stretching for a length of time for them (expect anywhere between 3-4 months).


All in all, a great experience. I am glad I booked the Corporate about a month back, and all set to take delivery of my car next month.

[drmohitg]

Why couldn't Honda also launch the corp edition is beige interiors. Why the departure from that to black? Many people prefer black but an equal number if not more prefer beige. With the beige as an option I think this corp edition had everything in it to kill away the competition atleast in Petrol cars.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Why couldn't Honda also launch the corp edition is beige interiors. Why the departure from that to black? Many people prefer black but an equal number if not more prefer beige. With the beige as an option I think this corp edition had everything in it to kill away the competition atleast in Petrol cars.

CE + Beige interiors = EMT.

You don't expect Honda to have a variant each for every feature like beige interiors, turn indicator on OVRMs, alloys, fog lamps etc, do you?

No car can have the kind of comprehensive variant list as the current City, which extends from the frugal CE to the premium VMT (with optional Sun-roof).

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

CE + Beige interiors = EMT.

You don't expect Honda to have a variant each for every feature like beige interiors, turn indicator on OVRMs, alloys, fog lamps etc, do you?

No car can have the kind of comprehensive variant list as the current City, which extends from the frugal CE to the premium VMT (with optional Sun-roof).

You mean to say beige interiors would have costed them more? Infact it would have costed less since they share the same interior scheme across the model range. E MT gets little extra tid bits like alloy, ICE, speakers etc. And hence according to me becomes less VFM. People are going crazy after the City only because the CE is such extreme VFM product. I myself would have gone for it if not for the black interiors.

For all I care they could have skipped one variant. The E MT could have started at 6.99 with the exact specifications of the CE.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

You mean to say beige interiors would have costed them more? Infact it would have costed less since they share the same interior scheme across the model range. E MT gets little extra tid bits like alloy, ICE, speakers etc. And hence according to me becomes less VFM. People are going crazy after the City only because the CE is such extreme VFM product. I myself would have gone for it if not for the black interiors.

EMT gets just the music system and beige interiors over the CE (and other bits like a l'il chrome here and mud flaps).

Alloys start SMT onwards.

That's exactly what I'm saying : each variant needs to be significantly different from each other. If CE would have beige interiors too, what does EMT do?! No point having a variant above CE just for the music system.

Instead Honda has smartly created a wide offering for various tastes.

[RavenAvi]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

You mean to say beige interiors would have costed them more? Infact it would have costed less since they share the same interior scheme across the model range. E MT gets little extra tid bits like alloy, ICE, speakers etc. And hence according to me becomes less VFM. People are going crazy after the City only because the CE is such extreme VFM product. I myself would have gone for it if not for the black interiors.

For all I care they could have skipped one variant. The E MT could have started at 6.99 with the exact specifications of the CE.

No alloys on the E MT, doc saab. What the E MT gets over the Corporate are :-

- Body-colored ORVMs and door handles.

- Mud guards. (yes, they are absent in the Corporate!)

- Beige interiors.

- Silver AC knobs.

- Integrated HU with front door speakers.


And the difference in pricing is around ~73K, which according to me is a bit steep. I agree, beige interiors could have saved them a lot of hassle across variants but interiors would have looked the same across the range (and hence monotonous), so to make the Corporate a little bit different they have carried over the Jazz X's blue-black interiors into the City. And TBH the blue-black doesn't look or feel cheap at all - if anything it looks better than the beige in the E MT.

If you ask me, the best VFM offerings in the City range are the Corporate and the S MT, which is priced the same as the older variant's S MT and you get alloys as an additional feature.

My take on City's range:-

Corporate - VFM,

E MT - overpriced by at least 20K.

S MT - VFM,

V MT - overpriced by at least 10K.

V AT - overpriced by at least 10K.

V Sunroof - overpriced by at least 20K.

[drmohitg]

Well I am just saying that they could have kept all the other differences except the interiors. As you rightly said the E MT is no longer VFM. The S MT is but then for that money you can easily get into diesel sedan territory. The CE wins in this respect since its a cool 2+L cheaper then lets say a Vento even after an awesome ICE and Alloys from the aftermarket. Only if I could also get beige in there.

[RavenAvi]

The new City TVC -

[PhX]

Personally, I think it's a useless ad, intellectually. But they have successfully highlighted the key changes in the car--opening scene shows the chrome grill. They also showed off the indicators on ORVMs and the sun-roof. Didn't show off the alloys or the cool new blue interiors, though, which is a miss.

The ad itself--meh. Doesn't go with the tag-line. What's exceptional about an idiot who dresses like he's about to go play golf when the voice-over lady is complaining about his "meetings meetings meetings"? What's exceptional about suddenly remembering that you have a wife on the balcony? Hmmm...sorry for the negativity guys...I might just be in a foul mood this morning.

[PhX]

I went to the showroom today to take a look at an untouched silver CE. Here's the album:

City CE Silver - Imgur

And apologies for the picture quality, I don't have a camera so I had to use my phone, and in the low light of the showroom, picture quality wasn't great.

[libranof1987]

Fellas, I had a close look at the '12 City today. I checked out EMT and VMT so can say this about them for sure.

The centre console has a diff. finish; and it is much much better. It is slightly more greyish and has a matt finish.

The one on the '08 console can look slightly over-the-top but the one on the '12 version looks perfect.

And I'm guessing it should be the same for that strip on the doors (which was the same type as the centre console). That is only SMT onwards so can't confirm.

[sahilm]

Hello all and hope my message find you in good health and spirit today.
My name is Sahil and I live in New Delhi .
for a little background - I am 40 :( and have been using a Esteem VX for the past 10 years clocking 90k till now , I have put in a lot of stuff in the esteem and really don't want to sell it. But I think everything has a time and life .

A few things in the Esteem are :
100 sqf of Dynamat in the entire car (I covered each and every corner of the car including the roof , floor , doors , under the bonnet and every imaginable place ) , vkool , pioneer head -unit ( ipod compatable ) with Boston acoustic front and sound stream tarintulla rear speakers and sub , the amps are infinity 4 channel and 2 channel respectively , alloys 13 inch with 175 michelin tires . parrot bluetooth handsfree and hid lights for main and fog lamps . Custom made seat covers , bracketless wipers , outside and inside wireless temp display , and a sanden 507 compressor for better cooling are a few things i can remember atm .
I would also like to mention here , my mom has a i10 auto and my wife a Santro . I have lately found myself driving the auto i 10 ALL the time and have pretty much given my mom the esteem with the driver to drive her around .

Well my mom and wife are sick of the Esteem now and want me to change the car ( it has started looking shabby and the engine is also kinda sluggish ) the A/C even with the vkool and the sanden 507 is not upto the mark in the Delhi summers as my car is parked under NO shade .
So i have decided to sell the Esteem and get me a new car .

NOW : ... my choices to buy a new car are the Honda City v-at or the Hyundai Verna fluidic auto petrol .
I have driven the Honda a few times and thought it was okay , I also test drove the Verna a few times and love the car, all said the Honda has a known for engine and is a reliable car whereas the Hyundai is fully loaded and really very comfy .

My question of main concern is the A/C ! Would any of you please be kind enough to throw some light on how the cooling of the honda city is ! I really could not make out the cooling of the car as its winters here in delhi and any A/C in this weather will cool regardless .

I hope to hear from some of you previous owners of the ANHC .
wishing you well
warm regards
Sahil .

[vinod332002]

Originally Posted by sahilm

Hello all and hope my message find you in good health and spirit today.
My name is Sahil and I live in New Delhi .
for a little background - I am 40 :( and have been using a Esteem VX for the past 10 years clocking 90k till now , I have put in a lot of stuff in the esteem and really don't want to sell it. But I think everything has a time and life .
......
......
I hope to hear from some of you previous owners of the ANHC .
wishing you well
warm regards
Sahil .

Youve pretty much done everytiing one can do with an esteem with yours. Good to read
I own a pre facelift Honda City with VKool all around and even in January, Mumbai weather I find myself keeping the AC on max with blower at 1; the AC unit on the city is not a best in class, IMHO.
Id read elsewhere in the forum that the city's AC is like the i10 at best in terms of cooling efficiency (sorry can't find the post)
If I may ask, what are your other considerations (apart from AC) Will the new car also be chauffeur driven fpr your mom or do you intend to drive it yourself?

[sahilm]

Dear Vinod , a good day to you and to start with I thank you for your reply .
The car would be mostly driven by me or by the driver with me sitting besides him .
mom is happy with a small car ie: the i10 auto , and would be seldom using the honda / verna .
Honestly i found the verna way more comfy to drive with a better suspension over bumps and potholes in delhi .
i have heard of the verna having a " whale like " suspension on high speeds , but my usage is only in town and i never find myself going over speeds of about 60-80 kmph and my travel is only about 500-700 km per month .

all advice & suggestions are welcome and i thank you all in advance for them
wishing you well
warm regards
Sahil .

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by sahilm

My question of main concern is the A/C ! Would any of you please be kind enough to throw some light on how the cooling of the honda city is ! I really could not make out the cooling of the car as its winters here in delhi and any A/C in this weather will cool regardless .

Well, I have a '08 City SMT in Gurgaon and the a/c works very well.

My car doesn't have tints at all and yet the cooling is very decent even in peak summer. At the most, you'd need blower 2 for some time but after a while, even blower 1 does the trick.

A/c should not be a worry in City.