[Venkatesh]

Honda Cars India has launched the City Elegant edition. Available with both, MT and CVT, based on the 'V' variant.

Gets a trunk spoiler, special badging and upholstery updates.

MT - Rs 12,57,400
CVT - Rs 13,82,400





Link

[broke_enthu27]

10k kms/Third free service update:

I clocked 10k in around 6 months and I am still happy with the car. The Goodyear tyres can be painfully delicate when driven over rough terrain. Be careful while driving among pointy rocks, got myself a sidewall tear that way.

Performance wise, I still enjoy redlining here and there. The downshift overtaking is so sporty and the acceleration at the lower gears lets you get away from a cluster quite quickly.

Mileage has gone up significantly after the second service. Even with a mix of heavy footed driving and light footed, I get a mileage of somewhere around 18.5 Km/lit. I have done half a dozen full tank to full tank highway runs between Hyderabad to Bangalore where I have constantly got 18.5 Km/lit with some enthusiastic driving.

I did a full tank Hyderabad city run and got about 13.2 Km/lit, which is more than my expectation. Drove the vehicle after the third service and she’s still smooth and lovely.

I did the Chikmagalur ghats and the western ghats Tadai uphill ghat and the car did the former quite effortlessly. But it doesn’t was quite unpredictable sometimes on the Tadai western ghat roads. You’re doing a steep uphill on 2nd gear at 25 Km/hr or less and suddenly the RPM goes above 4K/5k and the car pulls like possessed and you’re now doing 60. I slowed down by removing the foot off the gas because I was scared to apply breaks on steep uphill ghats. I had to downshift to the first gear sometimes when the curve and steepness were too much.

Overall, it’s done an exceptional job. Scraped at least half a dozen times in these 10000 kms but nothing too serious. Also Goodyear tyres have great dry and wet grips, great braking performance but they are not durable at all. So if you have a budget change them when new.

[Bikeroralsurgeo]

Buying decision and 5000km ownership experience of the 2023 facelift honda city ZX CVT

Greetings fellow BHPians,

I have been an avid reader of team BHP posts for the longest time. The Honda City thread has been instrumental in shaping my car buying decision and hope I can help a few other people on the fence.

I am a practicing Oral Surgeon and have to travel an average of 80kms a day through Pune City traffic. This amounts to 2500-3000km a month which makes reliability paramount. Another important factor is easy and smooth driving characteristics and low cost of ownership which were mandatory. Plus turnaround time has to be low as vehicle breakdowns and time spent in the workshop directly affect my work.

My previous vehicle was a Suzuki dzire VDI AMT. The car has been extremely reliable clocking in 140000km in 5 years with a mileage of 20kmpl in the city and 24kmpl on the highways. The new car bug had been bothering me for a while now, however I held on to the dzire. The final trigger to sell the car was a cement mixer which decided to cozy up to my car in a traffic jam. As fate would have it this is our third car in a row which has to be sold off because of cement mixers .




So finally a decision was made to buy a new car. Seeing the above mentioned requirements and my previous hassle free experience with a Japanese car, German cars were out of consideration . Also turbopetrols were out considering the apparently low fuel economy and reliability issues. Also the fact that the car would be driven by drivers with lead feet drove me away from turbopetrol engines. Diesels were out of the consideration as diesels with good transmission were above my budget of Rs. 20 lac. Also all diesel options were pretend SUVs (read midsize SUVs) which is a segment I absolutely dislike. So all these factors considered we had to buy a reliable , economical , automatic petrol sedan.

Cars considered - 2023 facelift Honda City and the new Hyundai Verna

So this narrowed the choice to these two cars particularly their NA CVT variants. I had read a lot of posts on Team BHP about lifeless ,linear, boring albeit smooth, reliable and economical driving dynamics of this engine transmission combo. This actually fit my requirements perfectly as I do not rely on my car for satisfying my need for Speed. For those purposes I have another Japanese steed which no car in this price point can ever match



One fine Sunday my wife and I decided to go to the mall and on the way check out both the city and the Verna.
On test driving the city CVT both of us loved the car and booked a meteoroid grey ZX CVT right away. The VX is no longer the VFM variant that it used to be with notable omission of leather steering wrap, the dashboard fabric insert, leather gear lever and also smaller tyres asking with many of the premium looking garnishes inside which used to be present in the pre facelift VX. Received a very good price for my dzire as diesels are now discontinued and the car is very much in demand. Also received a discount of Rs. 88000 on the new vehicle, things simply seemed to fall into place and we went ahead with the booking. The slimming down of the ugly chrome bar, the faux carbon inserts and the rear spoiler have made a timeless look even more elegant. We did not even bother to check the Verna as we anyways did not like the clamshell look much. Delivery was promised within a week on my wife's birthday.

Delivery was done as promised on my wife's Birthday. The process was pretty smooth and included a small birthday celebration.



Likes

1. super smooth engine and transmission combination
2. soft suspension which absorbs most of the bumps
3. powerful air con unit with physical buttons
4. ZX seats are plush and feel from a segment above
5. auto dimming lights and auto wipers work great
6. amazing mileage - I have achieved 12.5-13 in City, got 20kmpl upto kognoli from Pune and 18.5 cumulative on my Goa trip with the AC on at all times( checked on fuelio with a 0.2kmpl discrepancy from the MID)
7. tons of space inside especially the rear seat
8. adequate power on tap and good handling especially coming from a dzire

Dislikes

1. very poor sound insulation - you can hear the suspension working every time. Also gravel bouncing around in the wheel wells make a lot of noise which takes some getting used to
2. engine noise on highways which is again due to poor sound insulation
3. skinny tyres which are an eyesore but otherwise perform fine in my opinion
4. the screen which is barely visible in direct sunlight and poor reverse camera
5. the auto wiper can be overzealous at times
6. The headlamp throw and spread is just adequate

ADAS needs a special mention in this write-up. The initial euphoria around it has long gone and has become more of an annoyance. The lane keep assist works fine. Adaptive cruise control appears way too sensitive and brakes as well as accelerates very aggressively. The CMBS feels absolutely unnecessary wherein it brakes aggressively at the smallest of intrusions. I have been rear ended twice by unsuspecting two wheelers and a rickshaw. The faux carbon inserts have managed to protect the bumper paint in all three instances. Makes you wonder whether that is what they were designed for. CMBS has to be turned off manually every time the car is restarted. I am planning on taping up the ADAS camera to turn off the CMBS for good.

My inference is that Japanese brands are masters at shameless cost cutting wherein they don't even try to hide it. The exposed wiring in the wheel wells made my mother wonder if we had received a defective piece at the time of delivery. The inside panels even though they appear well put together flex at the slightest pressure. Sheet metal is quite thin and flexes on pressing. Though a cars safety comes from is chassis, some heft in the body panels induces confidence in customers and is a feel good factor.

All in all I am happy with the purchase as it is a no nonsense car which has got ask the fundamentals right and it ticks all the right boxes for me.

Pictures from my trip back from Goa via the lovely anuskura Ghat. On the way to Goa from pune via the usual amboli route there's a 40km patch with non existent roads. However I'm happy to report that there were no rattles or squeaks.

[SeshSrini]

Nice write up Doctor. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Wishing many more Happy miles ahead. Meanwhile did you try improving the headlight throw? If yes, please share a few thoughts on the same. I haven't tried with mine worrying about negating any warranty issues.

[jordanrudess]

Congratulations on your new City and wish you a happy motoring ahead.

Have you faced any issue with the wireless android auto connection ?

[Bikeroralsurgeo]

Originally Posted by SeshSrini

Meanwhile did you try improving the headlight throw? If yes, please share a few thoughts on the same. I haven't tried with mine worrying about negating any warranty issues.

Thank you @SeshSrini . I haven't yet though I'm planning on it. I recently saw a friend's harrier fitted out with superbright LED bulbs in place of the regular fog lamp bulbs. They provide excellent throw and spread, shall be very useful for highway driving.

[Bikeroralsurgeo]

Originally Posted by jordanrudess

Have you faced any issue with the wireless android auto connection ?

Thank you @jordanrudess Thank you sir. I have used both apple car play as well as Android auto. I have felt Android auto to be very primitive, buggy, takes a lot of time to start and disconnects occasionally. Apple car play on the other hand starts immediately, is very neatly laid out and does not disconnect.

[jordanrudess]

Upgraded from the Maruti Ciaz to the Honda City facelift: Ownership review

We purchased the new Honda City 2023 facelift in August 2023. It's been an amazing 2 months with the car and I am really excited to share our story with the team-bhp community!

Background:
We had purchased the Maruti Ciaz ZDI+ SHVS (1.3 Diesel, Manual Transmission) in the April 2016 and it clocked 85000 km in July 2023. We had a great experience with the Ciaz and the vehicle was in mint condition (all services done regularly at ASCs). Following are the reasons we decided to upgrade:

• Need for an automatic transmission given the traffic/road condition in India

• Need for better ride quality since parents are senior citizens now

• Wanted to try a different brand than Maruti (We had the 800, Zen, Swift Dzire before)

• Given that we had the Ciaz for 7 years, we wanted to sell off the Diesel car before the resale value for Diesels go down

Test drive and buying decision
Performance was not a concern for us, we were just looking for a comfortable, efficient and reliable car. We had planned to test drive the Honda City and Hyundai Verna, but as soon as we took the test drive for City it seemed like the car was already ticking all the boxes. Looks of the Verna was polarizing and Honda's proven 1.5 Petrol seemed a better bet than Verna. We booked the City in the first week of July 2023 and delivery was promised in about 2 weeks. Eventually we got the car on Aug 24th and that was a very happy day for all of us in the family!

Variant : V - CVT
Colour : Lunar Silver Metallic

Updates as of Nov 2023:

• Got the 1st service done and clocked 2800 km so far
• Ride quality is phenomenal in both front and back seats, absorbs road irregularities seamlessly
• FE City : 14 to 15 kmpl, Highway : 17 - 18 kmpl
• CVT is butter smooth and the 1.5L engine seems adequately powered to mask the rubber band effect as much as possible
• Honda should have provided Auto Dimming IRVM given that we have Auto Headlamps and various other features in the V trim (Ciaz had it )
• ADAS works without failure but braking is a bit too hard for our liking
• Adaptive Cruise Control comes really handy in various situations
• City is the longest in the segment and has lowest ground clearance so it's expected that we scrap the bottom once in a while, but this has not been a serious concern as yet.

So far so good, will keep adding more details to this thread in future!

Few pics from the showroom:

[halbrand]

Upgraded from my Baleno to City in June 2023- my reason to buy (part 1 of my review)

The Maruti Baleno was our first car that we bought in Dec 2016 (Delta, Manual). My wife and I both loved our Baleno as it ticked everything we wanted - a good first car, insane mileage (I am a sedate driver who enjoys slow driving!), was compact enough to park in the city, and easy to handle in the twisty turn ghats/roads of Kerala where we live, and we've done several road trips in the car together. Fast forward a few years, and our family is now a family of 3! In addition, I have had a sports injury in my left knee that's been troubling me for 3 years, so was contemplating a change to automatic. Then, we had an accident in December 2022 when wife and kid were at the backseat, and an auto driver decided to check how much he can get away by driving on the opposite side of the road. The auto driver crossed the median line, came on wrong side, hit a Maruti car ahead of me, and I realised he was about to hit me, and me being a slow defensive driver, by nature (was driving around 30 kmph), almost halted the vehicle that saved all of us. He hit us head on. Thankfully no impact on anyone inside, and no scratch on the auto. But, the front side of our Baleno was crushed on that small impact. That was the point that I decided enough is enough. Requirement for Automatic, and the concern of safety (now we drive more often, and there's a child with us) meant I began to look out starting January 2023.

The search process:

I was a total noob in cars (I don't think I test drove any other car apart from Baleno in 2016) a year ago. But spent the next few months reading reading and reading (mostly here on team bhp). That's when I realised that the more you know, the more trouble the process is!

My requirements - a safe car, with a proper AT, and 6 airbags.

I began with eliminating what I didn't want - so test drove the Baleno AMT. The new Baleno surprisingly is built better than the old one. I could feel the difference in the build quality when I test drove. But, the AMT was a total turn off - it jerked like crazy (We live on a small hill), and I stopped my TD half way and sent the car back.

Toyota - I had a bad experience with Toyota (at least here at Kozhikode). While TD Baleno, I had called Toyota also to check the Glanza. There was one disinterested call back from the dealer, and no follow up post then. I got angry at this much lack of customer service, and decided to skip Toyota - which meant I skipped Hyrider totally.

At this time, a friend/colleague who was also upgrading his car had gone through the same disease of mad reading and car search. He bought the Breeza finally. One of the days, one of the three Maruti dealers came to our place with all the three CSUVs - Fronx, Breeza, and GV. Fronx was the car I was so eager to TD. I really liked Fronx - from design to the turbo AT engine. But the pricing was a big let down. I bought my old manual delta baleno for 7 on road, and I wasn't prepared to pay double for a Baleno RS version on heels. I loved the Brezza actually - the build was surprisingly good, and the engine plus TC AT was buttery smooth in an atypical Suzuki combination. As I am aware that GV is just Brezza engine, with similar interiors and just extra boot (plus the design diff), I didn't even bother TD GV. I had also zeroed in on Brezza. What really put me off was two things: 1. My 6 airbag requirement meant it was only available at top end, and I felt this was cheap from Maruti to save safety for the top end, and this ended up coming to 17 LPA on road, and truth be told, I wasn't prepared to pay so much and buy "only" a Maruti. 2. The attitude of all dealers - take it or leave it, we have so many waiting to buy our cars, and the waiting list is huge. I felt the arrogance was going OTT. As much as I liked Breeza I gave it a skip.

Other cars I considered - Renault Kiger, Nissan Magnite, VAG CSUVs. I totally skipped Hyundai because I personally prefer Maruti over Hyundai and given I am going away from Maruti for better, Hyundai for me was a no go (also my folks have a Santro, so I have experience with their cars). I TD the Magnite, was genuinely a good car. Have no complaints about Magnite. But the fear of service of Renault/Nissan was the driving force to move away. VAG cars - I was annoyed at their pricing, and also the stories of reliability issue plus service issues put me off.

That brings me to Honda - at the time of inquiry, Honda hadn't launched Elevate, and there was Amaze and City. My experience with the dealer was great - within a day the dealer arrived with Amaze, the car I liked. I loved everything about the Amaze CVT. It handled the mountain terrains very well for a 1.2L engine. Was a great compact sedan. I had one issue - at an on road price of close to 10.5, I personally felt Honda's treatment of Indian buyers was bad - wireless car play and 6 airbags missing! I felt at least these were non negotiable to me. The sales rep requested me to try City once. And I did try the City next day. Loved everything about the City which btw for a 90s kid like me was a dream car! I grew up in India watching the Honda City and feeling it was a royalty!!! The moment I opened the door I knew the quality upgrade from my Baleno - the build was superb, and the engine plus CVT buttery smooth on my mountain terrain. I was still on the ropes. My wife was not keen to spend so much (the on road price of City was 16.52 at the time I bought it). But I was sold by then.

So, in May, I began the process (Honda was hiking prices starting 1 June) of sale. I sold my Baleno to Honda dealer where I took small hair cut compared to cars 24 (who were willing to pay unto 5 after their commission), but in exchange they let me pay for City via CC (at least 50% of the remaining price). The credit card points and the conversion of points more than made up for the hair cut I took for choosing Honda against cars24. The new city facelift just launched then, and even then dealer gave me a 35k discount. I am not a good negotiator and took what I got. I wanted a car immediately, and the dealer had the new obsidian blue (that looked stunning) in inventory in their manappuram godown. Dealer asked me if it's fine they can drive it for about 50-60km and deliver here as they didn't have docking facilities nearby, and I was fine with it. The car came next day after I paid the cash. It took a week to finish the RTO formalities but I took the car with number plate and a 65km on ODO of which 60km was the drive between the two cities.

Will continue my review in part 2!