[neeraj0272]

Looking at the photos and videos available online, Amaze is a clear winner in the looks department over Dzire.
Front grill reminds me of MG Astor and the front Chrome strip which is also present in City
gives it a distinct and premium look.

Similarly the back of Amaze gives more vibes of a full length sedan rather than the flattened backs of previous gen Amaze and latest Dzire.

[raisonar]

Took test drive in Navi Mumbai. I liked the car and features are really vfm. Blind side camera on the left is a really good feature among others.

However, I felt it was a very odd decision to launch the car in December. Could have launched a month early or a month late.

[volkman10]

All about the looks: Amaze Vs Dzire









Link:

[petrocarb]

Originally Posted by volkman10

All about the looks: Amaze Vs Dzire

[/url]

I'd definitely prefer amaze on the looks. Specially because it's a less busy.

[Cachejoe]

Greetings fellow BHPians,

I am new to the community and have decided to write my experience of car hunting and why I eventually ended up booking New Honda Amaze. This is a long post so bear with me as I want to share as much as I can about my experience. Also this post is without many pictures , so apologies to anyone who likes pictures.

Before coming to the point, let me preface by giving you all little bit of car history of mine.
I have been raised in home with several automobiles around all time , making me subconsciously admire the mechanics and fostering love for driving even before I became eligible to get a driving license and actually drove.

My father owns a stone crusher business and thereby multiple trucks, tractors , JCB's. Growing up as a child , I always loved my the Mahindra Marshal (1998) that my dad had for the purpose of visiting sites. He sold it after a few years as people back then would keep on borrowing the Marshal for attending their family businesses and weddings owing to it's seating capacity and never return it well. After a couple years, owing to
family needs and Mom's insistence my family bought a Maruti Suzuki Alto (2003).

Although I never drove before acquiring my license, I loved to observe driver and ask a lot of questions about how cars work. Thankfully my parents would always answer my queries and never dissuade me from asking questions. My mom also learnt to drive which was a big thing back in 2004 in my small town and she still drives the Alto for her town trips. (Kudos to Maruti Suzuki for making car that is lasting 20+ years now)

Playing video games of Car racing (NFS Most Wanted mostly) only boosted my love for cars.

Once I came of age , I wasted no time to get learning licence and started practicing on my dad's newly acquired pre-owned Mahindra Major (1997 model). With only three gears and hard as nut pedals combined with non power steering which required all my strength to turn, I absolutely loved the feeling it gave me while driving with it's limited driving capabilities albeit with a really powerful DI engine. It was humbling experience and I am grateful I got to learn on such a beast because it made me confident of handling any vehicle that came after it.

Soon enough, I shifted to Alto once I was confident and fell in love with it's nimble handling, smoother gears (compared to Major) and acceleration.

Pretty soon I acquired my permanent Driving Licence and started taking every chance I had to drive the Alto.
Growing up later in college life away from my small town in Nagpur, I got quite a bit opportunities to drive various cars. One of which I drove most was my well off female bestie's BMW X1. Owing to her reluctance to drive , I did drive it a lot hanging out with her.

I have driven around 25+ cars since I started driving and for both long and short tours. Longest I have driven was a Ford Figo Blu for around 700+ kms taking around 10 hours.

I got married around 3 years back and although I never really felt the need in the city (Nagpur) I was in to have a car, I would always think of maybe owning one especially whenever I had to travel to my hometown which is around 250 kms away.

I decided to visit Tata Showroom with my wife on a whim last year when new Nexon was launched and took a test drive. I also liked the car and paid a booking amount of ₹.10,000. Once back home, I somehow felt in a few days that it was an impulsive decision and maybe I should wait for new car. Therefore I dropped my plan.

Skip to a year later and we were blessed with a baby girl. With baby on the way, I had already started thinking again of finally getting a car for the family now that with baby responsibilities it would be quite necessary.

I had several criterias for the car

1. It must be safe.
2. It must be smooth and convenient to drive.
3. It should have all common basic and advanced features except sunroof as I genuinely feel sunroof is a gimmicky at best and a headache at worst.
4. It should be suitable for both City and Highway drives.
5. It should be reliable.
6. It should be priced below 15 lakhs on road.
7. It should be ICE and not EV as range anxiety is real.
8. It should be petrol as my car won't be driven very extensively and power was not my first criteria but rather a good cruiser.

As I wanted it to be suitable for city , all 4+ meter cars were out of question as they are quite difficult to park in tight spaces and not so much fun to drive in traffic.

I also didn't want a brand that was new or not very well established.
Thinking of all the criterion , I shortlisted on several options

1. Tata Curvv
2. Tata Nexon
3. Mahindra XUV 3XO


I was swept with the looks of Curvv that was flooding all my social media and thought how amazing it would be to drive such a sporty car which would make everyone turn their heads. Although it was longer than 4 meters , I had impression that I could make it work.

Therefore I decided to visit Tata Showroom (Jaika Motors, Nagpur). Although the salesman was warm and inviting, he somehow looked more interested in selling me and pushing for Tata Nexon stating various advantages and benefits of Nexon over Curvv. I nonetheless had a look at Curvv and in my opinion it was quite dull in person compared to in photos. The dimensions just looked awful with quite an awkward design. Seating in driver seat, I checked the blind spots , the A-pillar was thick , the tiny back window didn't allow for a good view from IRVM. On test ride, I felt the car was underpowered for the body it had. Sort of like a muscular body builder with a weak heart. The NVT levels were at an acceptable level but the car handling felt bouncy at best and downright unstable in some patches of the road.


I decided to test ride the Nexon next , the dealership said they didn't have a petrol test ride mule available so I had to test ride the CNG version of Nexon by switching it to petrol mode. It was lacking the usual sport, city and eco mode knob that is offered in other Nexons.
Nexon was a good ride, well proportioned, a looker and definitely one of the well balanced packages in the market. I felt the low end torque was not as good because there was considerable turbo lag. All in all, the car felt like a good option.
As I was buying for my family , I wanted the car to be liked by my family as well. So telling the dealership i would visit again with family, I took my leave.

My dad being a Mahindra loyalist insisted me upon test riding 3XO as he was impressed by one bought by one of his friends. So I also visited the Mahindra Showroom in Nagpur (Unnati Motors) . The saleswoman was really nice and seemed to know what they were selling. However, again they didn't have 3XO petrol test mule. She offered to get a diesel test ride to make my assessment. I drove the AX5 diesel manual variant and it seemed to do well. But for me , the engine seemed to be a bit noisy. I was told the petrol variant is less noisier. I found the boot space of the 3XO quite small on a cursory look. The vehicle does look better than in photos but the fit and finish problems were quite evident even if small. With mixed opinions , I left the showroom.

Next I decided to visit the Maruti Showroom just because of the launch invitation of the Dzire sent out by local Maruti dealership . Props to the digital marketing team of Maruti Suzuki for finding out and following up the potential customer who hadn't even searched for their vehicle. It helps understand one of the reason why they hold the largest share of the market.




After driving 3xo and Nexon in single day the Dzire felt quite underpowered and laggard in terms of the torque. I had earlier driven older dzire which was a nice experience and subconsciously I couldn't help but feel this one was clearly underpowered than that one. Some positive points were beautiful design, 360 camera , Sunroof (which I found odd being forced upon anyone wanting to go for higher trims) . The Maruti salesman also showed me Brezza but I never liked the car much so I didn't test ride it.

A couple days later, Honda Dealership (Aryodaya Motors, Nagpur) called me and asked if I was interested in any car of theirs. I have always been smitten by Honda City and they told me they have good offers that will help me keep my budget under 15 lakhs. They also offered to come to my home to offer the test ride. In set time, a salesman with his supervisor did come to my place. It was V variant of Honda City in Silver color.





Driving the city was a breeze , I still think City is the best 4+ meter Sedan in Indian market which doesn't get enough credit. It's smooth, it's punchy and it's iVtec engine is a delight to rev and drive. However, I felt the car was a bit too long for my needs and the anxiety of scraping off the underbody or bumpers in city traffic was very real. I still was very much feeling gravitating towards the City but torn over the decision.

After a few days , my mother and father visited the town and I decided to take them for car exploring. We first went to the Mahindra Showroom. The saleswoman I met earlier was there and cordially invited us. However this time, a petrol model was available but not in the manual transmission. So we decided to test drive the AMT variant of petrol. I hadn't driven automatics much before so I thought to give it a shot and see how convenient it can be.
AMT , although infamous for jerky shifts between gears, it felt quite convenient test driving around the city and I liked the convenience but nothing to shift me to the automatic yet. 3xo felt alright to my parents too and we decided to go visit the Tata Showroom next. We test drove the Nexon and found it to be much more refined than the 3XO.

Next we reached the Tata Showroom , the salesman was again welcoming but seemed least interested in showing around again. We had a look at the Nexon , it felt better than the 3xo in terms of seating arrangement and overall quality. Test drive again wasn't possible as the petrol model was not there so we again had to take test ride in the diesel manual model. It was smooth. The dash however raised some questions , with touch controls and a lot of glossy finish, it seemed to be inviting for scratches sooner or later. It also didn't feel like very reliable or lasting. The buttons felt flimsy. There were some very visible panel gaps hampering our confidence in the vehicle. Regardless the drive felt confident and smooth and there were not much to complain. Road handling was also really confidence inspiring. The showroom also offered us quite lucrative end of year offers slashing almost 60000 off the on road price.

My decision was almost made at this point to go with the Nexon just when my phone rang and the Honda Salesman excitedly asked me whether I would like to explore the new Amaze which was due launch the next day (local dealership launch). So I along with mom and dad decided to just take a look at the new Amaze and see whether it was any good.
I was a little apprehensive about Amaze as the spy shots of the actual car didn't look as impressive as the renders and rather dull. On visiting the Honda showroom , we were told that we wouldn't be able to test ride the car as they were launching it later in the day but they welcomed us to their stockyard located on the same site as the showroom to take a look at the Car. It was in a blue color . To my surprise, while the car didn't look as good as the renders , it definitely wasn't as bad looking as the spy shots made it look. It felt very well proportioned and even though a lot of people may feel otherwise , I liked the amalgamation of Elevate in front and City in the Back.






The interiors were simple compared to other models I saw, nothing flashy but very well done with no panel gaps or haphazard job. It just looked right to me. Not overdone or underdone in any way. The back seat comfort was great and it was difficult to believe the leg space Honda had created in sub-4 metre sedan. The only niggle was fixed head rests. The driver and passenger seats were firm and comfortable too.
The salesman was quite enthusiastic and was going on about all the new additions in the car and the features of it, I asked for the test ride right away but I was let down by the response that the test ride won't be possible that same day because of the showroom launch. I was however invited to test ride the car the next day. Which I wasn't very happy about as it was quite far away from my home.

My parents liked this car as well and although there were some features that were missing compared to other ones such as 360 camera , Sunroof and other whistles and bells , we collectively felt that it was a sensible package. The ADAS was also a good addition. I felt the ADAS might be useful to me since most of my drives on the highway would be to my hometown which has a very good national highway connectivity with partial control-access due to forest areas adjoining .

That night I called my friend who owns a Tata Harrier to enquire about how the service was and if the online reports were true. He shared that his experience had been awful initially and average now with slow improvement over the three years. He also shared that there is a lot of internal "adjustment" that the service guy does in exchange for some money help him get good service but underquoting the bill by not mentioning the consumables . This felt like the last nail in the coffin for Tata , as I wasn't sure I could trust service guys that dupe their own employer with my car.

The next day , the Dealership called again to invite me for a test drive but as I was busy with work from home , I told them it won't be possible for me to visit the showroom that day. The salesman told me to hold on and sure enough in some time called to ask whether I will be open to test ride it if they bring it to my home.

I asked them to bring the top model zx, as it was the only one with ADAS with CVT transmission as I have had fair idea of driving Amaze manual which my cousin owned. I also wanted to compare it against the AMT of 3xo and check whether it was really better than it.

Once the car arrived, I noticed that it looked even better than it did in dimly lit stockroom . It looked quite spacious for a sub 4 meter sedan. Although the doors were not 90 degrees, ingress felt easy and simple.
The dashboard controls were smooth and physical with good tactile response. One would easily mistake it being an interior of a more expensive car.
I test drove it extensively . Contrary to the much feared rubber band effect , I felt the CVT to be very smooth and consistent. It's not that the rubber band effect was not there but it was very less pronounced. I drove it across the city and a longish highway to get the highway feel. The engine seemed to smoothly respond, the NVT were non-existent. The ADAS feature such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure mitigation , lane departure warning all worked flawlessly.

Now the real test of any sedan in India was to check it's effectiveness against rough , uneven roads. I knew just the road under construction for the job. I confirmed with the salesman whether we can try it and was met with confident "Yes Sir!"
I drove it across the road and also changed lanes with around 3 feet difference between two roads due to one being concretised and the other not . Not once did I touch the road with the underbelly. Honda seemed to have done their homework with Indian roads . With a sensible speed, any reasonable bump seemed to be possible to be crossed.

Going ahead, one aunty suddenly came in front of the car . The car braked with good enough power to stop the car even before I did but with enough distance to not make it feel like a sudden stop. Honda's collision mitigation had kicked in . I feel this feature should be closed in city traffic to avoid someone hitting you from back , one problem is that it's on by default on every restart of the car. Other than that , I was impressed by how well the ADAS had kicked in.
I also noticed the overall average on the vehicle MID was 18 which was impressive considering mixed conditions it had been driven into.

At this stage, I had changed my mind to go for the Amaze . There were several factors to it.

1. Smooth NA 4 cylinder iVtec Engine .
2. Smooth CVT transmission .
3. Considerably good mileage .
4. Super friendly and courteous Honda Dealership experience inspired confidence in their service quality.
5. ADAS was added bonus.

I switched from the Manual preference to Automatic since I am expecting my wife will also be driving who prefers automatic, and there will be a fair bit of city driving involved.

I called up my wife at this stage. I had kept it all under wraps for her as surprise as she was at her folks caring for our newborn and confirmed with her the about car by discussing all this in detail. The salesman patiently waited till our call was concluded.

I discussed with them that I would want January make and January registered car only. I am happy to wait for a month to have a new year on the RC. I was given the price breakup, paid the booking amount , provided photos of my documents and was given the welcome docket . I booked the Lunar Silver colour as I wanted a neutral color but white seemed very common on our Indian roads. Following is the price break-up given by the dealer for the car.

Now I am expecting my car to arrive by second week of January. I look forward to sharing my experience and detailed owner review once I get some miles on my new Amaze.

Let me know if you liked reading this experience. This is my first post on team-BHP , so any advice on improving the write up quality , anything that I might have missed is very welcome. Any questions you have about my experience, you can ask by replying to this post and I will try to get back as soon as possible.

Cheers!

[RNKars]

Originally Posted by Cachejoe

I felt the CVT to be very smooth and consistent. It's not that the rubber band effect was not there but it was very less pronounced. I drove it across the city and a longish highway to get the highway feel. The engine seemed to smoothly respond, the NVT were non-existent.

Cheers!

Thank you for sharing your experience in detail. Can you share about how the NVH were on this car compared to what was in other cars you test rode say City, Nexon and Dzire. I understand you might not have gotten enough time to really compare but it would be really helpful if you can recall that.

Regards

RK.

[Cachejoe]

Originally Posted by RNKars

Thank you for sharing your experience in detail. Can you share about how the NVH were on this car compared to what was in other cars you test rode say City, Nexon and Dzire. I understand you might not have gotten enough time to really compare but it would be really helpful if you can recall that.

Regards

RK.

Hi RK,

All the vehicles I drove had good enough levels of NVH , however they were all brand new vehicles so that's expected in terms of rattle and everything. 3XO had the most level of vibration and there was quite a bit engine noise creeping in the cabin. Nexon didn't have much vibrations but the engine sound was noticable. Dzire had typical Suzuki level vibration and noise, seems like they didn't work much in that department.
One notable thing was that the City i drove had 18k on odo but it was still the most silent. I think it has a lot to do with 3-cylinder and/or turbo.

Amaze, although not as smooth as City while driving was smoother than all the rest. I am counting on Honda Quality for NVH levels to remain reasonable in future. The best thing I liked was that I didn't even notice the engine starting in Amaze. This is despite engine hood not insulated.

[Sri0030]

In my POV, In Honda’s current lineup, only the 1.2 NA engine which is present in Amaze is known to be a refined unit (Since 1.5 ivtec has become noisier after updating it to DOHC). However the overall NVH, Fit-Finish, Material quality, Design & Quality levels are very poor compare to most of the other brands on sale today.

[Carma2017]

Just came back from a test drive of the New Amaze along with a friend. I liked the interior look and It's a good car overall but the NVH levels are somewhere between average and just about acceptable for a new car, when I compare it against the current segment incumbents including current and past hatchbacks. The NVH levels are no where close to my much cheaper Hyundai Grand i10. But then Hyundai cars have nearly always been best in class in India. But what shocked me was the squeaking noises from a brand new car. A Honda Kei Car (Cheapest ones in Japan) is much better built than the Amaze.

Disclaimer : I have not driven new Dzire. But i have driven the new Swift Hatchback with Z12 engine in India and Japan. The Japanese Swift is way noisier than the Indian one but is better built in my opinion. Friends tell me the Dzire has better NVH levels than Swift, hence my opinion. Buzz, Squeak and Rattle levels are much better in Swift, again as per my experience with the cars. The i20 is a wholly different beast and it blows away all competition. But then I kind of expect thar knowing that it's a Hyundai and more expensive.

[nuew]

We're on a similar quest to find the perfect car for home. We test drove several cars and the same cars came under the final consideration list. Mahindra 3XO, Honda Amaze, Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Tata Nexon and just yesterday, my brother came up with a curveball in the name of Curvv. One priority was the car should be really comfortable for the passengers, especially mom. So she has the final say on passenger comfort, while the rest of the things will be judged us and a friend who's an expert on all thing electrical and mechanical.

Amaze ticked almost all boxes at first, especially the best back seat among all. But as we live in a hill station, the driveability was bit of a problem considering the experience I had with my sister's Jazz with the same engine. The supremely refined engine lacked low end torque that could be a hassle in the ghat section that we often encounter. The ground clearance was bit of a concern as well.The lack of a full fledged service centre nearby and Honda's future in India were the other concerns. We intend to keep the car for at least decade. So didn't want to gamble.

Dzire didn't impress somehow especially after experiencing the refinement of Honda Amaze. The seats weren't as comfortable as well. Even the fuel efficiency figures or the 5 star safety rating didn't make it desirable. The 1 star safety earned by the Swift, based on the same platform, in the Australasian NCAP doesn't instill confidence as well.

The Nexon was ruled out owing to the crude petrol engine and lack of space for the tall bunch of folks that we are. Our last car was a Tata and the service experience wasn't great. The last time I went there, it was so crowded that we would have to leave the car out in rain and sun for 2-3 days to fix a rear axle issue which the SA mistakenly diagnosed as a gear box issue and was about to take apart the gearbox to find the problem. Fortunately, the Bosch service centre nearby fixed it in half a day with genuine parts. We had taken a test drive of an Altroz with 34k Kms on the odo and the engine felt very different from a new car which didn't inspire confidence.

The 3XO came out on top owing to many factors. It's based on an internationally sold bigger car, the Ssangyong Tivoli, with proven passive safety. It's very spacious with very mature ride and handling similar to cars from a segment above. Both the petrol engines are powerful and offers good driveability. The car has undergone many revisions in the past in the name of XUV 300 and most niggles are likely to be ironed out. The front and rear seats were really comfortable. The driveability and NVH of the petrol engine was found to be better than that of Nexon. The ground clearance is a boon on the unavoidable broken patches of our roads. We gunned the car over some broken roads and the suspension coped with it l impressively. The final test was the feedback on the nearby Mahindra service centre which came out to be really positive. The boot space was the only real problem which we think we can manage. My friend was so impressed with it that he's considering replacing his decade and a half old Swift Diesel with performance mods while he always has resisted the thought of letting go of that car.

Just yesterday, Tata dealership called with an offer on Curvv. My brother likes the look of it and is going to take a test drive. Although the offer is decent, it's less likely to go for it as it suffers from almost all flaws of Nexon and then some. As the vehicle will have to be reversed to a relatively narrow road getting out of the garage, the length could make it a bit of a hassle as well.

Now we're awaiting the confirmation on availability of 3XO in Citrine Yellow which was mom's pick among the colours which we liked as well as it's a rare colour in Indian cars. Fingers crossed..

[Bombastic]

Did you take a test drive of the Basalt? Especially since you like the Curvv, I think it would make a great alternative. The way it goes over bad roads must be experienced to be believed.

[samitjain]

Just took a look at new Amaze, I felt it’s more like a heavily modified facelift then actually all
new car. Both old and new were standing next to next and body panels are almost same. Rear parcel trays, boot etc are same except for lights. Doors except for the crease are also same

[ricky_speed]

Test drove the Amaze today and had the following observations:

1. Everything felt cheaper and lower quality compared to the 14y 9m old Jazz it is to replace. For example the indicator stalk felt so feeble in comparison that I was worried it might break (of course it won’t, just feels so in comparison).

2. My mother initially thought it was a taxi standing on the road and not the car we were supposed to test drive. The sub-4m sedan is a weird place to be and is set in our minds as a taxi given the prevalence of it.

3. The lack of automatic seat adjustment didn’t sit well with us for the top variant. My dad and I use very different seat heights and manually pumping it up or down felt like a difficult everyday task.

4. I am not very tall but my head almost touched the roof at the rear. Anybody who is near 6’ couldn’t possibly sit untwisted because of the lacking headroom. Also the seat headrests don’t adjust anyway.

5. The engine made a lot of noise even at low speeds below 20-30kmph. I couldn’t figure this as the Jazz also uses the same 1.2 vtec although ours is manual. Otherwise thanks to CVT there were absolutely no jerks.

6. I use ADAS on almost every drive on my Ioniq5, so I was excited to try it on Amaze. But the steering assist only activates in Amaze above 70kmph and we’ll hardly ever touch this speed as it’ll never go out on the highway. Also the dynamic cruise can be activated only above 30 and auto disengages at 25. In comparison, the Hyundai ADAS in Ioniq 5 can be activated at any speed for a desired speed of 30kmph or above, and continue to stay active until a few seconds after the vehicle halts. This makes the Hyundai ADAS usable in the city in stop and go traffic. Whereas the Honda ADAS is only suitable for the highway as it can’t support the stop and go workflow. This makes the ADAS useless if the car will be driven in the city only.

7. The lane watch camera is only for left side. But the camera is shown on the main screen, not on the drivers screen. So as long as my indicator is on, my maps will be invisible, making tricky intersections even trickier.

8. We reverse into our parking on a slight incline. Our current and previous automatic cars can reverse without any use of accelerator. But the Amaze stops half way. Any slight use of accelerator is met with a bit of engine growl and a rapid jerky moment that needs an immediate brake input. This problem might just be unique to our setup.

9. The windows are shorter in height than the Jazz. Looking out front from the back seat shows more roof and less front thanks to the limited height available in the cabin. The door mirrors seemed to only fold when engine was on, but I’m not sure if I was doing something wrong.

10. The boot unlocks and opens slightly with the remote, but not all the way. The luggage capacity felt very less compared to Jazz. But even a D-segment sedan couldn’t compete with the magic seats that Jazz comes with, so I’ll accept that!

11. Finally, the driver seat didn’t feel comfortable but that’s also somewhat of a problem with Jazz (in a different way).

On the positive side, loved the:

1. CVT and paddle shifts
2. Digital drivers speedometer
3. Spare wheel
4. The fact that it’s a Honda.

After having almost decided on Amaze before the test drive, now I’m left with a search for a new replacement for the wonderful Jazz, that I have to unfortunately let go despite it’s pristine condition, quality and features! Here’s wishing for more hatchbacks such as Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Yaris hatch, Golf or MG3 in India soon.

[Sri0030]

Originally Posted by ricky_speed

After having almost decided on Amaze before the test drive, now I’m left with a search for a new replacement for the wonderful Jazz, that I have to unfortunately let go despite it’s pristine condition, quality and features! Here’s wishing for more hatchbacks such as Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Yaris hatch, Golf or MG3 in India soon.

Why don't you consider the I20 Nline DCT ?

It ticks most of the boxes (features, performance, styling inside-out, NVH, comfort). I hope, It will be a great option for replacing your ageing jazz.

[ricky_speed]

Originally Posted by Sri0030

Why don't you consider the I20 Nline DCT ?

It ticks most of the boxes (features, performance, styling inside-out, NVH, comfort). I hope, It will be a great option for replacing your ageing jazz.

Yes that would be a great option except I already have an Hyundai (I5), so looking for a different brand to break the monotony.