[oss]

Hey, ANHC is on display at Chennai for a day cheers:

I am off to the dealer to have a look; let me come back and update my comments.

[vinayvtec]

Hey Team, I have received a invite from Capital Honda to attend the premier launch of the New Honda City which is held on 2nd and 3rd of October.

Our Chennai BHPian’s can go and check out the launch if you like to, I wish I was in Chennai now. I got a call yestarday and they even SMS’d me.

Address : 18, G.S.T ROAD, OPP. AIRPORT CARGO COMPLEX ,MEENAMBAKKAM, Pincode - 600027

If any BHPian is going then please get some photos and also write how the car looks in real.

[scorp 1]

For a complete review :
Wheels Weekly: Honda City launched in Thailand today! - Wheels Weekly Mega Preview

Just look at the Modulo City. Awesomely done.

The only thing that doesn't looks great on the ANHC is the new grille. Modulo has done wonders to it. Take a look!

V6984209-67.jpg (image)
V6984209-59.jpg (image)

[oss]

Here is what i felt after a close look at the car in person:

The exterior design is absolutely brilliant, and looks like a mini Civic infact. However with the increased length and wheelbase, the width of the car appears to be too small compared to the earlier version (though on paper it has increased by 5 mm)

The front grill didn't appear to be as bad as i expected it to be. It kind of fit in well with the rest of the bonnet. However, the extended front overhang, and the drooping fender are worrisome, that it looks like it will hit every speedbraker on the road. To keep up with the arrowshot design, the front overhang is drooping downwards dangerously. Keeping the Indian road conditions in mind, i think Honda should have redesigned the front fender atleast

Nothing much to talk about the interiors. So much has been talked about the Civic dashboard, that i think Honda has decided to just focus on the instrument cluster and ignore the rest of the dashboard and interiors. They are pretty ordinary to say the least, and the fabric seat was pathetic in terms of look and feel.

From comfort point of view it is a different story altogether. The front & rear seats are really really comfortable, and the leg room is marvellous. Having said that this is not a car for 5 people; the middle portion of the rear seat is strictly for using the armrest and not recommended for seating

Missing parts are, no fog lamps (not even in the front), no temperature indicator (except a red lamp that will blink when the engine heats up a lot), no remote boot release, just one trip meter, and ofcourse, no automatic CC, no CD player, no electrically folding mirrors, no alloys, no rear disc brakes.

One intriguing thing is the fuel lid is opened by a push mechanism, so any one can open it. In Indian situations, wouldn't it lead to petrol theft when parked outside at night

Need to wait till mid-Oct to lay hands on a test drive vehicle. But my first impressions is, Is the car worth the money one pays for????? A big big question mark for now. Just for a a sleek exterior design and for lack of worthy competition in this segment, they can't charge a price close to the D-segment cars

[jesal]

after 6 months they will come out with rims and fogs and the stuff. same thing happened to me. i bought a new zx right in jan when it was launched, months later they kept adding and i had to pay for all those additions in these 3 years. finally got rims for 10k haha..

[johy]

I read the ACI review on the City...and Hormazd did mention that, and I quote

"all you need to get is a fancy set of alloys, which are not standard and get fatter rubber too."

Now what should be an idea upgrade for the tires?

[mayjay]

Originally Posted by oss

Here is what i felt after a close look at the car in person:

Missing parts are, no fog lamps (not even in the front), no temperature indicator (except a red lamp that will blink when the engine heats up a lot), no remote boot release, just one trip meter, and ofcourse, no automatic CC, no CD player, no electrically folding mirrors, no alloys, no rear disc brakes.

One intriguing thing is the fuel lid is opened by a push mechanism, so any one can open it. In Indian situations, wouldn't it lead to petrol theft when parked outside at night

</p>
The remote boot release and the fuel cap thing.. how can these be part of the cost cutting? This is terrible on Honda's part - some of the missing features like fog lamps are even standard on cars costing half as much as this. But to cut on essentials is downright pathetic.

[oss]

Originally Posted by johy

Now what should be an idea upgrade for the tires?

185/60 should do that trick

[karanraheja]

Originally Posted by oss

To keep up with the arrowshot design, the front overhang is drooping downwards dangerously. Keeping the Indian road conditions in mind, i think Honda should have redesigned the front fender atleast

Having said that this is not a car for 5 people; the middle portion of the rear seat is strictly for using the armrest and not recommended for seating

One intriguing thing is the fuel lid is opened by a push mechanism, so any one can open it. In Indian situations, wouldn't it lead to petrol theft when parked outside at night

Need to wait till mid-Oct to lay hands on a test drive vehicle. But my first impressions is, Is the car worth the money one pays for????? A big big question mark for now. Just for a a sleek exterior design and for lack of worthy competition in this segment, they can't charge a price close to the D-segment cars

Thanks for the update OSS ! I think you crossed your max smilies limitYeah i think GC could be one issue. Was the E version also on display?? I wanted to see the interiors of E version. I think only after TD of this car we could conclude if its actually worth 1.4 lacs more than SX4. Where are the pics buddy????

[sathee46]

Originally Posted by oss

One intriguing thing is the fuel lid is opened by a push mechanism, so any one can open it. In Indian situations, wouldn't it lead to petrol theft when parked outside at night

I think the Fuel lid should be like the Ikon's, you can open it only when the car is unlocked, and gets locked when the car is centrally locked.

[streetsdisciple]

Finally,a great looking car with nice features at a reasonable price.

[appuchan]

I just happened to see the test drive of ANHC in the Autocar (?) TV program. Think it came in UTVi. She says its much improved with better power and handling, comfortable back seats, crisp steering, though short on features such as alloys and fog lamps.

[oss]

Originally Posted by karanraheja

Thanks for the update OSS ! I think you crossed your max smilies limitYeah i think GC could be one issue. Was the E version also on display?? I wanted to see the interiors of E version. I think only after TD of this car we could conclude if its actually worth 1.4 lacs more than SX4. Where are the pics buddy????

Nope; the E version was not on display, and they had no idea of how the dash will look like without the integrated advanced (?!!) audio system. The sound quality of the audio system was decent though. No provision for mounting the speakers in the rear. You need to cut the real panel for that.

Didn't bother to take the pictures as enough photographs are already on the net

[ashi_kul]

Looks to be a good car definitely. However there are few potential issues that I see in the car: 1. The ground clearance has not been improved, which is a need given the wider wheel base that car has got now. 2. The stereo system doesn't have a CD player. It might be futuristic, but definitely in the Indian environment it is actually promoting music piracy to some extent. Also for people who are not tech savvy/computer savvy, it will be a pain to burn songs into a USB/IPOD and listen. Definitely the CD player should have been part of the basic package. 3. The turning radius of the car has increased and now its same as corolla Altis, though the car is smaller in comparison. The car explains the tremendous competition that Honda is facing and a diversion from Honda's earlier India strategy, where they were sitting pretty and charging premium for their offerings without providing any VFM. The credit for this largely goes to SX4, which set a benchmark by providing all safety features etc. One caution for the buyers is to look at the fuel efficiency of the car before going ahead with the purchase decision as the power has been enhanced which might have some impact on the FE. If the FE is also in the same range as SX4, its going to make the segment even more interesting. The consumer is proving to be the king. And Honda is realizing this .... finally!

[rajneeesh]

The 3gen city might be a very capable car. It will however be out of reach for a lot of people opening the door for the SX4. Honda will have to bring in the Jazz real soon to have a product in the entry level C segment. The fact that we see a lots of SX4 VXI on the road indicates that there is a big market for Rs 6- 6.5 lakh car and Honda has left that segment otally uncovered .