Team-BHP - 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review
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Fellow Bhpians,

I test drove City VX MT diesel yesterday noon at Dakshin Honda Lavelle Road.

I have a question here on engagement of reverse gear on the move. Is there a possibility that reverse gear will be accidentally engaged when the vehicles is on the move after 5th gear say above 60~70 kmh? The reason I ask this is my wife still at times slots the lever into a wrong gear in any new car after 6 months of occasional driving, now since both these gears are placed close to each other (towards the driver and down) I think this can easily happen.
I was under the impression there would be some kind of technology in the vehicle which will prevent the transmission from engaging into reverse gear while the vehicle is moving forward, but the sales manager at the ASS told there isn't anything like that and the driver need to be careful while slotting the lever into sixth gear. I couldn't digest this and wish to hear this sales guy was wrong here.
Appreciate if some one can shed some light on this.

Cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by treadmark (Post 3421571)
Fellow Bhpians,

I test drove City VX MT diesel yesterday noon at Dakshin Honda Lavelle Road.

I have a question here on engagement of reverse gear on the move. Is there a possibility that reverse gear will be accidentally engaged when the vehicles is on the move after 5th gear say above 60~70 kmh?
Appreciate if some one can shed some light on this.

Cheers!

In Figo there is a sort of mechanisms in which no matter how hard one tries, the gear won't slot to reverse directly from 5th, one has to first put it into neutral and then shift to reverse. I think in all modern cars this mechanism must be present. The existing City owners can shed better light on this topic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by treadmark (Post 3421571)
Fellow Bhpians,

I test drove City VX MT diesel yesterday noon at Dakshin Honda Lavelle Road.

I have a question here on engagement of reverse gear on the move. Is there a possibility that reverse gear will be accidentally engaged when the vehicles is on the move after 5th gear say above 60~70 kmh? The reason I ask this is my wife still at times slots the lever into a wrong gear in any new car after 6 months of occasional driving, now since both these gears are placed close to each other (towards the driver and down) I think this can easily happen.
I was under the impression there would be some kind of technology in the vehicle which will prevent the transmission from engaging into reverse gear while the vehicle is moving forward, but the sales manager at the ASS told there isn't anything like that and the driver need to be careful while slotting the lever into sixth gear. I couldn't digest this and wish to hear this sales guy was wrong here.
Appreciate if some one can shed some light on this.

Cheers!

He is well wrong and as usual misinformed. I tried it just now on my friends diesel Honda City and NO, you can not shift to reverse on a forward move, it locks. More over the throw towards the right for reverse is quite a lot, whereas the 6th is a fluid down motion.

Don't worry even if someone reaches the gear channel by mistake actually engaging it is still very difficult if not impossible. The resistance alone will let you know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by treadmark (Post 3421571)
I test drove City VX MT diesel yesterday noon at Dakshin Honda Lavelle Road.

I have a question here on engagement of reverse gear on the move. Is there a possibility that reverse gear will be accidentally engaged when the vehicles is on the move after 5th gear say above 60~70 kmh?

Quoting from my ownership report:

Quote:

Originally Posted by RavenAvi (Post 3399929)
Positives:

- Reverse gear doesn't engage when the car is in forward motion. Shift to 6th gear from the 5th fearlessly.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3399929

I'm in a catch-22 situation right now. I'm interested in the New 2014 City (which will be replacing the aging Hyundai Accent) and enquired about test drives from a couple of showrooms in Bangalore. I want to try the SV-CVT v/s the V-MT. I believe all showrooms have TD vehicles of the V-MT while none of them have the SV-CVT TD car.

One guy from the Lavelle road showroom even went to the extent of saying (read it as lying through his teeth) that there have been no orders of SV-CVT from the entire state of Karnataka, so, Honda isn't producing that car at all.

I would like to request the feedback from the SV-CVT owners on this thread to give me some general feedback on the behaviour of the CVT as compared to the Manual. How's the overall feel compared to good old MT? Is the Automatic a really good option or is it just a mere convenience which is "good to have"? Our usage of the car will be very limited, to probably < 100km a month, with the odd weekend shopping trips and wedding/function trips.

I cant simply book a 11L car without even doing a proper TD - am not that kind of a person! None of the Honda showrooms understand this - they simply want me to plonk down my hard earned money on something I heven't even looked at; its not 1K, not even 10K ... this is 11 Lakhs we're talking about.:Frustrati :mad:

Quote:

Originally Posted by vsathyap (Post 3421606)
I'm in a catch-22 situation right now. I'm interested in the New 2014 City



I would like to request the feedback from the SV-CVT owners on this thread to give me some general feedback on the behaviour of the CVT as compared to the Manual. How's the overall feel compared to good old MT? Is the Automatic a really good option or is it just a mere convenience which is "good to have"? Our usage of the car will be very limited, to probably < 100km a month, with the odd weekend shopping trips and wedding/function trips.

I cant simply book a 11L car without even doing a proper TD - am not that kind of a person! None of the Honda showrooms understand this

You have mentioned <100 a month. Did you mean 100 or 1000?

On the topic of AT. The modern AT cars like the city are a good alternative to MT's. If your usage is limited and you don't do pedal to the floor driving you will definitely appreciate an AT.

On lack of TD cars. Unfortunately for hot selling models the dealerships hold the upper hand. They have a take it or leave it attitude. If course over a long term it will hit back on them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkarthik106 (Post 3421238)

Which is the best variant for a budget of Rs.9L (ex showroom).

Quote:

Originally Posted by neel911 (Post 3421448)
V is definitely a really good package. I have bought SV CVT and really wish they would have released a V CVT variant. VX was too expensive in Bangalore after Road Tax.

Its actually a trade off and some might feel that the SV is a good package where you'll get to customize more and save money on the ones that are not important. However, there are few where modifying in SV may not be possible (Honda genuine)

The money saved for me went into wider tyres, art leather seats, accessories (reverse parking sensor, scuff plates, nomad mats), better alloys and speakers that is on the cards.

I think neel911 here has got it pretty spot on! V is definitely a better package. Having sat in my friend's SV for quite a considerable amount of time and have myself got a VXMT recently, I notice the differences between the two are subtle yet noticeable. All small differences no doubt, but they add up to the "experience". The audio system, the basic seat fabric, no-chrome, no alloys, all these reduces a little bit of the classiness of the car. Though in no way is one paying a significantly lower amount when buying SV.

It really boils down to you and whether you really want to wait for 4 months without a car!? :eek: As few other readers have pointed out correctly, most of the missing features can be bought as an add on.

My last 2 cents on the topic: Upgrading to V from SV gives one features that I think should have been basic in this segment. Upgrading to VX from V gives one the fancy features that are only a feel good factor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj (Post 3421615)
On lack of TD cars. Unfortunately for hot selling models the dealerships hold the upper hand. They have a take it or leave it attitude. If course over a long term it will hit back on them.

I had to visit 3 dealers (1 in Bangalore and 2 in Kerala) to get a feel of the VXMT diesel. The attittude of the sales guys leave much to be desired except in Perfect Honda, Trivandrum where they were quite courteous.

Quote:

Originally Posted by treadmark (Post 3421571)
I test drove City VX MT diesel yesterday noon at Dakshin Honda Lavelle Road. I have a question here on engagement of reverse gear on the move. Is there a possibility that reverse gear will be accidentally engaged when the vehicles is on the move after 5th gear say above 60~70 kmh? The reason I ask this is my wife still at times slots the lever into a wrong gear in any new car after 6 months of occasional driving, now since both these gears are placed close to each other (towards the driver and down)

I would recommend do your test drives at DH Lavelle Road but but if you decide to buy I would recommend heading to Magnum Honda, your experience will surely be better. I realized after buying from DH Lavelle Road, in fact mine was the first 2014 City to roll out of DH, Lavelle Road.

I had posted some pictures from the manual earlier on the Reverse Lock Out features. You can refer the following URL.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Anjain (Post 3421617)
My last 2 cents on the topic: Upgrading to V from SV gives one features that I think should have been basic in this segment. Upgrading to VX from V gives one the fancy features that are only a feel good factor.

Very well summarized, I totally agree with that statement :D

But for your statement on after market add-ons the problem I see is that Honda threatens people with warranty becoming void for any of the accessories unless you buy from them. And in case you buy all of them from the dealer then it will end up being more expensive than the V Variant anyways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vsathyap (Post 3421606)
One guy from the Lavelle road showroom even went to the extent of saying (read it as lying through his teeth) that there have been no orders of SV-CVT from the entire state of Karnataka, so, Honda isn't producing that car at all. I would like to request the feedback from the SV-CVT owners on this thread to give me some general feedback on the behaviour of the CVT as compared to the Manual. How's the overall feel compared to good old MT?

The ownership report of the White Unicorn (SV-CVT) is the one for you: URL

So another visit to Airport :) (Earlier post on this: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3417511)

Same time/conditions as posted in above post but this time with AC on set at 23 degrees Auto Climate. Everything else remains same. I just wanted to see the impact of AC on the FE. Earlier I had got FE of 21.1 with AC off.

With AC on and same/almost similar conditions/timings, I got FE of 20.9 (AC on).

4th-gen Honda City : Official Review-20140427-05.15.42.jpg


This is the tyre pressure rating for stock tyres for CVT models (Front:32, Rear: 30). Is it same for Diesel/ Manual Petrol models as well? Should I follow the below tyre pressure recommendations for the Michelin P3ST 195/60R15 as well?
4th-gen Honda City : Official Review-20140426-10.37.19.jpg


How is everyone finding the accuracy of MID FE values overall? I did tank full to full measurement and saw some inaccuracy in MID values. Here, however I measured from full tank (auto stop) to full tank (auto stop) instead of trying to do top up all the way post auto stop as in some threads I've heard it is not recommended to do so. Also, I'm assuming that the auto stop of fuel would probably would have happened at same levels in both cases.

The MID showed me value of 10.4kmpl while the manual calculation came to 10.2kmpl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neel911 (Post 3422287)
This is the tyre pressure rating for stock tyres for CVT models (Front:32, Rear: 30). Is it same for Diesel/ Manual Petrol models as well? Should I follow the below tyre pressure recommendations for the Michelin P3ST 195/60R15 as well?

Yes, its the same markings for the diesel as well. It would be the same recommendation for P3ST as well. I am maintaining 35/33 at all times since my daily commute to Office involves a bit of Highway driving (read Hosur Road) and sometimes the Elevated Expressway and I often end up doing speeds upto 100 kmph

Quote:

Originally Posted by neel911 (Post 3422287)
How is everyone finding the accuracy of MID FE values overall? I did tank full to full measurement and saw some inaccuracy in MID values. Here, however I measured from full tank (auto stop) to full tank (auto stop) instead of trying to do top up all the way post auto stop as in some threads I've heard it is not recommended to do so. Also, I'm assuming that the auto stop of fuel would probably would have happened at same levels in both cases.

The MID showed me value of 10.4kmpl while the manual calculation came to 10.2kmpl.

That is indeed negligible. In my case, I have seen deviations of up to 0.7 where the reading showing 19.7 kmpl and when I filled the tank the calculation showed 19 kmpl. On a regular basis I see the MID to be off by +/- 0.5

Quote:

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa (Post 3422306)
Yes, its the same markings for the diesel as well. It would be the same recommendation for P3ST as well. I am maintaining 35/33 at all times since my daily commute to Office involves a bit of Highway driving (read Hosur Road) and sometimes the Elevated Expressway and I often end up doing speeds upto 100 kmph

Isn't that on higher side? If you look at recommendation, those values are only for speeds more than 160km/h. With 35/33, wouldn't the ride be more bumpy?

Mohsin at Madhu tyres recommended to maintain tyre pressure of 32 psi for all 4 tyres for Michelin P3ST. I'll probably play with 32/30, 33/31, 32/31, 32/32 (front/rear) and see which one is more comfortable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neel911 (Post 3422317)
Isn't that on higher side? If you look at recommendation, those values are only for speeds more than 160km/h. With 35/33, wouldn't the ride be more bumpy?

Mohsin at Madhu tyres recommended to maintain tyre pressure of 32 psi for all 4 tyres for Michelin P3ST. I'll probably play with 32/30, 33/31, 32/31, 32/32 (front/rear) and see which one is more comfortable.

I don't think the gap of 2 PSI that Honda has recommended would change with any tyre. So, maintaining that gap helps in supporting the additional weight of the engine in the front.

As you have put forth, these are slightly on the higher side and I am fine with these for now. The right thing is as you have already suggested play with the different ranges and settle for the one that feels right for you

Quote:

Originally Posted by neel911 (Post 3422287)

The MID showed me value of 10.4kmpl while the manual calculation came to 10.2kmpl.

Neel, can you please let us know what kind of traffic are you experiencing an FE of 10.4 kmpl?

Quote:

Originally Posted by outdoorlover (Post 3422374)
Neel, can you please let us know what kind of traffic are you experiencing an FE of 10.4 kmpl?

This is combination of driving in thick bangalore city traffic along with 2 trips to airport which is pure highway.

On a side note, with moderate traffic and some patches of open traffic, I'm hitting around 10kmpl now.


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