[sun_king]

Originally Posted by Aga_sahab

Surprisingly lower than what I expected.
I was hoping that the city, even in bumper to bumper traffic will give 12-13.
Just to check :
Was the Tyre pressure set to 30?
Do you use engine breaking often or ride the clutch while breaking?
Were you always alone or carrying full load??

It's probably the 1.6 l engine that's too powerful for crawling around.

I am alone for most of the time, else its just my 25 kg daughter in the front seat. Tire pressure is 32 on all four, I keep my foot off the clutch as much as possible and engine braking is rare. And one other thing, half of my regular run is at school timings, so I slow down a lot and that impacts the FE.

My average when driving my friend's 9 year old Wagon-R with the same profile was around 9 kmpl.

Originally Posted by Carpainter

First of all thanks a lot for your prompt reply. So will it be wise to go for petrol. I'm basically inclined more towards petrol because of the power to weight ratio and some fun to drive factor. Howmuch fun is it to drive the petrol city in your opinion. Considering I'm upgrading from Polo, this is an important aspect for me. The diesel atleast on paper seems very sluggish compared to the competition. Haven't had a test drive of the diesel though.

Driving the petrol is fun, but my scratchophobia and the general dislike for being honked at for no reason makes the city drives more irritating. The iVTEC responds to the way you step on the pedal, so it handles the crawling and the sprint with ease. At higher RPMs the City is a different beast, it virtually begs to be unleashed and you will need all your self control to resist the temptation. I have not driven a Diesel City, but I don't think it can match the fun that the growl of the iVTEC gives. And I have never driven the Polo, but I can hazard a guess and state that if it is not the TSI, the City by virtue of its sheer power to weight ratio alone should "out-fun" the Polo.

[deepakv]

My petrol SV MT is nearing 3k KMs run, and city bumper to bumper Andheri traffic averages around 8-9 kmpl as per the MID; while an expressway run to Pune from the Mumbai domestic airport got me 16.4 kmpl as per the MID. If i drive to the Airoli office from Andheri W & back, that fetches me around 13 kmpl as per the MID.
Not very dissatisfied with the fuel efficiency, and its true that at 4000 rpm the engine transforms into a beast and makes me smile like a kid with candy! Tough to resist the temptation of flooring it in 2nd gear, hitting 70km/h and then slotting straight into 5th

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by sun_king

I am alone for most of the time, else its just my 25 kg daughter in the front seat. Tire pressure is 32 on all four, I keep my foot off the clutch as much as possible and engine braking is rare. And one other thing, half of my regular run is at school timings, so I slow down a lot and that impacts the FE.

My average when driving my friend's 9 year old Wagon-R with the same profile was around 9 kmpl.



Driving the petrol is fun, but my scratchophobia and the general dislike for being honked at for no reason makes the city drives more irritating. The iVTEC responds to the way you step on the pedal, so it handles the crawling and the sprint with ease. At higher RPMs the City is a different beast, it virtually begs to be unleashed and you will need all your self control to resist the temptation. I have not driven a Diesel City, but I don't think it can match the fun that the growl of the iVTEC gives. And I have never driven the Polo, but I can hazard a guess and state that if it is not the TSI, the City by virtue of its sheer power to weight ratio alone should "out-fun" the Polo.

Yes it was not the TSI. It was not the engine power that made me enjoy the car. It was the handling and ride. City petrol will be a lot more powerful for sure. But I was expecting 10-11 in the city. But anyway I think I'll still go for petrol.

[KRN]

A fairly long post, but I am counting on you all to help make a decision:

I am planning to book the Honda City within a week and wanted to decide between the V MT and SV CVT. Dealer was kind enough to send both the manual and CVT (VX) home for TD.

Before the TD, I had almost made up my mind to book the V MT. But the TD has left me confused and I am now tilting in favor of the CVT. Need some advise from owners and the gurus on the forum to make the right choice.

Requirements
1. I would like to keep the car for 6 to 8 years minimum. I have ruled out the Vento for this reason as I am scared about maintenance after warranty period (sorry, no offense to anyone)
2. Driving will be approx. 800 km a month with 90% city driving and occasional highway trips (3-4 times a year).
3. I drive on OMR Chennai where traffic can range from bumper to bumper during peak hours to a free 6 lane road at other times
4. I am smitten by the gizmos in the V variant (good music system, reversing camera, excellent BT telephony) and will miss them in the SV CVT. VX CVT is out of my budget
5. I currently drive a first gen petrol Swift (9 years old). I love the way the Swift drives and don't want to be too disappointed in terms of driving experience with the City
6. I have absolutely no experience in driving automatics before

Test Driving the Manual
The manual felt very quiet and silky smooth. After driving the first gen Swift (the G series engine has very poor low end torque), the flexibility of the iVTEC engine was a revelation by itself. I could comfortably crawl in 3rd gear and even at very slow speeds, never felt the need to go to 1st. The top end was very addictive and the engine just kept going. I felt the manual version to be a great car that I would enjoy in open roads, but not too bad either in bumper to bumper traffic. After the smoothness of the iVTEC, my Swift felt almost agricultural in comparison

Test Drive of the CVT:
Drove the CVT in econ, D and S modes. The car changed my earlier perception of being underpowered and I was able to comfortably out accelerate other vehicles even in D mode. The engine was smooth and after adjusting my driving style (to avoid rubber band effect), I was in love with the ease of driving and the light steering.
If I have to describe in one sentence - "It felt like driving a toy car (in a good way)". The s mode is the icing on the cake, but the best part was that my left hand and left leg were totally free and I love the way you can commute in a relaxed manner!

I will definitely love the CVT during my daily commute to office. However, there are some flip sides to it and I need advice from all of you

1. After a few months, will I be left wanting for more (in terms of driving experience or power)?
2. How does the CVT feel on the highways? Note that I won't have the paddle shifters in the SV variant. I don't want to be in a position where I cannot do quick overtaking maneuvers to get ahead of slow traffic or be stuck behind slow trucks in dual carriageways. This is a major concern
3. After plonking 1 million rupees (and more), will I be left wanting more power and not feeling special?
4. The performance of the SV variant's stock HU gets on my nerves. I don't care about alloys or other missing features in SV, but how much will a good HU + speaker upgrade + BT telephone (with external mic) + reverse cams cost? I don't want to blow more than 30 to 35K on these

Having not driven or owned automatics, would appreciate advise from the Gurus here so that I can make a decision that I won't regret for at least 5-6 more years

[varshar]

Originally Posted by KRN

A fairly long post, but I am counting on you all to help make a decision:

I am planning to book the Honda City within a week and wanted to decide between the V MT and SV CVT. ...

Drove the CVT in econ, D and S modes. The car changed my earlier perception of being underpowered ...

I will definitely love the CVT during my daily commute to office. However, there are some flip sides to it and I need advice from all of you

1. After a few months, will I be left wanting for more (in terms of driving experience or power)?
2. How does the CVT feel on the highways? Note that I won't have the paddle shifters in the SV variant. I don't want to be in a position where I cannot do quick overtaking maneuvers to get ahead of slow traffic or be stuck behind slow trucks in dual carriageways. This is a major concern
3. After plonking 1 million rupees (and more), will I be left wanting more power and not feeling special?
4. The performance of the SV variant's stock HU gets on my nerves. I don't care about alloys or other missing features in SV, but how much will a good HU + speaker upgrade + BT telephone (with external mic) + reverse cams cost? I don't want to blow more than 30 to 35K on these

Having not driven or owned automatics, would appreciate advise from the Gurus here so that I can make a decision that I won't regret for at least 5-6 more years

I'm no Guru but have driven automatics for 15 years abroad and in country.

Torque converters and DSG's are great but I'm an unabashed fan of CVT's.

My reasons are aesthetic as well as practical viz.

1. Simpler than DSG's makes for great reliability e.g. my Honda CVT has been trouble free over 9 years running (140,000+ Kms).

2. The 100% jerk-free ride due to infinitely variable ratios - for aesthetic reasons as also for putting kids to sleep :-)

3. Oddly enough, once you get tuned to the famous 'rubber-band' effect, you can actually control and use it to good effect viz. one lets go of the accelerator as RPM's increase in an immediate or deliberate manner depending upon if you're doing normal cruising or highway-overtaking respectively.

4. With Sport mode, highway-overtaking needs little planning due to instant response at the cost of higher fuel consumption. One can also shift on-the-fly between D and S so there's no need to worry about getting stuck in the wrong mode longer than necessary e.g. long stretch of trucks followed by open road.

5. At a stop-light when one is at first position - there's simply no substitute for leaving every single car - be it a light and fast Swift or even an S-tronic A6 far-far behind (sometimes as much as 500 metres before those tranny's wake up and get going) as the CVT spins up with zero-lag at the touch of the pedal.

Again - aesthetics - and a bit of the kid inside!

Finally, and speaking as an engineer by vocation not merely as a professional - it's also a priceless feeling to drive a transmission first envisioned by none other than Leonardo da Vinci way back in the 15'th century.

http://www.odec.ca/projects/2007/viva7s2/cvts2.htm

Hope this helps.

Varun

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by KRN

I will definitely love the CVT during my daily commute to office. However, there are some flip sides to it and I need advice from all of you

1. After a few months, will I be left wanting for more (in terms of driving experience or power)?
2. How does the CVT feel on the highways? Note that I won't have the paddle shifters in the SV variant. I don't want to be in a position where I cannot do quick overtaking maneuvers to get ahead of slow traffic or be stuck behind slow trucks in dual carriageways. This is a major concern
3. After plonking 1 million rupees (and more), will I be left wanting more power and not feeling special?
4. The performance of the SV variant's stock HU gets on my nerves. I don't care about alloys or other missing features in SV, but how much will a good HU + speaker upgrade + BT telephone (with external mic) + reverse cams cost? I don't want to blow more than 30 to 35K on these

Having not driven or owned automatics, would appreciate advise from the Gurus here so that I can make a decision that I won't regret for at least 5-6 more years

No real world experience with the City, but some feedback as a person who switched from manual to AT. My recommendation would be the CVT over the manual. Main reason is that 90% of the commute is going to be in City and you plan to keep the car for ~8 years. Considering how the traffic congestion is increasing day by day, I am sure you will appreciate the convenience of the AT considering most of your driving will be in City.

On your specific questions

1. Don't think so.Once you are adjusted to the CVT, I am sure you will be able to extract the maximum out of the car
2. Driving an AT is all about getting used to how it responds to your accel input. Once you are comfortable with that, handling overtaking should not be an issue. Additionally as per all the reviews and ownership reports, the City CVT is a good one and masks the lag associated with CVT's pretty well
3. One suggestion I have is to take a test drive of the Vento TSI. The Vento TSI is the benchmark for the segment when it comes to pure performance (for an AT). So test driving that and the CVT back to back should give you some perspective.
4. For 35-40K you should easily get a good AVN unit externally. The dealers would typically charge you more. But bottom line is that if the OEM system is your biggest concern in the SV, you can easily replace it.

[themonster]

Originally Posted by Carpainter

And one question to petrol City owners. What is the real life fuel efficiency in the city with ac on all the time.

You haven't mentioned which variant your looking for.
Anyways for the question you have asked, its purely on the way you drive, the conditions of traffic and the road you're driving on.
The following are purely from the MID (I usually dont fill full tank unless i go on long highway drives) and most of the time the AC is on (85%)
The worst mileage = 11km/l (very aggressive and rash driving)
Best mileage = 18km/l
Overall Average for last 7100km = 13.7km/l (my driving was still getting polished and this includes 75% city drives and 25% highway drives)
Average since last petrol fill up = 14.3km/l (for the 135kms covered so far since saturday)
Average mileage in city = 13-15km/l
Average mileage on highways = 17-20km/l
the most recent highway run i had was about 195km total, to and fro. The avarage mileage for the trip (tripmeter set to zero) was 16.3km/l (according to MID) car was with 4 people on broad while going with AC on and 5 people plus lugage in boot while returning with AC off
I am still running on stock GoodYear GT3 175/65 R15 tyres and tyre pressure is 32 PSI on all four.
You can easily get higher mileage with an extremely light foot.

Refer this article: http://www.team-bhp.com/tech-stuff/h...-car-top-shape
You can still get MORE mileage when driving with the above tips in the article.


Regarding your question on the perdormance of the diesel.
i have had a 5 minute test drive in the diesel City. It has no turbo lag and is effortless to drive, but it doesn't pack a punch. The petrol city definitely is more fun to drive and has power to take you anywhere. If you drive another diesel engined car and then drive the i-DTEC motor, you will feel its down points.
I drove a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire (2010 Model) to the Honda showroom, the dzire packs a better punch when compared to the diesel city (only acceleration performance, not drivablity)
The i-VTEC is definitely a racer, you can easily go all day at 80kmph while the engine is spinning at 2300rpm. The moment you floor the acceleration pedal, it can go on and on, to higher speeds easily. The tyres NEED to be upgraded though if you are a performance ordiented person.
My ODO is at 17300km (approx) and i am eagerly waiting to change the tyres.

Originally Posted by KRN

A fairly long post, but I am counting on you all to help make a decision:

I am planning to book the Honda City within a week and wanted to decide between the V MT and SV CVT. Dealer was kind enough to send both the manual and CVT (VX) home for TD.

Before the TD, I had almost made up my mind to book the V MT. But the TD has left me confused and I am now tilting in favor of the CVT. Need some advise from owners and the gurus on the forum to make the right choice.

Requirements
1. I would like to keep the car for 6 to 8 years minimum. I have ruled out the Vento for this reason as I am scared about maintenance after warranty period (sorry, no offense to anyone)
2. Driving will be approx. 800 km a month with 90% city driving and occasional highway trips (3-4 times a year).
3. I drive on OMR Chennai where traffic can range from bumper to bumper during peak hours to a free 6 lane road at other times
4. I am smitten by the gizmos in the V variant (good music system, reversing camera, excellent BT telephony) and will miss them in the SV CVT. VX CVT is out of my budget
5. I currently drive a first gen petrol Swift (9 years old). I love the way the Swift drives and don't want to be too disappointed in terms of driving experience with the City
6. I have absolutely no experience in driving automatics before

Test Driving the Manual
The manual felt very quiet and silky smooth. After driving the first gen Swift (the G series engine has very poor low end torque), the flexibility of the iVTEC engine was a revelation by itself. I could comfortably crawl in 3rd gear and even at very slow speeds, never felt the need to go to 1st. The top end was very addictive and the engine just kept going. I felt the manual version to be a great car that I would enjoy in open roads, but not too bad either in bumper to bumper traffic. After the smoothness of the iVTEC, my Swift felt almost agricultural in comparison

Test Drive of the CVT:
Drove the CVT in econ, D and S modes. The car changed my earlier perception of being underpowered and I was able to comfortably out accelerate other vehicles even in D mode. The engine was smooth and after adjusting my driving style (to avoid rubber band effect), I was in love with the ease of driving and the light steering.
If I have to describe in one sentence - "It felt like driving a toy car (in a good way)". The s mode is the icing on the cake, but the best part was that my left hand and left leg were totally free and I love the way you can commute in a relaxed manner!

I will definitely love the CVT during my daily commute to office. However, there are some flip sides to it and I need advice from all of you

1. After a few months, will I be left wanting for more (in terms of driving experience or power)?
2. How does the CVT feel on the highways? Note that I won't have the paddle shifters in the SV variant. I don't want to be in a position where I cannot do quick overtaking maneuvers to get ahead of slow traffic or be stuck behind slow trucks in dual carriageways. This is a major concern
3. After plonking 1 million rupees (and more), will I be left wanting more power and not feeling special?
4. The performance of the SV variant's stock HU gets on my nerves. I don't care about alloys or other missing features in SV, but how much will a good HU + speaker upgrade + BT telephone (with external mic) + reverse cams cost? I don't want to blow more than 30 to 35K on these

Having not driven or owned automatics, would appreciate advise from the Gurus here so that I can make a decision that I won't regret for at least 5-6 more years

1. It purely depends on you, but i doubt it since your 90% driving is in city.

2.I haven't driven the Honda City CVT. The following review by BHPian neel911 is very useful and will answer about almost all your queries.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...e-unicorn.html

3. To be very frank, after spending 1 million ruppees, you would want a better horn, better headlights and better tyres. My City VX MT i-VTEC came with goodyear GT3s. The Tyres were not meant for this car. Many times, especially in roads with lose sand the tyres just spin under hard acceleration and there's a lot of dust flying. In your case for the SV SVT, you will be looking for seat covers, tyres, alloys (if budget permits), horn and headlight upgrades. Again BHPian neel911's review has most of this covered (except for headlamps and horn)

4. Your final Query. BHPian Seran Manian (He too is based in Chennai) got this done. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...elian-red.html
Or Honda now offers a Motevo Touchscreen unit. http://www.team-bhp.com/news/honda-d...model=MjI0OA==
A blaupunkt san diego headunit is also available, but i am not sure of the model number. It has been discussed in the posts.

Regarding the Vento, i do have to say to give it a look once more. The build quality, paint quality, fit, finish are simply excellent. The downside is, if your dealer for the vento is not very "customer friendly", there's no point looking there. Also the Vento DSG unit seems to have its bugs sorted out and it is a little more exciting to drive. Regarding other points of the vento, there are many BHPians who waited patiently for the 2014 City CVT and changed their minds because of the initial production delay for the 2014 City i-VTEC models.

[chatto63]

Originally Posted by KRN

A fairly long post, but I am counting on you all to help make a decision:
=================
Having not driven or owned automatics, would appreciate advise from the Gurus here so that I can make a decision that I won't regret for at least 5-6 more years

I have bought a CVT VX variant and my suggestion would be to go for the CVT variant SV model that you are evaluating. The CVT is a pleasure to drive and in heavy traffic is a very relaxed drive. It does not suffer from any lack of power and the rubber band effect is minimal and one very quickly gets used to it and learns how to avoid it. You will not miss the paddle shift option, I have it and very rarely have used it, the normal CVT is addictive in itself. Fuel economy is brilliant and in traffic with AC I have been averaging 12-13.5.
The ride quality is awesome and silky smooth and once you get used to it driving a geared car ( like I did with my wife's i20 yesterday is a pain )
Also just to reassure you, the car feels peppy and full of power so underpowered or poor power delivery is not something to worry about.

[KRN]

Originally Posted by varshar

4. With Sport mode, highway-overtaking needs little planning due to instant response at the cost of higher fuel consumption. One can also shift on-the-fly between D and S so there's no need to worry about getting stuck in the wrong mode longer than necessary e.g. long stretch of trucks followed by open road.

5. At a stop-light when one is at first position - there's simply no substitute for leaving every single car - be it a light and fast Swift or even an S-tronic A6 far-far behind (sometimes as much as 500 metres before those tranny's wake up and get going) as the CVT spins up with zero-lag at the touch of the pedal.

Hope this helps.

Varun

Thanks Varun. As long as I have the option to toggle between D and S during moderate to good speeds, I am confident about extracting performance from the car. During one of my earlier test drives, I was told by the Sales guy that toggling between D and S needs to be done only at low speeds or when stopped. While I didn't believe him, would toggling at high speeds cause transmission issues in the long term? I hope not!

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Main reason is that 90% of the commute is going to be in City and you plan to keep the car for ~8 years. Considering how the traffic congestion is increasing day by day, I am sure you will appreciate the convenience of the AT considering most of your driving will be in City.

That's a solid piece of advice. I had kind of ignored how bad the traffic would get 4-5 years later.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

3. One suggestion I have is to take a test drive of the Vento TSI. The Vento TSI is the benchmark for the segment when it comes to pure performance (for an AT). So test driving that and the CVT back to back should give you some perspective.

As mentioned in my original post, I had earlier considered Vento but dropped it based on the fact that I will keep the car for very long and prefer rock solid reliability. My Swift has been very reliable over these 9 years and would prefer something along these lines (again no offense to anyone)

Originally Posted by themonster

2.I haven't driven the Honda City CVT. The following review by BHPian neel911 is very useful and will answer about almost all your queries.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...e-unicorn.html

I have been following Neel911, Serian Manian and aditto's threads very closely. In fact Neel911 and aditto's threads actually played a part in me considering the CVT in the first place

Originally Posted by themonster

3. To be very frank, after spending 1 million ruppees, you would want a better horn, better headlights and better tyres. My City VX MT i-VTEC came with goodyear GT3s. The Tyres were not meant for this car. Many times, especially in roads with lose sand the tyres just spin under hard acceleration and there's a lot of dust flying. In your case for the SV SVT, you will be looking for seat covers, tyres, alloys (if budget permits), horn and headlight upgrades. Again BHPian neel911's review has most of this covered (except for headlamps and horn)

That's quite true. I am planning the following upgrades - Music system (+ reverse cam, BT telephony), Tyres, Horn and Headlight. I am not too keen on upgrading to alloys - maybe later when budget permits

Originally Posted by themonster

4. Your final Query. BHPian Seran Manian (He too is based in Chennai) got this done. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...elian-red.html
Or Honda now offers a Motevo Touchscreen unit. http://www.team-bhp.com/news/honda-d...model=MjI0OA==
A blaupunkt san diego headunit is also available, but i am not sure of the model number. It has been discussed in the posts.

Very grateful to Mr. Seran Manian for his indepth posts on the upgrades that his SV variant went through. Will try getting in touch with him once I do the booking

Originally Posted by chatto63

I have bought a CVT VX variant and my suggestion would be to go for the CVT variant SV model that you are evaluating. The CVT is a pleasure to drive and in heavy traffic is a very relaxed drive. It does not suffer from any lack of power and the rubber band effect is minimal and one very quickly gets used to it and learns how to avoid it. You will not miss the paddle shift option, I have it and very rarely have used it, the normal CVT is addictive in itself. Fuel economy is brilliant and in traffic with AC I have been averaging 12-13.5.
The ride quality is awesome and silky smooth and once you get used to it driving a geared car ( like I did with my wife's i20 yesterday is a pain )
Also just to reassure you, the car feels peppy and full of power so underpowered or poor power delivery is not something to worry about.

Wow, really impressed with your fuel economy figures. is this with Econ mode on?

[wheeledsoul]

Will be booking a VMT (P) tomorrow at Green Honda in Hyderabad. Any suggestions on how/where/what to negotiate are welcome . The sales guy though flatly refused to entertain any discounts on my initial enquiry, saying it's a "hot selling model".

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by KRN

During one of my earlier test drives, I was told by the Sales guy that toggling between D and S needs to be done only at low speeds or when stopped. While I didn't believe him, would toggling at high speeds cause transmission issues in the long term? I hope not!

Not true at all. You can shift between D and S as you wish. The only real difference between these modes in an AT car is that in S mode the up shifts happens higher in the RPM range. Even in D mode, if you drive with a heavy foot, the up shifts happen at an higher RPM and in S mode if you drive with a light foot, you can force the up shifts at a lower RPM. So as far as the car is concerned, shifting between D and S at any speeds should not be a factor at all. It will just plan the next shift based on the mode in addition to the driving style.

[chatto63]

Originally Posted by KRN

Wow, really impressed with your fuel economy figures. is this with Econ mode on?

No, this is on normal mode not economy, the fuel economy figures kept increasing after every servicing. The initial ones before first service and just after were more in the 8.5-10 range , now after third service these are the figures , the car itself runs very smoothly and the CVT is a pleasure to drive

[JediKnight]

Originally Posted by KRN

A fairly long post, but I am counting on you all to help make a decision:

I am planning to book the Honda City within a week and wanted to decide between the V MT and SV CVT. Dealer was kind enough to send both the manual and CVT (VX) home for TD.

The CVT is convenient and responds well to part throttle inputs. But if you floor the throttle you can feel the transmission stretching.

If you enjoy excursions to the rev limiter nothing beats the manual. The manic response of the iVtech over 3000 RPM is best enjoyed with the manual gearbox. Also the slick shifting gearbox and the flexibility of the engine ( as you yourself pointed out ) makes it easy putter around town during peak hour traffic.

[KRN]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Not true at all. You can shift between D and S as you wish.

So as far as the car is concerned, shifting between D and S at any speeds should not be a factor at all.

Appreciate the insight and this was what I realized during the TD.

Originally Posted by chatto63

No, this is on normal mode not economy, the fuel economy figures kept increasing after every servicing. The initial ones before first service and just after were more in the 8.5-10 range , now after third service these are the figures , the car itself runs very smoothly and the CVT is a pleasure to drive

Originally Posted by JediKnight

The CVT is convenient and responds well to part throttle inputs. But if you floor the throttle you can feel the transmission stretching.

If you enjoy excursions to the rev limiter nothing beats the manual. The manic response of the iVtech over 3000 RPM is best enjoyed with the manual gearbox. Also the slick shifting gearbox and the flexibility of the engine ( as you yourself pointed out ) makes it easy putter around town during peak hour traffic.

Thanks for all your insights. It has helped me make a decision to with the CVT. Yes, I will have to trade off the fun of the high revving manual for the convenience of the CVT (classic case of head vs heart)

[tejas08]

Finally completed my first ever Road-Trip. I am going to sum up the experience of driving the Honda City for 3250 Kms in 9 days as per the following:

Number of people – 4 Adults (Average wt. 80 Kgs per person)
Luggage – Boot full with 9 days of vacation luggage and food-stuffs

Driveability:

Gujrat known for its beautiful roads lived upto its promise for over 80% of the roads that we selected. We travelled on National Highways, State Highways, City Roads and very bad rural roads too. The whole experience of driving the Honda City through these roads was great.
Ahmedabad city traffic is one of the worst traffic I have ever seen, worse than Mumbai and surrounding areas. The car breezed around the City with ease with 4 people on board all the time.
Highway driveability was excellent. We did 100-120 kmph regularly on highways as much as possible.

Comfort:

A little bit of a mixed bag here. With fully loaded boot and 4 people on board the vertical movement over bumps did come down considerably by would not qualify as a very comfortable ride. A thing attributable to the stiffer suspension of the Honda City. Having said this, my mother and my wife where sleeping like babies in the car despite the little vertical movements that we had in between.

Tyre Pressure was set at 33/31.

A lot of people have complained about lower back ache on longer drives. We did 4 patches of 250 Kms (4-5 Hours) drive in these 9 days. I did not experience any back-ache issues. One needs to push the lower back right upto the seat almost like the back taking the seat’s shape and not the other way around.

Cruise Control works like a charm but I doubt how effective it can be on our Indian National Highways where the Trucks / Buses occupy almost every lane possible. Every time I used to put the car on Cruise Control, some trucker or bus driver would be there to cut it down. I could not run the car of Cruise control for more than 3-4 Kms anytime, but did use the ‘Resume’ button effectively in such conditions. This gave a much needed relief to the legs on long drives.

A little bit about the Air-Conditioning. Back-Seat passengers would a lot of times feel that the AC is a little on the lower side when set at 24 Deg. on Auto Climate Control. Needed to lower the temperature to 22 and increase the Fan Speed a fair amount of times.

Fuel Economy:

I achieved an overall FE of 15.4 Kmpl over 3250 Kms with 100% AC which I feel is great. I am not yet a very skilled driver. (Just a little under 9K kms under my belt) This would be about 80% highways and 20% city / bumper-to-bumper traffic. The first stretch from Mumbai to Ahmedabad of 525 Kms returned me an FE of 17.5 kmpl.

I wasn’t very aggressive on the driving but by no means sedate too. I did have some fun at time with trying to reach speeds above 120 but with 4 people on board and fully loaded boot, I wasn’t very comfortable doing that. Had the boot been empty, with 4 people on board this does not bother me.

Headlamps:

Before starting into the journey, I had upgraded both the Low Beams and the High Beams to Philips Extreme Vision. While the Low beams showed a considerable improvement over the stock headlamps, the high beams were ineffective even with the Philips extreme vision. This seems to be a problem with the High Beam Reflectors itself.

Engine Alternator Belt Grinding Noise Update:

Before starting the trip I had done about 1000 Kms with the replaced Alternator Belt. No recurrence of the Engine Alternator Belt grinding noise till then. Post that did this trip of 3K+ Kms, in all a total of 4K+ Kms after the Alternator Belt Replacement done. No recurrence of the grinding noise from the Alternator Belt. So I guess it should be good enough from now on.