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-   -   4th-gen Honda City : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/145656-4th-gen-honda-city-official-review-311.html)

What makes you so confident about this? Many cars have been known to spontaneously ignite in flames. Every time manufacturer gets away with standard excuses and lays blame on other factors. If this is a genuine case, your car can be next. Such incidents should be publicized so that the manufacturer rectifies the issues so that others don't suffer from the same.

I had a chance to be driven in a new Honda City diesel cab a couple of times(Uber Black).

While i really liked the rear legroom and the slanted foot rest at the back, what was a big turnoff was the engine sound! The engine had a very un-typical thrum, which i could hear easily even in the backseat. It was not the kind of diesel sound you typically hear, but more like a constant drumming kind of a sound (sorry i can't explain it properly here).

Is that the way the diesel in the Honda city sounds? If yes, then Honda surely needs to work a lot on curbing some noise on that engine. I mean, a cheaper Ertiga or DZire have better NVH, Honda should really have worked upon this aspect of the engine more.

Hi guys,

I have booked the Honda City Petrol V MT from Arya Honda, Prabhadevi. The car should be ready for delivery by the 1st week of April. I intend to install the leather strapped steering since it is only available in the VX variant of the City. Dealer has confirmed that it will not be a leather cover, but will be stitched identical to the one in the VX variant. They will be charging me INR 5000 for the same. However, they mentioned that they will require 4 working days to complete the work once the car reaches the dealer showroom from the stock yard.

They mentioned that they will have to remove the steering from the rack and it's a tedious job. My worry is that it will not be done at Honda's workshop as they have outsourced the work to some other agency.

Is it safe to get this job done since it is outsourced and won't be done at the Honda workshop?

For a measly 5000 bucks, I hope I do not land up in a mess.

Seek your views.

Honda uses an aluminium engine block compared to cast iron used by most other manufacturers and this combined with the inherent way that a Diesel engine works creates a constant vibration in the relatively lightweight aluminium engine that permeates through to the cabin. Hope that explains the sound.

On top of this, cabin sound insulation is not properly done. You can even hear a 3-wheeler's engine sound in traffic. All of this is covered in the review and the following thread. Its all about cost cutting really. My Fiesta uses a timing belt instead of a chain that most modern diesels do. Hence less engine sound. NVH is unbelievably low and cabin is properly insulated. Result, my friends won't believe it is a diesel while inside the car and car being moving.

Arya Honda generally is not known for stuff like this. But to be on the safer side, check if you are being given a printed receipt of Arya Honda itself with all the necessary Tax Details. If its a hand-written bill, do not pay up till you get a printed bill generated from their system.

Thanks Tejas. I am more worried whether their job will be neat since it is not factory fitted and will be an after market fitment.

I own a 2012 City, and I dont find any such issues. Try changing your seating position and the recline angle. Your legs might be too close or too far from the pedals.

During my last visit to the service centre, I was actually happy to know that Honda uses Timing Chain instead of timing belt in its diesel engines.

The service technician confirmed that the Timing Chain in Honda actually needs no maintenance even after running over 2 Lakh kms and only needs a check (not replacement) whether the chain is slack/loose.

Even the Honda City Petrol (i-vtec) engine uses a timing chain and is whisper smooth. Its unlikely that timing chain would significantly increase the noise in the Diesel engine.

Engines using timing belt needs periodic replacement of the belts with the pre-tensioner every 60 to 80K km and hence higher maintenance.
In the Interference type diesel engines using belts (eg: VW, Skoda diesels etc), there is also a risk of engine damage if the timing belt breaks for some reason, so earlier preventive replacement of belts in such cars is always better.

So there's going to be two parts to my this post. One Information and another one is opinion. Both nowhere related.

Information:

Honda Connect is now available for existing customers at a price of Rs. 6249. Here's the link:

https://hondacarindia.com/hondaconnect/

Opinion needed

It's that time of the year every car owner dreads. :Frustrati Insurance renewal. So I have two quotes of Honda Assure from two different dealers. Both with Zero Dep & Engine & Gear Box Protector, Rs. 22,000 premium. All parameters same except the following:

Quote 1 - IDV - INR 654,486 by Iffco Tokio - Existing Policy Company

Quote 2 - IDV - INR 714,000 by Bajaj Allianz - Different Policy company than my current one.

The logic says go for one with higher IDV, but I haven't had any bad experience with Iffco Tokio in my two claims I had in last two years.

Have you tried independent quotes with the insurance companies that have cashless arrangement with Honda? I'm covered by a direct insurance from TATA-AIG (since I bought my car under my company scheme and my company uses TATA AIG for all of its cars. I haven't had any issue in claims yet. You can try multiple companies that have direct cashless arrangement with Honda and see.

I did review some quotes on policybazaar and other similar websites. I was looking for Zero Dep + Engine & Gearbox Protector. Zero dep is what almost everyone gives as an Add-On but Engine Protector only a couple of insurers are giving.

Furthermore, the Auto-generated IDV is pathetic in majority of the cases. I had to put my own IDV. This increased the Premium. So when I look at the Premium based on my IDV, Zero Dep & Engine Protection, the difference between the quote given by the Honda Dealership for Honda Assure comes down to less than Rs. 2000.

Personally, I would rather bargain a bit more with the Honda guys and get that try and get that difference down. In fact, the first discount offered on the Honda Assure Policy is Rs. 5,500 without any negotiation. I probably might do reverse auction with the two quotes that I have. :D

I don't know much about insurance as my car is yet to complete its first year,but just asking out of curiosity:
Do we need Engine and Gearbox protection if car is in warranty/extended warranty ? I'm not getting why this is required.

Timing chain does increase the noise, chain is better anyday for the reasons you mentioned. Why I mentioned Fiesta here is to compare City diesel's noise with that of a similar priced product. Yes there are reasons like the aluminium block, the timing chain and the poor cabin noise insulation, but you just don't expect such high levels of NVH from a car that costs 14-15 L onroad Bangalore. I drove one hired from Zoom and the drivability was excellent, but that horrid noise is just too much to bear. On the same trip we had a Zoom's Scorpio as well and all 10 of us disliked how crude the City sounded compared to a much bigger Scorpio's engine.

The Honda Diesel Engine is the one of the lightest diesel engines in India. The primary reason is the use of a Aluminium Head.

Aluminium is lighter and in turn cannot dampen the Combustion Noise of the diesel engine as easily as cast iron. (a heavier material is more effective to damp vibrations). This needs to be compensated by the use of different structures/NVH analysis and applying NVH material in other places to quieten the cabin.

The advantage of a cast iron engine is that it is heavier and the vibrations are damped better. Of course over the time a CI block tends to degrade and starts "sounding" rough. This degeneration is lower in a Al engine block. We need to compare an old fiat engine vs an old honda engine and we may probably realise the difference between the two engines.