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Old 1st April 2014, 09:50   #1486
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by nik_kapur View Post
I havent faced such any issues with chipping off bits but it has got a lot of scratches already. It has to be said that this was a very bad choice of material of the most touched part on the dashboard and it will look terrible in the long run.
The area looks prone to scratches, but polish chipping off is new!! Not expected from a Honda, specially when regarding quality of the interiors.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Pferdestarke View Post
You can also try some local mobile accessory shops. They usually carve screen guards from a roll. I think they'll be able to apply it over the shiny area.
+1. Excellent suggestion. One of my good friends owns a mobile shop and is an expert in cutting out perfect screen guard films for touchscreen phones. I'll ask him to cover up all the shiny black interior bits of my Empress, if he could. Will post pics of the same after the job is done.


Quote:
Originally Posted by debmum View Post
I drive a 2-year old Honda City (2012 manufactured). I wanted to know whether Honda has changed the tyre dimensions etc in the new City.
I would love to know more opinions of new City owners on tyre upgrades.
Tyre dimensions are the same as the 3rd gen City. In the interest of FE only, Honda has stuck to these puny-sized tyres. The OEMs will last some distance no doubt (depending on the quality), but skinny sections don't provide enough grip on the road, compromise a bit on ground clearance, and riding comfort is not optimum. The latter two can be lived with, but gripping can result in a life-or-death situation.

The reason for going wider and bigger is to improve grip levels (considering the state of the roads we drive in, plus the incessant rains) at a cost of marginal drop in FE, although owners have reported that Michelins usually retain nearly the same FE figures. Riding comfort gets a much-needed bolster too, and ground clearance levels improve drastically as well.


Quote:
Originally Posted by adarsh76 View Post
Booked Honda City CVT (SV Trim) today.

Also, as per the Service Advisor of Peninsular Honda, he is recommending to upgrade tires to 185/60 R15 from the stock 175/65 R16. He said not to go for 195 since that can cause about 1 km drop in mileage. With 185 the difference will be marginal. Not sure. Need some expert advice.
Congratulations, Adarsh.

The 185/60 upgrade is definitely NOT recommended, as vsrivatsa said it lowers ground clearance slightly. The 195/60 tyre upgrade is the best one out of the lot, and with Michelins there is no substantial drop in FE figures either.

The best upgrade is 185/55/16, but tyre options are limited in that profile plus you would have to change your rims to 16" as well. No telling how effective that would be in the long run, plus what impact it would have on the ABS and tyre life.

Don't worry, and just go for the 195/60 upgrade. If you want long tyre life, Bridgestones are your best bet. For all other criteria, Michelins come as recommended.

Last edited by RavenAvi : 1st April 2014 at 09:59.
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Old 1st April 2014, 10:07   #1487
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by adarsh76 View Post
Booked Honda City CVT (SV Trim) today. Honda City prices are increasing by 15000 (for SV Trim) rupees from tomorrow. If I'd paid the Down payment or Full Payment today I could have got the 15000 waived off. However, 3 of my color choices were not available (White, Titanium and Red). So I decided to pay the extra 15000 and will take the delivery only after June middle. Auspicious time for me

I had only one problem with the VX variant. Due to the sunroof, I was finding my headroom to be some what lesser compared to the non sunroof models. I am almost 6 feet tall.

Need to choose between White and Titanium since my Wagon R is already a Red one.

Also, as per the Service Advisor of Peninsular Honda, he is recommending to upgrade tires to 185/60 R15 from the stock 175/65 R16. He said not to go for 195 since that can cause about 1 km drop in mileage. With 185 the difference will be marginal. Not sure. Need some expert advice.
Did a U turn yesterday night. I am going for the VX CVT instead of SV. Paddle Shifts being the primary reason and my son (just 6 years but already a Junior BHPian ) is insisting on Sunroof. That will cause a slighter less headroom but with seat adjustments I guess it should be fine. Also, the large console screens are definitely a good looker which is not there in SV, plus the other bells and whistles.

It's a 6 month waiting period for VX, but I'm going to use this car for a long time (minimum 6 years), so thought of not missing those extra features. In addition, within this waiting period, some new cars might come as well.

Seen many comments on the scratch issues of the piano black finish. The SA told me he can definitely enquire on some protective coating directly with Honda through the service manager. Will keep informed once I get an info.
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Old 1st April 2014, 10:17   #1488
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by vsrivatsa View Post
Wow! That is a big leap. You could also consider the Primacy 3ST from Michelin. Do update us once you are done with the tyre upgrade. Oh! I saw that you ended up with GoodYears - those don't yield a good resale value!
I absolutely love the Michelins and the ride quality with primacy LC on our Cruze is outstanding , even after running 40k Kilometers they look good for another 10-15 k kilometers , the problem is that if i go for Michelins i'll have to get a 15 inch rim but if i go for Yokohama i'll get a much better looking rim and a sporty looking tyre but will have to compromise on ride quality and noise.Really confused right now.
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Old 1st April 2014, 11:09   #1489
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by Rocketscience View Post
I absolutely love the Michelins and the ride quality with primacy LC on our Cruze is outstanding , even after running 40k Kilometers they look good for another 10-15 k kilometers , the problem is that if i go for Michelins i'll have to get a 15 inch rim but if i go for Yokohama i'll get a much better looking rim and a sporty looking tyre but will have to compromise on ride quality and noise.Really confused right now.
I contemplated a lot on 16" but lack of good tyre options made me choose 15".
Yokohama is your only option and their tyres are average at best (having used 3 sets). Both the options, S-Drive and A-Drive R1 are very noisy.
And the noise starts from 30kmph, it would have been still livable if the noise was there in triple digits.
I chose 205/55-R15.
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Old 1st April 2014, 11:15   #1490
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by DeKay View Post
To all City owners,

I own a VX City and while I quite like the design of the dashboard, the area around the music system has picked up some bad scratches. Even the black shiny polish has chipped off from a couple places and my car has done just 900 odd kms till now. I wonder what the condition will be in a few months down the line. Is there any way we can protect the whole area?

Can I install some kind of a protective film or scratch-guard from 3M or any other car care service?

Some quick inputs will be highly appreciated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nik_kapur View Post
I havent faced such any issues with chipping off bits but it has got a lot of scratches already. It has to be said that this was a very bad choice of material of the most touched part on the dashboard and it will look terrible in the long run.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harry10 View Post
That's a serious concern. it was my first thought when i saw it in person that this will be scratch prone. I guess it can be avoided by scratch guard but need to find it so whoever does kindly update it here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pferdestarke View Post
Your best bet on this would be 3M but I am not sure whether they have suitable material for application on this particular area. You can also try some local mobile accessory shops. They usually carve screen guards from a roll. I think they'll be able to apply it over the shiny area. But remember to choose a professional, else things may get messed up. In case you are interested in DIY check this eBay link for the roll. Hope this helps
Yesterday, I noticed 2 scratches as well and when your piano black dashboard is exposed to sunlight, I could see 2-3 more though very small and fine. One scratch is on the audio display and I'm so frustrated with Honda designers choosing this material. They should have at least picked a good quality scratch resistant panel . Based on initial reviews, I thought they had taken care of this issue but probably not. I've been using Jopasu mini duster and MF cloth only but still it ended up developing fine scratches. Also, because its a finger print magnet and dust easily shows up on the piano black console, you end up cleaning it all more frequently.

The chip off problem may be isolated as I've not noticed it yet but again I've not clocked 900kms.

I'm planning to first put protection for the 3.5" screen. Here, I would recommend to not go with the usual mobile screen protectors kind of material. I've been using protectors for my cell phones and tablets from a company called Gadget Shieldz: http://www.gadgetshieldz.in/ and they are so tough and easy to apply. The material looks similar to the ones that 3M applies as part of paint protection film on bumpers and door edges. I have one for my Note2 lying around so if it fits properly, will get it done today itself and post some pictures and see if it affects the display view. The rest of piano black console is something I have to figure out how to protect.

Note: I'm no where connected to above company but have been using their products for couple of years and completely swear by quality.

Quote:
Originally Posted by deevilslair View Post
And some pics of my red beauty...

The first one - thanking the Gods after getting the car

Second one - en-route target 1000 km, trip to Kasauli

Third One - The shining knight at Kasauli
Congratulations and wishing you many miles of driving the beauty

Quote:
Originally Posted by RavenAvi View Post
The area looks prone to scratches, but polish chipping off is new!! Not expected from a Honda, specially when regarding quality of the interiors.




+1. Excellent suggestion. One of my good friends owns a mobile shop and is an expert in cutting out perfect screen guard films for touchscreen phones. I'll ask him to cover up all the shiny black interior bits of my Empress, if he could. Will post pics of the same after the job is done.




Tyre dimensions are the same as the 3rd gen City. In the interest of FE only, Honda has stuck to these puny-sized tyres. The OEMs will last some distance no doubt (depending on the quality), but skinny sections don't provide enough grip on the road, compromise a bit on ground clearance, and riding comfort is not optimum. The latter two can be lived with, but gripping can result in a life-or-death situation.

The reason for going wider and bigger is to improve grip levels (considering the state of the roads we drive in, plus the incessant rains) at a cost of marginal drop in FE, although owners have reported that Michelins usually retain nearly the same FE figures. Riding comfort gets a much-needed bolster too, and ground clearance levels improve drastically as well.




Congratulations, Adarsh.

The 185/60 upgrade is definitely NOT recommended, as vsrivatsa said it lowers ground clearance slightly. The 195/60 tyre upgrade is the best one out of the lot, and with Michelins there is no substantial drop in FE figures either.

The best upgrade is 185/55/16, but tyre options are limited in that profile plus you would have to change your rims to 16" as well. No telling how effective that would be in the long run, plus what impact it would have on the ABS and tyre life.

Don't worry, and just go for the 195/60 upgrade. If you want long tyre life, Bridgestones are your best bet. For all other criteria, Michelins come as recommended.
I think, it'll turn out to be a good revenue for screen protector companies . Do post how it comes out to be and maybe I can partner with him for an all India delivery of these protectors

Tyres wise, I would totally recommend to upsize them if you have budget. I don't push my car that hard as most of time travel with 2 kids, but I and my wife can feel a difference in the ride quality even in city driving when we go over some uneven roads. Even at higher speeds, I did find the car more grounded to roads with amazing grip levels.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocketscience View Post
Just received my car (Yes it got delivered at 12am! ) , the dealership had to deliver 70 cars today (Ring Road Honda,Moti Nagar,Delhi) out of which about 55 were City and the rest were Amaze/Brio ,
4-Although it seems on paper that the SV variant comes with 4 speakers and no tweeters , so its naturally assumed that the speakers would be the same as V and VX variants but the tweeters are missing but sadly that's not the case.The speakers that come with the SV variant are downright pathetic and are even worse than my 2010 i20's OEM speakers! Upgrade was on the cards anyways but it'll happen much sooner now , these speakers are amongst the worst speakers i've ever heard. (was playing itunes m4a files via my ipod which was connected with the USB cable)
Congratulations. Very true with respect to speaker. I captured the same thing on my SV CVT ownership thread. Speaker change is on cards but probably next month or so.

Last edited by neel911 : 1st April 2014 at 11:30.
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Old 1st April 2014, 11:35   #1491
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by deevilslair View Post
And some pics of my red beauty
Congrats on your new acquisition deevilslair. Wish you happy mile munching.

Quote:
Originally Posted by neel911 View Post
I've been using protectors for my cell phones and tablets from a company called Gadget Shieldz and they are so tough and easy to apply. The rest of piano black console is something I have to figure out how to protect.
+1 I agree that Gadget Shieldz screen protectors are very tough and highly durable but the only grouse with them is application. They need to be dipped in soap solution and applied when wet and hence the gadgets have to be powered off for >24hours. Anyway keep us posted about this.
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Old 1st April 2014, 12:51   #1492
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by SumitBahl View Post
I contemplated a lot on 16" but lack of good tyre options made me choose 15".
Yokohama is your only option and their tyres are average at best (having used 3 sets). Both the options, S-Drive and A-Drive R1 are very noisy.
And the noise starts from 30kmph, it would have been still livable if the noise was there in triple digits.
I chose 205/55-R15.
Sumit is correct, Just checked and Michelin only has 205/60R16 for both XM2and Primacy 3ST and there isn't a 205/50R16 or a 205/55R16. I guess Michelin options wont work for your spec.
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Old 1st April 2014, 13:54   #1493
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by SumitBahl View Post
I contemplated a lot on 16" but lack of good tyre options made me choose 15".
Yokohama is your only option and their tyres are average at best (having used 3 sets). Both the options, S-Drive and A-Drive R1 are very noisy.
And the noise starts from 30kmph, it would have been still livable if the noise was there in triple digits.
I chose 205/55-R15.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vsrivatsa View Post
Sumit is correct, Just checked and Michelin only has 205/60R16 for both XM2and Primacy 3ST and there isn't a 205/50R16 or a 205/55R16. I guess Michelin options wont work for your spec.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vsrivatsa View Post
Wow! That is a big leap. You could also consider the Primacy 3ST from Michelin. Do update us once you are done with the tyre upgrade. Oh! I saw that you ended up with GoodYears - those don't yield a good resale value!
I think i have to make this little compromise on the looks and go with Primacy 3ST tyres , there's another reason apart from all these very valid reasons and that's longevity ,having driven Primacy LC in the past i expect the 3STs to last atleast 45k Kilometers whereas owners report that S Drives don't last more than 30k kilometers , so compromising on ride quality (partly because of tyres and partly because of the bigger rim size) ,overall noise & longevity just for an inch of rim size (which do look significantly better though) has started to make little sense to me and most probably i'll be going with 15 inch Michelin 3STs.

Quote:
Originally Posted by neel911 View Post
Congratulations. Very true with respect to speaker. I captured the same thing on my SV CVT ownership thread. Speaker change is on cards but probably next month or so.
Apparently speaker upgrade won't be enough as the OEM HU's amplifier seems to be too weak to drive the better speakers (my i20's OEM H.U had the same problem) , so i highly recommend adding a 4 channel amplifier as well which would make a night and day difference in the audio quality.

Last edited by Rocketscience : 1st April 2014 at 14:23.
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Old 1st April 2014, 16:09   #1494
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

In other news, Honda shipped 9,518 units of the City in March 2014! Their total domestic sales for the month stand at a whopping 18,500 units. Wait for our full sales thread to follow.

Ford should learn how to clear the order backlog. They love the EcoSport so much they're unwilling to give it away to customers

Last edited by GTO : 1st April 2014 at 16:12.
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Old 1st April 2014, 16:50   #1495
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
In other news, Honda shipped 9,518 units of the City in March 2014! Their total domestic sales for the month stand at a whopping 18,500 units. Wait for our full sales thread to follow.

Ford should learn how to clear the order backlog. They love the EcoSport so much they're unwilling to give it away to customers
Wow. 9500+ should be more than the sales of all the other C2 sedans put together.
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Old 1st April 2014, 16:57   #1496
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by rajivn View Post
Wow. 9500+ should be more than the sales of all the other C2 sedans put together.
In fact, City should be more than any manufacturer outside Top 5. Blistering performance and a definite lesson for all those manufacturers who purposefully delay deliveries to boast of high waiting periods.
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Old 1st April 2014, 17:24   #1497
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
In other news, Honda shipped 9,518 units of the City in March 2014!
Wow , that must be some sort of a record! I don't remember seeing any car costing 10 lakhs plus to have been sold in such numbers (or even close for that matter)! I had a little idea when our dealership claimed to sell 70 cars in one day (yesterday) that this must be a great month for Honda but 9500 is a astonishing number!
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Old 1st April 2014, 18:20   #1498
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Ford should learn how to clear the order backlog. They love the EcoSport so much they're unwilling to give it away to customers


Somebody from Ford working level should go up to their Senior Management and show them what horrible management skills these guys have.

Look at Honda. With their first ever Diesel engine combined with City, without even having a proven track record of the Diesel engine, they have managed such sales. This is majorly based on the customer satisfaction point that Honda has driven it sales from an average of around 6-7K last year to an average of over 12K this calender year.

In our line of business (consultancy) there is some called as Client Satisfaction survey we do right at the start of a project. One of the points in that is "What would Delight the Customer?"

Please bear in mind the word is 'DELIGHT' and not 'SATISFACTION'. There is a huge difference between these two words. We always say in our organisation that a customer who is satisfied would tell another potential customer to look at our organisation as an option too for serving them but a customer who is delighted would recommend our organisation to another potential customer over other organisation.

While FORD was able to satisfy the potential customers in choosing Ecosport over other competitors but could not keep up with the deliveries which surely would have delighted the customers whereas, Honda with the 'City' has been able to achieve just that not just satisfy the customer into choosing and booking the City but also delivering them pretty much in the anticipated time and in turn ensuring that these people who have been delivered the vehicle do recommend others to follow suite,
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Old 1st April 2014, 18:37   #1499
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
In other news, Honda shipped 9,518 units of the City in March 2014! Ford should learn how to clear the order backlog. They love the EcoSport so much they're unwilling to give it away to customers
That's quite an impressive figure. 18,426 cars in a span of one month is a great way to go. This would definitely bring a substantial rise in Honda's market share in India. I'm surprised why Ford has failed to sort out production constraints yet. Let them take their own sweet time while others grab a considerable chunk of sales and outgrow them.
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Old 1st April 2014, 18:46   #1500
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re: 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
In other news, Honda shipped 9,518 units of the City in March 2014! Their total domestic sales for the month stand at a whopping 18,500 units. Wait for our full sales thread to follow.

Ford should learn how to clear the order backlog. They love the EcoSport so much they're unwilling to give it away to customers
Thanks for the Update - I had been seeing HondaCarsIndia website since morning but dint see any updates there.

Here are some threads which give more details on the same:
1. Unprecedented City sales take Honda cars to best year in India ever: URL
2. Honda Cars India 83% sales growth for FY 2013-14, Mobilio and all-new Jazz launch nears: URL
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