Team-BHP - Honda Elevate Review

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Originally Posted by TorqueIndia (Post 5637495)

Hey , Happy motoring on your brand new machine, got few CVT specific questions as follows.

*Can you check the engine RPM at 90/100/110/120 kmph?
*Does this Honda comes with an ECO mode ? Normally HONDA provides one ECO mode with lower power & AC.
*How's the music system on VX variant with 6 speakers ?

TIA

Did push the car to 120 kmph yesterday. The rpm was 3100-3200, still felt stable and smooth. I did not note the rpm range for lower speeds. Also The earlier unpleasant grunts above 2.5k rpms either have softened a bit or I have gotten used to it. Kind request for new buyers to record the engine noise/grunt at start and at 1k kms for a good evaluation/measurement.

There is no eco mode in the Elevate! This was addressed earlier in the posts after the initial review but should be highlighted for anyone who is interested to buy assuming it is there. Did my second tank fillup and got a 9.2 kmpl reading (10.1 kmpl earlier) as it was used more in the city. (I set 26 degrees as default and use auto AC mode)

Could we set AC up in a way that it starts automatically after a minute of engine start? The blower starts when the engine is turned on but not the AC.

Music system is good for the front row, rear passengers have mentioned it is okay.

One odd thing noticed is that playing music through wired Android auto sounds better and louder than wireless AA/bluetooth. Additionally if I try use the earlier wired AA device through wireless AA it doesn't do it automatically and have to manually enable AA through the settings everytime (connects to Bluetooth automatically though). Could be a limitation of the cheaper 8 inch head unit.

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Originally Posted by mayjay (Post 5623953)

Overall, the Seltos felt more refined than the Elevate, and though it is priced higher by Rs 60k, seemed to be good value for money. If you are slightly on the taller side, the Seltos will definitely feel more comfortable.
Where the Elevate could make up the gap is probably with the ADAS and perhaps the higher safety levels (to be tested), which would be useful if you do highway drives frequently.

However, let us not forget that Seltos is an unsafe car and has various fatalities to its name already. You can try searching on YouTube.

Irrespective of the other reasons, the Sp2i platform for India is weaker compared to its SP2 counterpart in countries such as US, and plays a major role.

On the other hand, Hondas are known for structural safety and the Elevate launch event clearly showed the focus on structural safety of Elevate.

Personally, I always give safety much higher marks than features as I drive a lot on highways, and hence don't recommend Kia at all.

As a matter of fact, Maruti has started faring much better in similar range wrt safety compared to Kia.

Hyundai too surprised with latest Verna GNCAP. Hopefully, Kia would follow soon wrt safety but for now, it seems to be an unsafe option.

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Originally Posted by fhdowntheline (Post 5637796)

A CVT works best wirh light throttle inputs and a steady buildup of speed. However it can catch you off guard on highways when you need to quickly pass a larger, heavier vehicle which is also driving at a consistent 70 kph or so. At the time, a gentle push will yield no response, while mashing the pedal down will only create a long howl of protest before the engine summons the required power. It requires higher span of attention to overtake under the circumstances and if its happening frequently , it can be a bit tiresome. Thats an inherent drawback of a CVT, whether you use it on a sedan/ SUV or a smaller hatchback.

I assume the Elevate has the same gearbox pattern (P-R-N-D-S) as the other honda CVT's.

Best way out is to use the S mode on the highway, that way you choose the right gear ratio and engine rpm you want to operate at.

Slight compromise is to use the downshift paddle while in D mode to make an overtake, this sort of eliminates the rubber band effect that you speak about.
S mode is more fun but I prefer the downshift in D simply because I don't want to keep shifting throughout the trip.

Yesterday, I could lay my hands on the new Honda Elevate (2023 ZX MT) and was able to test drive it for about 5 Kilometers( 1 Km in the city with very broken roads and 4 Km on the highway), also sat in the back seat for another 5 Kilometers. Previously, I test-drove Creta (2023 SX MT) on the same route and in the same style. Here is what I think about Elevate:

Positives:
1.> The ingress and egress was easy and the doors had good aperture plus opened wide.

2.> The rear seats were comfortable and supportive, there was no lack of under-thigh support once I placed my ankles on the inclined footrest (am 174 cm). However, The front passenger seat could support my thigh only when I pushed it halfway back but was comfortable after that.

3.> There was ample space in the cabin and it felt very airy and cozy, the fit and finish were good. The buttons didn't feel flimsy, quite to my surprise, not even the temperature and blower controls. The infotainment system was very smooth and easy to operate, music system was good.

4.> The Engine was very smooth and I couldn't feel any noise or vibration in the cabin. The rev-happy engine when tickled above 3k, became audible but it wasn't bothersome.

5.> The driving visibility was good, the full perimeter of the hood was visible and it felt as if I was driving a proper SUV. The lane watch camera eliminated the blind spot created by the passenger side C pillar. The ORVMs were good and provided a good view.

6.> The driving dynamics was good, the steering gained proper weight at highway speed (unlike Creta) and I felt no body roll.

7.> The brakes were very good and confidence-inspiring, while I was cruising at 70 Kmph, had to apply emergency brakes when out of the blue a dog appeared in my lane. The vehicle stopped in a straight line without losing composure, also the hazard light automatically turned on and turned off once I continued moving.

Negatives:
1.> The interior was good but not to the level of the Koreans, I could especially feel this when touching the headliners and the sunroof curtain.

2.> There was tyre noise inside the cabin once vehicle went above 70 Kmph.

3.> Lack of Features; I was surprised to see such a poor rear view camera and so without adaptive guidelines at this price point, no ventilated seats nor a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). Although the latter two are available as accessories, I feel factory fit is always better.

4.> The hump in the rear seat is a nuisance, don't know if the third passenger can sit comfortably. Also, the lack of a headrest and three-point seat belt for the middle passenger is an annoyance.

5.> The foot area was small for the front passenger when compared with the competition.

6.> Not the car but the dealer network, I have no dealer in my city (Bokaro, Jharkhand). The nearest is 67Kms/90 mins away and next to nearest is 100Km/150 mins away. This is one of the biggest reasons not many in my city even consider Honda cars, they should improve upon this. Even so, Jharkhand has only 3 Honda dealers while Maruti Suzuki has 37 dealers and Hyundai has 16 dealers.

After considering all the points and weighing the pros and cons, we rejected Creta and booked a Red ZX CVT Elevate. The primary reason for rejecting Creta was lack of safety. The SA has told us to expect the car just before Diwali.

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Originally Posted by jomson13 (Post 5638731)

Interesting to see the suggestions on how to overtake. I have been driving only ATs for 21 years now and the Honda City CVT for 9 years. All I can say is that it takes some getting used to before you and the car are able to understand each other and you're able to anticipate and handle it right. None of these suggested manoevers are required; the Honda CVT (research it up a bit to understand how they have mated a CVT to gears on this one to minimise rubber band effect and give you the 1-7 speed steps) can accelerate and overtake with absolute ease on highways once you master the way to handle it.

Experience of shifting from i10 1.2 Sportz 2009 to Elevate ZX CVT 2023:

The first reason looking for a new car is to get free from the clutch hold/release hassle in the city traffic.

Upgrade points:

1. Definitely the ease of driving is there in the traffic with the CVT. Auto-hold is not there in Elevate; so just releasing the brake, moves the car forward gently, without the need for pressing the accelerator.. this feels effortless.

2. Hill-hold is there in Elevate; no button needs to be pressed, it seems to just detect the minor slopes also and doesn't rollback for some time even though the brake is released.

3. i10 has a very good acceleration in 3rd and 4th gears, capable of overtaking any trucks on the highways easily. Elevate is also overtaking good in the Drive mode, not much difference when compared with i10; Elevate doesn't seem to be much of an upgrade in this regard. May be, I am yet to experiment with the sports mode and paddle shifters more. (As of now only 367 km driven in 14 days). And I didn't experience the much talked "rubber band effect" also till now, it drives smooth for me.

4. Went to Nandi hills during the previous weekend with 4 adults and 3 kids onboard; it was a slow moving heavy traffic during the uphill encountering the oncoming vehicles at each turning. That journey was super effortless with Elevate CVT, when compared with the i10, where we had to switch off the AC during the steep uphill and use all the expertise with cluch, brake and accelerators. This situation showcased the difference of power between the 2 cars clearly to us.

5. ADAS - Just checked if the the things are working: Lane keep assist is working at above 72kmph. Adaptive cruise control is working good, but disengages below 30kmph. Collision Mitigation braking system.. gives warning while getting too close to a completely stopped vehicle, but not giving the warning if the front vehicle is slowly moving and if we approach it fast; didn't dare to go too close to check if the emergency brake really works after the warning. And it seems to be not recognising the bikes as a vehicle infront in the traffic.

I didn't feel any inconvenience with ADAS features in Bengaluru traffic as few people mentioned that ADAS features are intrusive to driving experience in Indian road conditions.

If we press the brake a little while approaching the front vehicle fast, I think it's understanding that we are in control and not activating the automatic braking; if we are approaching the front vehicle fast without touching the brake, then it's activated and displayed the warning and the alerting sound.

6. I don't remember whether my i10 has 2 airbags or none, so having 6 airbags is an upgrade; hope we will never use them.

7. i10 has sufficient boot space for us now, so it takes some years to say Elevate has just enough boot space.

8. The width may be a half feet extra, doesn't feel much of an issue during the driving; the length being 2 extra feet, no issues during the straight line driving but takes some time to adapt to the big car in tight/narrow lane turnings.

The driving position and looking around during the driving has a lot of adjustments needed.

To say exaggeratedly.. Elevate is feeling like a tank with technology and controls inside to look around, while i10 feels like a bike (now after adapting to Elevate) to look around with windows down & to navigate through narrow lanes.

9. Reliability - the Hyundai i10 never had a break down on the road till now and wear & tear parts replacement was also never felt heavy on the pocket.

Bought the Elevate believing that Honda is even more reliable based on the popular opinions from the reviewers.

10. Brand reputation - There are some companies like Infosys, Shell, etc, which drives the Values system from the top management to the on-field employees and work heavily on maintaining their brand reputation.

I thought Honda is also in the same league before booking the Elevate. But I didn't come across any experience that differentiates Honda from any other car brand till now, every thing is very ordinary and got the feeling that customers shouldn't blindly trust the brand name and need to be alert like anywhere else.

11. Service - To compare.. no issues with the Hyundai service at all and some very good experiences as well; yet to go for the first service with Honda.

12. Missing feature:

Elevate has a lot of features missing when compared to other competing cars in its segment. But I don't care much about all those features.

The really missing feature for me is the "Walk away Auto lock along with Windows and Sunroof close", which is available in Honda City.

But in Elevate.. the "Walk away Auto lock" only works.. the windows and Sunroof doesn't get closed automatically.

Overall, I can say that I am happy with this purchase till now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by outdoorlover (Post 5638669)

Hi, I inquired with Dakshin Honda service center on Hosur road and they confirmed that both Acko and Digit have cashless faciity with them and in fact the service guys confirmed to me that Royal Sundaram, Acko and Digit have the most hassle-free claim approval process with them.

Thanks for that! I have booked with Dakshin Honda. They are pushing me for inhouse insurance, but their quote is highly inflated(66K for VX MT). My attempts to make them match or come closer to the online quote has not worked so far. Will go ahead with Acko(which is 36K with all the bells and whistles)

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Originally Posted by beez (Post 5636181)

I see you are from Bangalore. Two weeks back I had checked with Magnum and Dakshin regarding availability. What I understand from them is golden brown and red are the slow moving colors for Elevate. Magnum was ready to arrange delivery of red or golden brown in a week or two, whereas Dakshin was ready to deliver golden brown immediately. Although I love golden brown on the City, I was not a big fan of that in Elevate; hence, did not pursue.

If your choice of color is fine, suggest to take a proper PDI. Also, did you see any brown car on display while you went to the showroom? if you are staying nearby, just drop to the showroom unannounced and check if any brown on display. Probably photograph/memorize the VIN too, just in case.

They have allocated me a vehicle from ready stock of golden brown vehicles. I have checked the VIN and it is a august manufactured vehicle, Should I consider this as a red flag? My request to allocate a vehicle from fresh/sept batch has fallen on deaf ears. I am planning to do a PDI tomorrow before making a decision. Will appreciate any/all suggestion regarding what I should be looking out for. Thanks

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Originally Posted by AsishT (Post 5638996)

You're welcome; wish you many, many miles of fun-filled and safe driving!

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Originally Posted by AsishT (Post 5638996)

I would back off from accepting a vehicle that is manufactured in Aug when there is a long queue of customers waiting for delivery. It should have gotten allocated in Sep max, given the queue. I would stick around to my earlier preferred colour or if it is the same colour, insist on Sep or later vehicle.