[althaaf]

Hi,

I know a lot of BHPians are waiting for me to break the suspense on which car i brought. But am so sorry to depress the diesel fans! Yes, its a Honda city 1.5 V AT. Took the delivery on 12th july, but due to really busy schedule i was not able compile my buying experience.

On 20th finally i compiled one complete post for tbhp but my laptop back stabbed me and everything i created disappeared. So here am again.

Now the story:
It started 6-8 months back when i came home during my college vacations. that time we realized that we need one more car. First we decided to upgrade our old maruti zen 2003 model. so we were looking for a hatch back. Diesel or petrol was not an issue as our total running is less. We shortlisted polo, i20, swift. Swift was removed immediately from list because very second car i see on the road is a swift, it was just too common and we heard the news about new face lifted model. I called both polo and i20 for test drive , unfortunately we felt the interior of polo too simple with just basic things at that price. i20 was impressive with its endless list of gadgets and refined diesel engine. But when it came to pricing, the top model cost more than 8 lak on road. This got us thinking, why spend so much and get a "small car"(hatch back in common man's term). Then we decided to try swift dezire, sx4 diesel, honda city, verna, vento. Swift dezire and sx4 were again removed due to long waiting perod and again lack of badge value !! Called up vw showroom for vento, and there also waiting period, and old verna was just not of my taste. So the winner became honda city ! Took test drive even though i had driven it before. Peninsular honda cochin was the dealer, they were impressive. We decided to pay the booking amount and
take delivery in few days time. Meanwhile i did a little bargaining and they agreed 7k corporate discount, teflon coating, underbody coating, reverse sensor and cool film (mallu term for tinting). Next day they were suposed to come to my house to take the booking amount, but due to some inconvenience from their side, they postponed it one more day. The same day i had to go back to college due to some emergency there, i was supposed to come back in 15 days so i informed them about change of plan and asked them to postpone it 15 more days. But unfortunately, i was forced to stay back in college for 6 months (Keep guessing what would be the reason for 6 months!!)

I reached back home on june 21, by then a lot of changes happened in the automobile sector including the petrol price hikes. I thanked god for not letting me book the honda city then. I started window shopping (looking at others cars and evaluating them on various aspects through my car window!) and got totally confused, i did't stop there, i confused a lot of fellow bhpians too (yessss i did it again and again!!). Hyundai had launched the fluidic verna and ford was about to launch the new fiesta. Hyundai verna was impressive in the paper and ads, had countless number of gadgets and gizmo's, new look, refined diesel engine etc, but the looks of the car and the interior space didt impress me much, i found the front seats too congested and back seat too narrow without good thigh support. These were not the reason for avoiding this car, it was the waiting period. Dealer straight away told 6 month waiting period without giving me a chance to talk more. Price of the top model was marginally less than 12L and this got me thinking again. Why dont i settle for a second hand car of higher class. shortlisted again! new list contained cruze, c 220, jetta, laura, altis. I started calling all used car dealers in kerala, got info about 3 cruze, 1 jetta, 2 laura, no altis and numerous c220's. c220 was removed from list as i will not get new model at this price range, next jetta was removed as we already have one. Now the finalist is cruze and laura.

Cruze: Even though i was strictly against its interior space n quality,i was attracted by its looks and engine performance. Out of the 3 cruze's i saw, 2 were maroon colour and one black. Black one was 2009 Dec model with 16k on odo and small repaint here n there. But the car was well maintained, i was happy with everything except the owners friend who was currently using the car!! He was too rough to talk to or deal with, and he was not ready to sell it because i told him that the bank will pay him via DD as i will be taking a loan. I have no idea what his problem was with a DD. Actually the owner is in states and given his friend the right to sell the car, but if he sell it, what will he drive?!! Anyway the price offered was 10.50 L
Next one was the maroon car which was supposed to have run only 16 k but odo showed 26k and owner was unaware about this phenomenon !! Car was badly maintained with lots of dents here n there, loose bumpers, crack on bumper, all 4 tyres needed replacement, even the horn was in bad condition. The owner was generous enough and offered a cheaper price of 12.50 L !

The last cruze i saw was again a maroon one, well maintained, 15k run 2010 model. price asked was 11 L and agent told it was negotiable. I was damn happy and even imagined the car parked in my garage (it looked awesome!!).
Suddenly the number plate came to my notice, it was adding to a total of "4" (yes, me and my family is badly influenced by numerology, we dont even keep tv volume at a number adding to 4 or 8!!). I had to sadly discard that car too.
My parents realized that their son has slowly started becoming a psychiatric case as he is only thinking about cars, talking about cars, looking only at cars and his phone rings just to inform about some second hand car in some part of kerala. So they took a decision, NO SECOND HAND CAR.This made my decision tougher, i had options of verna, i20, sx4,dezire,vento and new fiesta. Out of this vento, fiesta and verna reached the final round. I called up hyundai dealer, he told one base model verna with NO features is available for immediate delivery and colour is graphite gray or carbon gray all other models have waiting period of 3-4 months. so verna is off the list. Next it was ford. I called them up on 4th and asked in a polite manner if they can deliver me a new fiesta by 10th. The poor ford executive was slightly shocked by my humble request and in a polite, humble manner told me that " even we will get to see the new car on 10th only and hence it will be difficult". I thought it would be inappropriate to request him to sell the display vehicle immediately after they get it. Next i called up VW and they told one silver colour vento highline was available if i made the payment immediately. i became happy and just for time pass asked about service charges and he told service interval is 1 yr or 15k km just like jetta. He told the expense will be from 7.5k to 9k at the most and second service between 14-16k!

Its true that i would gain some amount on running expense but am already paying a premium for badging and for diesel engine and after that if i pay so much for servicing, then its better i go for some other brand. Especially because it is not a luxury sedan or something.
Even though i had tuition for my maths in school, i did some calculations now and found out that i dont have enough running for a diesel car!. eureka!! i can buy a petrol sedan, i dont know if its coincidence, but the peninsular honda exec called me and asked where did i disappear, i told that the rising petrol price made me rethink but his reply was funny "govt increased petrol price but honda reduced car price" he offered 66-70k discount and no other offers like reverse sensor, tint etc.i read the detailed report by charthom atleast 100 times more than he himself must have and that is one other important reason why honda got a new customer(charly, honda owe you commission). I was really impressed by his caska head unit and decided to have the same in my car too. Peninsular honda exec called me again and we decided to opt for an 1.5V AT with caska unit, but sadly they didt have automatic version in stock.
Till this day i was not aware of the existence of a second honda dealer in cochin, the cosmic honda. I called them too on 7th and they had automatic version available but bold biege colour. We finalised the deal and on 12th we took delivery of our new car.

Attachment 585684

Total amount paid was 10.63 which include reverse sensor, caska hu with reverse camera and Map My India Maps and tint. Tinting was not done on the day of delivery which the dealership promised to do during first service. I was against teflon coating due to info from tbhp.

Buying experience:
It was smooth, all informations were promptly conveyed by Mr Arun and Mr Shinas of cosmic honda. They were continuously doing necessary follow up. I reached the dealership on time and saw the new car ready to get pampered by me. I tried opening the door, but it was locked! it seems they will let me feel its inside only after giving me the key officially, i felt great! (can u all see a smile on my face?!! i cant control it!! ).
Keys handed over to me and they took a pic(the one attached here), i opened the car and was so happy to see and feel it. I dont know whats so special about this car, but i felt really great. Caska unit, reverse sensor and camera were all fixed and the old head-unit was kept in the back seat. everything except the steering controls were working. But it was fixed immediately with the help of technician from emperor Cochin who is the official dealer for caska. The honda dealership apologized for the inconvenience The odo showed 28km and FE @7.8kmpl !!!!!!! At the time of delivery. The executive promised me that this will increase slowly.

Interior and comfort:
Not very well equipped interior, but clean, airy n spacious with nicely designed dashboard with simple to use controls. Leg room is better compared to cruze but not comparable to jetta (Similar comment about cruze interior by me in my jetta buying experience caused many cruze lovers blood boil, so i in advance announce that the feeling of interior space is just my personal view and few others might feel cruze more spacious!!!) Seats are comfortable but a leather seat thrown in would be an added advantage.there is enough storage space and door pockets are just adequate, there are no door pockets in back door.
A rear ac vent would be a nice addition, but there already is a under seat vent, dont know the effectiveness of the same.


Ride and engine:
Ride is very comfortable, no engine noise (thanks to petrol engine). Auto box is nice and up shifting and down shifting is precise. The availability of paddle shift is nice, even though it can be used in "D" mode if we feel the need to change, it is more useful in "s" mode. I would like to clarify that "s" mode does not indicate sports mode. It means sequential shift to be used in association with paddle shifter. Its just like our manual gearbox but only difference is that it will down shift from higher gear by its own if slowing down in order to avoid knocking.


Paddle shifter


At times i felt the autobox is down shifting too early or unnecessarily, may be a software bug! If we are cruising steady at 80km and there is a slight elevation on the road, not enough for a down shift but the software does down shifting, even if u dont press the accelerator, this is annoying at times and adds to more fuel consumption.
I haven't tried top speed and 100km/h mark time as the car is still in its run in period.

Caska HU:
Caska hu is just wonderful, the screen, sound quality, options available etc are all good.Like any other hu, the caska is also not all perfect, it do have its own bugs and problems. Important one is lack of physical button for
select/enter, scroll up/down(volume knob wont do it) it is quite difficult to select a song from the huge list of mp3's with your big fingers, you hit the small name of the song and there u play the next song! They do provide a
stylus, but it is really inconvenient to use a stylus while driving, more than convenience its risky.
Next bug is that when u are listening to a song and decided to reverse the car. You slot the gear in reverse and reverse cam video comes up and song continues to play(thanks to dual zone) but in case u want to reduce the volume of the song, you cant do it! volume button on steering and the knob wont help.You have to change from "R" to control the volume, it is annoying at most of the times. But over all am happy with the hu and the features it offer.
Caska hu + Mp my India maps+ reverse camera+ reverse sensor coasted me 51k ( its all included in total car price ie - 10.63 L)

GPS antenna was fixed on extreme left corner of the dashboard next to reverse sensor distance display.


Even though there is inbuilt mic on the HU, the installer fixed one external mic too next to the IRVM. I am not sure if the both works together(stereo effect!!)



Here are a few pics of caska in action. forgot to click a pic of reverse cam video, will do it tomorrow and upload.
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FE:
I was totally disappointed with the average i was getting. it was nothing more than 12kmpl in highways. My dad had not driven this car from day 1, it was today when he decided to try the car and so me and dad went for a drive. It was a 50 km drive not in highway but typical kerala road ( keralates and those who had visited kerala will know this). I was shocked to see the FE @ 16.5 at the end of the journey. Now i know the culprit for low average all these while was my right feet which used to squeezing the poor accelerator. So FE problem also solved!!

Pros of Honda city:
- Recent price cut!
- The car's design still makes heads turn
- Low maintenance expense
- Spacious and airy interior
- Good visibility from inside, hence comfortable to manage even in tight traffic.


Cons of Honda city:
- No diesel at this price!
- No climate control
- Music system without cd player , just too basic
- Only 2 airbags in top model
- No leather seats in top model too
- Sun roof would be a nice feature
- One more remote with key would be nice. at present they provide 2 keys one original with remote and other has no remote just a key.
- The inside of the boot is nicely covered except the boot door which is badly exposed, look at the pic. other city users please confirm, if its only in my car.

- Rear ac vent would be nice
- The spare tyre could have been with alloy wheel

As you all can see the list of cons is more than list of pros! Even then i choose this vehicle because the contents in cons will not effect the reason why i need a car. I can do well without those things too, but things in the pros are the most important and if we evaluate, pros weighs more than cons.
For example, 90% of indians can do well without airbag, climate control, leather seat,sun roof etc., but what about maintenance expenses? well this was my reason to discard the cons i found and go ahead with buying this car. I know for few people my decision to buy this might be a wrong one, but for me this car fulfills my needs in my budget. Hence am happy i brought this one.

Few days back my cars first service got over ie 1k free service. got the free tinting done, there was some rattling from inside the central console, some alignment problem etc. Everything was fixed properly to my satisfaction at cosmic honda cochin. They gave me 2 cushions as a gift too! Detailed report coming soon!

The whole review posted above is just my personal view and does not intent to insult or degrade and car model.
PS Mods: This post is not complete yet and i intent to keep adding my various observations and experiences with this car, so please let me modify this post at later stage.

[MAS]

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on your new drive. Honda City AT is a good car and with the newly introduced discounts make the car even more attractive.

Wishing you a safe & enjoyable ownership experience.

[AbhiJ]

Congratulations on the great buy.

However would like to comment that the installation of your Caska needs correction...

The GPS Antennae can be mounted behind the rear view mirror, that ways it almost invisible.

Also, tell the installer to route the reversing sensor feed via your caska, that way the reversing data will show up on your screen whenever you reverse.

You also might want to add a reverse camera. It isnt expensive and is well worth it. The display comes directly to your caska.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/produc...hu-my-crv.html

[althaaf]

Originally Posted by MAS

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on your new drive. Honda City AT is a good car and with the newly introduced discounts make the car even more attractive.

Wishing you a safe & enjoyable ownership experience.

Thanks a lot friend.

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

Congratulations on the great buy.

However would like to comment that the installation of your Caska needs correction...

The GPS Antennae can be mounted behind the rear view mirror, that ways it almost invisible.

Also, tell the installer to route the reversing sensor feed via your caska, that way the reversing data will show up on your screen whenever you reverse.

You also might want to add a reverse camera. It isnt expensive and is well worth it. The display comes directly to your caska.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/produc...hu-my-crv.html

Thank you,
Yea, i have already asked my installer to fix it behind the rear view mirror and will be done during the next visit.
About reverse sensor, it was fixed by honda dealership and caska unit by another set of techies, i was also thinking about the possibility of connecting it to caska but not many are aware of the technical part of caska. No body is sure if only caska provided sensors are only compatible or other brands also can be connected. Any way i ll ask my installer to do it.
Now about the camera, i already have one, and picture quality is awesome. pics are not updated . i ll do it tomorrow.
Thanks for pointing the options

[Guna]

Congrats Althaaf!
Was there a 'leather' option on V AT?

Originally Posted by althaaf

- The inside of the boot is nicely covered except the boot door which is badly exposed, look at the pic. other city users please confirm, if its only in my car.

Missing plastic liner inside the boot-lid was a shocker to me when I discovered it on my AHNC.
Also, the 'S' mode provides sporty performance by holding to a gear and I tend to believe it is 'Sports' mode.

[mdsaab]

Hi there!
Lovely review, enjoyed reading it very much.
and welcome to the ANHC club,
as well as the AT club.
We too had gone in for a BB V AT recently.
You had quite a long journey and mostly diesel in mind, but still ended up with the ANHC and AT at that. I think it speaks volumes about the appeal of this car, and that if honda prices their products right, there is still a huge demand for them.
Wishing you many miles of joyful motoring with your beauty!
Drive Safe!

[amitwlele]

Congrats althaaf. The color looks fabulous. FE of 16.5 in AT is amazing

Honda discounts is surely working well. 2 of my office colleagues are upgrading from a hatchback to guess what - City. Major reasons for opting for Honda - Discounts and long waiting period for Vento. Honda Reliability is the added bonus.

[RemingtonSteele]

Congrats Dude! Welcome to Honda Club!! You just chose a GEM of a machine and best AT in its class!!!
IMO the paddle shift is the real fun to drive in "S" mode.

Enjoy the ride and wish you happy miles - Drive Safely.

[noopster]

althaaf, fantastic narration of your buying experience and do keep updating this thread. We have a small but fanatical gang of AT users on the forums, welcome to the dark side .

A couple of observations:

• Yours is the second ANHC V-AT in bold beige on the forums in recent times, after mdsaab's.
• Sorry to hear that you lost your entire ownership experience after typing it up the firs time. I highly recommend you use Assembly Line feature- it's quite awesome!
• Vento cost of ownership is about 10K a year in routine servicing. I didn't understand what you said about second service at 14-16K km. Service interval recommended is 15,000 km/1 year so your second service would only be after 2 years/30K.
• The used Cruze would probably have been a good option to explore if it were not for your numerological constraints. Interestingly the number 4 is considered unlucky in Chinese culture since it is a homonym (sounds like) "death". But 8 is considered super-lucky! Just FYI: am not a believer!
• Loved the way your thought process worked: hatch to used D-segment and eventually settling on new C+ sedan. I do think you have struk the perfect balance eventually!
• As others have pointed out, the reverse camera can easily be integrate into Caska HU (my accessories guy offered it to me at cost, about 1500/- and it is a fairly simple integration as per him). Do get it done, it will complete your setup nicely.
• You are right about S being sequential and no sport in the ANHC. It is to enable the paddle shifts. Have fun with that- makes you feel just like an F1 driver eh?

Keep posting!

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by noopster

althaaf, fantastic narration of your buying experience and do keep updating this thread. We have a small but fanatical gang of AT users on the forums, welcome to the dark side .

A couple of observations:

• Yours is the second ANHC V-AT in bold beige on the forums in recent times, after mdsaab's.

nothing this guy does not notice.

• Sorry to hear that you lost your entire ownership experience after typing it up the firs time. I highly recommend you use Assembly Line feature- it's quite awesome!

actually a very good suggestion. it is very useful and as Noops put it quite awesome

• Vento cost of ownership is about 10K a year in routine servicing. I didn't understand what you said about second service at 14-16K km. Service interval recommended is 15,000 km/1 year so your second service would only be after 2 years/30K.
• The used Cruze would probably have been a good option to explore if it were not for your numerological constraints. Interestingly the number 4 is considered unlucky in Chinese culture since it is a homonym (sounds like) "death". But 8 is considered super-lucky! Just FYI: am not a believer!

Not a believer and yet you know so much. Was impressed about your knowledge of the Chinese. you were spot on.

• Loved the way your thought process worked: hatch to used D-segment and eventually settling on new C+ sedan. I do think you have struk the perfect balance eventually!

Perfect indeed!

• As others have pointed out, the reverse camera can easily be integrate into Caska HU (my accessories guy offered it to me at cost, about 1500/- and it is a fairly simple integration as per him). Do get it done, it will complete your setup nicely.

Wait a minute, does this mean that Caska has been installed in Fraulein?

• You are right about S being sequential and no sport in the ANHC. It is to enable the paddle shifts. Have fun with that- makes you feel just like an F1 driver eh?

Not only the paddle shifts. But if you select S without tugging on the paddles. It's still fully AT and the shift pattern turns more aggressive holding onto the gears longer before shifting up.
Keep posting!

Hey Noops, Dark side indeed! It's good to be Noops spokesperson.
He composes a FAB post, i comment and end up looking good in the bargain. A win win for me then.

[AbhiJ]

Originally Posted by althaaf

Thanks a lot friend.



Thank you,
Yea, i have already asked my installer to fix it behind the rear view mirror and will be done during the next visit.
About reverse sensor, it was fixed by honda dealership and caska unit by another set of techies, i was also thinking about the possibility of connecting it to caska but not many are aware of the technical part of caska. No body is sure if only caska provided sensors are only compatible or other brands also can be connected. Any way i ll ask my installer to do it.
Now about the camera, i already have one, and picture quality is awesome. pics are not updated . i ll do it tomorrow.
Thanks for pointing the options

Mine was one of the first Caska units installed in India via Official Channels.

All sensors themselves are compatible... the sensor box ... might have to be switched to Caska's own unit.

Have you taken the Camera Output into your Caska. If yes otherwise do so.

[mkpiyengar]

congrats, althaaf on your purchase. Enjoy the drive .
BTW, you already have a VW in your garage?

cheers.

[charthom]

@altaaf,

Heartiest Congratulations on the wonderful chariot!Welcome to the Honda club and the AT cult.

Very good review of a very good car!! Glad that you too opted for the AT version- As Noopster narrated the Dark Group- but a funny group I must admit for the initial hitches we had while coming in terms with the AT shift Do you feel like downshifting/upshifting your auto impulsively? Or are you an expert in Auto already?

Your report is very balanced and detailed. Of course your promise of further elaboration is adding more hopes.

As you have stated,better and more photos would have been welcome. Please add them- with interior ones too.

What other accessories are you planning? 3D Kagu mats? Leather seat covers are 9000/- odds at Honda I believe.

Good that you too have opted for Caska-and great that you got it for 4000/- lesser than me.

altaaf-will reply in detail later on. Please do the favour of adding details and keep the thread alive.

Fellow BHPians,

one more ANHC- an AT at it! Bold beige,to mdsaab's delight!! What a great feeling!!

[vb-saan]

Congratulations Altaaf! Another BB City in the forum

And thanks for the excellent review.

In the negatives, you mentioned ‘Only 2 airbags in top model’. That’s quite standard in this segment (maybe the Verna top variant is an exception), and Honda provide the same set of safety features across all markets. IMHO, Honda is one of the safest among the Asian players.

Question on this point: “No leather seats in top model too”. IIRC, Charthom and Mdsaab had factory fitted leather seats in their UT and BB respectively. Is this something they have omitted along with the price cut?

[crackparag]

Congratulations Altaaf.. I too have booked a Honda City (VMT- Leather) recently and the timing of your thread is just impeccable for me. Will be following this thread closely.

Cheers!