[vikash49]

To start abruptly, well, I never really wanted a sedan!

Even though we already had a Habanero Red Honda City in the Family (Brother's Car) I never actually longed for it! You see, traffic sense is almost non existent here, and whenever I had to drive the City in town, I would actually feel burdened! The larger dimensions, poor rear visibility and low GC made me too defensive and conscious to be able to enjoy the drive.

I was very clear - whenever I would replace my Getz, It would be another hatchback!

My basic requirements were as follows:

1) Petrol Engined
2) Good Power (read 100+)
3) ABS + EBD
4) Minimum of two Airbags
5) Fun to Drive

On 22-10-2011, I finally sold off my beloved 2006 Hyundai Getz 1.3 GLS


I was now officially in the market for a new set of wheels. The only three cars that fulfilled my above criteria and were within my budget of INR 8 Lacs on road were as follows:

- The Skoda Fabia 1.6 Petrol
- The VW Polo 1.6 Highline
- The New Honda Jazz Select

My first preference was the Fabia for the better interior room compared to the Polo. But sadly this option had to be stroked out as I found out that the only Skoda Dealership in Guwahat had closed down a few months ago!

So coming to the next option, we planned a visit to the local VW Dealership. Made the mistake of taking the better half along!

From the moment we entered the showroom, she started pestering me for the Vento! While I was looking up the Polo, she was on the other side checking out the Vento Highline!

On the drive back, I tried hard to make her understand my logic behind getting a hatchback. We were NOT buying a lower end car by getting a hatchback. I told her how current day top end hatchbacks had the same engines, similar interior space and comfort features compared to their sedan cousins, while at the same time being easier to drive around and park in our congested city roads.

But, she was having none of it! While I had 5-6 criteria for choosing a car, she had only one - "Mujhe Baddi Gadi Hi Chahiye - Rest you decide!"

So, there goes all my prior planning and preparation!

.....to be continued

[vikash49]

The next day happened to be a Sunday, and a better part of it was spent at home, doing the hatchback vs sedan debate.

I was almost on the verge of getting her convinced, when Mom decided to chime in... "Agar ise baddi gaadi pasand hai to baadi le lo na!"

How about, getting bowled out on the last ball of the match!

It was then mutually agreed that a sedan it will be! It was also obvious that my original budget on Rs. 8 Lacs On-Road may now need to be stretched northwards a bit..

So, we were again in the market for a Sedan with following features:

1) Petrol Engined
2) Good Power (read 100+)
3) ABS + EBD
4) Minimum of two Airbags
5) Fun to Drive

The only three options that presented themselves were:

- New Honda City 1.5 E-M/T @ 7.98 Lacs On Road
- Hyundai Verna Fluidic 1.6 SX @ 8.95 Lacs On Road
- VW Vento Highline 1.6 Petrol @ 9.23 Lacs On Road

The first test drive we took was the Verna Fluidic. This car has a lot of kit and lovely interiors... was an instant hit with the missus!

However, in the 20min test drive, I really couldn't feel all of those 123horses! It definitely lacked that certain peppiness which I had felt driving bhai's City.

The other turn down was the absolute lack of any discounts / freebies on offer,specially considering it was peak Diwali season.


However, the biggest challenge we were facing was that it was 24th October already and we were hell bent on taking delivery on 26th October (Dhanteras)

We left the place and headed straight to the Honda Showroom.

The sales executive recognized me from my previous visit during purchase of bhai's car. I had then shown interest in the Jazz and he assumed I was here to see the Jazz.

He informed me how the Jazz had a new revision and much reduced pricing... but delivery period would be a min of 3-4months. He was playing the smart salesman and telling me how the City would suit my personality better and that I should consider it.

I winked at my wife and decided to play smart too.

Told him how I was in a total dilemma... I wanted a car..

- In Silver color.
- On Dhanteras.
- Within 7 Lacs on road.

And how the City was simply outside my budget!

Hearing this, he grabbed my hand and walked my behind the showroom.. into the storage yard.

There stood a Honda City E/MT in Alabaster Silver. It was the only Silver City car amongst about 20+ cars!

So, now he had the car..

- In Silver
- and could deliver on Dhanteras

The only thing that needed to be worked out was the pricing..

We sat down with the Manager, and after elongated negotiations, they had the following to offer...

Honda City 1.5 E-M/T Alabaster Silver @ INR 7,68,000/- On Road with Honda OEM Sun Films worth 6k as FOC.

I also had them change the Insurance Co. from National Insurance to Bajaj Allianz for no extra cost!

I didn't need a Test Drive as I was well versed with the City already.

Asked them to arrange pickup of Check and prepare the vehicle for delivery on 26th

I left satisfied because the car we finally zeroed in was fulfilling all of my original criteria, it was in my choice of color, was getting delivered on my choice of day and even though it was now a sedan instead of a hatch, it was still very much within the original budget I had set out for a Hatch!

The icing on the cake was the ear to ear smile that the missus was wearing!

So on the auspicious occasion of Dhanteras, we had this parked in our basement!


Sharing Parking space with my other Honda!



Took her for Ganesha's Blessing on Friday..

[vikash49]

Exterior Styling-

I’ve always liked the exterior styling on the New Honda City. It has a very sporty contour and even though it’s a three year old design, it carries itself quite well among the newer launches.

Interior Design & Quality-

I’m quite satisfied with the interior design and build quality. Though not in the same league as the New Fluidic Verna, the plastics have a built to last feel about them. I would have preferred the center console in 'faux' wood or carbon fiber mesh look. The silverfish finish feels a little down market.

We were given OEM fabric floor carpets for the front and read passenger foot weel, however we did not get one of the boot?

I would have also liked if they could have lights in the driver and front passenger foot well.

Interior Space, Comfort & Ergonomics -

There’s plenty of space on the inside. I’m 5’7” and with the front seat in my most comfortable position, there’s loads of space at the rear.

All the controls are ergonomically placed and within easy reach. The boot is massive too.

The only nitpick that I could have is that the seating (specially rear) is lower compared to my Getz and its uncomfortable for Mom to get into the car when she’s having the joint pains.

Haven’t had the opportunity to test the Air conditioner to the max yet, but it seems quite good. Only the summer heat will give the true verdict.

The center console has a dedicate switch for ‘Rear Ac Vents’ but I’m unable to locate any physical vents for the rear passengers??

Engine -

Well, this is the part of the car that I love the most. This engine just so loves to be revved. It’s got that peppiness that never fails to put a smile on your face.

This is an engine that does a 0-100 in some 10.xx secs, reaches an indicated 190kmps, and is still happy chugging along in the evening traffic in 3rd gear @ 20kmph. This is what I call usable power.

The gear ratios seem to have been ideally placed and the shifting is comfortably slick, however, on occasions, I’ve found it slightly hard to down shift from 3rd into 2nd gear, specially at reduced speeds.

Suspension, Handling and In Cabin Noise-

This is the only area where I’m slightly dissatisfied at the moment.

See, for the last five years, I’ve been driving my Getz 1.3 GLS clad with 185/70 R13 Bridgestone Potenza G3s. Combine the softer and longer travel suspension with these high profile tires, and the Getz offered a very comfortable low speed ride, especially on broken roads. There was minimum intrusion of suspension noise into the car as well.

With the much firmer suspension on the Honda, you not only feel the road imperfections, you can also hear much more of the ‘thuds’ and ‘clunks’ from the suspension.

I’ve yet to take her out for a long highway trip, but this I’m sure the firmer suspension will give me better control and grip

Likes-

-Peppy and Eager Engine
-Sporty Exterior Looks
-Loads of Space
-Premium Brand Image
-Decent Fuel Economy
-Great Fit & Finish, Paint Quality

Dislikes-

-Low GC leads to frequent scrapping of the underside over larger speed breakers.
-Poor Headlights with insufficient intensity and reach. Will absolutely recommend an upgrade for night time Highway usage.

-Poor Rear Visibility due to High Boot from the Inside Rear View Mirror. Gets difficult when reversing. The side RVMs are great though.

Other Areas of Improvement-

Lack of Equipment Levels on the E- M/T Variant-

I can deal with the fact that this is the base model of the City and will be missing some of the frills available on the high end variants. However, what I cannot fathom is the lack of essentials!

- No vanity mirror on the Sun Blinds... not even on the passenger side! Come on Honda! This is an 8L car, and you’re skimping on a mirror!

- No driver seat height adjustment. Seeing how concerned they are about safety, and have equipped all variants with the essential safety features, I wasn’t expecting them to skimp on this. Isn’t good driver visibility an integral part of vehicle safety?

Non availability of Genuine Optional Accessories-

I would have loved to pick up a Central Lock Remote integrated into the Key like its available on the other variants… but sadly they don’t have this in stock. Same is the case for fog lamps.

Upgrades and Accessories Planned in the coming days:

Bigger & Better Tires / Alloys to solve the GC and scrapping Problem.
Better Headlights.
In Car Entertainment System.
Better and more Substantial Horn.
Parking Sensors & Seat Covers.

Stay Tuned Guys!

[vikash49]

Well, Its now time to attend to the Hinda City's biggest known problem: Low Ground Clearance & Insufficient Grip from the skinny OEM Tires.

My brother already owns a City S -M/T and we're ired of scrapping the underbelly while negotiating some huge and poorly designed speed breakers in our neighborhood. This usually happens when the car is loaded up with 3-4passengers.

While this does not happen too frequently, the experience is painful enough to make me paranoid. I try to avoid these routes and needlessly have to take other longer / inconvenient routes. I wanted to deal with this.

The other day I met an old acquaintance who's a reputed tyre dealer here. I discussed this issue with him, and he promptly suggested me to upgrade my 175/65R15 Good Year GT3s to Yokohama 195/65R15 A-Drives.

The pluses of this upgrade would be:

- Ground Clearance Increase of 13mm (195*.65) = 126.75 - (176*.65) = 113.75
- Better Dry/Wet Grip (195 profile vs 175 profile)
- Lower Road Noise
- Better Ride Comfort

As per him, they have done this conversion on a few Honda City's and the owners were very satisfied with the mod.

I was very tempted and paid a visit to the Tyre showroom.

There I saw this another Yokohama wit a very sporty tread pattern. The ES100 and was inclined towards it. But was informed by the dealer that ES100 is only available in 195/60 profile and not 195/65 profile that I had planned for..

A-Drive v/s ES100 Front View


Side Profile.. Notice the difference in Tyre Height..


So, finally decided to replace all 5 of the OEM Goodyears with Yokohama 195/65 R15 A-Drives.

The Yokos were priced at 4.4k per unit and he was buying back the OEM Goodyears at 2k per unit. So this upgrade cost me (4400-2000) * 5 = 12k inclusive for fitting and balancing.


This mod would increase my Ground Clearance by 13mm and the larger sidewalls would also improve the harsh low speed ride over broken surfaces.

However, I had to take into consideration the following side effects:

-Possibility of the larger diameter tires fouling with the underbody at full lock.

To get rid of this possibility, we fitted the new tyres, loaded up five people into the car, let the right front wheel climb onto a brick (to compress the suspension) and turned the steering to full lock. With the car now stationary in this position, engine switched off, hand brakes applied, steering at full lock, a technician put his arm inside the wheel well towards the rear of the tire to feel up the amount of space between the tire and the wheel well. The good news was there was still half an inch of space there at the tightest point.

Repeated the same process with the left front wheel and the results were same there too.

So, for now, I'm pretty satisfied and I don't think this is going to be a problem.

-Speedometer Error resultant from the increased diameter of the Tyre

This issue is non existent actually with the over optimistically calibrated speedometers. If at all, this should only improve the accuracy of the Speedometer!

So here you are..

OEM 175/65s on neighbors City..


195/65s on mine..


Don't these seem to fill up that wheel wheel so much better?

w

[Cyborg]

Congrats Vikash on a great purchase!
Don't you feel good now listening to THE boss (wifey) and getting the Honda City instead of a hatch?

The 195 tyre really fills the wheel wells and looks swell as well.

Now what you need to do is change to a super design of alloys to complete the transformation.

Enjoy your car and drive safe.

Cheers!

[suman]

Congrats on your new car & I like your writing style . Hope you have fun with your new set of wheels!

Originally Posted by vikash49

However, the biggest challenge we were facing was that it was 24th October already and we were hell bent on taking delivery on 26th October (Dhanteras)

Hmmm, did you mean Diwali? Dhanteras was on the 24th & 26th was Diwali

[Akshay1234]

Congratulations on the car. Hondas really do make great engines.

Though I wish you had researched a bit on tbhp about the tyres. 195/65 is a wrong upsize. 195/60 would be the right one. 4%+ error is too much and it should be kept as little as possible.

[libranof1987]

Congratulations on the City!

Just when I thought the Citys were drying up on T-BHP, your's is the 2nd in short span.

The silver suddenly looks so good; good choice of colour.

As for the tyre upgrade, how're you finding the :

1) ride quality
2) GC difference
3) any visible odometer error

Have a wonderful ownership period!

PS : You've got the City at a mighty discount; you should splurge with a Caska; will give you an ICE as well as reverse camera

[phamilyman]

congrats!! shes a beauty! loved the getz/1st ANHC pic!!

kya dada, the last 2 pics in 1st post are undeserving of your name/fame. We need YOUR level waali pikchas - dil maange more.

[ryan_wheelz]

Congrats !! She looks Lovely. And yes the A-drives Look much better than the Originals, they give that complete look , Just get a Can of Tyre Spray Polish and give them a spray.

Any more upgrades planned ? also please post the FE you get.

The other day i was generally asked mileage figures of a person who has a 2010 black ANHC - he replied 8 kmpl in City


BTW where did you get that True Speed Calculator ?


Thanks
Ryan

[vikash49]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Congrats Vikash on a great purchase!
Don't you feel good now listening to THE boss (wifey) and getting the Honda City instead of a hatch?

The 195 tyre really fills the wheel wells and looks swell as well.

Now what you need to do is change to a super design of alloys to complete the transformation.

Enjoy your car and drive safe.

Cheers!

Thanks mate. Will keep updating this thread as I go.

Originally Posted by suman

Congrats on your new car & I like your writing style . Hope you have fun with your new set of wheels!

Hmmm, did you mean Diwali? Dhanteras was on the 24th & 26th was Diwali

Thanks Suman!

Sorry, my bad. Messed up the dates there.. thanks for pointing out.

The original sentence should have read as follows:

"However, the biggest challenge we were facing was that it was 22nd October already and we were hell bent on taking delivery on 24th October (Dhanteras)"

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Congratulations on the car. Hondas really do make great engines.

Though I wish you had researched a bit on tbhp about the tyres. 195/65 is a wrong upsize. 195/60 would be the right one. 4%+ error is too much and it should be kept as little as possible.

Thanks Akshay.

In fact, I had actually done a LOT of research on tbhp as well as other forums before going for this 'non standard' upsize. My prime motive behind this upsize was to increase the GC of the car and I was fully aware of the shortcomings this might result in.. as neatly summarized in the following post by GTO. My inputs in bold...

Originally Posted by GTO

The effects of a Larger Diameter wheel + tyre combo:

1. Better ground clearance. However you need to ensure that the tyre doesn't scrape against your wheel arch.

Its this increase in GC that I'm after. Already checked this. Tyres don't scrape inside the wheel arch even when fully loaded, steering at full lock and the suspension compressed.

2. Due to the higher stance, poorer handling & increased body roll.

Difference, if at all, should be hardly noticeable. The positive difference arising out of changing to the wider and better quality rubber compared to OEM 175 goodyears should be able to negate this.

3. Larger diameter = taller gearing = poorer acceleration, but (potentially) better top speed.

Again, I'm prepared to live with whatever minor difference it makes.

4. If the sidewall height has increased, better ride quality.

This is a big positive even if it marginally increases the low speed ride comfort.

5. More weight

Yes increase in un sprung weight is bad for handling, but this is a short term problem as I'm getting a set of Lenso alloys very soon.

6. Speedo Error

This issue is non existent actually with the over optimistically calibrated speedometers on most Indian cars. If at all, this should only improve the accuracy of the Speedometer!

[SushilBajpai]

Congratulations Vikash49. City is a lovely car. I had considered buying one but didn't, due to concerns with low GC.

Have you noticed any change in the driving dynamics of the car since the change of the tires? For example is there any noticeable difference in the torque?

And does changing the tyre have any impact on the warranty?

[souravc]

Congrats Vikash on your new City, you should thank your missus for getting you a practical car ! If it fitted so nicely all your criteria , the car was in your destiny
cheers

[shamanth]

Congrats on new City.

And very good research on Tire and height. If its 13 mm increase, so your city should never scrap even when 5 people are sitting? If this is the case this should be good initiative for all of us when who want to change tire and avoid scrapping..

[Utopian]

Congrats for the City. It certainly looks good in Silver. Which app is this for the speedo error calculation. Or is it just our good ol' Excel.
Happy mile crunching.