Team-BHP - Review: 1st-gen Honda Amaze (2013)

Quote:

Originally Posted by amalji (Post 3088266)

And a car being light in no way means it's less safe. It's the other design elements that matter like how effective the brakes are in preventing a collision, how efficient the body shell is in absorbing impact and transferring only a part to the cabin. How good the impact beams are and how efficient and fast the air bags are.

For instance, a supposed to be tinny sedan - the Etios gets a 4 star rating in Latin ncap safety rating which is quite decent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ambadan (Post 3088277)

I agree. It is not the thickness of the metal used, but the design which make the vehicle stronger. A sheet with 2 mm may perform better than 3 mm if the earlier one was designed better. A good design will save material cost and reduce the weight of the vehicle, which in-turn will improve the mileage.

While the 'light' may not amount to being 'less safe', in a country like India, it helps to have a thicker gauge sheet as it is very common to have minor incidents resulting in dents. I have experienced this first hand with the 2 generation of Honda City's I have owned (and this in contrast of my ownership of the toughly built Ford Fusion and Forester).
It is possible to make the body panels stronger (from the 'dent' perspective) even with thinner sheet metal but the design is going reflect this (like the corrugated roof on many cars)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbokick (Post 3088474)

It can be other way around also.
With Amaze having adequate boot space, good rearseat legroom and a better driveable diesel engine people might feel extra money for Etios isnot required. .

I would wait until the Amaze pricing is announced. We are all hoping that Amaze would be priced around/lower than the Dzire, but you never know. Definitely Honda shouldn't be repeating the pricing mistake they did with "Jazz". Still, we don't know how much extra money for Etios.
If it is not too much the extra money; it might be well worth it, depending on what one is looking for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vibbs (Post 3085826)

I just came back from the 50K km service of my swift (P). It cost me 9K. Every single paid service has costed close to that. How much more expensive is a Honda going to be in long run if the amaze too has the same service intervals?
My clutch is begging for an overhaul and steering has started rattling, not to speak of many other rattles from day one. I used to go behind each rattle initially but now have left it at that. They always come back.

It is IMO a myth that Maruti cars are cheap to maintain. Even if they are, I am sure it wont be by a huge margin.

Honda has a winner up its sleeve and I have a feeling this is going to be the entry level sedan to buy. Mark my words, this will give maruti sleepless nights if they manage to price it properly and sort out the production issues being spoken about.

Great review by the way :thumbs up

That is actually high but interesting.. can you please share break up of what they did..
I own a Swift-D , Jun 2009 purchase. Recently I did servicing , the running is 52000 Km. The bill was 3938.

-Sanjubaba

I had the opportunity to explore the Amaze on display at Dakshin Honda today.

What amazed me was how Honda has managed a 400ltr boot and amazing seating space. What also amazed me was their sheer inability to incorporate the Honda quality at this price point - large panel gaps, cheap plastics, a spartan dashboard that shudders at start/stop......

I think this will work for Honda only if priced at par (or even a tad lower) than the Dzire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by subratasenn (Post 3089462)

I think it will work only if priced lower than Etios. Another three days and we'll know.

It will be priced below the Etios for sure for the simple reason that
its length is less than 4m ( and hence will have an advantage on excise duty ).

And Honda is in a better position to price it below even the Dzire because of

Own technology ==> Doesn't have to pay another company for Diesel technology ( like the way Maruti pays FIAT )
Doesn't have to pay the 5% odd Royalty charges to Suzuki unlike in the case of Maruti.

In addition, Honda must take control of the market from day 1. Pricing is of utmost importance. I dearly hope that better sense prevails with Honda management.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ambadan (Post 3087160)

may be I am comparing apple and orange.

Amaze engine (diesel) 1500cc, power 99 BHP @ 3600 rpm, torque 200 @ 1750 rpm, weight 950
Renault Duster (85ps) 1461cc, power 85 BHP @ 3750 rpm, torque 200 @ 1900 rpm, weight 1758
Renault Duster(110ps) 1461cc, power 110 BHP @ 3900 rpm, torque 248 @ 2250 rpm, weight 1781

I found amaze engine much better than duster's. Since i have not test drive amaze, i can not comapre the performance.

There is a small error here. The 1758 and 1781 kgs on Duster is the gross weight, not the kerb weight. For the correct kerb weight of Duster, please refer the below quoted post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amalji (Post 3087309)

I'm not sure, if this is correct. I tried to derive the torque per ton for the Duster and Amaze at low and high rpms and this is what I came up with.

Attachment 1069726

I hope Honda is sane with the pricing.

You can always increase the prices later; as Renault did with the duster. The important thing is to build a customer base first.

Also; cutting down prices later hardly ever works. Look at the Jazz and now the Sail. The price-correction gives an impression of trying to uplift a market-dud.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3082222)

Honda says that the Amaze's unique heat absorbing front windscreen helps to keep cabin temperature lower. In their tests, the area around the instrument panel was cooler by ~6 degrees after the car had been parked under the direct sun for 20 minutes

Is this available only in amaze? Is city/brio also equipped with heat absorbing front windscreen?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ambadan (Post 3089954)

Is this available only in amaze? Is city/brio also equipped with heat absorbing front windscreen?

No this is a new feature that Honda has introduced in the Amaze. You could consider this a reaction to the sun films ban and because Honda is very concerned with maintaining the almost 26 kmpl mileage claims, even small percentage increases in the load on the AC compressor would have a dentrimental effect on mileage.

There's a high chance this would make it to the Brio since the two models sharing components would bring down costs and on the City because it is a higher segment model. :)

Great thanks for the excellent and detailed review in a very short span of time. I believe the Amaze will be launched on 11th April, 2013. At first look, my impressions were great when I observed the whole package. Believing in HONDA, my first preference to pick a C-Class sub 4 metre sedan is definitely Honda Amaze.

It is difficult to put the parameters like power (100 PS), mileage (25.8 kmpl) and the torque (200Nm) in balanced proportion for engineers, but HONDA achieved this in great figures for the i-DTEC.

What concerns me a bit is the car’s OEM Audio Head Unit is having no CD mechanism, absence of Bluetooth module in top end, HVAC not present is secondary.
Boot lid has no mat. It is good to see 2 rubber beading, one on the door and another half beading running on the body where door fits, better than Etios.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yogeshnaik (Post 3090271)

What concerns me a bit is the car’s OEM Audio Head Unit is having no CD mechanism

I think that should not be a concern. Honda is actually paving the way for the future. It is high time the CD players should be gone from the ICE. I personally feel them as a baggage. Just my 2 cents :)
This is like Apple removing the CD drive altogether or more like floppy drive being slowly phased out earlier!

Saw these at Dakshin Honda on Hosur Road. They said 30 K INR was a refundable booking amount , with the top end diesel model expected to cost a max of 9.5L INR.

The blue car is a petrol automatic while the maroon one is a diesel middle variant. The dashboard and the instrument cluster feels out of place for a car costing 10L INR when you compare with the swifts. Also , I was told the top end variant would come with the same 175 mm tires but with alloy rims. I was expecting at least 185 mm tires on the top variant.

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedsatya (Post 3090414)

Saw these at Dakshin Honda on Hosur Road. They said 30 K INR was a refundable booking amount , with the top end diesel model expected to cost a max of 9.5L INR.

9.5 L OTR sounds on the higher side to me and not a price where Honda can think of challenging the Dzire.
But this has to be the best looking sedan in its segment. Specially looks good in the Maroon and blue shade.