Sorry for the lack of updates, guys. I was completely tied up with March Closing work till yesterday.
Anyway, I found a lot of time to spend with Empress since yesterday evening, when I got the remaining film-covering work done for all the interior glossy-black sections - area on and around the Head Unit & ORVM buttons-panel on the right side of the steering.
Today morning I got up early and spent almost 2 hours inspecting my i-DTEC inside and out, and while almost all of the features have been covered by
GTO in his fantastic official review, I'll see if I can post a few separate observations from my side.
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Empress is a throttle-less Automatic!
No seriously, I had a chance to fully test out my observation from last week when I had reported that Empress moves forward smoothly without any throttle input when slotted into the 1st gear. I drove into an empty straight road and tested this in all gears, and these are my findings:
1st gear - about 8-9 kmph, RPM @ 1000.
2nd gear - about 17-18 kmph, RPM @ 1000.
3rd gear - about 25-27 kmph, RPM @ 1100.
4th gear - about 35-36 kmph, RPM @ 1100.
5th gear - about 42-43 kmph, RPM @ 1200.
6th gear - slowing down smoothly, RPM steadying @ 1000.
No jerkiness and sudden thrusts forward were experienced in any gearshifts upward/downward. The ECU of Empress must have taken over, and at the optimum throttle-less speeds of all gears, the green indicators on either side of the ODO glowed brightly. Mind you, small inclines meant the speeds went down, but there was absolutely no jerking or stalling.
I think this is one of the main reasons why Empress doesn't stall/jerk when slowing down over speed-breakers in the 2nd gear, and simply moves forward with a tap on the throttle.The i-DTEC has been finetuned magnificently by Honda engineers.
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Fixed armrest is a pain.
Sit down in the driver's seat and adjust it according to your comfort, and the armrest feels too far back! I recall that during my drive home from Raipur, I never once felt the armrest below my elbow. It's certainly useless for shorter drivers who like to drive by sitting close to the steering wheel. You have to be tall and a really laid-back driver, with the driver's seat set nearly 3/4ths of the way back, to be able to rest your left elbow on the armrest and make any use of it's comfort. If you are using the driver seat height adjustment to go higher, the armrest again falls short of any real use.
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Steering rake adjustment not optimum.
The 3rd-gen City had much better adjustment range, IMO. The rake adjustment at it's lowest setting is completely useless, even for the shortest of drivers. I have to keep it all the way up and still it eats into my view of the top part of the speedo. The steering unit itself is pretty heavy, and the rake adjustment lever is too far down, which makes this adjustment a real exercise.
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Limited headroom for rear passengers.
There's dollops of arm/leg/shoulder space in the rear no doubt, but headroom is slightly lesser for taller passengers due to the sloping roofline. Going over speed-breakers can result in head bumping into the roof on the inside. For shorter people (<5'5"), this is no problem.
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Who designed that rear parcel tray?!
The high-placed parcel tray absolutely eats through all of the driver's rear display through the IRVM. I am using just the camera's display + the two ORVMs while reversing, and the IRVM has become almost 50% ineffective. The integrated head rests of the rear seat have become useless now, and Honda should have given adjustable rear head rests now that they have "bumped up" the rear parcel tray.
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Rear AC vents throw lesser air than the front vents.
Even at the highest blower speeds, the rear AC vents release cool air at a fixed lower speed only. But this is not much of an issue since Empress's ACC, being quite powerful, cools down the entire cabin in no time.
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Beige interiors are a real pain.
One of the main reasons why I haven't removed the plastics covering the seats yet. Once I get the nomad mats work done + the seat covers installed, maybe I will be able to breathe more easy.
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Golden Brown Metallic is a dirt magnet.
Dirt particles stick to Empress like glue, and I have to Jopasu them off every day before putting the car cover up. This color shade is not ideal for dusty cities like mine, although there is some pride in owning this exclusive-for-2014-City color shade since I was told that this is the most expensive shade in Honda Cars India's color palette.
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Rear taillamp combination looks gorgeous at night.
The bright-red twin tail lamps look fantastic in their glow, specially when the brake is pressed. It makes Empress stand out from every other car in it's vicinity. The smartly designed side indicators in the rear also add to this exclusive factor as well.
And finally, a wishlist for the 2014 City's facelift, due in 3-4 years' time:
- Lower the rear parcel tray.
- Provide rear-adjustable head rests.
- Provide height-adjustable seat belts. (my 12L Empress doesn't have this, while my 8L Pegasus had it!)
- Provide 185 section tyres at the minimum. 195s would be welcome!
- Get a new design consultant for the Alloy section.
- Get a new design consultant for the Front Grille too, while you are at it.
- Give us a 5th alloy.
- Provide boot cover for the inside of the boot.
- Rear bumper looks monotonous.
- Slightly more under-thigh support for all seats would be appreciated.
- Remove those glossy black sections on the central console pronto!
- A touchscreen HU would be great.
- Keyfob of the V MTs should have trunk release button as well, to distinguish them from the S MTs and the SV MTs. (the manual shows this, guess the Indian Citys don't get them!)
- A more discreet rearview camera placement is favored.
- Hazard Light button placement needs to be re-examined.
- Beige/Black/Silver interior scheme is a mismatch. All-black is much better.
- Foglamp section should have integrated foglamps only (like the Fiesta/EcoSport). The honeycomb grille doesn't look that great.
- Rear AC vents need to match the interior color scheme.
- Rear disc brakes would be a bonus.
- Cladding in both wheel wells is desirable.
- Sound insulation for the i-DTECs needs to be further tweaked, to bring the NVH levels fully under control.
And now for the pictorial.
Look closely - the left (driver-side) headlamp unit is shinier than the right unit. Reason? The dealership had replaced the left headlamp during delivery due to fogging issues.
Front bumper ventilation design is inspired by the Accord.
Close look at the headlamp assembly. Both beams + foglamp illumination is sufficient for now.
Unique wiper design, exclusive to the Honda City.
Close look at the taillamp assembly. Notice the pointed turn indicator section?
Look how the taillamp design juts forward. Beware of side impacts at the rear!
Passenger side doorwell contains the stamped VIN number & engine number.
Driver side doorwell houses the recommended tyre pressures sticker.
Rear door section, with space for a 1-liter bottle down below and a magazine/newspaper space (folded up). Sufficient to rest your right arm.
Naked boot looks out of sorts!
If you thought the naked bootlid was bad, have a look at the underside of the boot itself! Bad way of displaying cost-cutting in a premium sedan.
Spare wheel is not an alloy, and looks out of place.
Tools stored in a pouch?! The mind boggles.
This finishing on either side of the spare wheel well looks very, very cheap. Honda should have covered it.
High-placed/designed taillamp makes the rear bumper look monotonous. Rear reflector is placed too far down.
Minimum-maximum rear leg space. You can stretch, stretch some more, and then stretch again!
Rear leg space with driver's seat adjusted according to my 6'0" frame.
Floor hump isn't much of a problem for the 5th occupant, unlike some other cars.
ORVMs only fold halfway inwards. Not ideal for squeezing through tight gaps.
Driver side door panel looks fantastic in that metallic finish.
The rear armrest with cupholders of varying sizes. A bit low, IMO.
The driver seat set 3/4ths of the way back to utilise the front armrest.
Naked fuse box present (under the steering column) in production models too.
This cut on the floor matting on the front passenger side (as pointed out by GTO in the official review) is still present. Wonder what it's for?
A wire hanging out from the wiper assembly. Yep, fit and finish not upto expectations.
Driver side sunvisor doesn't get a vanity mirror, although there is space for covering that on the underside of the roof! Maybe it's available for international models only.
The headrest for the driver's seat locks only at the stalk's lowest position. Result? Headrest locked at it's highest position only! Not ideal for comparably shorter drivers.
(Continued...)