[aditto]

History:
==========================
My wife and I bought our first car just after our wedding in December 2010. That was a White Ford Figo, Petrol. Over the next 3.5 years, we drove it all around Maharashtra and AP and Karnataka, clocking almost 45k kms, and totally loved it. The Figo in true Ford DNA, is a driver's car. Lacks a bit of power and torque, but more than makes up for it in the drive quality and high speed stability. However, things got tough starting last year when the metro construction work started in full swing on the main road connecting my home and work places (10km one way). Driving through stop and go traffic was tiring. Figo's hydraulic power steering though good, did not feel light enough and constant gear changes and clutch use tired my knees too soon. Also, we felt it was the right time to get a new car.

The search:
==========================
My wife loves SUVs and I love Sedans. Without any intention to buy, we decided to go for some test drives to kill time over a weekend in June. We tried four petrol cars:
1. Honda City iVTec MT
2. Nissan Sunny CVT
3. Ford Ecosport
4. Nissan Terrano

While we were always thinking of the Ecosport and the Terrano/Duster, for my wife, we had never given a serious thought to sedans, though I wanted one badly. However, the test drives changed our perceptions. We drove those cars in exactly that order.
1. The City felt sushi'sh, and smooth! Noiseless, comfortable, feature rich and elegant
2. The Sunny CVT felt convenient to drive, but lacking in features. It was smooth but won't call it peppy.
3. Ecosport was so cramped up after the City and we immediately decided against it. It did not feel luxurious at all.
4. Terrano was good, powerful, but not convenient to drive in heavy traffic because of the seating position and no AT option.

We also saw the CRV, but that was out of our budget of about 11-12 lacs. Somehow, my wife agreed with my observations of the 4 test drives and put the Honda City experience at the top. First battle won.

The next few days were spent in deliberating between the City SV-CVT and the V-MT. V MT came with many more features for almost 50k less on road compared to the SV CVT. Unfortunately there were no CVT cars available for test drive in Hyderabad. I went through almost endless number of reviews of Honda City trying to find anything on the CVT.
This post by Neel was very helpful indeed.. I even went to the extent of reading Thai and Malaysian test drive reviews of the City, because they were predominantly about the CVT. My concerns of the rubber-band effect and the lack of power were eliminated when I read a review that said the City CVT completely demolishes the like of Sunny CVT.
Also, of great help was interaction with a fellow SV-CVT owner (@Tandelbaba) whom I contacted over Twitter. He posted some great acceleration videos of the new car on YouTube. When I saw the CVT doing 0-100kmph in less than 11 seconds (D mode), compared to the 16+ secs of the Figo, I made up my mind.

My wife, who loves Manual Transmissions, gave in to my demand considering the pain I have in driving to work and back every day!

Without any further thoughts we went and booked the SV-CVT in mid-June. Black and Dark Brown were our shortlisted colours and we finally decided to go ahead with black.

And no, we did not try the Vento/Rapid because of the lack of features, bland looks, known transmission issues and bad reviews about after sales service.

Delivery Day
==========================
We were promised the delivery date of 3rd July by the Pride Honda sales person. He was able to get the car on that day, but it reached the showroom late and that delayed the delivery by an hour. Also, the first look I had of the car was dirty, it was yet to be washed and cleaned since it had just arrived from their main car garage. Documentation was done quickly and the reverse parking camera was installed. I took the delivery around 6pm, with sufficient light still available outside! I won't post any pictures of what the car looks from inside, as it is exactly the same as Neel's, but here is one from the outside!

Unfortunately, the rear camera + Sensor that I bought from the dealer was defective during delivery. While the camera was working great during delivery, the sensor was giving wrong distances. I anyway took the delivery since I wanted the car that day itself. He promised to replace it for me later.



Cost:
=================================
On-road price (incl insurance, 4 yr extended warranty, tax etc): Rs 11,25,000
Rear parking camera (dashboard type, with sensors): Rs 10,000
This was important because I was graduating from a Figo which is much smaller car and needed a camera to guide me during car reversing. I had crashed the Figo's back into a wall the very second day :(

Haven't got any after market accessories yet.

Oh and yes, we got Goodyear tires, and have decided to let them be If Honda has decided to put certain brand and type of tires on the City, I am sure they will be pretty good!

Gifts from Dealer:
==========================
- Box of chocolates
- 4 liters of Petrol

So coming down to the most important part of the ownership review:

What I Like about the CVT:
==========================
- Sexy exterior and interior, Oodles of space! This is really the most spacious car I have ever sat in, in India.
- Tons of space at the rear, along with arm rests and rear AC vents
- Massive boot, this is really really big, and I think 2-3 huge 32kg suitcases will easily fit in!
- Super smooth and peppy iVTec engine
- The CVT automatic is absolute fun to drive. The Torque Converter assists in instant pick up and 0-60 kmph is achieved before you realise you are there! More of this later...
- The look and feel of the car is from a segment above. Every single person who saw it and sat inside was impressed!
- The steering is great for city traffic, light, but doesn't feel insecure like the Hyundai!
- Lumbar support in the seat is great. I sorely missed it on my Figo and had a lot of back ache!

What I don’t like about the car:
==========================
- The black colour exterior readily shows dirt :(
- The music system is really good, but lacks extreme frequencies, I can feel some clipping at lower end and higher end of frequencies. The Figo's sound was indeed superior.
- Unable to locate the mic on the Bluetooth system. Not sure if there is a mic at all. People hearing me while talking on phone say that the sound seems to be coming from a distance. Never faced this issue in the Figo. However, having said that, the music quality from BT is pretty decent!
- The fuel tank could have been 45L, may be!

There really is nothing else I would dislike about this car, it is such a beauty! But let us get to some details:

Interior
==========================
The interior of the Honda City is the best place to be. Whether you are in the driver's seat, or passenger, or rear, doesn't matter. All have something awesome to talk about. I love the information display dials cluster. The instantaneous and average FE information never was available on the Figo. The blue colour is awesome, and it feels like bliss when the dials turn Green for Economy!


Audio:
The Audio system is pretty good, however I always end up comparing it with the Figo's which I really like.
As I mentioned, some frequencies are getting clipped at the lower and higher ends. I may just add 2 tweeters to boost the higher notes. It comes with basic modes of back to back playback, shuffle all, shuffle in folder etc. However, like the Figo's there is no way to skip straight to a particular song, if you know its location. There is no skip to song feature. I sorely miss that.
Also, if I am playing the songs off the USB in shuffle all mode, and turn the folder selector switch to change a folder, the shuffle is turned off. Not sure if I like this, but needs some getting used to.

The Bluetooth works perfectly and the screen even shows the song details while streaming off the phone. While playing on the Figo, it would constantly only show "BT Audio". The system is fairly easy and quick to pair and does not ask for any codes. However, I have seen a fair difference between the sound equalization while playing USB vs Bluetooth audio. I guess, it uses my phone's sound equalization when on BT.
The only problem I have is the microphone sensitivity. People who hear me say that my voice seems to be coming from a distance. I need to talk fairly loudly to be heard. The Figos BT mic was quite good. I could even whisper and still be heard!

Air conditioning:
The AC is perfect. Chills very quickly and I do not need to be bothered with it once I set the temperature. My comfort zone is a temperature range of 22-24 C and I found the AC reaching there fairly quickly. Again, the first in class touch screen looks and feels good, though it is tricky to make changes while driving as there is no tactile feedback. However, since it is fully automatic climate control, I do not see a need to do it. The rear AC vents do a fairly good job! The other day I sat in the rear while my wife was driving it, and I had to turn the vents away from my body.


Steering mounted controls:
This is the first time I am using steering mounted controls and they are pretty sweet. Be it the audio controls, phone lift/hang up switches, or the cruise control. The clicks are firm and have a clean press.

Other things inside:
Quality of plastic seems pretty good. Seat fabric is excellent and seems up market even if it isn't leather. I would definitely not prefer leather since it sweats in summer (though I've heard the VX comes with perforations). I am just a bit scared of making them dirty since I am prone to spilling things over. Also, the beige coloured felt linings below the mats seems easy to be messed up and hair + dust are easily seen.

Rear seats are awesome. I love the arm rest, which is wide and soft, and comes with 2 cup holders. There are no adjustable headrests and that may be a bit of a problem to taller people, or if people want to rest their heads but stay awake on long drives. I found them perfect to just tilt my head a bit and fall asleep On a long drive, if not in the driver's seat, I would not mind sitting at the back!

The interior light is located in the middle of the car, which is good overall, but I would have preferred to have separate lights for the rear and the front passengers.

But all in all, a very solid up market feel makes the City seem like a car of a class higher!

Engine/Driving
==========================
On various occasions I had driven my dad's company provided City 3rd Gen iVTec and so this engine wasn't new. the 4th gen iVTec seems more refined though, smoother and peppier. It is a well known performer in its class in the market today.

Coming to CVT:
This is my first automatic car. Before this, I had driven an automatic only twice:
1. The Nissan Sylphy Bluebird (2005 or so model) with a CVT in New Zealand
2. Nissan Sunny CVT test drive in Hyderabad

I quite liked the simplicity of the CVT though both of the Nissans I dorve lacked outright accelerating power.

The City is miles ahead of them, primarily because it comes with a Torque Convertor! Which means, a little throttle input is good enough to shoot your speed from 0-40kmph in no time. D mode is really convenient and pleasure to drive. Overtaking within city limits and many times on the highway needs nothing more.

The Economy mode (D+Econ) slows down the acceleration a little bit. The AC power goes down just marginally. It is great to have this mode on ones you get moving at decent speed and do not need frequent acceleration/deceleration.

I have tried the S mode only to see how it feels, and have so far in the 400kms that I have driven, never needed it. Same is the case with L mode.
The moment you shift to S mode, the RPM goes up to about 3000 and stays there, allowing you more torque to accelerate faster! It works. I am not sure why someone would need paddle shifts but I surely would not

I have not found any of the rubber band effect. Even if it was there I did not mind it because I have understood it is a characteristic of the CVT and not an issue with it. Yes you do miss the shift jerks, but the smooth crisp acceleration you get here is quite addictive! My wife had issues with us going for the automatic, but once she drove the car, she could not get her hands off it. She even took a day off from work just so that she could drive the car around the town the whole day! That is how addictive it is!

The way to drive is car isn't like the usual cars. You give in a little bit of throttle while starting from a complete stop. If you need more, you push in some more on the peddle. No you do not need to do a peddle to the metal. Even if you do a peddle to the metal, you will reach 0-100 in 10.5 or so seconds flat. Which is really good for a car like the City! And yes, if you do do a peddle to the metal, there is some revving noise, which incidentally my wife found interesting and very sporty!

As Neel mentioned in his awesome review, yes, driving the CVT is indeed like taming your Unicorn You need to know how it responds to get the best out of it.


The loveliest thing while driving it, is seeing the FE meter go up and the lights go from Blue to Green!


Something about the steering: On the Figo, I have a hydraulic power steering which I swear by. My wife and I both love the feedback we get from it, especially on highways! We avoided one very likely accident on Hyd-Bglr highway earlier this year thanks to the superior steering feedback and lack of body roll. I am yet to get that confidence on the City. On driving along the Outer Ring Road in Hyd, I could feel some lateral drift due to wind. Not sure if it has to do anything with the car or the steering but I've never experienced wind drift in so many kilometers of highway driving. Can someone through any pointers here?

Ground Clearance/Suspension
==========================
There were serious issues with the 3rd Gen's ground clearance, but I did not face any here. The suspension however seems a bit stiffer than the outgoing version, but it takes great care of all kinds of bumps! I prefer a ride without scraping the chassis over a ride with softer suspension. It does give a lot of confidence to go over bumps with moderate speeds.

The only concern I have is the sexy looking front extension of the bumper which may scrape if there is a speed bump at the end of a downward slope - typical case in the parking lot of malls!

Fuel Efficiency
==========================
Overall, so far, in the first 400kms I have achieved an FE of 13.6kmpl, where about 25% was highway driving, 25% was bumper to bumper traffic at peak hours and remaining 50% was regular stop and go Hyderabad city traffic. I am impressed!
This number has been verified by tank-full to tank-full method.

On one single trip from home to airport, 40kms on the ORR, I got an FE of 19.3 kmpl.


On a full day trip to work and back, 20kms in bumper to bumper traffic, the CVT gave me 12.0 kmpl, with a mixed use of D and D+Econ mode.

I prefer the D+econ mode to keep the fuel consumption low, on mainly two occasions: 1) When idling at a signal for long times, 2) When cruising on long stretches of roads!

The Rear Camera/Sensor ordeal
==========================
So yesterday, 10 days after we got the car, I could find some time to go back to Pride Honda to get the sensors fixed. They spent 2 hours trying out various things like changing cables, replacing sensors, replacing the display but nothing worked. It seems that they sell a lot of Rear-View Mirror replacement cameras, but none of the dashboard types. And the ones they had installed in my car was defective. They did not have extra pieces.

Honestly, now that I've used only the camera for a few days, I quite like it and do not feel the need of the sensors distance or the buzzing sounds. I have given the dealer a last warning to fix it by Tuesday or give me a refund of half the amount Gotten scared of it, he immediately purchased me a box of sweets and promised to have it fixed at my home on Tuesday. He also promised to provide me another accessory worth 4-5k in case he is not able to fix the sensors, since refunding money is a long process. I am planning to ask him for a set of Fog Lamps since they would be a decent addition to the front of the car and would easily fit the budget!


Special Features
==========================
Okay, I am not sure if others have observed this, but there are two things I was surprised to find in the car. I haven't seen Honda advertise these, and even the sales person did not mention anything about the same.
1. Hill Assist: I took the car on a steep slope and stopped. Released brake, and the car held on for 1 second before slowly beginning to roll. That much time is more than enough to press the accelerator and move up! This was in D mode. I was surprised to find this here. Starting on a hill has always been one of the scariest things for us!

2. Slight tint on glass: There is a very slight tint of green on the glass and it looks pretty neat! You may not make out if you see the car, but if you have the Amaze or Brio beside it it will visible very clearly on the City.

=========================

So yes, in short, my wife and I are quite happy with our purchase and look forward to years of proud ownership and to some long drives soon! Ever since we have got the car home, we have been finding reasons and excuses to take it out for a drive, or show it around to friends who have been equally excited about it.

Every single day my wife tells me how wrong she was about Automatic cars in labeling them as toys! It does take stress out of your daily commutes!



P.S. - I do need to figure out if I must wax my car, the regular cleaning guys in the society are doing a horrible job on this metallic black body! But I will post that in the relevant thread.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[vsk2009]

Congratulations!
Inspiring review. Wish a happy motoring with city CVT. I also test driven it and the power delivery is marvelous. The FE that you got is very good for a new car. Will increase further after 1000kms.

[malgudi]

Congratulations and welcome to the city owners group. Attached is the pic where the mic is located

[damager21]

Congratulations on a prudent buy! I must say that Black looks amazing.

Can you please upload a pic of the shift lock button on the gear lever? You had replied to one of my posts few weeks back. Unfortunately I can't find Auto transmission cars at Honda showroom near my work/ home.

Also some of the fellow BHPians who bought new City are complaining of panel gaps. Do you see the same in your car as well?

[pdma]

Congratulations !!!! .

The stock audio from FIGO is excellent IMO specially the bass and treble.
As you have mentioned the twitters may help you to an extent however its a little disappointing and Honda should have given us something better in this section , but honestly this is the case with most of the manufacturers these days.

cheers,
pdma.

Originally Posted by aditto

- The music system is really good, but lacks extreme frequencies, I can feel some clipping at lower end and higher end of frequencies. The Figo's sound was indeed superior.
-.

[Amarendranath]

Congratulations on your acquisition! Enjoy your weeks of admiration and excitement! The black is a stunner as usual. Wish you miles and miles of happy and safe driving. You will have to really strech your nerves to maintain that color. we could not go through the distress of the wait period and hence cancelled our booking. Kudos to your patience

[Seran Manian]

Originally Posted by aditto

History:
==========================
My wife and I bought our first car just after our wedding in December 2010. P.S. - I do need to figure out if I must wax my car, the regular cleaning guys in the society are doing a horrible job on this metallic black body! But I will post that in the relevant thread.

Hi Aditto,

Congratulations on your new buy. Wish you a long association with CVT SV. I would appreciate if you can post closer views of the rear cam and sensors (4?). I would also like to know more details so that I can ask my dealer to buy them and install ( I am in planning stage only ).

Hill hold? Please have one two more trials and let us know. may be the slope was light and that gave your car some time to move back? I will be happy to be proved wrong

Tinted glass is an additional gift for sure.

Seran

[Rajeevraj]

Congrats on the purchase and a well written report. Good to see AT's gaining popularity. Wish you all the best with your new car.

Originally Posted by aditto

Special Features
==========================
Okay, I am not sure if others have observed this, but there are two things I was surprised to find in the car. I haven't seen Honda advertise these, and even the sales person did not mention anything about the same.
1. Hill Assist: I took the car on a steep slope and stopped. Released brake, and the car held on for 1 second before slowly beginning to roll. That much time is more than enough to press the accelerator and move up! This was in D mode. I was surprised to find this here. Starting on a hill has always been one of the scariest things for us!

This is actually not Hill Assist as per the actual definition/way it works. Typically in Torque Converter based AT cars, the Torque Converter causes that initial pull from standstill without accelerator input, hence on slopes also it will attempt to move. Although the City is CVT AT, it does have a slim Torque Converter. So the hold you are experiencing is probably due to the TC at work. The Hill Assist feature as such will hold the brakes for at least 3-4 seconds or till you give accelerator input.

Originally Posted by aditto

P.S. - I do need to figure out if I must wax my car, the regular cleaning guys in the society are doing a horrible job on this metallic black body! But I will post that in the relevant thread.

My car is also black, I get it washed once in 10 days only and on a daily basis use the Jopasu duster to keep it clean. It is not the perfect method, but better than getting it washed daily and quickly losing the shine.

[aditto]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

This is actually not Hill Assist as per the actual definition/way it works. Typically in Torque Converter based AT cars, the Torque Converter causes that initial pull from standstill without accelerator input, hence on slopes also it will attempt to move. Although the City is CVT AT, it does have a slim Torque Converter. So the hold you are experiencing is probably due to the TC at work. The Hill Assist feature as such will hold the brakes for at least 3-4 seconds or till you give accelerator input.

Yeah I thought so too! Thanks for the explanation But it is quite helpful, and my wife and I were really surprised to experienced this first hand.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

My car is also black, I get it washed once in 10 days only and on a daily basis use the Jopasu duster to keep it clean. It is not the perfect method, but better than getting it washed daily and quickly losing the shine.

I am still figuring out ways to keep it dirt free, and smudge free, tough ask!

[shinobi803]

Congratulations on the new car Aditto!! I recently cancelled my booking of V MT in favour of the SV CVT - Mumbai suburban traffic just demands one. Would have loved if Honda had a V CVT variant but truth to be told, I don't think I'll be missing out on much - plan to get alloys and fog lamps post purchase.

The sad bit is that there's a massive 4-5 month waiting, that is just painful.

Originally Posted by aditto

Also, of great help was interaction with a fellow SV-CVT owner (@Tandelbaba) whom I contacted over Twitter. He posted some great acceleration videos of the new car on YouTube.

Could you provide a link to these videos or the Youtube channel? Would really appreciate this

[sun_king]

Congratulations Aditto. Wishing you great journeys to near and far, safe and unscratched.

Originally Posted by aditto

History:
<snip>
Rear parking camera (dashboard type, with sensors): Rs 10,000

A little eager to see some pictures of this if you are kind to share a few. I should be getting my SV (Stick-Shift) Petrol by the end of this week or early next week and so naturally I am quite quite curious.

[anilagdr]

Originally Posted by aditto

1. The City felt sushi'sh, and smooth! Noiseless, comfortable, feature rich and elegant

Congratulations on your new ride. Wishing the two of you miles and miles of bliss and cheer in your black beauty.

Oh and yes, we got Goodyear tires, and have decided to let them be If Honda has decided to put certain brand and type of tires on the City, I am sure they will be pretty good!

Not quite, I feel there are better tyres by far in the market.

What I don’t like about the car:
==========================
- The black colour exterior readily shows dirt :(
- The music system is really good, but lacks extreme frequencies, I can feel some clipping at lower end and higher end of frequencies. The Figo's sound was indeed superior.
- Unable to locate the mic on the Bluetooth system. Not sure if there is a mic at all. People hearing me while talking on phone say that the sound seems to be coming from a distance. Never faced this issue in the Figo. However, having said that, the music quality from BT is pretty decent!
- The fuel tank could have been 45L, may be!

True, your observations are spot on. The problem with the HU and BT is not seen in the higher variants.

Air conditioning:The AC is perfect.

Very reassuring to hear that.

Special Features :
Okay, I am not sure if others have observed this, but there are two things I was surprised to find in the car. I haven't seen Honda advertise these, and even the sales person did not mention anything about the same.
1. Hill Assist:
2. Slight tint on glass:

While I agree with your second observation, I am quite sure that the Hill assist feature has not been provided in the Indian City.

[aditto]

Originally Posted by damager21

Congratulations on a prudent buy! I must say that Black looks amazing.

Can you please upload a pic of the shift lock button on the gear lever? You had replied to one of my posts few weeks back. Unfortunately I can't find Auto transmission cars at Honda showroom near my work/ home.

Also some of the fellow BHPians who bought new City are complaining of panel gaps. Do you see the same in your car as well?

Hi there, thank you!
I will try to click a picture of the gear knob and upload it in a few days.

Panel Gaps, none really. Though, the front driver's door seems to be ill fitted a little bit, there is a small gap that shows when the door is closed, but is easy to miss. None other than this.

Originally Posted by Amarendranath

we could not go through the distress of the wait period and hence cancelled our booking. Kudos to your patience

Yeah we got our car within 15 days of booking it. I've heard the booking period has gone up to 3 months at the least due to Mobilio!

Originally Posted by shinobi803

Could you provide a link to these videos or the Youtube channel? Would really appreciate this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdY3...qXibLBEf2cYq6w

There you go!

Originally Posted by Seran Manian

I would appreciate if you can post closer views of the rear cam and sensors (4?). I would also like to know more details so that I can ask my dealer to buy them and install ( I am in planning stage only ).

Originally Posted by sun_king

A little eager to see some pictures of this if you are kind to share a few. I should be getting my SV (Stick-Shift) Petrol by the end of this week or early next week and so naturally I am quite quite curious.

I will post some pictures of the Rear-Camera, dashboard type in a few days. Unfortunately I need to update you guys that they Honda guys tried three different sets of sensors but all of them were giving erroneous distances and beeps. None of us could understand why or how.
Also, I have got quite comfortable with reversing the car using only the camera view which is great.

Now since the sensors are not working and I've run out of patience, I have asked the dealer not to try any more sets. Each time they try a set I end up wasting 45 minutes. This happened thrice. Ive asked them to refund me half the money, or give an accessory free. I will know by this weekend what they plan to give
I thought of asking fog lamps, assuming they cost less than 5k, but apparently they cost 16k! So I need to decide.

I will post some of the requested pics and some more in coming few days! Due to water scarcity in Hyderabad, our society is not allowing washing of cars :P You can imagine my frustration - Black beauty + Monsoon = Mess!

[aditto]

So finally I got some time to get the car washed and click some photos!

Originally Posted by sun_king

A little eager to see some pictures of this if you are kind to share a few. I should be getting my SV (Stick-Shift) Petrol by the end of this week or early next week and so naturally I am quite quite curious.

Here it is!

Originally Posted by damager21

Can you please upload a pic of the shift lock button on the gear lever? You had replied to one of my posts few weeks back. Unfortunately I can't find Auto transmission cars at Honda showroom near my work/ home.

Here:


And then some more!