Thanks for the comments and appreciation.
Now it’s time for the report that you have all been waiting for.
We started from Sheraton Rajputana Hotel in Jaipur at 8:30am in the City automatic(car no 1), the one I had my eyes set on.
My friend in CNBC was in the driving seat as he had a short video to be completed. So with the camera man in the Innova, we set off through the densely packed streets of Jaipur. Later I thought it would be wise for me to climb into the Innova to click some motion pics and did so. In a few minutes, he was done with the remaining part of his video shoot and I was in the driver’s seat.
Honda officials said that these four cars we had for today were among the first pre-production models in the country. The production of the city commences by the end of October and units will reach showrooms by around November. It will be these four cars( and may be three more) that goes for regional launches and dealer familiarisation. So the job that lay in front of me was to bring the car to Delhi in one piece.
I started off in the D mode. The instant throttle response was a boon in thick traffic. The car zipped forward with enthusiasm right from the idle rpm with barely a hum present in the cabin. Making progress through gaps was easy but soon we were crawling and I found it an ideal time to test the capabilities of the music system.
Review of the music system
Like I said the controls are akin to that of the ipod. The interface is simple and the buttons are well laid out. You have a knob at the centre with the volume control and selector button. Push it on and it comes on. Push again and you get the folder list. Push one more time and you get the track list.
We plugged in someone's pendrive and scrolled through the folder list and tracks and located the song “Summer of sixtynine”, a song which my ears are quite familiar with and hence a good point to start with. The equaliser comes with several presets like Energy, and three other names which I dont remember anymore. One of the preset modes was specifically meant for MP3, and is said to improve the quality of the music which is lost in the compression by the format. It also features the SVC(speed sensitive volume control) as in the Civic, which automatically raises the volume with speed of the vehicle. But as on the Civic the response is low and you often end up adjusting the volume after you have done that overtaking manoeuvre and settled down to normal speeds.
In the new city, the rear speakers, which are about the size of the front ones, are located in the rear doors rather than on the rear parcel shelf. This I believe has improved the imaging to an extent but you know how good factory fitted music systems can be. I’m no proper audiophile to comment on the quality of the music, but I must say I was quite impressed. I toyed around with the fader controls and found that the front speakers offer decent bass while the rear ones lag a little behind. The trebles were not so high and the vocals were pleasingly loud. Overall the music quality was quite commendable.
Back to driving
With the traffic now cleared it was time to floor it. I stuck the tranny in S mode. With the pedal pushed to the carpet, the VTEC engine got singing. The throttle felt a bit more responsive(and jerky when you take your foot off) than before(again Civic comes to mind) and every prod is accompanied by a push on your back. I used the paddle to stuck it in 2nd gear and kept the pedal down. 3000rpm…4000rpm…5000rpm and the engine note turned to a beautiful snarl. Frankly, it is no match for the old Hyper 16 VTEC or the normal 1.5 engine and gets a bit buzzy around the top end. But compared to the previous VTEC, this one is brilliant. There is more life at around 5000rpm and it revs beyond that with even more eagerness. The smoothness is impressive as is the lack of noise at low revs. Power begins tailing off as you cross say 6500rpm, but the beauty of the paddle shift gearbox lets you hang on to the same gear(the Civic box too) for some more time until you hit the rev limiter at7000rpm. The rev limiter seems a bit too harsh and puts the engine back to 6500rpm before revs soar and the limiter intervenes again. By this time I was doing 100-110kmph.
The paddle shifts are engaged with good precision and downshifts were faster too. The response is quite good when you downshift and it can do two shifts at a time. The autobox in the new City, like the one in the Accord A/T is a generation newer than the Civic’s, I was told.
As regards to acceleration, we didn’t have the timing equipments with us, but I expect the City to be a seriously fast machine. With just 40kgs over the old City VTEC and an additional 16bhp and seemingly shorter gearing in the first two gears, expect the City to do a 0-100kmph run in approximately 10seconds. The magic of the old City is somewhat back in a modern form.
But it’s not all about perfection. The City somewhat struggles to get from 100kmph to 120kmph and this was more pronounced when we had a whole complement of passengers and camera equipments. Anothe problem was that the rear suspension seems to squat down when the car is loaded as is evident in some photographs.
The stability is great as speeds rise. The steering which was on the lighter side in the city roads felt heavy on the highway in nearly the same way a good steering should. There was no hint of nervousness even when changing lanes at triple digit speeds. I saw 150kmph coming up from time to time but it felt more like 120kmph. You dont get the excitement of going faster than you really are, say in a Fiesta 1.6 but it is still fun. It is more like a Civic only thinner and slightly more manageable. The handling is pretty good despite some amount of body roll but the directness of the steering and the agility of the chassis makes it a hoot to drive. Sadly the road was fairly straight and I cant wait to take one to the hills for a full test of the handling
Braking felt safe with ABS but the lack of disc at the rear is sad, especially when you consider that the previous version VTEC had that. The car tracks fairly straight under harsh braking and feels secure but the vibration that filters in is a bit on the higher side. Honda said that this would be reduced in the production versions.
On the highway these 175 tyres didn’t feel like running out of grip but extreme cornering would get them screaming for sure.
The ride quality is acceptable. Small ridges and bumps do make their presence felt but overall it is quite comfy. It is the sound that filters into the cabin, when you encounter a major pothole, that disturbs you more than the jolting caused by it. For a japanese car, there is the typical 'cracking sound' rather than the 'thud' in European cars when you hit a pothole. As for the ground clearance, even with full load, we couldn’t find a speedbreaker anywhere where we could scrape the underbelly of the car and sadly, off roading was out of question
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The rear has somewhat grown on me...wait a second, i didnt have any complaints; i only said it could have been designed better
The red car I drove today is the top end version and is distinguished by the body coloured beeding on the bumpers and the sides. Inside, the door sills have metallic scuff plates with the name City, illuminated in blue colour(my appologies as the photo shows it white, somehow), like in the Accord.
The door pads are finished poorly in a single shade of ‘greige’ ( Honda speak for grey-beige combo..phew)-texture and look similar to that of the Logan. There is simply a strip of black plastic to break the monotony while the fabric trim goes unnoticed.
This gearlever doesn't look very well finished either, does it?
The AC knobs look decidedly downmarket and do not make good impression on a Rs.10lakh car.
It has a rough edge here where the bare metal shows as if like in an unfinished product. Looks worser in silver which is more visible. Could have been concealed behind a plastic piece like the front wheel arches.
There will be this option pack on sale which has front &rear bumper attachments, fog lamps, a tiny lip spoiler on the boot as well as side skirting.
Looks smashing front front, doesn't it?? It's even better in flesh.
Easily the best mid sizer, ever!!!!