[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by rkap01

Hilly road drives in this car are a bit tricky, as the front pillar obstructs the view on bends. Any comments?

I recently took my ANHC up the Uttarakhand hills. The A-pillar is a bit thick, so you can't do much except bend forward to increase visibility.

A-pillar obstruction is an issue in most cars these days; a consequence of having a stronger chasis.

[noopster]

A-pillar obstruction is very pronounced in my Swift. When I bought the Vento, was pleasantly surprised that it has much better A-pilar visibility than the Swift. Of course what it gains there it loses out in overall visibility

Don't remember my ANHC TD well enough- but as far as I recall it wasn't a big problem for me.

[Diesel lover]

Hi rkap01,

Nice ride with awsm color!

Wanted to know the fuel efficiency that you got during harsh summers, the worst that you got and also the best that you were able to achieve. Also do let me know the ways to get the best fuel efficiency out of an automatic. Do you prefer paddle shifters or drive the car in auto mode?

Now since winters have completely set in, how much average is the car giving in city drive?

Thanks

[hellraizer]

Reasons for selling my Swift VDi

Traded my 4.5 year old Swift VDi for 4L for a Honda City V-AT. The ODO had 63,000 km. I guess, this is a decent price considering how bad the car had become. Swift was a good car but I felt it was reaching the end of its good part of life. Clutch felt like a truck, Shocks were almost gone; extremely bad ride quality. The alloys and 195s did help although very marginally and not to forge the extreme and often unbearable NVH levels. On highways, I could hardly listen to the music. Driving the car in city was a big pain. With the Low idle governor kicking in every time you release the clutch pedal, driving this car in Bangalore's bumper to bumper traffic was utter chaos and often resulted in a lot of knee pain. Wife could not even drive this car because of the heavy clutch.

Deciding on the City
I said, enough is enough and started researching on Automatics. The first automatic that came to mind of i10. But the sheer cost of over 6L for such a small package turned me off. The next choice was i20, 1.4l Automatic. The dealer discouraged me with this variant of the car saying that the car was not fuel efficient. I also knew it was a 4 speed Automatic.

I decided to pay a visit to Magnum Honda during the 3rd week of November got quotes for Honda City V-AT. After a lot of deliberation and test drives, decided to buy the V-AT. Negotiated a price of 10.5 OTR. This also included Parking sensors, 3M Sun Film, Honda original Floor Mats. With the impending launch of the new city, I wondered if it was a good thing to buy. The SA advised me that the changes in new city would only be cosmetic and I also wouldn't get any discounts. So, decided to buy the 2011 model itself. I negotiated 4L for my old Swift VDi which I thought was a good price. Got similar quotes from Maruti and other dealers too.

The guys at Magnum Honda were very professional and did a fantastic job. They dint have too many choices with the car, understandably. I wanted Urban Titanium and they had that color. So, choice of color was a non-issue to me. I settled the remaining 6.5L through a cheque on the 28/Nov and got the delivery of my V-AT on 01/Dec. I am indeed very happy with my decision. The new V-AT is almost 1L more OTR in Bangalore.

My experience
Its almost 4 weeks now and I have done about 900 odd kms. Its due for the first service. Here's my take on the car.

• The ICE is very vanilla, with one line display but the Audio output is fantastic. Works like a charm with my USB stick and iPod. The steering control is so much needed when you listen to FM especially. Who cares about the display as long as I get good sound.
• The arm rest between the driver and navigator is pretty much useless. Its really frustrating that the arm rest doesn't move
• The car offers amazing leg room to both the driver and passenger. I am like 5'8" and with my driving position, there is enough room for a 6 footer at the back. Impossible with my swift.
• 510L of boot space and coming from a Swift, should I say anything?
• Car feels extremely agile in city and very easy to drive
• D-mode suffices for drive in City
• S-mode offers aggressive gearing and I haven't tried much
• Paddle shift is fun but not that useful in city. I guess, this could prove to be useful in hilly areas where you require more control on the car. Its a superb addition to the car though. Better having one than having nothing.
• The 5 speed shift is one heck of a transmission. Works really well. Like someone pointed, the downshift sometimes happens too often, especially when ascending fly overs. But that's a very minor thing.
• City average is around 9kmpl with AC On for 80% of the time. The on board prediction of mileage is very accurate. Did a full tank to full tank and found out that the prediction was spot on. To top it, there is also an indicator which indicates the current dynamic FE based on the driving style and according to me, this is a very useful feature. Helps you adapt.

I haven't had the chance to test the car on highways. So, yesterday, decided to take a drive on the NICE road. Entered the Link road (Behind PES college) and took a toll towards Kanakapura road. This is a stretch of approximately 15km. I reset the trip meter soon after I left the toll. I maintainted a speed of 100kmph throughout the drive. To my surprise, the on board computer was predicting 15.4kmpl when I reached Kanakapura Road. Made a U turn on Kanakapura road came back to the toll again. This time, I Switched off the AC. When I reached toll behind PES college, I see 17.1kmpl on the display. I was super thrilled. My concerns for bad FE is gone and with a few thousand kms in the ODO, this should only improve.

All in all, I am very happy with my decision to buy this car. I felt, at 10.5L, this is the best car that matches my requirements.

Please let me know if any of you need any specific information on the car. I am more than happy to help.

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by hellraizer

[*] Paddle shift is fun but not that useful in city. I guess, this could prove to be useful in hilly areas where you require more control on the car. Its a superb addition to the car though. Better having one than having nothing.

Paddle shift can be used in D-Mode also, and its very useful in city also if you suddenly want to overtake with good power, Downshift and enjoy the sudden burst in power and then it will return to fully automatic drive by itself.

[hellraizer]

Originally Posted by shamanth

Paddle shift can be used in D-Mode also, and its very useful in city also if you suddenly want to overtake with good power, Downshift and enjoy the sudden burst in power and then it will return to fully automatic drive by itself.

Sure, I did observe this. When I press the pedal a little more, I see that the car downshifts and gets more aggressive. I found this to be more than enough in city to overtake or when you need more power.

[Bh.P]

Originally Posted by hellraizer

My experience
Its almost 4 weeks now and I have done about 900 odd kms. Its due for the first service. Here's my take on the car.
...
Please let me know if any of you need any specific information on the car. I am more than happy to help.

What is your experience with the AC? I know this may not be the best season to judge it in Bangalore, but that is exactly my point. Even in this season, I have some times found the AC to be wanting. Especially when it is sunny (sunny, but not necessarily very hot). I have had to set the blower to 3. In my humble Alto, I never had to go past 2, even during the peak summers of Hyderabad! So I want to know if this is an expected behavior of City, or is an issue only with my car.

[bluevolt]

^^^

Honda City's AC performance is fantastic. I have driven my car in 45 degree Delhi/Gurgaon/NCR heat and AC performance was always above my expectation. Yes, it is bit noisy at higher speeds but I never switched the blower over position 2.

[hellraizer]

Originally Posted by Bh.P

What is your experience with the AC? I know this may not be the best season to judge it in Bangalore, but that is exactly my point. Even in this season, I have some times found the AC to be wanting. Especially when it is sunny (sunny, but not necessarily very hot). I have had to set the blower to 3. In my humble Alto, I never had to go past 2, even during the peak summers of Hyderabad! So I want to know if this is an expected behavior of City, or is an issue only with my car.

AC is one of the weak points of City. As you've rightly said, I haven't got the chance to really test the AC properly as Bangalore is pretty cold right now. But with my experience so far, I can say that the AC might not be sufficient in Hyderabad/Chennai during peak summer. One of my colleague who owns the same car also had the same view.

The blower seems to do its job though. At level 1, I see that its pretty powerful. Would not make too much noise and you could listen to music. So far, I dint have to go beyond 2.

[Bh.P]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

^^^

Honda City's AC performance is fantastic. I have driven my car in 45 degree Delhi/Gurgaon/NCR heat and AC performance was always above my expectation. Yes, it is bit noisy at higher speeds but I never switched the blower over position 2.

Is this true for people in the rear bench. Blower position 2 usually suffices for me and the front passenger. But people in the rear seem to need more.

Originally Posted by hellraizer

AC is one of the weak points of City. As you've rightly said, I haven't got the chance to really test the AC properly as Bangalore is pretty cold right now. But with my experience so far, I can say that the AC might not be sufficient in Hyderabad/Chennai during peak summer. One of my colleague who owns the same car also had the same view.

The blower seems to do its job though. At level 1, I see that its pretty powerful. Would not make too much noise and you could listen to music. So far, I dint have to go beyond 2.

Interesting. People in Bangalore seem to find the AC wanting, while people in hotter places seem to feel it is sufficient. Do they ship cars with different AC kits to the erstwhile cooler cities (Bangalore).
Please do keep me posted on your experience with the AC during summer. In the meantime, I will try to get it checked during next service.

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by Bh.P

Is this true for people in the rear bench. Blower position 2 usually suffices for me and the front passenger. But people in the rear seem to need more.

Yes, this is same for rear bench. I have traveled a lot in rear also and found AC performance satisfactory.

Have you taken your car to Honda A.S.S. ?

[iashishi]

Alto's AC was a chiller. Powerful AC combined with a really small car made the cabin cool very fast. I have experienced AC in Fiesta,Accent,Civic and my City and none of these bigger cars cool the cabin as fast as alto.

What works is increased fan speed. If you were used to 1 in Alto, use 2 in City and so on..

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by iashishi

Alto's AC was a chiller. Powerful AC combined with a really small car made the cabin cool very fast. I have experienced AC in Fiesta,Accent,Civic and my City and none of these bigger cars cool the cabin as fast as alto.

What works is increased fan speed. If you were used to 1 in Alto, use 2 in City and so on..

While I completely agree with your post but I would like to add one thing here. Bigger cars comes with bigger compressors than small cars. So if sedans have big cabins then they also have higher CC compressors as far as I know, so cooling big cabin should not be an issue.

[msmatic]

Originally Posted by hellraizer

AC is one of the weak points of City. As you've rightly said, I haven't got the chance to really test the AC properly as Bangalore is pretty cold right now. But with my experience so far, I can say that the AC might not be sufficient in Hyderabad/Chennai during peak summer. One of my colleague who owns the same car also had the same view.

The blower seems to do its job though. At level 1, I see that its pretty powerful. Would not make too much noise and you could listen to music. So far, I dint have to go beyond 2.

@hellraizer, I'm about to buy a used Honda City V AT(2011) model. Can you let me know what are the problem areas to look out for while evaluation. Have you been able to negotiate Bangalore roads without scraping the underbody ? Is it even possible to avoid it completely ?
Thanks

[hellraizer]

Originally Posted by msmatic

@hellraizer, I'm about to buy a used Honda City V AT(2011) model. Can you let me know what are the problem areas to look out for while evaluation. Have you been able to negotiate Bangalore roads without scraping the underbody ? Is it even possible to avoid it completely ?
Thanks

As everyone knows, Bangalore has some of the nastiest road humps. With just 2 in the car, you can negotiate most of them without scrapping. However, with 4 or 5 in the car, you need to be slower when negotiating the big ones. I personally have not felt it very annoying as its mostly 2 or 3 travelling in the car. The advantages of the car far outweigh these small annoyances. Its a fantastic car you can buy at the price point.

Some points to be noted
- The driver arm rest on the left side is useless. Its too far behind and won't move.
- The headlights are not powerful enough. I personally don't like the illumination

Let me know if you have any other questions.