News

11 years and 1 lakh kms with my 3rd gen Honda City

14th January 2022, 14:17 by Dev Shah

View Forum Discussion

Even today, it drives better than a new Honda City. It can easily last another 11 years and 1 lakh km more.

BHPian evil_grin recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Likes:

Such a fun car to drive! I have yet to come across a car that is as fun to drive. Not even my Octavia 1.8 TSI is as fun within the city because it masks the speed. The only car that comes close is a Polo GT TSI.
Ergonomics are excellent. Nobody does ergonomics as well as Honda. A meaty steering wheel, rounded indicators stalks, perfectly contoured and placed armrest, comfortable seats with fixed but comfortable lumbar support.
Extremely reliable. The only times it has failed to start are when the battery died or when it ran out of petrol. Neither being it's fault.
Highly durable. I expect this 11 year old car to outlast my 2 year old Octavia.
Low maintenance. Since parts don't fail easily, they don't bump up your maintenance costs.
Massive boot. My wife doesn't travel light. My car doesn't complain.
Beautiful looks. Even a decade on, it's still the best looking city and among the best looking cars on the road.
Chiller of an A/C. On two blue bars and fan speed 3 it can outcool my Octavia on full A/C.
High mileage. Easily gets 13 km/l in the city and 16 on the highway. And that doesn't drop drastically if I push it - unlike turbo petrols of today.
Dislikes:

Low ground clearance. This car scrapes almost every speed breaker. While it doesn't do any harm to the car, it is gut wrenching to hear. This is the only big disadvantage this car has. And probably has damaged city owners psyche so much that most of them bought an SUV as their next upgrade. Of course, I'm an exception.
Light build quality.
Noise insulation isn't great.
Can't go above 100km/hr with confidence.
Rubbish tyres: Goodyear Assurance.
Skinny tyre size: 175/65 R15.
No auto lock when car picks up speed.
Suspension isn't very comfortable over bad roads.
5k km or 6 month service intervals.

Wanting a car:

The year was 2012. I had just got into Microsoft, Hyderabad. And my dad had bought his first car in India, the Ritz. The last time we owned a car was back in the early 90's in the US: A Datsun 210 and later, a Buick Century. I found driving a car thoroughly enjoyable. The last time I enjoyed a vehicle so much was back in 2000 when I was learning to ride a two wheeler.

Microsoft has an internal email distribution list called hyd-chat. Among other things, people keep posting ads on cool stuff they're selling. And those who are relocating to the US post ads on cars that they'd like to transfer leases of. This hyd-chat was as addictive then as Amazon is today. So it was decided, I was going to buy a car.

Microsoft, like some other companies has a car lease policy. You could lease a new car of your choice, constrained only by the Flexi pay portion of your salary. The benefit would be that the lease EMI (both principal and interest) would be tax deductible. So would any maintenance (service, fuel, repairs, insurance, tyres etc) and driver salaries (up to 1.8 lakhs a year each). At the end, you pay the residual value (25% of OTR for a 4 year lease) The catch is that you have to stay in Microsoft for the lease duration (3, 4 or 5 years decided at the beginning) otherwise you'd have to break the lease, transfer it to someone else or transfer it to the next company you join (provided they have a car lease policy). The first two were huge loss making propositions and the last was extremely unlikely given the low number of companies in India that you would want to switch from Microsoft that provide a car lease policy. Given, that I planned to stay at Microsoft at least that long, this clause didn't matter. Also the interest rates of the leases were higher than car loans.

Affording a car:

Like any self-respecting Indian, I love good deals. My calculations said that among all options of acquiring a car, the best option was taking a lease transfer of around a 2 year old car that was originally on a 4 year lease. Here's why:

The first lessee absorbs a lot of the depreciation hit.
You get an almost new car.
You can still save tax for 2 years.
You only have to commit to stay at your company for 2 more years.
The first lessee would have added all necessary accessories like sunfilms, floor mats, headlight bulb upgrades.

Which car:

Now comes the question. Which car. Now, I was a noob (gaming parlance for newbie) when it came to cars. And I didn't know any car expert back then. So I took the safe route. Buy only popular cars. I didn't mean Marutis, because I despised their low quality. There were two popular cars I had shortlisted. The i10 and the Honda City. Yeah, two totally different segments. The i20 hadn't been launched yet and the Duster was a newly launched unproven product in a newly carved out segment.

A special mention of the Honda City. When the 3rd generation came out in 2008, I was in love. Such a beautiful car! I promised myself that one day, if I'll be able to afford it, I'll buy it. I had just graduated college back then so the only vehicle I could afford was a bike.

The hunt:

In the morning, I saw an ad in hyd-chat for a 2 year old i10 that was up for lease transfer. By evening, I decided that I wanted it. But by the time I reached out to the person, I was aghast to find someone had already taken it. When I set out to do something, I get frustrated when I'm not able to do it. Add to that loss aversion. My (then) girlfriend consoled me saying there might be something better in store for you.

So when the next ad came up in hyd-chat for a 22 month old, 19k+ km run Honda City V MT that was up for transfer, I jumped on it immediately. But I didn't have to. Turns out even though most Microsofties could afford Honda Citys (C1), the fastest moving cars were in the i10 segment (B1). I found that odd. Maybe, they were prioritizing buying apartments?

Anyway, I checked out the car. It was in excellent condition, except for a minor scratch on a C pillar which the lessee couldn't stop beating himself about. He had done a 20k major service at 19k itself. That demonstrated how well he'd have kept the car. He was transferring the lease because he was relocating to Bangalore. I took it for a test drive. My only previous car driving experience being a Ritz, the City felt much more premium. 'Makhhan' is the best way to describe it. I said I'd need to get it checked by the authorized service centre to which he agreed. Since we were in the same company, even though he didn't know me, he allowed me to take it by myself. The service advisor quoted some 6k for a thorough checkup. Given that it was only a 2 year old Honda that was super well taken care of, I didn't feel the need to do such an expensive check. Even though in hindsight, nothing turned out to be wrong with the car, not doing the check was a mistake. 6k is nothing compared to 7 lakhs. I asked him to take it for a spin and tell me what he thought. He did and said the car was in perfect nick.

I made an offer of lease transfer (i.e. I'll pay for the rest of the EMIs + residual value) plus 20k rupees because the car was kept in such a good condition. To my surprise, he agreed straightaway without any negotiation. I loved good deals but was bad at bargaining. I thought I could have quoted without the 20k rupees he'd have still agreed. That bugged me for a few days until I realised that one shouldn't hesitate in paying well for a well kept car. And a 20k difference for a 7 lakh car makes no difference.

The ownership:

Early on, I had tried to push the car hard. Two things happened. There was a kickoff of the rev limiter which scared me into thinking I'm abusing the car. And the car skidded if there was a little dirt or water on the road or if I braked hard at a turn. That plus my friend telling me to drive it without revving too much to increase economy made me drive it like an uncle for many years. Don't judge me. I was a noob.

At one of the services, the SA tried to sell me the extended warranty and RSA. I just laughed at him. Such was the trust in the Honda brand.

For the first 6 years of it's life, most of the running was 9 km to office and a similar distance over weekends. I couldn't drive more than 3 hours without tiring so our excursions were limited to around Hyderabad and it's outskirts. It's when my wife started driving that the distance we could travel changed from 150 km to unlimited. That's when a new phase of our ownership started. We made trips to Pune, Goa, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and many other places. In fact, the City loves my wife's relaxed driving more than my urgent driving. After a few hours of her driving, the engine would become smoother.

GTO says one shouldn't eat in their cars. My wife says how will you build a relationship with your car if you don't eat in it. Guess who I listened to?

Service:

The service is mostly competent and helpful. But they do try to bloat the bill with useless additions like AC vent cleaning (they just spray the outside part of the vent) or "teflon coating" at 5k which you can get done outside for 1k.

Upgrades:

Like any middle class Indian, I didn't like throwing away things that worked. So I'd wait for a part to reach end of life. And then upgrade.

Tyres:

I thought that the manufacturer would have selected the best fitting parts when they built the car. And we shouldn't tinker with those. So when my first set of tyres reached their end of life and the service advisor recommended I use Michelins, I suspected he was trying to upsell me stuff that wasn't "fitting" and was more expensive to boot. I didn't listen to him. What an idiot I was.
I was wiser when the second set was supposed to be upgraded. I got Yokohoma Earth-1s because they were a good balance of comfort and puncture resistance. I choose the size 195/60 R15 on stock alloys (remember, I don't like throwing away things that worked) to increase both the width of the tyres and sidewall height. That cost around 26k. So in one shot, I got the following benefits:

Better braking, especially on dirt and water.
Better ride quality.
Less tyre noise.
Better ground clearance (by 15 mm).
Better steering feel and feedback along with a tighter steering.

My theory is that braking power is much like the throttling of a gaming PC. The way your gaming performance is limited by the weakest component in your PC (graphics card, processor, RAM, monitor), the braking power of your car is limited by the weakest component of your braking system (tyre width, tyre compound, breaks, suspension). And the weakest link is usually the tyres and not the brakes. So upgrading your brakes when your tyres are the weakest link will result in faster breaking initially but quicker tyre skid (or ABS activation). Gurus, please do let me know if this theory is accurate.

Suspension:

When shocks wore out, I wanted to upgrade to Bilstein B6 but those aren't made for the City. So upgraded to Teins suspension. It cost the same as stock (40k) but made the car drive like a segment above. More stable, better handling and way better ride quality. I believe this is one of the most underrated upgrades that one can do to their car.

Sound system:

When my speakers started sounding shrill and gave me headaches, I started off with (what I thought was) a generous budget of 20k. Ended up spending 50k on JBL components at the front, JBL coaxials in the rear, 4 channel JBL amp and a Sony Android Auto head unit. I didn't want to change the stock head unit because I loved it's ergonomics but the sound quality wasn't good enough with all these so had to add the head unit. Later on I added 20k worth of a huge JBL subwoofer in the boot since I wasn't getting enough bass. If I had to do this again, I'd use better speakers like Focals and a smaller below the seat subwoofer to not waste boot space on excessive bass that I didn't need. Or use wireless earphones instead and save a ton of money.

Minor changes:

Faux leather steering wheel wrap when the steering wore out.
Faux leather handrest cover when it wore out.
Driver seatbelt replacement because it had become loose.
Driver side door armrest replacement because the trim had gotten worn out due to use.
Added a beaded seat add on to prevent sweat from the faux leather seat covers.

Racing stripe decals:

Put these on by myself for a while and enjoyed them. Took them off when they started accumulating dust and my wife disliked them. I could have sworn that they made the car go faster. This is the only visual upgrade that I had done. I'd rather make upgrades that I can experience on the inside rather than others can see on the outside. If my parking would have been outside in a villa, instead of the apartment basement, I might have thought otherwise.

All of of these upgrades were done around the 9 year, 85k km mark when there was an itch to upgrade but I didn't want to spend big bucks on a new car.

Fuel:

I quickly zeroed on the BP petrol pump near the Lingampally railway station because my car ran the smoothest on it's petrol. And a few years later switched to Speed because it ran even smoother. Amusingly, the negligible increase in cost was balanced out by the marginally higher mileage.

Performance:

The 1.5l i-Vtec engine is so silent that when idling, you don't know whether the car is on or not. Below 2000 rpm, its silent, smooth, fuel-efficient. Above 2000 rpm is when it's true colour comes out. It starts making rumbling noises, goes fast and is a thrilling experience. It was one of the few mainstream cars back in 2008 that could do 0-100 in 10 secs. The only time it's wanting for power is if it's fully loaded and going up an extremely steep incline like the one near Inorbit mall. The only complain you'll have is that you have to use the clutch on the 2nd gear over speed breakers. The gear lever is slick, sure slotting and has a round knob. It's placed at just the right location and has medium throws. The clutch is light and it's easy to press the ABC pedals. Wind and road noise creeps in significantly after 80kmph. Body roll. What's that? I actually had to look it up when the SUV fad caught on.

Would I buy one today:

No. The 4th and 5th generation city isn't as good quality as the 3rd gen. Also, the Seltos is a much more desirable car in that segment. But it's a great first car to buy used. Low maintenance, cheap to buy (3-5 lakhs) spacious, fun to drive yet forgiving, and reliable.

How it's held up:

Paint quality is extremely good. All it needs is a wax every year to make it shine like new. I never knew fit and finish or panel gaps were something you looked for in the modern cars until I saw cars from Tata and Mahindra.

Pundits here say that timing belts should be changed every 10 years or 1 lakh km. But the service manual says it just needs to be inspected every 40k km, which the service guys have done and given the clean chit on. Please do tell me if I should replace it nonetheless as I don't want to do an engine head rebuild if it snaps.

The interior is all hard plastic but of good quality. The seats are unbelievably comfortable. The car is roomy - all of these contributed in us not wanting to upgrade for a long time. In fact, I planned to not buy a new car it until this one's part maintenance costs became higher than half the EMI of a new car (I don't think that's ever going to happen). It's only when I sat in a Skoda Laura that the itch for a new car started. That's a story for another day.

Future:

The car is slightly above 1 lakh km on the odo and 11 years old now. Even today, it drives better than a new Honda City. It can easily last another 11 years and 1 lakh km more. Being my first car, and being in love with it, I don't think I'll ever sell it. Other cars will come and go. But the first love stays.