Paddle shifters are a joy to use. They feel very intuitive and add to the overall experience.

BHPian saikishor recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

It has been more than a month since we took delivery of the car. The odo stands at 14xx km, and the car is due for first service. I didnt post much about the Amaze, as I havent really driven it much. My dad is the primary user of this car and he does around 12-14km per day. I got to drive this car yesterday while coming back from a cousin's wedding for 300kms, and here are my observations from the drive and a month of living with the car:

Positives:

• Engine+gearbox combo is a match made in heaven. The free revving vtec and 7 step CVT ensure that the engine never feels stressed. I particularly like how the CVT behaves during kickdown; it drops a step or two and holds on to it in a very nice manner, instead of getting confused.
• Surprisingly good paint quality. The silver shines when under sunlight. Finishing feels smooth and nice as well.
• Proper automatic gearbox in a sea of stupid AMT's. This itself is a flex IMO.
• Boot feels humongous, swallowing whatever you throw at it. It feels really big after living with a 170 liter boot in the Chevy Beat for 13 years.
• Rear seat is a very comfy and cozy place to be in.
• Strong headlights. Lowbeam itself is really strong. The LED's are a nice addition to the facelift, combined with auto headlamps.
• Paddle shifters are a joy to use. They feel very intuitive and add to the overall experience.
• Comfy suspension. On roads where our Beat used to crash into potholes, the Amaze glides over them smoothly.
• Powerful air con unit. I never felt the need of rear AC vents. Useful max cool option provided in the AC control unit.
• Although there is abundant cost cutting, for the price we paid the car feels sufficiently premium, and I guess that says something about the brand Honda. I mean unless someone with a Team-BHP eye starts looking at the car, he will not find it to be cheap.
• No waiting period, from booking the car to taking delivery, everything happened in 5 days.
• The car we bought(Elite edition) has some nice goodies like Tyre inflator, rear spoiler, TPMS(more on this later) for a nominal price increase.
• Peace of mind associated when the branding reads Honda.
• The car looks really elegant, despite of being a cut short sub 4m car.

Negatives:

• Perhaps the biggest con I have with this car is the front passenger seat. Honda got it all wrong. There is limited adjustment and you also have this floor hump incline on the left passenger footwell area(common to all Honda cars). For a person above 5 foot 8 inches, there is no underthigh support. I rarely sit in this seat and prefer to sit at the rear.
• Cost cutting is aplenty in this car. Halogen high mounted stop lamp, cheap sunvisors and IRVM, 2 rear parking sensors, no backlighting for the gear selector(although it is displayed on the speedo, it takes some time getting used to), no adjustable rear headrests( safety hindrance, as the provided headrests are useless), horrible noise insulation(typical Honda), no engine hood insulation.
• Cruise control is a big big miss. Surprisingly it is available on the manual, but not on the auto.
• Compliant suspension results in nervous handling. Car gets really bouncy at triple digit speeds.
• Brakes inspire no confidence at all. The pedal has no feel and takes a little more effort and distance to stop the car at your required will.
• 175 mm tyres make handling matters worse. I wish to upgrade to 195 mm once these wear out. This will probably improve braking and stability.
• Fuel tank is on the smaller side. This car takes 29-30 liters tops, where as my Beat sometimes takes in 32 liters.
• Rear suspension bottoms out when there is a full load of passengers. Feels annoying to look at when it happens.
• OEM speakers are flat. Audiophiles will upgrade for sure but for average joes this will not matter much. But I must mention, once I tweaked the equaliser settings, there was a day and night difference in sound quality. After tweaking the equaliser the sound quality feels decent enough.

Accessories installed from showroom:

• Steering cover: I really like the way OEM steering covers fit to the steering. This one is no different from my views. Price:700/-
• Ventilated seat cover for two seats: For the price and the functionality that these offer, I feel it is a good value add on. They additionally come with a massager function which I felt wasnt really useful. These seat covers cool the seats within no time. Price: 6500/- per seat.

Planned upgrades:

• I want to put LED bulbs in place of the halogens(indicators, reverse lights, number plate lights), but am a little unsure about daylight visibility.
• Sunfilms.
• I would like to swap the sunvisors wit the ones on the Honda City if they feel premium enough and if there is a possibility of doing so.
• The audio headunit is made by Alpine if I am not wrong. I saw Alpine branding on the remote given for the HU. The interface works for me and I dont know why people complain so much about the interface. The screen moves smoothly whenever you swipe on it and that is all that matters to me. Android auto is smooth and honestly that depends on the age of your phone.

Dealership experience:5/10:

Now this would have easily been a 7/10 if they handled some things smoothly but no. We bought our car from Pride Honda Madinaguda. There were two guys I dealt with, Vinod and Ayan. We mostly dealt with Vinod. We booked our car on 21 October and took delivery on 26 October. The car was brought to our home for a test drive the very next day after we booked it on our request. I did not drive the car at all due to a small incident which I will detail about below, but my dad drove the car for a good 10+ km and he liked it very much. I asked the sales guy that I would like to take the car on the ring road, but they refused stating that they needed to go back go the showroom due to time constraints.

There was a small scratch on the rear bumper. This was promptly fixed and repainted the very next day after delivery.

We were given a FASTAG of some other moron's car. 500 rupees just went down the drain. Reason that Im cribbing so much about this is the way Vinod dealt with it. He just did not admit that there was a mistake from his side about delivering a wrong FASTAG. My dad had added 500 rupees to the FASTAG and some other guy was using it. The guy didnt recharge his FASTAG and we were left with an empty one. After 3 days with no resolution, I peeled and tore off the old one. Bought a new ICICI FASTAG from a vendor on the ORR entry point and it has been working like a charm.

I insisted my dad to get numberplate frames from the showroom during the installation. This was told to Vinod well in advance. But when my dad went to the showroom, Vinod started to give excuses and senseless answers to my dad. My dad was fed up of this. This sole incident made me to give 5/10 to the dealership experience.

TPMS has not been installed yet. It seems there is a problem from Honda's side itself. There is some error code appearing post TPMS installation as stated by Vinod. He told us he will contact us immediately after this error code issue is resolved. I need to take this in writing shortly from the dealership, as I no longer trust them after the #3 incident.

I must appreciate how Vinod has handled one incident. Just before the day we booked the car, I took a test drive of a manual Amaze. 200m into the drive, I had to hard-brake at a traffic signal. There was this drunk guy on a Honda Shine SP who banged right into the rear of the car. I was scared of this being pushed on me, but I must appreciate how Vinod has handled one incident. Just before the day we booked the car, I took a test drive of a manual Amaze. 200m into the drive, I had to hard-brake at a traffic signal. There was this drunk guy on a Honda Shine SP who banged right into the rear of the car. I was scared of this being pushed on me, but Vinod handled it smoothly and the guy who hit the car paid 10k to the dealership 1 hour later.

Overall, I am very impressed with the car. Attaching a few pictures for viewing pleasure. Also, notice the exhaust tip that I installed. I liked it very much when I installed it on my Beat, but on the Amaze I am in two minds whether to remove it or keep it as is. Suggestions on this will be appreciated.

Also, the number plate series resemble the first letters of my initial and middle name.

Sorry for the long post, and a big thank you for making it till here.

Regards,

Saikishor

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Driving it on narrow and winding roads of Himachal has been an exhilarating experience.

BHPian nsharma2104 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have completed more than one year of ownership of Honda City V MT and have driven approximately 19000 kilometers in last one year. More than 90% of it has been in hilly roads and terrain of Himachal Pradesh. Here are a few points based upon my driving experience.

Positives:

• Excellent handling. It handles curves like a dream. Driving it on narrow and winding roads of Himachal has been an exhilarating experience.
• Powerful engine with well synced transmission: Absolutely no complaints in this regard. 1.5 ivtec is the USP of this car.
• Ergonomics: This is one thing that people miss and I think is the most important aspect of driving experience. In city, everything seems well sorted at appropriate angles and within reach.
• Fuel efficiency: Average fuel efficiency since last one year has been around 15-16 kmpl. You cannot expect better figures when you look at road and terrain conditions here.

Negatives:

• Poor sound insulation: No insulation in wheel well, filmy panels compared to earlier builds, poor stock tyres. All of it makes for road noise, wind noise and engine noise to enter cabin and ruin your driving experience.
• Tyres: Less said the better. V MT comes with 185 section tyres with 15" alloys from MRF. Braking feels poor, and overall driving dynamics beg for tyres to be upgraded as soon as stock tyres are finished. One another related sore point is that tyres are almost finished in last 19k kilometers and will go at max for another 2k to 3k kilometers. Any suggestion for upgrade with same alloys is greatly appreciated.
• Paint quality: I have got countless scratches and marks all arond even with small thorns sticking out from roadside bushes. Paint quality is even inferior to my 2009 santro which has still got its original paint with almost no scratches in such long time. Quality of paint is definitely a downside of new Honda City.
• Ground clearance: This can only be considered a negative from a third person's point of view because as an owner, you know you are buying a sedan wit low ground clearance.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with my City and intend to keep it for long time despite its shortcomings on a few points.

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After going almost a year without a luxury sedan, I had really forgotten what no body roll felt like, but the car really handles well.

BHPian TheBimmerBoy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I took delivery of my 330Li on the 28th of September.

I have owned a 320D GT from 2016 to 2022 and something I just couldn't let go off from that car.

The fuel consumption - I live in Bombay and my GT would do upwards of 35 km a day in the city, and still reward me with close to 11-12 kmpl, which was really good. Last year again, somehow on the 28th of September (pure coincidence), we took delivery of an Audi Q5 45 TFSI Technology (2023) after selling the GT. It was really amazing and I expected the mild hybrid tech to really give me some good coasting power. But to my surprise, after over a year of owning the Q5, it only returns an abysmal 4.5 kmpl. So when getting the 330Li, I really had no hopes with regards to efficiency. But to my surprise, the GL in Eco Pro will really coast like a monster. I mean on highways, with feather-footed driving at 80 kmph like I have done a couple of times, I've seen upwards of 14 kmpl. So me too mate. I'm glad I didn't go for the diesel.

It has been just over a month now as I'm writing this and I've already crossed over a thousand kilometers. The car has been an absolute gem except for the first day. On my way back from the showroom after taking delivery, I noticed a juddering sound from the front left of the car, and that left me pretty appalled. I contacted my salesman and my friends at the service center and let them know about the issue. They took the car 3 days later to try and figure out what the noise was. It turned out to be easy to fix as just some sound dampening of the car had not been attached properly which was juddering around. They were very efficient and quick to help me out, but it was just sad to see this on the first day of owning the car.

The comfort is really magnificent. After going almost a year without a luxury sedan, I had really forgotten what no body roll felt like, but the car really handles well. Most importantly, where I think it handles best is during turn-ins into corners. I've driven the 340i, and the 340i doesn't turn into a corner like our 330s. It's probably because of all the weight up front (B58, S-Drive), but that eagerness to just go into a corner is what really amazes me. On certain freeways within Mumbai, I've noticed myself turning into corners which I shouldn't really be doing, which really is a breath of fresh air.

It's my first post on here. Hope you enjoyed reading.

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The vehicle has acquired some scratches here and there, got some dents. Nothing major.

BHPian aaren recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

In 2011, I bought Honda Jazz X edition and after a lot of thought process and learnings from this very forum. And soon after I published it, gave my initial ownership report followed after a few years.

Now recently the car completed 12 years. What a vehicle it has proved to be!! It has been my family's faithful companion to lots of travels. However, some of the long term travel did not happen, as I thought it would.

What has worked well:

• The engine is a top notch one - as smooth and as silent as it was when I bought.
• The A/C as good as it was.

So far didn't have to touch or change anything in the car other than:

• A / C filter
• Engine Oil change - as recommended. And except once, Honda recommended oil.
• Wiper rubbers
• Tyres

What broke:

• The driver side outer rear view mirror
• Someone vandalized the rear wiper

The vehicle has run about 78000 kms. (covid and thereafter not much of running, as working from home). The sound system is working as good. The vehicle has acquired some scratches here and there, got some dents. Nothing major. Importantly, in my view, the vehicle has not "aged". I think this edition of Honda Jazz along with the first edition of Fiat Punto are two vehicles that have remained as attractive as ever.

Recently, some foul smell was coming when we started the fan / A/C of the car and gave it for internal cleaning, A/C duct cleaning and detailing at Honda Showroom.

I must say that this Honda Showroom at Indore has been a very helpful one right from day one and have taken care of the vehicle very well. According to their Senior Technical person, this car is good to go for another 5 years with, of course by extending the registration.

Yes, am thinking in terms of moving to a newer vehicle. This could possibly boil down between Honda Elevate Vs. Kia Seltos Vs. Toyota Hyryder. But the change could come sometime in 2024 as there are other priorities. Keeping my fingers crossed!

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My usually heavy clutch was sinking like a stone, not even coming back in a hurry.

BHPian Samurai recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Two days after picking up the car from the workshop, I ran into a new problem. I started the car and discovered that the clutch has become too light, and I can't change into 1st gear, no matter what. My usually heavy clutch was sinking like a stone, not even coming back in a hurry. The brake was working fine, only the clutch was having the problem. Luckily, I was at home, just 2Kms from the workshop. I called up and the workshop's mobile repair van showed up in 20 minutes. The mechanic concluded that the slave clutch cylinder could be leaking, but we couldn't spot any leaks. He pumped the clutch repeatedly and it started responding fine after 2 minutes.

Until then I was thinking that this will be the first time my Grand Vitara was stranded, requiring a tow to the workshop. No, I am not counting the many times it had to be towed out of an offroad trail, those were not due to mechanical issues.

Once the pressure came back, I drove it out of the basement and removed all the stuff from the car, so that they can take the car to the workshop. I also noticed a screeching noise from the fan belt mechanism, when we were looking for the possible leak.

By next day, the problems were diagnosed:

• Slave clutch cylinder needs replacement.
• Tensioner bearing needs replacement. They temporarily fixed the problem by spraying some lubricant, but it can dry off soon and start screeching again.

Meanwhile, I had to go around in auto rickshaw for my work and errands. Upon hearing this, the works manager asked if I want to drive it around until the parts arrive. I said YES, and rushed to the workshop and picked up the car. So, I have been driving around town since Friday in the GV with a faulty slave clutch cylinder. Only once the clutch just dropped like a stone, but it came back up after pumping couple times. I hope the parts will arrive this week and it can get back to normalcy. This is like my good old Jeep days, the vehicle is functional even with failed parts.

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Tyres and brakes don’t last long if you drive regularly on the highway

BHPian Thegreyghost006 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Touched 42 thousand kilometres in my Ford Mustang.

Points I’d like to share:

• Five and a half years old and still no rattle in the interior (I think the materials might not be exotic but it sure is built to last).
• Tyres and brakes don’t last long if you drive regularly on the highway - 5 to 6 thousand kilometres maximum.
• It’s pretty usable apart from the fact the turning radius affects its usability more than its ground clearance (U-turns, tight space parking).
• Availability of XP95 and Power 95 have been a boon and one does not require fuel additives anymore.

Vellore has only one Mustang.

I am uploading a few pictures, I will share some more in the near future and also come up with my experience so far with an in dept review:

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I have managed fuel efficiency of 19-20kpl on my commute to office. My old Brio gave around 14-16kpl on the same route.

BHPian curiousbolt recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Recently, I bought the Maruti Suzuki Fronx with the 1.2L engine. I upgraded from Honda Brio and thought I would share about my purchase and ownership experience.

The background:

I had bought a 2012 Honda Brio from Spinny in Oct 2022 and had used the car for around 15k km. The car was straight forward, no major issues but I started to feel that the components were slowly entering their wear out phase. The engine used to make a peculiar squealing noise in idle and low revs and the pickup was not as great as before. And yes, the vehicle was serviced at a Honda authorized dealer every 5000km. One more issue I was facing was that none of the spare parts for the Brio were easily available. The only option was to order them from Boodmo or ask the dealership to order and pay them an advance. For instance, the front suspension bush was damaged, so the car would make a metal grinding noise when the steering was turned in standstill. Had asked around in 3 dealerships and the part was not there and no one was readily willing to order it for me, and the part I got from Boodmo as well would not fit in this car. So I thought it was time for an upgrade before the car begins to rust in my garage waiting for parts.

Selection:

I was open to buying any configuration - Sedans, SUVs, crossovers, hatchbacks, etc. The budget I had kept for myself was between 6-7 Lacs, I had thought I would consider the brands that would provide me with good exchange price for my Brio and considering my daily commute of around 70km the car must be fuel efficient. Considering the fuel efficiency need, the first option was Maruti, so we visited Nexa to look at options. Ignis and Baleno were what we were exploring but as we entered the showroom, there it was, a beautiful Red Fronx! An immediate eye catcher. I had only read about the Fronx in review articles, but I did not expect it to be such an eye catcher when it stands among other hatchbacks. We checked out the Fronx and the showroom quoted around 9.4Lacs for the base model. It seemed a bit far-fetched, and we went back to enquiring about the Ignis. An automatic fully loaded Ignis was locked in because the showroom was offering close to 70k worth of cash discounts and much more stuff in terms of accessories. Ignis was shortlisted and we next headed to Tata and Hyundai showrooms. Compared to Nexa, Tata and Hyundai we felt were a bit condescending in terms of the sales pitch. The sales executives did not know much about the features and the test drive was not that impressive. We did get impressed by the Hyundai Exter in terms of how it looked, the build quality, fit & finish and the interiors but the 6-7month waiting period was a turn off. But would definitely recommend people to consider Exter if you can afford to wait for 6-7months.

Somehow, even though we locked in the Ignis, we kept going back to thinking about the Fronx. Considering we did not want to change cars for the next 6-7 years; we thought that might as well choose Fronx over Ignis or the Baleno. Baleno even though was a great car, I felt that in the next 3-4 years I would feel like changing it. For the roads that I take to my office, I needed a car with good clearance.

Pratham Nexa, Sarjapur road was the showroom we went to. The sales experience was amazing - the sales executive knew the car and most importantly, there was no overselling. She perfectly recommended the Delta variant as the most value for money variant, she explained in detail what features were available and needed for us and what was not.

A test drive of the Delta+ variant with 1.2L engine was given and we were impressed right from the start - unlike other test drive cars, this car was responsive, well maintained and it actually felt like a new car even though it had run around 4500km. We ended up choosing the Delta variant, 1 variant below the Delta+.

The on-road price was 10.6Lacs, we got rid of all the accessories and the final price was 10.02Lacs. They offered a decent 2.4 Lacs for my 62k run 2012 Brio. As Fronx was a new and in demand model, there was no cash discount. Slight bargains here and there and the reverse camera, number plate brackets, floor & boot mats and the mud flaps were offered for free.

Owning the Fronx:

I have covered close to 1200km with the car now mainly commuting to and from the office and a 300km long drive in an expressway. Completed the first service last week.

Pros: (There are many but just mentioning the top ones here)

• Car is butter smooth in low rpms - Engine is refined and with the AC on, the cabin is peaceful and quiet till around 4000rpm. After that you tend to hear some noise creep into the cabin - its not annoying, its manageable.
• Head turner for sure, it looks commanding and bulky in a good way, and you will have at least one person every day coming and asking you which car this is.
• I have managed to get around 19-20kpl in my commute to office that has a mix of highways, slow moving Bangalore traffic and bad roads. My old Brio had an FE of around 14-16kpl in the same route. So I'm mighty happy with the fuel economy. As long as you don't rev the engine above 4k rpm and quickly reach higher gears, the engine is happy to return you FE figures of around 20-22kpl.

• The engine is very well tuned. Even though I shift gears quickly before 4k rpm, I never felt the engine was underpowered or I had to change gears to overtake. The engine is very comfortable to quickly pick up speed when you throttle up. The engine does not struggle at all even if you are in 4th gear and you are crawling at 30kph, the state of tune is wonderful.
• Ride comfort - The point I like the most. The roads I drive are really messed up in some locations and the slow moving traffic is quite noisy as well. The cabin insulation is on point, if your windows are up and AC is on, you are fully disconnected from the outer world. Couple this with the ground clearance and the perfectly tuned suspension, the ride comfort is amazing. There is absolutely no driver fatigue even after you have driven 150-200km at a stretch. The engine, suspension, cabin quality, everything comes together really well to enhance ride comfort.
• Rich feature set from the base model itself. There is climate control and power windows right from the base model. So pretty good value for money.

Cons:

• There is a considerable horn intensity fade when I press it continuously. Complained about it during my service and they did check couplers and the connections, but still it persists. Had a mechanic come home yesterday to check this, he could not diagnose and asked me to get the car back to workshop once. Have asked them to give me a call when they have a replacement part ready just in case it's a part issue.
• After the first service, they messed up something in the boot. The car turned into a metal match box and there was a loud rattling sound coming from the boot area - Took around 1 hour and multiple trials to diagnose where it was coming from and then did some jugaad to take care of it. The noise was still there after this. Turns out the number plate was rattling. The technician then used some 3M tape behind the number plate to arrest this. The showroom specifically sold me number plate brackets to avoid this noise and those brackets were the reason this noise was being caused.

• The cost cutting is very evident. If you open the bonnet or boot, the car body is exposed. The spare Tyre is just mounted directly on the chassis in the boot, there is no rubber damper below it so if it's even slightly loose, you can expect to hear it rattling. There are multiple areas in the car where the metal to plastic contact has not been well engineered - for instance, the boot parcel tray plastic was missing one rivet after service. The technician tried putting the rivet back yesterday and it kept coming out because the fit was not good, so I'm worried that such panels will start rattling after 1-2 years. The rear pillion seat even though is comfortable, if you just bang it hard once, it makes kind of a metal hitting noise. So, there are many places in the car where you feel Maruti has cut costs and its very evident. It won't bother you till you notice it, but once you notice these, it's going to bother you.
• The infotainment in glitchy - Android auto randomly gets disconnected. They did reset the software during the previous service but it's still the same. Could be an issue with my mobile as well, there is nothing that informative in the user manual, so will have to screw around and find out. One thing that's common with all OEMs, none of the service staffs know stuff about the infotainment. They only know to reset it I guess.
• The idle start stop is difficult to get used to. Sometimes it switches off and sometimes it does not. The user manual says you need to complete one drive cycle every time idle start stop functions, but have tried it and its not consistent. Been one month now and still getting used to it. Similarly, the hill hold assist as well, in slow moving traffic sometimes when you let go off the clutch slowly the vehicle switches off. You feel some resistance on the engine, i'm assuming its the hill hold assist. Told about this during service and was told it was normal . So yeah, figuring the idle start stop and the hill hold assist still.

Overall:

I'm quite happy with the car. The cons that I mentioned are not that bothersome except the rattling issues. The 1.2L engine option is good value for money. I read reviews of the 1L turbo variant and most of them mentioned it was not that good value for money, but I can assure you that 1.2L engine option is a purchase that you will not regret. Will keep the thread updated as I build up more miles on the car.

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I am a sedate driver and don't need German/ Czech sedan characteristics and dynamics in my BOF 4x4 boxy shaped Jimny.

BHPian RijuC recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am a 6 footer and 93 kg body weight driver. Drove the Jimny Alpha AT from Gurgaon to Dalhousie, Khajjiar to Gurgaon, Gurgaon to Lucknow, Lucknow to Gurgaon without getting tired. I never felt the driver's footwell is too cramped.

During the expressway drives for these above mentioned sections, drove my Jimny at 100 kmph on cruise control. And there was absolutely no problem. I am a sedate driver and don't need German/ Czech sedan characteristics and dynamics in my BOF 4x4 boxy shaped Jimny. Otherwise, I can do zig zag through the trucks or overtake slow moving trucks safely with OD-off.

I recommend getting a real test drive for 20-30 kms or ask your Jimny owner friend to lend it to you for a day and then post a proper review instead of posting your perception about this 4x4 vehicle.

I am not an off-roading enthusiast. I needed a relatively well built vehicle which can easily be driven through extremely bad roads of Gurgaon and an occasional AWD capability for not so aggressive off-the-tarmac adventures, with Automatic Transmission, within my budget of 14-15 lakhs. There was no petrol engine AWD+AT available in India below 20 lakhs. Hence, I am driving a Jimny today.

This is my primary and only car.

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We had a good long look at its profile, features, interiors etc and came off satisfied. It felt simple, practical, and well put together.

BHPian Yogesh274 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I’ve long been wanting to pen down our car buying journey and have finally managed to get down to it. Apologies in advance as this is going to be a long one. Also, these are solely my views on the cars we rejected and have no intention of hurting anyone who happily own them.

Just as a background, we have 3 cars in the family a 2006 WagonR, 2019 Last facelift XUV500 (Both owned by my father) and a 2014 Ford Ecosport (Owned by my father in Law). I have extensively driven all these vehicles and my expectations/requirements are all based off my experience from them. As you would probably make out, we keep our cars long and cherish them - the WagonR specifically is almost 18 years old and still running strong. One look at it and a non-enthusiast wouldn’t know he is looking at an 18-year-old car. My father finally before retiring decided to take the plunge and get a “big” car. At that point there was only the XUV500 on the market for 7 seaters, the Hexa had been discontinued and the Harrier had just been launched. As the Harrier didn’t fulfill the 7 seater requirement so we went ahead with XUV500 and its been happily munching miles ever since.

Anyways, the point is work took us away from home and we settled in Bangalore. We knew we would be having frequent runs to Coimbatore (my wife’s hometown) and having a toddler with us we knew it was time to get ourselves our first ride.

I had been very closely following the car launches, reading reviews off team BHP and watching video reviews of cars from the influencers for the past 2 years. After all the research I was able to zero down on the requirements in terms of priority for our car as below:

• Safety – Paramount, and by this point I wanted a car with a good strong chassis and any active safety features were welcome (basically only looking at 5 star rated cars). The only point I wanted to stress on is that we share the roads with other drivers and they may not be as careful as you are and you may end up in an accident for no mistake of yours and in such cases a sturdy stable body shell is the only thing you can depend upon to keep your loved ones safe.
• Reliability – We keep our cars long, so frequent stops at the service centre were a big no. We wanted a Fill it, drive it, shut it kind of a car.
• Performance – I wanted a car which would make me smile behind the wheel.
• Features – All the gizmos, tech, conveniences were last and good to have
• Uniqueness – A little different from the sea of the best selling cars out on the road

With the above in mind, I started looking for cars, initially we didn’t have a particular segment or budget in mind and we started scouting for cars on the road, initially Altroz caught our eyes but it was ruled out by the wifey saying its too low (We have all been spoiled by high seating cars). So the segment then shifted to Compact SUV, the only cars with the required 5 star ratings were Nexon and XUV300. I wasn’t too keen on the Nexon but seriously considered the XUV300 turbosport we even went to the showroom to check it out and liked how solidly it was put together but for some reason it felt like a compromise given how far ahead the competitors were.

So this lead us to moving up another segment to the mid sized SUV’s. By this time we were clear on our budget as well (a maximum of 18-19 Lakhs on Road). So we knew that we had to get a car from this segment for sure. All cars in this segment were very carefully considered and below are our reasons for rejecting/selecting them.

• Creta/Seltos Duo – Rejected due to safety, a lot of active safety features/gizmos/tech but the base (Chassis) did not get good passive safety ratings. Also the areas where they excelled were low on my priority list plus these have become such common cars being best sellers (We did not even visit the showroom)
• Grand Vitara/Hyryder Duo – We went to the Nexa showroom and had a good check of the features, look/feel of the car. Wifey did not like the interiors and I didn’t like the exteriors. I’m not a fan of the trend of the split eyebrow DRL’s. We presumed the safety to be at least 4 stars as it is built on the Brezza’s platform. In the end we weren’t too convinced and rejected the Vitara, didn’t bother with the Hyryder as its just the Vitara in a different skin
• Astor – Its such a beautiful car, but technically it being a Chinese company and the company as such doing very small numbers in India kept us away.
• Kushaq/Taigun – Things started heating up now we visited the Skoda showroom and test drove the 1.5 TSI. I was all smiles behind the wheel and my wife liked the car too. The 5 star safety rating was a cherry on the top of the cake as well. I loved the Monte Carlo Red, my wife though was not fully convinced with the colour, she liked the grey, but I felt If we did not get the Monte Carlo, I would regret buying the grey Kushaq everytime I’d see a Monte Carlo on the road. We decided to pause our car hunting in the mean time as our finances were not in place to be able to afford a car yet. Fast forward to May this year we went to the Volkswagen showroom to have a look at the Taigun, and again both of us loved the car and this time we were able to arrive at a common colour the Lava Blue. So when everything was done and settled we sat down and compared the prices and we found that there was no way we would be able to afford the 1.5 and that left me gutted. The 1ltr is by no means a bad engine, but I was so in love with the 1.5 that I couldn’t bring myself to settle for lesser 1ltr Kushaq/Taigun. Again we went into limbo, paused our car search as things were getting busy on the work front and we got immersed there.
• Elevate – Honda had started teasing about the Elevate around May and it had piqued my interest, I started researching on Honda as a brand and my excitement grew as I learned that it ticked all the priorities I had outline above. Honda as a brand basically stood for Safety, reliability and to an extent good performing cars (the famed Ivtec engines). I eagerly consumed all the teasers, expectations videos, blogs etc that the internet had to throw at me about Honda’s new offering. Everywhere I read there was some mention of this being Honda’s make or break car in India, so everyone expected that since Honda is coming last to the party it will be with all its guns blazing. I kept feeding my wife titbits on how the Elevate was coming along from whatever I could glean from the media. The launch date was announced and if I remember correctly, it was sometime in July. I eagerly listened to all of what Honda had to say about the car at launch, and at the end of it all I was left feeling a little disappointed maybe because of how high I had set my expectations, but I distinctly remember feeling disappointed. So again a limbo, immersed into work.

It was during this time (August 2023) that our organizations mandated us visiting office at least twice a week and that prompted us to finally shift base to Bangalore. After the initial 2 weeks of shifting, settling down, we realised it was high time we had a car of our own. And by this time the media drive of the Elevate had been done, and most of the reviews by them were good if not excellent. So, by the end of August when the showrooms started receiving the cars we decided to drop in to the Honda showroom. There was an Obsidian Blue Elevate on display and immediately my wife and me exchanged looks approvingly, the elevate had made a good first impression. We had a good long look at its profile, features, interiors etc and came off satisfied. It felt simple, practical, and well put together. Now all that remained was how it fared on the test drive. It was around a week later that the test drive vehicle arrived and we eagerly went for the test drive. My immediate feeling after the test drive was it is so easy to drive, the commanding view, the refined engine (Below 2000 RPM) and the famed Ivtec high RPM grunt, my wife too took over the wheel for some time and she came off having the same feeling. I’ve realised over time that being Fun to drive cannot only be defined by how quickly a car does a 0 to 100. Its about the entire package of Ride quality, Handling, Manoeuvrability, Ambience etc that uplifts the fun to drive quotient. Hence it was decided – Honda Elevate – Obsidian Blue - ZX MT is going to be the first car of our stable and will hopefully remain so for many years to come. We proceeded with the booking online and initiated conversation with the dealer.

We received the car on 18th October. I will post a delivery experience/ownership update shortly after I’ve driven the car for at least 1000 kms so that I’m more in tune with the characteristics of the car. Sharing a couple of pictures from a short run.

Cheers!

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Almost all practical features provided in the base variant itself.

BHPian cludflare recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Critical review of my Honda City V-Cvt after 9 months and 10,000 kms of ownership:

Variant - 2022 V CVT

Accessories installed – Qubo front dash cam, OEM seat covers, cosmetic ones like bumper protectors, side garnish and sunblinds, ceramic coating including windshields, alloys painted dark grey

Using this post to be completely honest to myself while calling out the flaws and also nitpicking about my dear ride, daily companion and savior.

I have been driving the City in the sorry and now embarrassing Bangalore roads over the last 9 months. Enough has been said, written and recorded about the sorry state of affairs of Bangalore traffic, the digging and the potholes. Hence I will skip that, the lesser said the better. It’s a pain one has chosen to live with over the matchbox houses of Mumbai and smoggy air of Delhi. A pill that can’t be swallowed, has to be chewed each morning and evening.

Before going to the challenges I am experiencing; I want to appreciate the positives of the car:

• Exceptional value for money of the erstwhile base variant, especially for the price I got it for. Bought a 2022 make car in Jan 2023 for 12 lakhs ex-showroom and additional discounts on accessories, roughly 14.8 lakhs on road in Bangalore. The other true automatics with decent features available at the price point earlier in the year were the Ciaz, Brezza, Sonet and Venue.
• Almost all practical features provided in the base variant itself – cruise control, pedal shifters, front and rear armrest, touch screen with rear camera, alloy wheels, DRLs
• The 4 cylinder 1.5NA and CVT setup makes the car a breeze to drive, even on bumper to bumper drive. I previously owned a Jazz and coming from that, I have always felt there is enough power on the tap for this motor.
• Space management and airy cabins continue to remain a Honda highlight.
• The steering response and accuracy – maybe because I am driving a proper C-segment sedan for the first time. The steering is very light and easy to maneuver for city drives and gets adequate weight for highways

Listing some of the major concerns that I will certainly call out to potential buyers below:

• Not spending much time talking about the competition, but if one is operating with a budget flexible up to 20 lakhs, City now falls behind the race with multiple better options available both in the mid size SUV and C segment sedan space.
• The BOUNCINESS – this is my biggest problem with the car. The car is extremely bouncy even on flat roads. There is a lot of vertical as well as horizontal movement which makes the experience unpleasant. I like soft suspensions, especially when the roads are full with potholes, craters and what not. But the city suspension just doesn't feel right to me. Even on flat roads and highways, the car seems extremely bouncy and you can’t feel confident putting the car on sports mode because of lack of stability.
• Dated IC system – cars like Baleno and I20 are coming with much better infotainment system these days. The IC makes me feel cheated.
• I find the interiors sorted and classy, but many will find it dated, old school and lagging modern features like HUD etc.
• Brakes – they are not confidence inspiring
• The tyre size. Base variant comes with 185/60 R15, too skinny for the car.
• Audio – While I am no audiophile, there is a big need to upgrade the speaker set up.
• Alloys – If the Amaze and 4th gen City VX specs priced lower could have machine cut alloys, why not provide them on this one.

A couple of items I am seeking a view on from current owners and fellow BHPians:

• Sports Mode utility – When do you typically use the sports mode? I very frequently used the sports mode in my Jazz but in the City, the drive on sports mode is very rough. The rpm becomes extremely sensitive to the accelerator tap and has a high degree of fluctuation, not to my liking. I am yet to identify the use – there is almost enough power in D itself for practical requirements. The sports mode drive is not enjoyable even on the highways, there is no smoothness. Might be just me, will be good to hear your views on the same.
• Engine sump guard – is it advisable to get one? If yes, can anyone suggest where I can get it from in Bangalore or source from elsewhere as well.
• Tyres – What are the benefits of changing the stock tyres to a good set of say UC6 ? Will changing the entire alloy set to 16inch in the future make sense ?

While I love the car, and the City brand, the Indian market has evolved both on the demand and the supply side. Running operations of a mammoth multinational organization is complex and who are we to comment that Honda should introduce this, this and this to revamp business without understanding the context. Honda must be doing things right. They have cut products that could not drive sales (I miss Jazz) and have posted significant profits. Elevate will certainly add to the sales and it looks like they are restructuring and building things bottom up. It’s ok if they are not flying high in the Indian market, they are at least here to stay when it has been a game of survival for many foreign players.

To summarize, I am let down by my own expectations – I never thought that a car as aspirational as Honda City would leave you with wanting so much more.

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