Jun 19, 2009 10:23 AM
16861 Views
(Updated Jun 20, 2009 08:16 AM)
Two days ago, I test drove the All New Honda City(ANHC). I have been itching to test drive this machine(purely to feel the new engine) for a while but purposely prioritized it after my test drives on Civic, Altis, Ford Fiesta, Linea etc(please read those reviews).
A lot of people have talked great about the ANHC, from the figures(engine parameters) that matter and from exterior looks it sounds like a great buy, however I beg to differ with the ANHC fans here.
Exterior looks
The ANHC exterior has been heavily redsigned when it comes to the front and rear. The Accord like grills and the headlamps compliment each other very well. The first time glance will not even reveal the fact that there're no fog lamps on the front. When it comes to the rear, they have tried their best to imitate the BMW's tail and it looks decent. Only when you go to the sides and take a look at from a decent distance you will know that it is basically the same body shape as the last generation Honda City. Most importantly thesame stupid wheel cap - that we have been seeing since the last generation Honda City(and now even on Jazz) - is featured on this new baby as well! However, the overall stance have been greatly enhanced by the front design.
The Engine
Honda now features a new engine that has the same 1.5 L capacity but delivers a very good 116BHP(118PS) and quite adequate 146Nm torque. And this machine has been packaged around with a butter smooth gear and pedals. Probably the over smooth EPS(Electronic Power Steering) is the only bad thing here but wait, let's feel the engine.
The Drive
From the smooth start to gear shifts to 100Kmph was reached even before I realized what I was doing. Yes, the first driving experience on ANHC has been just great and I must tell you that I thought it hit the 100Kmph mark a dash faster than the Altis that I test drove on Sunday. The smooth pedals and gears may be even reducing the time to shift marginally. The engine was super responsive with three people onboard and I felt like why even think about a Civic or Altis.
As usual, I tested the brakes from around 80Kmph and the ABS with Brake Assist did a superb job in stopping it without any fuzz. The ANHC braking features discs on the front and drums on rear as in the case of most compact cars. However, I thought a car of this width really require 195mm tyres while it features very narrow 175mm ones. The story is acceptable so far, however.
In my effort to negotiate two speedbreakers during my test drive, it actually nudged - not really hit - against one. I thought probably it's not as bad as the last generation Honda City. They have basically maintained the same low 16cm ground clearance but with a better suspension, I was told. This may be still a worry for commuters through bad roads.
And the worst part, the butter smooth steering has a ply of 3.2 turns which is a lot more than that of most modern cars. Basically you have to turn more in order to take a sharp curve or a U-turn. Ford Fiesta and Ikon drivers will find this very funnyand irritating.
The Interiors
A lot of people already talked about the bad quality of plastics used. When you talk about plastics(other than the looks) you should remember one thing. If bad plastics are used on fixed parts, it may be okay but if it's used on moveable parts it is something worrysome. The following is my feedback on the plastics.
. The overall material used looks like it is partly made of recycled plastic. The beige doesn't quite look like virgin plastic
. The worst moveable plastic parts are the inside door handles(really flimsy), seatbelt material and the armrest storage(which actually had a very fimsy fit - it was kind of moving). I won't be surprised if your door handles breaks after a few months.
. The worst immovable interior parts are almost everything else but the fabric needs a mention here. It is the worst of the lot, I thought.
Features
ANHC does not feature some of the bare minimum things that you expect in a car like this one. For example fog lamps, alloy wheels, ORVM indicators and a CD player are the basic things that are missing. However, I particularly liked the number of storage compartments that the ANHC has which is plus and of course the big spacious boot.
Value for Money?
Unfortunately Honda Siel has not really got their act right when it comes to the Honda City's pricing versus the features it has. It sports a great reliable engine and gearbox, driving dynamics are good however they went to the other extreme while packaging and pricing it. For example, the same Honda City is sold in Australia, Thailand and other far east markets for AUD 20, 000(roughly 7, 75 Lakhs) and it is a full-featured car(the one in the picture) with 6 airbags, foglamps, ORVM indicators, alloys, better quality interiors, better tyres etc. If they discount all these and also reduce the quality further, it should have been made available for something like 7 Lakhs ex-showroom or put all those features(of course with only 2 airbags for India) and sell it for 9 Lakhs ex-showroom as a full-featured version. It would have been really acceptable in that case but for now, it is nothing but cheating the customers(or Honda is tied with wrong vendors who provide the interiors)
How much it really costs and how to customize?(though nothing can be done about plastics)
Base price of ANHC S MT: 8, 50, 000(Ex-showroom Bangalore)
Alloy wheels: 60, 000(Original Honda alloys - I forgot to tell you that ANHC parts cost you a fortune)
Fog lamps: 22, 000
CD Player:~8, 000
Total ex-price: 9, 40, 000(Discount another 35K if you don't want Honda alloys) and this is a rip-off with you still missing good quality fabric, plastics and many other features. Add another lakh and you get a Corolla Altis G with great features and superior build quality.
[If you want to customize your ANHC further, there is a beautiful front grill available for around 16, 000 and you really need to upsize the tyres to make it more enjoyable to drive. In any case, basic features with all that bad quality does not come below ex-showroom price of 9 Lakhs!]
Is ANHC a value for money car? A big NO for me!(I might change my opinion if the Ex-showroom price is around 7.00 - 7.25 Lakhs)
Be sensible!(And your combined feedback can change the way these MNCs build and market stuff for us)
