it’s been a month since I got my new city automatic and thought I would start a review on my ownership with it.
The car has completed 2300 kms and the first service has been done last week.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to drive it around the city and on the highways. The auto tranny is very useful in the bumper to bumper traffic. The auto eases and makes life easier to drive in the mad traffic out there and it is effortlessly exciting to drive it in the city. Shift it to the ‘D’ mode to enjoy a smooth and comfortable drive in the city traffic. With almost 70km daily driving in city, this is exactly what the doctor ordered!
The engine is smooth as a butter, very very silent with none or very little vibrations getting inside the cabin. The cabin is well insulated from the outside noise as well. Could not hear any wind noise inside the cabin even at speeds above 100 kms/hr.
On the highways, shift into the S mode or use the paddle shift and you are rewarded with a powerful acceleration from the machine. She gets through her paces real quick. Engaging the paddleshift anytime to get the surge in acceleration is exciting.
Redlining her is joy. The engine starts to get vocal at about 3500 RPM and by the time it crosses 5500 RPM you are greeted with the typical Honda snarl, the engine note is real music to the ears. But I have heard the OHC vtec’s growl much louder!!
Managed to get her to 160 Km/Hr effortlessly in the ‘D’ Mode. The car is very stable at high speeds. The aerodynamic nature of the car helps prevents any loud boomy wind noise at high speeds. You hardly realize what speed you are doing until you glance at the Speedo which shows the motor spinning, lazily at 3000 RPM and the speed is 140 Km/Hr!!
The auto transmission can be driven in 3 ways,
1)D mode - engage and the machine decides, when to shift cogs. A gentle tab at the accelerator pedal, initiates the kickdown to give more acceleration if required. Apart from this you can temporarily override the auto and get instant power at the click of your finger! Using the paddle shift. It returns to auto mode after sometime.A mode where you leave on time and reach on time!
2)S mode - engage this mode for some spirited driving. The gear change in this mode is at higher RPM, more acceleration, engine vocal most of the time, snarling as the tacho begins to climb. Engaging the paddle shift in this mode, will bring the car in a full manual mode. Start late, reach early mode!
3)Paddle shift - engage this mode to unleash hell. Yes!! you get to exploit the whole revv band of the engine , and the revvs are held till the redline and more, after it hits revv limiter the car does give some kind of slight jerks to let you know she is not happy, you upshift and she is happy again! The car remains in manual mode till you engage the D mode. This mode is most exciting to drive. Haven’t used the mode, much as of yet.Upshifts are fully manual and the downshifts are semi auto.You are already there mode!
The paddle shifts are fun to use, especially in the Ghats. Putting the car to test on winding roads was a revelation and she performed much better than I expected. The car handles well on the bends at decent high speeds.
The steering is also feels nice at high speeds; a hydraulic or equivalent would have been perfect. The steering is superlight at slow speeds and as the speed increases it sort of stiffens. negotiating turns and lane changes or taking sharp turns or some hard cornering It does not feel scary.
The suspension is on the firmer side, which aides handling. It bottoms out on big speed breakers with full load and every time it does that my heart skips a beat!! Very annoying! Ride quality is pretty decent and nothing to boast about. The suspension being firm shake you a little bit on crater ridden roads.
The MRF rubbers it came with provide a good grip but are noisy at high speeds. An upsize/upgrade will make the cornering more confidence inspiring.
The ride is a little bouncy on some uneven concrete roads, not sure if the tyres are to be blamed here!
Brakes with more bite could have been better!
Music system, with the usb thingy is quite useful as I have lots of music in mp3’s.
Again the AC, The leg space, boot space are decent and nothing to complain about.
Seats are quite comfortable in the fronts as well as the rear. I love the driving position in the car and it is spot on.
I have done 2 highway trips in the car and both occasion blasted the engine and high revving it most of the time. The fuel economy was about 11 +. In the city it’s averaging about 11. All the time with 100% AC. Sounds ok to me.
To summarize on a positive note I can say that the I-Vtec Engine coupled with the Auto transmission offers a great driving dynamics in a comfortable manner with a low NVH makes it a great driving machine.
I see lot of features is offered in the other Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia missing in the Indian version. Like rear seat 60:40 split and a feature to recline the rear seat further. What was Honda thinking of not offering these features in India, how would split/reclining rear seats have increased costs for Honda!!
No ACC and alloys being the other major negatives.
My other ride, is a ford fusion, which was my daily driver till the Honda came, it is nearing 50 K, is a hoot to drive and have to say that the stick rules!! For comfort and effortless driving the auto has an edge though.
I would use this thread to continue updating the ownership experience.
uploading few pics.
Thanks and regards,
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