Test drove multiple cars; brought home a Honda City ZX CVT

I test drove the Slavia, sat down in the Virtus (it was not launched then) and never had the City in my mind at that time.

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After test-driving so many cars, finally zeroed in on Honda City 5th gen model and got it within a month.

Due to my physical constraints and needs, my first priority in buying a car was good seating comfort and enough space to rest my legs. I test drove the Slavia, sat down in the Virtus (it was not launched at that time) and never had the City in my mind at that time. Somehow, the rear seat comfort was not what I was looking for in both, the Slavia and the Virtus. The backrest of the back seat was very upright, no thigh support and maybe, a reasonable amount of legroom.

While driving through from the Skoda showroom, the Honda showroom caught my eye and I just went to have a casual look of the City. And the inside comfort of the car really wow-ed me. Front seats were wide enough, backrest of the back seat was at a comfortable angle, good thigh support and great legroom. A nice feature was the sloping foot rest for the back seat passengers. Even though the headrest is fixed, for me it was at my comfortable height. It had all the safety features and during the test drive, this CVT seemed better than the previous generation one. I decided to get the ZX variant.

All this happened during the second week of May and at that time, I was told that I could be allotted a car that is supposed to come in first week of June. But after booking, I was told that there is a car that is readily available. Went to the yard to check the car in person, confirmed that it is indeed a May 2022 manufactured one. So I took the delivery of the car on 4th June.

I also liked the fact that the dealer creates a WhatsApp group which has the SA, SM, SQM, etc. All discussions happen over that. I never witnessed this with other car dealers and felt that it was a nice touch on the dealer part.

I wanted to upgrade the tires to 205, didn’t like the fact the car was coming with 185. I spoke with Lal Enterprises (my go-to person for any wheel/tyre related changes). He told me that with the stock alloy wheels, I can only upgrade to 195 as the wheel is 6J. If I had to go for 205, I need to change the alloy to 7J. I also wanted to change the Bridgestone tires to Michelin Primacy 4. I chose the Lenso brand for the wheels. After exchanging 4 wheels and tires, I paid about 70k, including charges for alignment and balancing. He also told me that the sleeves will be available 2 days later, so I went back to them 2 days later to fix the sleeves for the alloys.

I chose the Michelin Primacy 4, 205/50:

Because the stock infotainment doesn’t come with wireless Android Auto, I bought the wireless dongle from Carsifi. My Xiaomi 11T Pro 5g kept crashing while connecting to it, but two of my Samsung phones didn’t have any problem:

My grouse is on the rear and lane watch camera – so poor but I am not sure it is the camera that is poor or it is the display that needs to be changed.

Other accessories:

• Full floor mats.
• 3M sun-film on the front, rear, windows and sunroof.

Drive:

Not sure whether it is the upsizing of tires or the nature of the car itself, the movement of the car is “butter-smooth”. It just glides on the roads, so comfortable. I took it for a 1000 kilometers drive down south of Tamilnadu and the drive was so enjoyable. I never felt any bounciness sitting at the rear. I also have an Innova Crysta so maybe, having used that and coming to the City, the steering felt light, the initial pickup was immediate and not even 50% of the engine noise that I get from the Crysta’s diesel.

I used cruise control on the highways and the way the CC buttons are placed on the steering, it was so intuitive to use. In the Innova Crysta, the buttons are behind the steering wheel, which I felt not easy to use.

Being in the run-in period, never crossed 100 kmph and even in CC, used it to set speeds between 80 and 95. I am not an aggressive driver and I prefer cruising than rushing. But at the same time, even on two-lane roads, I never felt lack of power when pushing the accelerator. I disabled ECON switch and many a times I felt that this change itself made the car respond better and not having to use Sport mode.

To me, I never felt any nervousness from the car on the curves even at around 100 kmph and the response was seamless. May be, the change of tires could have helped here, but it is for this precise reason, I upgraded to 205. To me, the change has solved the purpose and I am happy about it.

Even though the tire profile has changed from 55 to 50, the height of the tires looked the same. This meant that the overall height of the original wheel (185/55) and the new one (205/50) were same, so there was no impact to the GC. I once had to climb an undulated slope, but the car never scrapped the underbelly.

Comfort:

Few things I liked were:

• Back seat recline is at comfortable angle, seats are well bolstered with good thigh support.
• There is a slope below the front seats, which allowed me to rest my legs better sitting behind.
• The front seats fully recline, reaching the 2nd row seats, you can stretch your legs sitting at the back.
• Even if you are sitting at the front passenger seat, the space below the dashboard is also having a slope, which means that you can fully recline the backrest and you don’t have to bend your legs, rather stretch it and rest it on the slope. Very nice touch, I thought.

AC:

These are hotter days but the City’s AC performed well. With the ECON mode set to ON, the AC took quite a while to chill, especially for back seat passengers. But with ECON set of OFF (which I think is equivalent to “Normal” mode as in some other cars), the AC was quick enough to chill the whole car.

So what I generally do now is that when I start the car, I make sure the ECON is in OFF mode, turn on the AC and after few mins, set the ECON to ON. The Remote AC option given on the car key is working great.

Mileage:

When I started the long drive, I filled petrol in a Shell bunk. During the drive, the real-time mileage showed 16 kmpl. But during the course of the travel, I had refuel at regular fuel stations. Not sure if it is because of that or may be the change in tyre size or any other reasons, the mileage kept coming down and settled at 15.3 kmpl when I reached back home. I am absolutely at peace with that.

Overall impressions:

I am very happy with my purchase, loving to both drive and sit at the rear when my wife drives the car.

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