I tested the hero honda pleasure twice at the showroom and would buy one (if I had the money!). Good scooter. The styling is reminiscient of the Vespa 60 scooter and/or the Honda Dio Fit that is a Japan only model. The scooter is not feather light and carries its gait well and was quite handy even for a decent sized man(me- at 5’ 8’’.) The designers could however have widened the front apron a bit as it looks too skinny. The seat is also not as wide as an Activas’ or the Wave. The under seat space is also limited and would fit my open face helmet only with some difficulty. However, it is very cute and would make light work of heavy traffic.
The engine is identical to the Activa’s and is very very smooth. It goes very fast as it is lighter than the activa. The bane of most scooters and bikes in India is the bad NVH- noise, vibration and harshness & the engines which give trouble but the users just suffer them in silence. This is not so with the hond scooter engines which are very pleasant and enjoyable to drive. The trade off is a slightly lower mileage but sen overall, and factoring the longeivity of the engine the pleasure should be a very good buy. The pleasure is a bargain when compared with the honda scooters and makes the dio available in India redundant.
Coming to price, if they had priced it at rs 39, 000 on road, they would have had a walk over on bajaj and handa, as the Activa and Dio are over priced and the wave suffers from niggling faults and poor execution. By pricing it at Rs 40000, it is too close to activas price which people trust with closed eyes and it is too costly compared to the wave. The biggest blow is the female oriented advertising which will keep off any man worth his moustache except for an ageing foggy like me.