During my entire car hunt and till the booking and delivery process, I had been wondering why there is not much buzz around Brio. It’s a car that drives well, has good brand baggage and looks different from all others in its segment. Now, the rear look. You either love it or you completely hate it. No half measures here. I loved it anyway.
There are so many brands and cars doing rounds in todays automobile sector. You watch the roads, you see 5 cars on the roads. Generally in that 2 will be swift, 2 will be i20 and a i10. No real issues with swift untill I heard the break wasn’t doing good in there with swift. Was disappointed to here it initially as it was my family’s first favourite among cars (before I had a TD of any of the Honda’s). And I have always felt the Straight "H" is always better (in engine, performance and maintainence cost wise) than the Italic or the tiltes "H"
Have also driven Honda Jazz, Honda City I-VTEC and absolutely loved those cars. Had Jazz been around I would have gone for it.
The selection criteria was as follows:
Safety - ABS
It had to be a petrol engine (Safety and Engine were my first priorities)
Reliability and maintenance costs over the long run (we keep our cars for at-least 7-8 years before selling)
Good driving characteristics and refinement (I will be driving it most of the time)
Decent boot space and mileage (16-17 kmpl in the city)
Comfortable seating for four adults
The contenders:
Having test-driven all the cars in my budget, I was contemplating which one to go for. Surprisingly, the Honda Brio never figured in my list. At home, there was a big inclination to go for the Swift since the brand is tried and tested.
The second decision was to go for a small car.
Reasons: ease of parking (narrow roads overcrowded with cars -- is where the car would be spending most of its resting time, so this was the sole guiding reason)
Options and my reasons for rejection:
Fiat Punto– Nice interiors and finish and good to drive around in, but was not too sure of After Sales Service. Was my First choice before the HONDA.
Swift/ritz : When I sat inside the Brio it felt very cheerful and "happy" inside. Don’t know how to describe the exact feeling. But in the Swift one starts feeling dull after a while.
Might be because of the interior color scheme of the two cars. These two tried and tested cars from Maruti had been recently given a face-lift and had the much talked K Series engine. I had driven the Ritz petrol and was fairly happy with the engine but when I was seated at the rear, I felt all cramped up at my knees. However, I decided to take a test-drive of the Swift just to get a feel for it.And I was pretty happy with the swift.
- Very refined and powerful engine
+Good fuel efficiency
+Decent list of features, in the Vxi
+tall boy look (ritz )
-Poor brakes on the low and middle variants (Read a fair bit about the problem on this forum)
-Lack of ABS, Airbags on the Vxi
-pretty common motor(s) on indian roads
-Poor build and interior quality
-body roll, black interiors and legroom space
Hyundai i20:
Spacious and fully loaded. Underpowered, takes time to react even without the A/C. I know i20 diesel is fabulous but that’s not in contention here.
Honda Brio:
Small (fits the space & parking needs, turning radius of 4.5m will make it even easier and better to control on hills)
Swift (really drives well on higher revs, in traffic though lower revs are a bit negetive , requires downshifts if in stop-start traffic).
Service (have had a general good experience with Hondas)
Spacious (don’t get misled by the exteriors. It really is very spacious on the inside for both front and rear passengers)
Smart (Really in love with the rear design. It looks different and gets heads turning on the roads).
The best power to weight ratio in its segment overtaking the swift.
The small sized boot won’t really accommodate your "long-drive" luggage. The load bay is quite high, and the boot runs deep through it. Thus, you’ll have to lift up your luggage items and then place them down rather than pushing them in. The rear seat can be folded to create more space. There is no split folding option or the Jazz’ magic seats. The all-glass hatch results in your luggage being clearly visible from the outside. A parcel tray is a must. And you get it free (or I got it free)
Good visibilty all round and I would say blind spot doesn’t exist in this.If you want to be one among thousands, go for it.And I must mention Honda has a done a good job in reply to its negetive feedback (in case of brio), by adding the Rear Defogger and Driver Seat Adjuster. You ask me Why they have not worked on the low bootspace then ?? Well , You have Amaze for that. Marketing Stratergy as Sales and marketing Proffesionals call it.
MY HONDA BRIO VXMT
Colour
Picked up the Rally-Red as I always felt Brio looks Red HOT in this shade. Though, I must Confess, I was very tempted on Urban Titanium.
Version
The new top end VXMT comes with Alloy wheels, fog lamps, dual-shade interior dash, ABS, Air Bags, internally adjustable rear view mirrors and to this you also add up Rear Defogger, Driver seat height adjuster and tilt steering. I did not want these to be fitted in the "out" market. So chose this variant. Felt it was a bit 20k expensive though.
Drive mode
First drive through relatively high traffic was zippy. The car drives well when the revs are higher. The gear box is a bit rigid and hope it loosens up a bit sooner than late.
Overall it has a nice smooth drive in easy flowing traffic. The stearing is light and has a nice almost sporty grip, and combined with a short turning radius makes the car easily maneuverable into tight spots. I managed to hit the ECO mode few times, but never for longer than 30 seconds.
What I Liked
Looks -- it’s distinctive on the roads
Drive -- Smooth drive, no major body roll or bobbing, hovercraft like feel on moderate speeds
Gear Shift -- very smooth shifts
Eco Mode -- somehow just makes you feel good about driving sedately when all around cars honk
Back Seat Space -- there is a decent amount of leg and knee space...much more than the Swift, Ritz and i10 in my opinion
Stearing mounted audio controls -- very good feature, especially if you like flipping channels while driving
Initial accelartion-- is quite good, I could see myself getting off the blocks much faster than other vehicles
Small turnung radius -- really a boon while doing U turns
Styling is a bold and on your face, you either like it or hate it
What I Did Not Like
Boot needs to have light.
Accessories cost at the dealer showroom was somewhere in the moon.
A slight body roll over. Very slight though.
Split rear seat folding option would be a handfull.
It has a kind of performance that the bigger and heavier hatchbacks will find hard to match. It’s like you can easily pick up this car from one corner and throw it into another, like a go-kart. Of course, there is a little body roll too, but the Brio is still a lot of fun.
Overall Brio seems like a good rounded package. It has its limitations, but then so do all cars in the segment. I am really happy with mine, for now!
Important :
The views expressed by me here are solely my responsibility and completely my personal opinions with no intentions to hurt anybody’s feel. I hope you understand and oblige me if in any case my views did hurt you.
Warm Regards and Cheers,
Happy motoring.
Ajay Sreedhar.