I bought the top end manual version of the All new Honda city 1.5 SMT on Jan 23rd 2009. It is a great car with excellent space utilization and beautiful looks with curves at the right places. The rear of the vehicle has a European styling. The front grill is unique.
Get an average mileage of 17km/l now. This includes some long distance travel as well as city driving. The mileage shown in the dashboard is accurate to plus or minus 1.5km/l. The idea is that the mileage is shown for the trip meter reading. Once the trip meter is reset, the mileage is also reset. In long distance driving I have even got 23 km/l if you drive for mileage. The mileage graph is a good add on and let’s you acquire good(mileage) driving skills. Engine is pretty refined, although the power delivery is at higher RPM especially after about 2000 RPM. But considering that the car is tuned for mileage, it is OK. This is not a peppy car.
Interior - lots and lots of space to store away small items. Since the petrol tank is under the front seat, the rear seat has a lot of storage area underneath. The boot is simply humongous. Steering mounted controls are a nice touch, although I would have preferred it at the right side of the steering.If Honda had taken care of a few more details it would have been a perfect car according to me.
Let me explain below.
These is some serious problems with the car’s electrical system in the sense there is voltage fluctuations. You will notice it with the change in ac fan speed(try turnin the fan speed to 2 or 3 and you will surely notice it), change in the pitch of the horn. If you drive at night, the headlight and the dash lights dims when you turn on the ac(try it when it’s parked). I am surprised with this issue as I didn’t expect this from a Honda.
The factory fitted stereo is very good with excellent delivery of bass. The sound is very good with descent
setting. But since the speakers are fitted to the doors, any items(like a pen or coins) you keep on the door pouch is bound to vibrate and create a rattling noise. Honda could have lined the inside of the door pouch with some material to dampen this. The stereo again don’t have a mute which may be very useful like when you attend a call or something.The boot release is on the right side of the driver’s seat. This could be placed at any place near the hand break at the middle. I usually leave my family in the car with the key in the car before I go out for short shopping errands. When I get back if this boot release was where the co-passenger has access, I won’t have to open the front door or use the key to open the boot. The interior roof lights are at the center. Good theatre roof lights, but this light cannot be seen when you want to use the storage under the central arm rest. Honda could have had another roof light in the front also.
I felt that the suspension is pretty hard especially when you drive on the hard uneven road. You can hear the shocks at work pretty well.
Light beigh interior are very good to look at, but gets easily dirty especially with the indian conditions. Honda could have given additional interior options like the dark upholstery like in the new Jazz.
Sound insulation is pretty low. Ground clearance is low.
But if you can forgo the above shortcomings, this car is an good buy. The service is pretty good so far. If you have any problems, the minute you put that in the Honda site you are sure to get all the attention that you want.