After much effort I was able to sell my Opel Corsa Elite to a retired Army Officer in month of Feb at a loss of 35K.
Now everyone would wonder what kind of loss? The price I got and the loan pending had a diff of 35K which I had to bear. Anyway, as soon as I sold it I was in the biggest dilemma of my life as to what should be the next car I must have. After much research and lots of test drives from Verna to Fiesta to Aveo, I settled for Honda City. I am not going to compare other cars here as there have already been a lot of reviews written for that.
Also, people have different points in mind while going for a car.
I would not go into technical details and would put the perspective of a real user. Here is the exp till date.
Exterior: I hated the City ZX when it was launced few years back because of it’s shape but slowly I started liking it and I love it these days.
Features: Adjustable steering, electronic side mirrors, lot of space in dashboard for coins, mobile, glasses etc.
*Boot:
*It is Huuuuuuuuuuuuge.
Engine: I am not a formula one driver and had no intention of paying few thousands of my hard earned money to the cops for over speeding. So I did not need a 100 BHP engine. In fact 77 BHP has been performing pretty well. I have driven it to 120 KMPH on highways with steering kept to the lowest possible position as it becomes a bit hard and better to have a hard steering on high speeds. In city raffic I keep it at higest adjustable position and it becomes real smooth.
*EXi or GXi?
*This is one dilemma every City buyer goes through. I had not intention to pay 50K extra for Beige interior and a crappy Stereo set put by Honda so went for EXi. Apart from these and the body side strips everything else is same in both the cars. I got Sony MP3 and speakers, Autocop, Gear lock and few other accessioris for 13K and effectively saved 37K.(Intelligent me). Though my wife was adamant on GXi(of course because of interiors) how i convinced her for EXi is another long story.
*AC:
*This is one car with a wonderful AC and there is no lack of power when it is turned on. Which is quite amazing. So it is not all about BHPs but about the refinement and distribution of power to all the components.
*Drive:
*The car feels light at-times on highways because of its low weight as per the size. The city drive is almost perfect as everyone knows. But watch out for those huge bumpers, I am yet to see a Honda City without any damage on the bumpers. Luckily I have not done any major damages apart from few scratches here and there.
*City and SX4:
*Being a recent owner of City I was very keen to drive SX4. Did it on very first day of the launch in Delhi and found it good value for money. However, it is no City in terms of refinement and build quality also is nowehere one would expect in a 7 lakh Rs Car. Some people say that interiors of SX4 looks to be similar to Alto. I am not going to compare SX4 here as this a review about City. Maybe some other time.
*Most Important thing:
*This is one thing everyone would want to know about. i.e. Mileage. I have done 3000KM in 3 months with few long drives to Agra(from Delhi) and another one to Saharanpur. I have been getting 13 plus in city driving condition with AC on all the time and 16.5-17.5 on highways again with AC on all the time. So I am pretty happy with it. The Corsa was giving 11 and 13.
*Am I happy with my decision?
*Yes I am pretty much satisfied with the car in terms of every thing this car provides. Only concern I have is that I called Honda people on 23th May for service boking I got the 2nd June appointment(In Gurgaon). But this is something I will have to live with I think.
Waiting for all the comments and ratings.