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Honda City ZX i-DSI review |
The Honda City underwent some cosmetic changes that helps it look more mature, perhaps market demand requires it to match its competitors. Ford has pitched in with their Fiesta; Chevrolet have come out with their new offering, the Aveo. But, Honda city has still the lions share in the market. Although the sales of the fiesta are good, one must note that there is a diesel on offer at a similar price to the GXi City ZX. What makes this car click? Whats the big deal with the new ZX badging?
We were told that many of the changes you see in this new city is not just cosmetic, the car
has been comprehensively changed keeping in mind costumer feedback and costumer demand. So, although the city was and is outshining all its competitors here in the Indian market, the story wasn't exactly the same in other parts of the world, where the shape of the city weren't very well accepted and the functionality aspects of the same were, lets just say neglected.
The basic idea behind this new city was to get the exterior look a little more acceptable, especially with the Malaysians who seem to have found it quirky. Thus, this new city sports many changes in the way it looks and also the way it feels, none however to its heart..
Design and styling
The styling as I have come to find out from my associates is very love it or hate it. According to me though, the styling is based on the very essence of design, functionality. Every aspect of the city styling is very functional; it has short overhangs, both front and
back. It has a short roof and a steeply raked bonnet, the angle being followed by the windscreen. Sufficiently big rear window, ample glass area all round and very well designed interiors. It almost looks like the designers at Honda had to come up with atleast three reasons to justify each and every curve that they put into this car and at least four for not choosing an alternative shape.
Let me explain; lets start from the front, the only reason the bonnet of the city is so short is because it makes the car easier to drive in the city, the short overhang means that you dont have to constantly keep a check on the where the other end of your bumper is.Thanks to the steering geometry, the turning circle radius is just 4.9m. The short boot also follows the same principle, it helps when you are reversing. The engine bay, though pretty small is able to house the engine, transmission, and compressor and so on, but the clever bit is that these components are so placed that they liberate a lot of cabin room. The high rake front and rear windscreens mean that glass area is very high and hence the cabin feels very airy inside. The short roof results in a lowered centre of gravity. Well, I could go on and on about the way the Japanese have done an excellent job of making a focused car, but lets just leave that for the time being.
I test drove the GXI version of the car which comes with a single CD in dash Alpine MP3 player and 4 speakers as standard. I was particularly impressed by the beige interiors that are very impressive, even more so is the steering wheel which is now height adjustable and comes clad in leather with prominent chrome Honda 'H' at its helm. The wood panels along the doors also match very well with the overall make up of the car. The front seats
are 3 way adjustable, height included. The power mirrors are extremely helpful and neatly designed, the beige interior stretches all the way to the floor, and is very pleasing to the eye. The top of the dashboard is black; hence no reflections off the dashboard on the glass, even on sunny days. The 3 dome meter console is beautiful, especially at night when the dials are orange and the needle is red, it lacks a temperature gauge which gets replaced by 2 warning lights, one for high and another low engine temperature. Though the interiors may seem very plush and comfortable, lumbar support is bit lacking and thanks to the color of the interiors, maintenance may prove expensive. The city has very large glass area thanks to the steeply raked front windscreen, this may prove detrimental to aircon performance on sunny days, but when we tested the city, the aircon proved more than adequate even though the weather was rather sunny.
 The relationship between the c-pillar and the boot of the city was rather odd in the outgoing model and seemed to make the city look rather different, this has been worked on and now the lines flow a lot smoother. A new look bumper and tail lights make the rear end of the car look far more desirable. Thanks to the new bumper, boot space which was always very good is further increased (from 490 to 500liters). I think thats big enough for an extended trip away from the citys' playground.
Engine and Transmission
The Engine here is a 1497cc 4 cylinder naturally aspirated petrol, with muti-port electronically controlled fuel injection and iDSI (intelligent dual spark sequential ignition). It is mated to a 5 speed synchromesh manual gearbox. This engine develops 77ps of power at 5000 rpm and 12.8kg-m of torque at as low as 2700rpm. The engine has been designed keeping in mind tough city conditions, where speeds hardly climb above 60kph. Torque is readily available just above idle and just like the CR-V; this car is very comfortable in fifth gear doing just 40kph! Even though the engine is just purring away at 1500rpm, power continues to be available on tap.
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