Speed Twins From Honda

We all have an ultimate birthday dream, right? Here goes mine. I wake up on my birthday, without realising the significance of the day, and I look down from my second floor window to see a huge trailer truck parked outside. Its cargo? A bright red sports car (sometimes, bright yellow) complete with ribbon and a huge card that declares itself to be my birthday gift. And to be honest, till last week not a single Indian automobile qualified to act as that truck load of my dreams.

Enter the Honda City ExiS. I want one, in Milano Red complete with the skirts and the spoiler. Near and dear ones and my respected employers, please take note.

 

Not because the Asia-specific Honda fits into the same league as the other dream sports cars of yore, like say a Lamborghini or a Ferrari or a even a Nissan 300 ZX, but it is the first ever car in India to wear a S for sports moniker and delivers performance to match. Forget gifts, is the Honda worth spending cold cash on?

Read on for the first ever real world driving impression of the Honda City 1.3 Exi, 1.5 ExiS put together in India.

Looks

The Honda City is not a photogenic car. But in flesh, the car looks quite smart and has styling cues borrowed from many successful European sedans including the Audi and the BMW. But take a second look and then you will realise that it fits in well to the Honda family of sedans like the new Civic and the Accord. Not too futuristic yet still in touch with the times. The grooved expanse of a bonnet, the wide smiling air-intake and the air-dams incorporated into the bumper all manage to give a big-car look to the City.

The boxiness of the rear end is camouflaged by the large tail lamp clusters that house the indicators and the reverse light. The car has a narrow profile compared to the other mid-sizers in India. Yes, the Honda City blends a certain degree of sportiness and a serious sedan image and carries both quite successfully. Somehow it manages to scream its oriental origin and whether you like that or not is entirely up to you.

Interior and comfort

Bad news. There are two trims available and both are equally frustrating. Frustrating because there is nothing wrong with it, still many things could have been better. The interior is very spacious for its class but when it comes to aggregates, it lacks the quality air. The 1500CC car benefits from a better stereo system and two added speakers. On the instrumentation front, a very worthy tacho meter is provided in the 1.5, but as we talk about the performance of both engines it will become clear that a tacho should have been standard fitment in both versions of the car.

The switch gear, lights, plastics and seat mouldings all work well but that is about it. The four-spoke steering wheel is adjustable for rake in the sports version but is too thin for comfort. The power window switches would have been at home in the last generation Civic but not for a car launched as late as 1996. Continuing the rip art, the earlier Honda decides to remove that pseudo wood trim (it is worse than that in the Ford Escort), the better. Ditto with the gear lever and knob, which fail miserably to entice gearshifting. Ditto the reading light, which is so minuscule that a Maruti 800 unit looks luxurious. Ditto the central rear view mirror, which needs to be widened considerably for a better view.

Dont get me wrong here. It is the feel, the texture, the quality air that is missing but the Honda interior does not lack in ergonomics and functionality. It is comfortable but with eyes shut! To be fair on Honda Siel, they have got the initial feedback from prospective customers and are working on improving the interior trim for the two City models.

Performance

Twelve at night. Mumbai is not asleep yet, but the Western Express High way is fast becoming deserted. Blinking amber lights greet me as I point the Monte Carlo Blue Honda City Exi S towards the city. The engine is as quiet as a Japanese engine can be, and one needs to roll the windows down to hear it. The Bridgestone rubber is mounted on a neat star spoked alloy wheel and it never fails to give you instant feedback from each and every piece of rubble on the road. I like it; that is how good drivers cars are supposed to be since it helps to know the kind of surface that you are traversing when you want to go fast. It takes me all of one hour in typical Mumbai traffic during day time to reach my office at Worli, and keeping that in mind I set the timer in my watch as I jammed the throttle down.

The powered front wheel shrieked, grappled for traction and when it gripped, the City catapulted to a 60 kph run in 4.5 seconds flat, and short shifting meant the tacho needle would climb all the way to 3000 rpm in the third gear to reward you with a 120 kph in just 11 seconds. The tacho needle is redlined at 6500 rpm when the 1500CC motor is supposed to develop all of 100 horses. And let me assure you that you need a fair degree of spine and all the luck in the world to get the hang of this kind of performance in Indian driving conditions.

This is, simply put, the most free-revving of all the mid-size engines we have had. It produces all of 128 Nm of torque at a high 4,600 rpm and since most of Indian driving is done at 1500 to 3500 rpm not many drivers are going to reach that figure. But once you have a decent stretch of road, like the one I had in front of me that particular night, the big hearted City is really an entertaining car to drive.

Entertaining? Much more than that actually. Perfectly articulated steering, all the power that you want and a light body shell (lighter by almost 300kg compared to the Ford Escort) all combine to make this a very fast projectile. As neon lights became part of the blurred scenery, the Honda raced past what little traffic that was on the highway. Every time I encountered a traffic light, I would just shift down once to take a cautious look on either side of the road and then, bingo, down went the accelerator pedal with the 16 valve hyper motor responding blissfully.

To cut a long one short, I reached my office in less than 25 minutes to the amazement of the security guards who probably thought I was insane to land up at those hours. Well, what they did not know and my wife would never want to know was that I got back home in the next 20 minutes.

The 1300CC, 90 bhp Exi version is much more suited to Indian driving conditions and should be the one recommended for strict non-enthusiasts. This four pot 16 valver develops 90 bhp at the same engine speed as its bigger brethren but torque is low at 111 Nm, that too at high 4,700 revolutions. The gear ratios are the same as that of the 1.5 manual, and all the difference is in the top end power of the latter. Low end grunt is the same in both machines but the 1.3 when it is fully laden needs shifting the gear knob around in traffic conditions. That said, with a spirited driver behind the wheel, the 1.3 can challenge most mid-sizers including the 1.5 City. Well, it speaks volumes about the engine design capability of the Japanese manufactures and those who have driven Esteems will know what it feels like to have a silent, reliable, hardworking engine under the bonnet.

Ride and handling

Honda had to reengineer the Civic platform to make the Asia-specific automobile. Now we have struts all around and a trapezoid link doing duty at the rear end. The car is quite sure-footed at most speeds and the 175/70/R13 Bridgestones are absolutely brilliant on highways. Ride is on the firm side and this may not suit those who are used to the plush ride of Ford Escorts and Daewoo Cielos, but one has to applaud Hondas move to retain the firm settings since it helps the car get around corners safely at speeds. There is a trace of understeer when you are on the pedal, but nothing that should worry anybody.

On rain drained, bad roads in the hills of Lonavala, the car proved a bit too much to drive at anything more than 50 kph since the light weight car gives you a very fragile feel and you tend to doubt the design integrity of the car that was slotted for India. Well, a reduction in overall weight gives you sterling performance and fuel efficiency. What you lose is the built-tough feel of a heavier car. A fact, but not really a compromise.

Fuel efficiency

Like the Maruti 800 and like the Esteem, this, the second Japanese car to get on to the Indian roads is worth every rupee that you put in if fuel efficiency is your concern. And whos complaining if you get blistering performance as a bonus. The City 1.3 Exi can return a decent 13-14 kpl in an Indian driving cycle and this can improve to the magic 16 kpl with a slightly restrained right foot. When pushed to the limit the 1.5 ExiS gave us a worst of nine kpl, but one has to say that it included some serious speeds and gearshift meant for acceleration and braking tests.

Verdict

The competition is hotting up in the 16 valve brigade. We have the Ford Escort 1.6, and now we have two neat Hondas. Soon we may get a deluxe version of the Cielo with a DOHC 16 valve motor if the grapevine is to be believed. Now for a verdict on the two Hondas. BS Motoring will be doing a one-to-one comparison test of the Ford Zetec 16Valve and the Honda City 1.5 Exi in our search to find a winner in this new high-tech, hyper class of family sedans. But for the time being let us rate the two Hondas.

Excellent packaging for the 1.3 Exi. If you are in the market to buy a petrol-powered car that can give you decent fuel efficiency, thorough reliability and a certain modern day image, the 1.3 Exi is the right car for you. You pay Rs 7,29,000 on road in Mumbai for one. That makes it more expensive than the Esteem and the Cielo, but cheaper than the Opel Astra and the Ford Escort. That is a blissful place to occupy indeed, and owning a Honda is almost like owning a Sony Walkman, a status symbol of sorts in this world of me-too Japanese and Korean clones. So what if this Honda was built for the far-east?

But remember, the competition for the 1.3 comes from not the Esteem or the Cielo but from the Honda City 1.5. BS Motoring also hears that the 1.5 Exi has more enquiries than the smaller engined Honda.

The 1.3 can do the job and do it well, but if you have a strain of youthfulness left in you, or if you want to project that image, or you are the sort you wants to drive for drivings sake, go for the 1.5Exi. And me, I want one with skirts!