Honda Amaze Long Term Report 2

The Honda Amaze has now been in our fleet for over two months and in that time, we have used it to climb the Ghats in and around Mumbai, inched it along through peak evening traffic on the Western Express Highway and finally used it as a shoot car on multiple occasions. Each of these experiences has left us with a bit more respect for the Amaze and more importantly wanting to put more kilometers on the odometer whatever be the road conditions.

The Amaze now also has the distinction of being the car that our die-hard petrol-head colleague used to bring his wife and new born daughter home from the hospital. He has grown very fond of the Amaze and was pleased with its performance for the entire period.

At the end of the last report, we had told you that the car was due for its first service (5,000km) and the day after the LTR-1 was published we sent off the Amaze for its first check-up. It returned with its fluids changed and a nice cleaning job. Since this is the first service, the cost has been borne by the manufacturer.

Since then we have begun to do long journeys with the Amaze and have discovered that it has handles pretty well despite the soft suspension setup and noticeable body roll while cornering at high speeds. It is also a hoot to drive in heavy traffic and on potholed roads as most of the bumps are well absorbed. The NVH levels are pretty decent and when you rev the engine hard you get a sweet noise in the cabin but other than that the 1.2-litre four-pot mill is butter smooth and is hardly noticeable even when the car is idling.

The biggest qualm about the car that the team seems to find is the gearbox. It is slow to respond at higher speeds leaving many of us to plan overtakes much more in advance than we would normally do. However, we were all able to agree that for its price, and the normal conditions that one would buy an AT car, the gearbox does a pretty decent job thanks to a good chunk of low-end power.

On the fuel efficiency front, the best we have managed to achieve is 14.2kmpl but as we had said in our previous report, a light foot on the throttle, some cautious and sedate driving has yielded us fuel efficiency figures far higher than the ARAI specified figures both in the city and on the highway.

Some of the things we have noticed in this last month is that air-con tends to get noisy at a higher fan speeds, the wipers squeak a lot when used in heavy rains and the right rear seat belt does not engage. One of the selling points of the Amaze is its massive boot. I akin it to a small blue whale as it is able to swallow almost anything with ease, this being proved when my colleague Charles was able to insert a whole guitar hard case and still have space to spare.

We have had many exciting adventures with the Amaze in the time that it has been there with us and hope that we can fit in a few more before we say sayonara to our maroon- coloured friend.