Good Car But Bad Honda After Sales Service

Honda BRV V-CVT Honda is known for its steadfast cars and India needed a full blown 7-seater MPV in mid-range, A 7-Seater in this price segment would have been a godsend for bigger families with limited budget (Toyota Innova is about 25 lakhs). Honda decided to jump in this blue ocean with its game changer for middle class big families MPV called the “ Honda BR-V “ a.k.a “ Honda Be Ready Vehicle “ and yes it is as its name suggests a “ Be Ready Vehicle “ with a seating capacity of 7 adults and talk of the town boot capacity of 223L (All 3 Rows Up), 691L ( 3rd Row Folded). The purpose of a mid-range family car can be easily obliged with Honda BR-V without that big hole in the pocket (For Innova we pay around 25 lakhs) and this being a smaller engine the cost of maintaining this MPV is much lesser than any other 7-seater (Fortunately-Unfortunately only Innova is a proper 7-seater) Indians have a tendency of comparing cars of the same price range without understanding the fact that different cars are made for different purposes, Like BR-V is being compared with Creta but is it really a wise thing to do so? No. Creta is a bigger hatch-back and BR-V is a proper MPV with better ground clearance than most of the SUV’s in India (210 MM and to put it in context Mahindra Scorpio has a ground clearance of 180 mm) Apart from being blessed with awesome ground clearance and 7 seater capacity the Honda BR-V CVT is blessed with world know 7- Speed Automatic (With Paddle Shift and this really cant get any better) Continuous Variable Technology gearbox which makes it a cake walk to drive it in city traffic and a pleasure on highways with a descent mileage of 15-18 Kmpl and believe it or not this is a real good number that BRV-CVT churns out on being an automatic car of this size. The 1600cc 120 BHP power house powers up BRV CVT Petrol and I have driven it on Hills like Nainital with 6 Adults and luggage and not even once I felt the need of paddle shift or Sports mode. BRV was negotiating hills and turns courteously. On the interior side it has a piano black finish which adds to the class of the cabin, push button start, blue tooth connectivity, Aux plugin and classy music system (You will fall in love with the quality of sound) adds to the pleasure of driving. Not to forget the roof mounted AC vent for 2nd and 3rd row feels like gift of God in Indian summers. Steering mounted audio controls, dual air bags, Pre-tensioner Seat Belts with Load Limiter, Anit-Theft system with immobiliser are other pluses. All said and done there are few things that Honda could have done better to make BR-V a complete package like a touch screen system ( that is made available even in smaller Maruti stable cars), cruise control and sun roof (May be because of roof mounted AC vent there is no sunroof ) and a bare minimum reverse parking camera as a stock supply ( For a car of almost a Cessna length reverse parking camera is a must ). With a wheel base of 2662 mm, the car offers a very generous leg space even in 3rd row, However the width 1735 mm is little less and could have been better and this could have added to the comfort of seating to adults in 2nd row. With 1662 mm height even a 7 feet long human will have space for puffy hair style the 16-inch rim size and diamond cut alloys adds to look and stand of BR-V and the front disk/rear drum breaks are good enough to bring the car to a dead stop from 120 kmph in mere 3 meters. BRV is a dressed family car for big families that loves to travel together with safety and Honda’s world known trust of petrol engines. Looks wise BRV may not look like an SUV but neither does Volvo V 60 nor does BMW X1 looks like one. India needs to understand the difference in SUV and MPV and the day we understand this BRV will be loved by millions of big Indian families who love to move composed in sheer comfort. Or probably, as we follow herd mentality in India, the day SUV word became talk of the town everything is tried to be bracketed in this, rather than creating own niche.