Poor Design and Mindless Cost Cutting

Five letdowns in my Honda City:

1. No remote Handset for audio System – You cannot control your audio system if you are driven by a chauffeur. Interestingly this was a part of Honda city earlier, but thanks to penury cost cutting the customers will have to live with this big handicap

2. Inadequate audio controls on the steering – No mute button on the steering, no button to switch on / off your stereo from the steering. The Bluetooth operating buttons on the steering are also not well placed and one touch last number redial is missing. Other competitors like Hyundai Verna score much better here.

3. Only one electronic key with the car – Honda City comes with one electronic and one mechanical key. The cheapest of the cars in the market (which come with central locking) would be put to shame by this level of cost cutting by Honda. The replacement of this lone key costs a bomb.

4. Poor cabin lighting –No map light above driver’s head (SV Variant). In other variants the middle cabin light is taken away in lieu of the map light still leaving the cabin poorly lit.

5. Mindless Designing – The Bluetooth mic of the SV variant is installed on the stereo panel (below the aircon vent) instead of the standard mounting on the roof above the drivers head (it is installed correctly in V / VX variants). This results in very poor mic performance and the person on the other end of the phone can never hear the driver clearly. A live demonstration was conducted in presence of Honda officials and the sound quality picked up by the mic of SV variant was extremely poor as compared to other variants (V/VX) of Honda City. After the matter was escalated to the President Honda India Mr. Kanayama, Honda customer care head Mr Rajneesh Raheja asked for two weeks to find a solution from the vendor’s end. However later I was shamelessly advised to choose from three options a) to move my mouth nearer to the mic while driving b) to reduce my aircon fan speed c) to buy an external Bluetooth mic from the market. There are other customer complaints regarding this which were also shared with Honda India. If any other Honda City (SV variant) customer wants to join the group of dissatisfied customers who wish to join the group in this struggle please contact on XXXXXXXX.

Noneaudio- no remote & poor steering controls, poor cabin light, only 1 remote key, wrong mic placement