City for the city, forget highway. Review on Honda City ZX VTEC

An year back, I decided to upgraded my car from Hyundai Accent to Honda City, and wanted to go for the CVT model. I had read about the iDSi engines, and knew it was a great engine. In spit of the low max. power, it gave great low rpm torque, best for city driving and giving great mileage. But I did not like the interiors of CVT and decided to go for VTEC. The VTEC had all the goodies going for it, having great interiors and exterior, and engine that is still the best in its class. But initially, I was not happy with the performance of the car. I did not get the same thrill I got when I upgraded from a small car to Accent. The ride quality was not as good as that of Accent, and I had expected better pick-up, as good as the old VTEC.

I am not sure why Honda downgraded the VTEC power from the old car. The worst experience was on the highways. I like driving fast and with City’s specification of  top speed of 195 km/h, I was raving to test it. I had driven Accent at over 150km/h and wanted to better it with City. I drove to Jaipur and was very impressed by the smooth engine of the VTEC. I thought I was driving at a good speed, but when I looked at the speedometer, I was just around 100km/h. I could easily speed over 150 km/h but was not comfortable driving at this speed, as I used to be while driving the Accent.

The steering wheel was too soft and made me feel not in control. The feeling I used to get passing 130-140 mark in Accent, I got it here very low at 90-100. I was very disappointed that the car having an excellent engine does not have matching steering wheel mechanism to make you feel comfortable at high speeds. But back in city, the car was great, and the same light steering wheel made the drive very comfortable in the city. So I’ll say that the City is for the city, not for the highway, even with the VTEC.

So if you like the interiors, go for the iDSi engine, what gives great performance in city and great mileage at good price, as you can anyway not use the best of VTEC. It’s been a year now with my car and I have started loving it for its looks, Space, smooth engine, effortless steering and great mileage. I haven’t had any maintenance issue yet, and don’t expect it for next few years. With all the new cars out there, I am sure Honda will still be able to keep its head above all due to its strategy to give the best engine technology to India, but will have to give other goodies like ABS, Airbags, Automatic climate control etc to keep its sales from dipping.