First and foremost, before I go on with my views, I’m not a Honda or even a Toyota fan. I’m neutral. So, I just wanna write something about what I have in mind with some little experience on cars. I’m not going into the technical details but I can give some opinions & views as a normal car owner/buyer/user with what we need, wants, hopes & dreams. What I’ve said in this entry has nothing to do with anybody. Just to share some of my opinions. So, here we go.
I went for a quick look at Honda Kosmokars showroom in Glenmarie Shah Alam during my lunch on the launch date. And I did manage to have a test drive on the new Honda City. My first impression when I looked at the car, I said to myself, “Toyota Vios gonna lose big time…this new Honda City will definitely outclass Toyota Vios..” .. why? Just take a quick look at the above picture and what’s on your mind compared to the Toyota Vios? So, you knew the answer already just by looking at it, am I right?
Okay, lets talk about this new Honda City. It comes with two models, S spec & E spec, where the E spec is the high spec version and it costs you RM89,980 on the road while the S spec is RM84,980.
The new design of its exterior is great. I couldn’t ask for more. The front is excellent, while the back is okay, but not so great. Whatever it is, the design is definitely will be the talk of the town when comparing it to the Toyota Vios.
Interior wise, great cool design but slightly a bit lower quality compared to the previous Honda City. It looks expensive though. What I like about the interior is the steering with paddle shift and some controls on the steering. As for the meter panel, it has a feature where you will know how far can you go in kilometre with the petrol load you have on the car. So, it’s kinda unreasonable if you stuck somewhere with an empty tank. Hehehe…
The new Honda City comes with the new 1.5 litre i-VTEC SOHC engine (120PS/145nM torque) with Drive-By-Wire technology. It is a new engine with higher power to boost up the performance of the car. Another great feature is the 5 speed automatic transmission gearbox with Paddle Shift (E spec only). This is what I hoped for. Why?
Someone asked me, why is it so important to have a 5 speed automatic gearbox? Well, in each car, there is RPM speedometer with usual numbers 7 – 9 is in the redline. The numbers are represented as thousand of RPM (Rotations Per Minute). Whenever the gear changed from first to second and so on, the RPM needle meter lowers also changed to a lower RPM. It is a simple concept and everybody knows that if we use higher RPM, the engine will get heat and if we sustain on higher RPM for too long, the engine can get overheat. What does this gotta do with the transmission?
The transmission lets the engine running smoothly by changing to a higher gear with lower RPM. Thus, it will make the engine can be use for a longer life time by not making the engine to overwork. The conventional 4 speed automatic gearbox runs at 110km/h with 3,500 – 4,000 RPM. That means the engine is working 3,500 – 4000 rotations per minute. And at these RPM for some cars, you can hear the loud sound of the engine like it is working hard. This is not so good for running the engine for long term.
So, the 5 speed automatic gearbox lets you run the engine at 110km/h with 2,200 – 2,500 RPM which makes the engine running smoothly without loud engine sound. So, what can you conclude by noticing the RPM differences between 4 & 5 speed automatic gearbox? Yeah, 5 speed automatic gearbox can save more petrol because it’s running on lower RPM. Easy concept isn’t it? So, the 5 speed automatic trasmission will not only save your engine for long-term, but also saves you petrol usage. Some other car brands like BMW & Mercedes, they have 6 & 7 speed automatic transmission gearbox as standard.
It also has Shift Hold Control which enables you to reduce unnecessary gear changes in cornering and supplies acceleration immediately after making a turn. And there are also some new highlights in this new Honda City but it’s not that important to explain it about.
The suspension is nice too as I didn’t feel any swerve on hard corners. Some people doesn’t like a mild hard suspension setup, some people like soft suspension setup. As for me, I like a combination of soft & hard suspension setup as it gives me higher confidence to drive in any conditions especially on corners. The antiroll bar is quite big and it does have a huge impact to lessen the body roll. It also comes with 16 inch rims for E spec while the S spec with 15 inch rims.
So, if you ask me about the comparison between this new Honda City with Toyota Vios, the answer is simple. I will choose the new Honda City anytime. It’s not that I’m a fan of Honda or something. But for me, Honda Malaysia has pull themself away from the conventional UMW Toyota. Don’t mad at me as I’m working with UMW too but not UMW Toyota. I can get discounts anytime if I were to purchase any Toyota cars but I will not buy any Toyota cars unless they bring in the new design with good and expensive look interior, rather than a cheapskate interior just like in Toyota Vios. And after all, Toyota Vios is still using the old technology engine with the old 4 speed automatic gearbox. Not much of new features like the new Honda City. At least Honda knows what the consumer needs.
Well, some people told me that even Honda comes with attractive design & features, it still cannot beat Toyota sales because our people described Toyota as a reliable car. Yes, it is true. But I’m a Honda owner too. I haven’t had a problem with my car at all. My car is reliable too. For me, reliability is one thing, and looks is another thing. Sometimes, you can’t have both. But Honda managed to hear what the car enthusiast wants & needs and they did it. But my point here is not the Toyota as overall, I only pointed it to UMW Toyota in Malaysia. Toyota in Japan & USA did a very good job with their cool designs & features that meet customers need. They are selling very well and always on top of the list of car makers in those countries. While Toyota in Malaysia, maybe they just want to get higher profits by minimized the car features by using some cheap items and sell it at high prices. I’m not assuming or condemning but this is fact and all car enthusiasts know about this very well. So, don’t blame me as I’m not the only one who said this…hehehe. The only way for Toyota to bring in new car designs and great features is by parting with UMW and be on its own, just like Honda Malaysia.
So, as a conclusion, as I said, with the whole new car design and attractive features, I will pick Honda City anytime over Toyota Vios. Full Stop. Go and have a test drive at your nearest showroom. The car has great design, great interior, save more petrol, smooth engine, more power and so much more. No wonder upon launching, there are almost 5000 bookings all over Malaysia.
More pics at http://www.flickr.com/irwandy
More info at http://www.honda.com.my
