Why I will not purchase a Honda Mobilio !

Image credit : http://www.hondacarindia.com

After a rather long while I decided to finally hit the road to get to the Honda showroom. The reason was my urge to test drive their new Mobilio MUV which has been generating so many raves for the past few months. Some said its the most stylish MUV, some say its an Innova killer, so it was actually time to investigate it for myself. Without wasting much time I reached the showroom on time and there was hardly anyone willing to ask me what I needed at Dakshin Honda. Maybe it was a Sunday morning, or maybe they had too many bookings, no one knows the true fact, but whatever be the case, I would have preferred some more attention.

Now straight to the car itself. The diesel that I was looking at was the V(O) model which had all the bells and whistles such as sliding seats, airbags, music system, alloys and whatever else you wish for. My awe at the exterior was only to last a while before I entered the inside of the car. Let me explain a bit. I have noticed a common issue with all the cars and it is the steering getting in the way of tall people’s driver seating. I am not complaining but personally I would have liked the steering rake to go up a bit more. So now since that does not happen, the only way to fix that is to bring your seat height down, that is if seat height adjustment was indeed an option given to you in the first place.

Image credit: http://www.hondacarindia.com

Having said that, the front row of seats were sufficiently spacious and generous. Even when the front seat is reclined, the rear passenger was not inconvenienced. How does Honda achieve it? Minimalism. Quite exactly the opposite of TATA. If anyone has to learn seating its still from TATA. period. The middle row of seats is slidable, leading to different space configurations. I particularly liked the amount of space one gets by sliding the middle row seats. Its a boon and I am not sure why car makers did not think of this much earlier on. The middle row seats are 1/3 is to 2/3 split, and they tumble nicely to become vertical. But do not get fooled by the picture with the space on the last row, I will come to that in a moment.

The middle row is best suited for only 2 people. Whether you want to put a kid in between or a teddy bear in between is your choice. But please do not put an adult in between unless you want to be shouted at for the rest of your 500km journey somewhere on a holiday. Pathetic middle occupant space is the way to put it. The whole reason mobilio sells is due to the 6th and 7th seater space at the back. However, to my utter dismay neither could I comfortably get into that space nor could I actually get out of the space easily. It is so absurd that even thinking of putting the kids into that space requires a daily strategy of sorts.

I am really very very disappointed with Honda for trying to pass off something as ridiculous as this seating space as something mind blowing saying – ‘Aap ke liye, apno ke liye’ : bullshit. I did not want to test drive this car anymore after taking note of its flaws. The car I was looking at was priced at around 12 lac on the road for this version. And for 12 lac there were much better 5 seaters than a stupid 7 seater like the mobilio. Now I know many people will critique what I have said about this car, but please sit inside and you will realise that the points I made are very genuine given you are paying that amount on the vehicle. People will still tend to buy this no doubt. But for me, I need something better than my sunny to even consider it. For the rest of you who do buy it, good luck with your daily drives.

I hope your car loves you back as much as you love it. The scope of this review does not cover the drive or mileage aspects. I have restricted to first look opinions. With respect to stroage space, dashboard and roof top AC Honda have done a good job. I would have still preferred that they gave butterfly trap windows at the rear since not everyone can live with just AC and they may need a waft of fresh air at some times. The elements of the dashboard are good and simple, though I don’t quite buy the argument that its bland looking. Agreed that it looks much worse than City, but its nothing to feel bad about.

The quality of plastics are really nice and I would have personally preferred a coin box or some storage stuff on the dashboard top area. Most car makers do not feel this is an option to be given, but some like Mahindra and Tata do provide the same. It is useful to store toll tickets and the small change and very accessible too. I personally like the exterior of the mobilio, specifically the rear tail lamp assembly as its a very cheerful looking design.

The mobilio is most definitely NOT an innova killer or the most stylish car of all. Design without function does not make a car stylish as I consider style to be a factor of both. For example the duster may be minimalist but might offer more function. This said, the Mobilio is Honda’s first shot at the MUV segment and if they had priced the vehicle at about 10 lac they would have hit the sweet spot. With the current pricing and the obvious flaws in seating, I am not impressed.

Update: (13/Mar/2017)

I had stated in this post that the mobilio will not be a worthy competitor to Innova earlier. In agreement with that opinion, Honda decided to discontinue the model due to lack of demand. The mobilio also does not meet the upcoming standards for indian automobiles as well and Honda decided to ditch this model since it did not even sell a single unit in February which is a pathetic record for this segment of car.

So long Mobilio, its time to make way for the Honda WR-V !

Why other car manufacturers will have a tough time to beat the Nissan Micra CVT?

Source ([motorbeam](http://www.motorbeam.com/wp-content/uploads/2013-Nissan-Micra-India.jpg))

Along with the test drive of the Honda Amaze automatic (which would also mean Brio AT), I also got a chance to take a test drive of the Nissan Micra CVT. After a rather long 2-3 hours at the Honda showroom, we just stopped by the Surya Nissan showroom for a test drive for Micra CVT. Since we were very tired we told the dealer guys that if it was possible they could give us a test drive at our home itself and quite courteously enough they agreed.

And as I drove to my home in my Sunny, I did find that the test drive vehicle was always keeping pace with us no matter how fast I drove. Upon reaching our home, each of us took a test drive of the CVT Micra which I will elaborate more upon just below.

For those who know about the Nissan Sunny, barring the exorbitant amount of space, the Micra’s interiors are pretty much a xerox copy of the Sunny. True that it’s not so great to compare the hatchback with the sedan, but in most cases, the two siblings are modelled identically and so is the case with Nissan as well. The dashboard is the dull brown or grey as you may call it. The stereo system thankfully is in piano black. The climate control system panel is similar to Sunny as well and the steering and front seating also gets the same treatment. For those who do not already know I wish to state here that until now in the entire B-segment sedan market, the Nissan cars have the most optimal seating ergonomics.

Honda has screwed it up a bit on the City, the Vento is a bit tight, Fiat Linea is better but deep and down, and it’s becoming a trend where pretty much every manufacturer creates a bucket seating design which in turn makes the road lesser and lesser visible leading to driving confusion. Somehow I found that the Amaze was close to Nissan in retaining a taller seating position naturally. The seating is very car specific and its all about the final design that has a say in which model of which manufacturer cuts it and which not.

I’m not a big fan of bucket seating as it leads to backache, leg ache and a general feeling of tiredness upon constant amount of driving. Another problem that I personally face in most cars is the clutch. Either its position or its play or its tightness. Sometimes the position was absurd as in the case of Polo (higher than other pedals which was a big bummer), or deep as in the case of FIAT (their logic being that Indians always place leg on clutch) or some other cars where pressing the clutch by itself was a great effort. Since we are dealing with automatic transmission here, that was on headache lesser.

{}![](http://www.hindustantimes.com/images/2013/6/f8d28105-0a54-45df-a9b1-d0eec07bc825hires.jpg)

[Source](http://www.hindustantimes.com/images/2013/6/f8d28105-0a54-45df-a9b1-d0eec07bc825hires.jpg)

The Nissan micra also carried forward lots of chrome on door knob handles, the dashboard and other areas from its elder siblings. The steering is an absolute beauty and its so much of a driver oriented design that I cannot stop raving about it enough. The gearshift is an automatic stick that has Neutral, Parking, Reverse, Drive and Low Range mode (for steeper inclines). The shift also has a overtake mode button for sudden overtakes which takes the car to sporty modes.

Switch the car on, and have no idea whether the engine is on or not. This is one of the most silent petrol engines I’ve seen so far. Being the racing engine preference kind of guy (read fiat, ford) this was a complete surprise to me honestly. And being a diesel head since almost 6-7 years now, I was suddenly thrown into an absolutely silent environment which for a moment was ultimately comforting for me.

Step on the gas and the car is ready to lunge forward immediately unlike the useless response of the Amaze/Brio siblings. This is an engine that really wants to keep up with you. The car handled some bad potholes pretty well and for the driver it was not so much of an issue. The people (3) at the rear were also overhead commenting that the space inside was sufficient enough (this was after what they felt the caaaaaaar to be) which was good to hear. I did find the car to be throwing about the rear occupants quite a bit on bad stretches so this could be one of the letdowns though one is expected to drive this car in an executive manner though the advertisement states otherwise.

There was a situation where I was approaching (merging with) a main road from a residential area and the road started to incline upwards to about 10-20 degrees at the merge. When I was about to merge left I had to come to an abrupt stop due to another larger vehicle which passed me by. To my surprise I found that the Micra was holding up well and stayed put on that incline as is without a single bit of dodge from that position. I stepped on the pedal once more and it willingly took me forward as though nothing had happened. The character of the CVT is so composed at all times and you never feel the car is going to let you down ever, though it might be a tad slow on overtaking manoeuvres as compared to the manual geared versions.

[Source](http://indianautosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2013-Nissan-Micra-dashboard.jpg)

The air con is a mature piece of electronics and does its job to keep you cool if you are fretting within the car. Play some music and you will be lost into your own world immediately. This car has a reasonable amount of space at the rear and the boot and you will have no reason to complain about these. The front fascia looks gorgeous with the new revisions and the rear has LED tail lamps. The car is priced at about 8 lac on the road and with a bit of negotiations we were able to get a price of about 7.6 on the road (without any accessories). This car also has push button start and two airbags for safety, and already comes with everything fitted. The only thing I would have liked is if it had paddle shift gears on the steering and I believe this would be a fair ask since I am comparing this car with Honda, both Japanese cousins.

[Source ](http://www.zyglr.com/wp-content/uploads/Nissan-Micra-TailLamp.jpg)

If you are looking for a car that will really love you and never leave you, and is willing to work with you to keep you calm and composed while you enjoy sitting inside it and driving it, the Micra CVT is my choice for you. With an apparent mileage of about 14-15 for an auto tranny, its really got nothing to complain about as compared to other cars which either skimp on safety or some other feature here and there to make you always visit the accessory showroom. Nissan Micra CVT is a bold step by the company to introduce the only CVT in India in this segment and by the time the others make it to the market, Nissan would have already had a good lead in the CVT game to the extent that this car could get subsidised further due to the profits already made.

The service centres are nothing to write home about and currently this still remains a concern with both Shahwar and Surya in Bangalore. I found Shahwar to be maturing into servicing cars properly but Surya has a lot to learn with respect to having the right skill sets and attitude. Further considering that this car is a CVT, only regular oil and filter changes may be required to keep this baby in good shape other than the usual clean ups, tire pressures and other such stuff. The CVT engine will surely have a longevity much higher than manual engines around the same price brackets and I feel one could easily drive this engine all the way to the 200,000km mark without any issues. Nissan’s engine quality (both petrol CVT and the Renault diesel engine in Sunny) seem legendary with the way they perform and its highly unlikely to run into an engine issue when you purchase this car. Be wary of the dealers and specific to say what you want attended to in the service and you must get what you need. And just because there are only 1 or 2 dealerships, don’t fret much since that’s the case with most car brands.

Of all the brands that I know in the market, I feel only Toyota and Ford have a quick service option which is really quick. They have bays dedicated to handling some quickly solvable problems and keep these aside from regular service areas.

Overall the Nissan Micra CVT is an excellent car with few known quirks and perhaps unpredictable service. On the drive it is surely a car that will keep you extremely happy and create more time and mood for good conversations. If I had the money today and decided on an automatic, this would be it – the Nissan Micra CVT.

Get ready to welcome the new Honda Mobilio MUV

Honda is about to launch its MUV the Mobilio. Well known for its new design, ample space, good petrol and diesel engine and an automatic variant with two rows of airconditioning and ample storage spaces, this vehicle is going to sell like hot cakes when it comes out to the market in a month or two.

The mobilio will compete against Ertiga, Ecosport, Duster, and XUV 500 all good in their own right, and also having good amount of booking wait times now.

Meanwhile it is interesting to see the Mobilio in its most clear form in the real world through this indonesian marketing video. The video is not in english, but still its worth watching to see what the company will launch in india. Most things such as warranties, versions and features would match what is being sold in Indonesia, so this is pretty much the version India will see.

Take a look and enjoy

Pronto car wash review

Though I’ve been a regular at the Pronto Car Wash at HSR Layout, I only got some time to blog about this facility now due to many constraints.

The Pronto Car wash is fully automatic car washing system like you find in other countries. While other countries offer many different options like waxing, foam, etc the car wash facility here is a set of simple soap wash, water wash and air dry sequences.

There is also a manual water wash and interior cleaning done by the people working these which include shampooing of seats and vacuum clean and drying before the car goes in for exterior wash.

The cleaning system itself is made of a heavy frame with moving parts and three cleaning brush sets. It also has sprinklers under the chassis at floor level which sprays water jets for the belly of your car. The dryer module is one that adjusts itself by height as it traverses the car by automatically computing its current height so as not to damage the car. The dryer unit is powerful and ensures that the car is perfectly dry (well, almost) once the whole sequence is done.

So how long does this take? 7-8 minutes to be precise for the automated wash, another 10 minutes for the manual. Interior cleaning can take more time and there is also a wait time since there maybe other vehicles before you.

Ok, I got it but this must be expensive? Owning and maintaining a car is definitely expensive business. And the pronto is no cheap either. But its not so expensive that will make you opt out. For a basic body wash its 300 bucks. Drying manually is another 50 bucks (service you see!). Interior cleaning can set you back anywhere between 300-400 rupees more. The end result is a clean vehicle leaving you satisfied.
The guys remove your car antenna since that can interfere with the pronto system and fit it back later.

So, how often must you clean your car this way? Well honestly – its upto your wallet heaviness. I keep a target of maximum of once a month while the remaining times I am happy with my Karcher. For others who can afford more, you can do once a week. I also time it based on my tiredness to clean it at home or how dirty the car has become that it needs immediate attention.

Ok don’t you have that guy who comes daily and spends an hour and bucket loads of water at home cleaning your car – I feel thats cheaper? Yes it is cheaper, but there is no thrill of seeing an automatic system clean your car spotlessly in 8 minutes. Besides, I have a karcher which is almost a mini pronto by itself minus the dryer. So no human beings cleaning my vehicle please. Besides doing it myself means some physical exercise and if I clean my wife’s car then I get some brownie points at home as well.

If you want to see the always talked about automatic cleaning and you have not done it until now, I suggest you head upto Gnan Srishti School of Excellence and further down the road leading to HSR BDA complex and you will find Pronto on the right side.

Enjoy the show !