After commencing its streak of success with its scooter duo of Activa and Dio, Honda expanded its scooter portfolio for the Indian two wheeler market by introducing its full size 110cc scooter, Aviator. Targeted at a more niche audience, the Honda Aviator opened up an all new segment of premium 110cc scooters, which was totally absent before its advent.
The Honda Aviator is credited for introducing many features which were completely unavailable in any of the scooters at the time of its launch. The list of such features includes alloy wheels, front disc brake and telescopic front suspension, which were usually seen only on motorcycles before its arrival here in the Indian market.
Riding highly on the stupendous success of Activa, Honda actually forgot to pay some attention to the Aviator, which is why after so many years, the scooter has received its first proper update. The new Aviator is the third scooter which has been updated by Honda in the year 2015, following the Activa 3G and Dio. Here’s a quick look on
STYLING
Smart and Sophisticated – These two words truly define the design philosophy of Honda Aviator. The Aviator has always been managed to remain distinctive amid the conventional looking 100-110cc scooters, thanks to its radical design language. It is this distinctiveness of the Aviator which helped to maintain the appeal of the scooter even after so many years of its first arrival in the Indian market.
Sadly though, in this new update, Honda missed a big opportunity to bring substantial design changes on the Aviator. The scooter continues to retain the same silhouette as its previous generation model, without any major changes to the shape of body panels. The scooter continues to have the tall profile when looked head on, with the handlebar mounted headlamp as well as long vertical clear lens turn indicators and unique Y-shaped silver garnish on the front apron.
The side profile of the Aviator continues to be elegant with chunky side panels with nice lines of continuity flowing through it. The biggest noticeable change on the new Aviator comes in the form of brown colored inside body panels and seat, which effectively do the task of enhancing the feel-good factor of the scooter. As before, the rear single piece alloy pillion grab rail is body colored. The rear of the scooter continues to have the same tail piece, with trapezoidal tail lamp flanked with nicely styled clear lens blinkers.
One more evident change on this new version of the Aviator is in its instrument console layout, which is a new garnished unit and comes with analog dials for speedometer, odometer and fuel gauge, apart from basic tell tale lamps. The build quality and fit and finish of the body panels of the Aviator remain top notch and continue to best in class.
POWERTRAIN
Apart from the basic design, Honda hasn’t taken any pain to bring any change in the Aviator’s basic powertrain and chassis components. The new Aviator continues to source its power from the tried and tested single cylinder, air cooled, 109.2cc engine. Treated with Honda Eco Technology( HET), which aims at enhancing the efficiency, power delivery and refinement, this 109.2cc engine pumps out 8 bhp of power and 8.77 Nm of torque – totally unchanged from the previous one.
Though Honda should be accused heavily for not bringing even a minor change to the powerhouse of the Aviator, the fact that the old engine is a brilliant performer rubs off the crime a bit. There’s hardly any fault in this engine, and it remains a smooth and refined mill, which is perfect for short city rides as well as occasional long
