Honda Brio loves you back !. Review on Honda Brio

Bought a Brio S Variant ( without ABS, EBD & Airbags ). Overall quality of the car is fantastic. Individual Component quality is great too as always with a Honda. The stock music system is user friendly to use and sound quality is good too. Purchased it yesterday from Magnum Honda & drove it to Salem & back to Bangalore. Overtook many figo's, ritz's, polo's etc.. with ease. Power is best in class and the i-vtec 4 cyl mill is responsive & super silent in idle. Gear shift is okay too. Now for the downside : The radio antenna provided by Honda seems to have been plucked out of the old Maruti 800 ie... pull-push type mounted on A pillar. Fornt door interiors have visible metal area exposing the color of the car & the bottles that slide into holders are bound to create scratches.

Again reminds me of my dads 800. apart from these not many negatives that I can think of !!. An irritant is the seat belt reminder chime & light, the light flashing when seat belt is not in use is okay but not the irritating 5 beeps at every 30 second interval... I am gonna pull out the fuse or something.... Steering is fantastic and extremely light. Contrary to popular belief the hatch glass is super strong & tempered. Simply go ahead and buy one... it is worth the moolah....

I completed my drive to mysore-masinagudi-ooty-lovedale & back. Overtaking ritz's, polo's and a couple of smoking indica's was a breeze in the kalahatti ghat section from vazathotam to ooty. Every other car that I overtook were simply astonished about the way this gem of a motor pulls ! However Honda engineers seem to have designed a rev limiter beyond 6600 rpm when the engine cuts off... The gear feels a bit notchy because you can hardly hear the engine while driving. This capable 1.2L ivtec pulls & pulls and begs to be whipped around in ghat sections. VW, Maruti & many segment players better watch out !!! The engine performance is matchless in this segment of cars & the Brio shares the same powermill of the Jazz. Brakes have a superb solid feel & the steering is uber cool ! You just have to use you middle finger to negotiate thru ghat sections. Brio is equipped with EPS instead of the conventional hydraulic steering. Aspiring buyers of this cute car can simply go for one without any comparo... It is all worth the money and a satisfying buy too. Now for the buying experience : Magnum Honda in Bangalore finished the delivery process without much fuss ! ( Unlike VW where you recieve 10 calls from the dealer enquiring about how the sales man presented himself, how the dealership was, how was the test ride vehicle, blah, blah, blah...) I really liked the way they completed the formalities, never really compelled me into a commitment & were in no hurry either to dump something on me ( like most other car showrooms ). I was a little particular about the tyres my brio had & asked the Manager & the sales rep (Mr. Lokesh) as to what stock tyre my Brio had, they then offered me more water & coffee. They told me that the car they had in stock had good year and not MRF. I finally paid Rs. 5, 36, 298=00 at the cash counter for the S variant & told them that I would come back after 3 days & pick the car. The delivery was on time & with the PDI done the car was ready to hit the road. I must thank the Magnum Honda staff & technicians for their detailed explanation about the car itself. Mr. Lokesh is a very cool person & we have become good friends since then. The registration plates were delivered & fixed at my home. So nice ! More about the car's performance tomorrow....