Oct 21, 2009 09:10 AM
31843 Views
- I bought New Honda City 1.5 S MT in July -2009 with just one worry - Low ground clearance. Read several reviews & took opinions about ground clearance from friends who own it, before buying - everything turned out to be negative (160mm road clearance as good as the Alto). But all other good factors about "Honda Machine" pushed me to ignore the ground clearance issue.
First month drove only within & around Bangalore (Two trips to Mysore) and hit the unscientific road humps of our roads few times. When got the first servicing done went below the chasis to look at the effects of those banging. Nothing serious observed, however got the "Under chasis coating" done which, as per Honda dealer (Magnum Honda, Kanakapura Road) shall reduce the effects of banging in addition to offer corrosion protection.
-After first servicing, thought of exercising a real acid test and took the car on some of the very bad stretches in Karnataka with 300 KG load (4 persons) – Road between Bangalore & Nelamangala with abnormally huge road humps, NH between Udupi & Kundapur and NH between Bhatkal and Ankola. The roads were very very bad after the monsoon – One can comfortably park a car in some of those potholes! Seen several trucks with broken axles or overturned due to the quality of ride offered by these roads.
I drove carefully with minimum possible speed in those stretches but could not avoid banging from roads. There were other instances where I was forced to take the car beyond the skirting of the road, courtesy the reckless driving from opposite direction, when I was in 80 KMPH – 100 KMPH range and inadvertently got the under chassis bang!.The car covered nearly 1300KMS distance without any problem and the ride was also not as bad as I thought it would be. When I gave the car for 2nd servicing last week (3 months of car’s life), I again got it on the ramp for under chassis inspection. To my surprise, there were no major damages anywhere but for some scratches here and there. If the same impact was delivered on the outer body, I would have easily imagined “Craters” not less than a foot in diameter! Observations after the acid test –
Ø There is an iron channel which is part of chassis which takes the maximum impact below co-driver’s position and strong enough to take those severe impacts (I saw a scratch /cut which was almost 0.5mm deep and 2-3 mm long as a result of high speed bang impact)
Ø The iron casting below the spare tyre in the boot (Again strong enough to take the impact)
-The above two were non functional parts (but structural). I saw scratches on two functional parts though not that deep to worry about –
Ø Silencer on the right part of the car (Aluminum alloy – Not sure)
Ø Fuel tank (Fiber body)
-Suggestions -
Ø Do not bother much about low road clearance. Try enjoying the “Bang” noise, if you can’t, just ignore it
Ø Take the driver side of the car on the even road as much as possible and allow the co-passenger side (Left side of the car) to get into craters. This way you can avoid damage to critical parts like silencer
Ø You need to really worry about the road humps near Peenya and those deep craters where you have no other option than to get the both tyres into the crater. The casting below spare tyre will definitely be under attack and just hope that the fuel tank will be spared
Ø Take on the sharp and large road humps as slowly as you can. Also go slowly on the craters
Ø Never spend Rs.3500 for the under chassis coating. It is utterly useless! None of the parts damaged in the acid test were coated by the dealer in the first servicing. I got a second coat done during second servicing but have serious doubts whether it will offer any value at all!
Happy driving…
