Jan 24, 2006 01:26 PM
8097 Views
(Updated Jan 24, 2006 01:26 PM)
I have been wanting to upgrade to a luxury sedan and test drove this. I have the following observations to make.
The awkward look that existed on the Honda City has disappeared and this one looks quite good. The range of colors available is good too and look appealing.
The entry exit is decent. The drive as well as the gearshift is extremely smooth and the car appears very good to drive in the city.
The upholstery is quite upmarket though I did not like the look of the center console including the alpine stereo out there. I also did not like the space between the 2 front seats which has a sort of mini wall and keeps touching the leg (I have the habit of swinging my legs sideways while at redlights or while waiting and have no issues doing that with my Santro). As a result the front appeared cramped to me. I liked the Corolla in this aspect as it does not have this wall between the seats or atleast does not hamper feet movement. Cannot comment on other cars.
The dual front storage spaces, one on top and another at the bottom are very well thought off and should be very useful.
Coming to the rear, I liked the seat comfort etc. but overall give it strongly negative score as my hair touches the roof and this is unacceptable to me. I am 6 ft. tall and did not like this one bit and partly the reason for rejecting this otherwise excellent car. I cannot have tall people trying to fit in the rear rather than sit comfortably after paying 9.3lakhs(bangalore).
The biggest disadvantage is the ground clearance. I dont know why manufactures think that the excellent roads of Delhi and maybe Mumbai are the only places where people will drive this. In about 2 minutes and with just 3 medium built people in the car, I managed to scrape the bottom on a speedbreaker. Did not have to try too hard to try and achieve this. That too at a speed less than 10kmph. This was enough for me to reject this car. Bangalore has bad roads and enough speedbreakers and in every 15-20 km, if you need to scrape the bottom 15-20 times, its not ok and I cant do some jugglery each time to try and avoid this. The car may be excelelent but in Bangalore, I think its useless even if sold for a couple of laks lower.
