Bidding adieu to long term cars is quite painful because we get to live with these machines, and they sort of become a part of our family. By family, I mean it was a younger brother to my Tata Safari Storme (I call it Shera), which got some rest while the Amaze was in the garage. My Shera used to hate me when I took it out in the hustle and bustle of the city with congested traffic. I am not too comfortable either, lugging around a multi-story vehicle mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. So, the Honda Amaze CVT made things easier in the family with its super convenient driving characteristics in the city.
I drove it for more than 2600 km, most of which included city driving but around 1000 km was highway driving. Out on the highway, it behaves pretty well, not making you feel nervous or uncomfortable. It offers good high speed stability, ironing out small bumps and potholes. However, if there are big undulations coming your way at high speeds, then the rear gets too bouncy. So, you need to reduce your speed if you see a bad patch of road or big undulations. I noticed one thing, if there are no passengers and no luggage in the car, then the tail is more controlled and doesn’t tend to bounce as much.
Now, the 1.2-litre petrol engine looks average on paper with just 90 PS and 110 Nm of torque. However, it is good enough to pull the car to 100 km/hr if you slow down to navigate through traffic or bad roads. The annoying part of the CVT is the noise it makes when you push the throttle hard, but the best part is that it feels relaxed once you’re at your cruising speed. You need to modulate the throttle input in such a way that the engine doesn’t scream as much, and you can accelerate in a strong manner as well.
Cruising at 100 km/hr, the engine feels relaxed, hovering around 1200 RPM. This also helps you extract great fuel efficiency figures out on the highway. I managed to get 18.38 km/l on my way to Lucknow and 19.6 km/l on the way back to Delhi with the boot loaded to the brim and three passengers on board, including myself.
If you drive a CVT in the city, the fuel efficiency drops drastically due to the constant throttle inputs and the transmission’s high-revving nature. I averaged around 12.5 km/l in the city, but sometimes in low traffic hours, I managed to get 14.8 km/l, which was the best figure I got in the city. Although my Shera offers similar mileage in the city, around 13 km/l, I was still happy with the convenience the Amaze offered. Usually, carmakers organise press conferences and events in Aerocity or Gurgaon, which is quite far from my place and involves heavy traffic. I used to call cabs for those events but with the Amaze, I never hesitated to drive down to Gurgaon, even during peak traffic hours.
I also got to experience the rear seats of the Amaze. For a short person like me, they are very spacious and comfortable, with ample legroom that is usually not available in this segment and great headroom. The presence of a rear seat armrest adds to the comfort for the rear passengers. However, the headrests at the rear are fixed and there is no headrest for the middle passenger, which should have been included. Also, it is a comfortable space for kids with a booster seat, they enjoy the view outside through the large glass area at the back.
The boot space of the Amaze is genuinely very accommodating and useful for long trips. As you can see in the images, you can fit two large suitcases and a few bags on either side. The loading lip is a bit high, requiring some effort to put heavy luggage inside. We also have a fourth-generation pre-facelift City in our garage, and Honda’s great space management in their sedans is very evident in both cars.
In fact, there are some really interesting premium features in the Amaze that I feel are missing in my City. The auto LED headlights of the Amaze, with the welcome and follow-me-home feature, is a small yet significant inclusion that always helps you spot the car as soon as you unlock it. The analogue dials sweep all the way during startup, which looks cool and premium. The reverse camera offers good quality output and multiple angles of the rear, including wide, narrow and straight down views. It has wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto that work seamlessly. I wish it had a front armrest and cruise control (available in the MT) to make things more comfortable.
In terms of safety, the Honda Amaze comes with dual front airbags, ABS with EBD and ISOFIX seats. It previously secured a commendable 4-star adult occupant and 1-star child occupant protection rating in 2019 for the South African market at Global NCAP. Recently, it received a 2-star adult and 0-star child occupant protection rating under the new testing protocols of Global NCAP. After this result, Honda Cars India issued a statement asserting that the car, under the new protocols, is deemed to be of a 5-star level, attributing the lower rating to the absence of certain equipment like ESC and side curtain airbags.
The Japanese carmaker is currently working on the new generation Amaze, which is expected to launch later this year or early next year. It will be based on the same platform that underpins the new City and Elevate. We hope they improve the safety features in the new generation model. We believe it will also be available with ADAS and 6 airbags as standard. You can expect a completely new design language for the new generation Amaze.
