Home CAR & BIKES 6 months with my Honda Amaze CVT: Ownership & service experience so...

6 months with my Honda Amaze CVT: Ownership & service experience so far

6 months with my Honda Amaze CVT: Ownership & service experience so far

My mother liked the way car drives and the comfort she feels in the rear seat.

BHPian WillyWonka recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Hello everyone, here is my experience of buying Honda Amaze and ownership review after 6 months.

Background:

I’m a bike person (was a proud owner of Yamaha RX135 ), was never much into cars. Used public transport extensively even for daily commutes of 20+kms in Pune (unbelievable, right?) for many years. Was someone who would justify using Ola/Uber over owning a car. But COVID and the way OLA/Uber operates now (series of very bad experiences) changed my mind.
Initially I kept my budget limited to 5L since, for me car is a necessity / convenience rather than a luxury. WagonR was my first choice. But as I started learning about cars through Team-BHP (major contribution), YouTube videos etc. realized the shortcomings of entry segment cars (nothing wrong with them; they are good cars for their segment / price points). So, I moved to next segment – Tiago to Altroz to Nexon and couple of more to finally settle down with Amaze.

Selection criteria:

I wanted a family car (3 adults, 2 kids) which is convenient for sr citizen as well. A car which would be used mostly over weekends for visits to nearby places in radius of 50-100 kms. So, the selection was based on following parameters:

  • Reliability – want to keep the car for minimum 10 years
  • Safety
  • Rear Seat comfort, big boot
  • Car with smooth and calm engine for sedate driving
  • Low maintenance

Choices:

  • Tata Cars – Tiago, Altroz, Nexon were good on Safety but have reliability, engine and boot space issues. In fact, at one point, I decided to go for Nexon but then it’s next edition came and I found it too overpriced.
  • Never liked Punch as it feels cramped from inside.
  • Maruti – considered Brezza and Ertiga but the variant I liked were beyond my budget.
  • Kia and Hyundai – Didn’t gave much consideration due to safety concerns
  • Mahindra – XUV300 – issues with rear seat comfort, comparatively smaller boot
  • Honda – though I was not a car person but always liked Honda city which unfortunately was out of my budget. So settled for Honda Amaze VX CVT.

Chose CVT as wifey would also drive and for her automatic is a more comfortable choice over manual. Amaze, ticked almost all boxes – a smooth, comparatively silent and reliable engine, haven’t heard many horror stories with regards to servicing, has overall good rear seat comfort, spacious boot and a 4* safety. It doesn’t have lot’s of features which many new cars offer but I don’t really feel need of those fancy features. Not a fan of sunroof. The only grouse I’ve about Honda amaze is the average audio a system and lack of navigation feature (they removed it). I can live with wired Android auto.

Budget Rs 11.15L (on road) in Maharashtra

Visits and experience with Honda:

In Feb-2024 – Visited the Arya Honda showroom in Nagpur. It’s the only option we’ve in the city. I was immediately attended by Mr. Neeraj. The experience was really good from day1. He explained everything in detail, answered all the queries properly. I saw few demo cars. Overall, it was a good experience. I came back with a quotation.

In the same month visited Maruti and TATA showrooms as well.

First week of Mar-2024 – Deliberated over available options and made up my mind to buy Honda Amaze. The Honda guys didn’t offer me any discounts (other than what was given by Honda – corporate ~20k and cash ~3k) though; not even a car perfume

Took wifey along with me the next weekend to choose the car color. The dealership asked for couple of thousands more for silver color. I’m not sure if Honda charges extra for a particular color. But we wanted Grey so didn’t fuss much over it. I had an option of buy insurance from outside. Took online quotations with me. Dealership agreed to match it (1-2k extra); I went with them. We asked for delivery to be done on the day of GudiPadwa (Marathi new year) which was a month away from that day; they agreed.

Got a call from dealership in 2 weeks informing about arrival of car. Visited the showroom and completed PDI. Found everything ok.

Delivery: Since it was day of GudiPadwa – the showroom was short on staff and had many deliveries. We were given time of 11am. Reached there on time but had to wait for an hour to get the delivery. We were given a box of sweets and a plant as gift

Experience:

Initial few weeks went without much of driving. Our first long trip was 600km return journey with a driver. Experience was nice except for few occasions where car almost bottomed out in potholes. we were three adults on rear seat and suspensions felt a little uncomfortable. The average we got was 13.5kmpl. By the time I was back from trip it was time for first servicing. I raised both the points (average and suspension) to service station guy. He assured that problems will be gone after 2nd servicing.

After first servicing, me and wifey started taking the car out in the mornings and over the weekends. It felt very smooth and comfortable within city. The steering feels heavy in slow speeds but gets light as the speed increases.

Made few short trips of around 100km journey to villages and jungle with not so good roads. And there is a noticeable difference in rear seat comfort now than what it used to be before 1st service. My mother liked the way car drives and the comfort she feels in the rear seat. Only issue with rear seat is – it’s not for 3 adults. It’ll be a little cramped with three adults on long journeys.

We recently finished our (Nagpur-Shegaon) 750 km long journey out of which majority was on the expressway. Around 100 km journey happened on narrow internal roads. The expressway part was awesome. Maintained speed between 80-90kmph. Touched 100 rarely. It was a very planted drive till 90. Beyond that I couldn’t feel confident.

In Vx model Honda give LED lights. Throw of light is adequate. I tested them at night in ghats of a wildlife sanctuary and didn’t face any issues at all.

Servicing:

I’ve done initial 2 free services so far. Got free pick-up and drop both the times.

I was at the servicing station for 2nd servicing. The attendants were prompt – explained things properly. Took 2-3 hours to finish the job.

Mileage: Initially I used to get 13 – 14 kmpl for city/highway/mixed drive. After second servicing it increased to 17-18 kmpl. In my recent trip I could get upto 21 kmpl. (all numbers are taken from MID)

Things need improvement:

  • Audio system
  • Boot and car doors feel light.
  • Paint quality can be improved

Following features are bare minimum at this price range which should be added:

  • Rear adjustable headrests
  • Rear AC vents
  • Auto dimming rearview mirrors
  • Cruise control (it’s not there in automatic but available in manual)
  • Honda should add Navigation (maps) and please remove the ‘Web Links’ feature (it’s one of the worst connectivity options / features I’ve come across in the industry)
  • Under body protection for engine

To summarize, it has been a good experience so far:

6 months with my Honda Amaze CVT: Ownership & service experience so far


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