Team-BHP - 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

Hello everyone, I had picked up a vx cvt ( automatic ) city in the last quarter of 2018 from the used market in Bangalore. I have been using it for about 7 months now. No complaints so far with regards to performance. From the beginning , I had noticed that I am getting only about 7 km per litre in the city. My usual commute is about 6 kms one way. The traffic is moderate to high depending upon the day. Relatively long drives happen only on weekends. I had informed this to Dakshin honda during my last service and they said they cant do anything apart from cleaning up the fuel system, which they apparently did. But there is no change. Is this normal for this car ?

Thats very low for a city for the driving conditions you are mentioning. Assuming that's 7 km per liter (and not per hour)

A few troubleshooting questions

1. Are you trying to accelerate hard whenever you do? If yes, dont!! The CVT has a tendency to be least fuel efficient when revved hard. The Rubber band effect will be very prominent and will waste a lot of revvs.

2. How are you calculating fuel efficiency numbers? Do a tankful to tankful method please.

In my experience, its takes hard work to get the City CVT mileage below 8 kmpl :P

That is indeed less for a Honda City. CVT is quite frugal as a transmission despite the fact it is an automatic transmission.
You should easily see somewhere between 9 to 10 kmpl in the city in moderate traffic.
Assuming you have had timely service done and filters and all are clean. Ensure proper tyre pressure. Also, maintain road speeds and be easy on throttle when starting from stop.
Just noticed this is your first post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hertz (Post 4629762)

Hello everyone, I had picked up a vx cvt ( automatic ) city in the last quarter of 2018 from the used market in Bangalore. I have been using it for about 7 months now. No complaints so far with regards to performance. From the beginning , I had noticed that I am getting only about 7 km per hour in the city. My usual commute is about 6 kms one way. The traffic is moderate to high depending upon the day. Relatively long drives happen only on weekends. I had informed this to Dakshin honda during my last service and they said they cant do anything apart from cleaning up the fuel system, which they apparently did. But there is no change. Is this normal for this car ?

In Bangalore, during peak hours, it's perfectly normal. My wife's Grand i10 automatic gives 7-8 kmpl during peak hours ( ORR 9 am )

You should be worried only if you are not getting 13+ during highway runs while cruising at 90kmph

The key here is the 6 km one way commute in medium to heavy traffic.
For such short hops in the mentioned traffic situation, where the engine barely gets the chance to operate at optimum efficiency, I feel the FE is perfectly fine.
I would suggest the OP to take the car to highways from time to time and use the S mode + paddle shifts. That way he can get some much needed excitement which is surely lacking from his daily commute, and also operate the engine on various rpms to keep it in top shape.

My brother-in-law drives Honda City CVT in Pondicherry and his daily commute (one way) is around 20 KM with 60% on highway.

He complains that the mileage he gets from his car is around 11-12 kmpl!

Earlier he used to drive a Volkswagen vento Diesel and used to get around 18 -20 Kmpl

Mod note: Posts merged, please avoid creating back to back post, instead use Multi Quote [Quote +]

Yes it is 7 km per litre.

Nope, I keep a check on the pressure on the pedal. Just enough for the car to move ahead.

So, I hit the "reset to zero" knob near the fuel guage whenever the empty tank sign comes on. Then I fill 25 litres. The next time the empty tank sign lights up, I take the km clocked. I divide that by 25. This should work, no ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez (Post 4629881)

"Moderate" or "heavy" traffic has different meanings for different people. When you do your journey, what is the average speed? This will tell us if the 7kpl figure is reasonable or not.

The speed would range from 20 to 40 kmph.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hertz (Post 4629893)

The speed would range from 20 to 40 kmph.

In this case, 7kpl seems far too low. CVTs are supposed to be quite efficient as far as automatics go and your average speed is much higher than I thought.

Most accurate way of measuring fuel efficiency is either using a measuring bottle to connect to the inlet of fuel to the engine OR next best being doing a tank full to tank full measurement. The method you have mentioned can have some amount of error, upto 10% if you ask me, at least from my experience with MID information.

Next time tank up fully, go ahead do that top up to brim. Continue with your regular commute for say 100 kms, refill again to full, divide the kms (100 or whatever) with amount of fuel filled.

My Grand Vitara AT gives 5.5 to 6.5 kmpl in BLR moderate to peak traffic with short trips. A Honda city should give closer to 8 or 9 kmpl is what I feel. Modern petrol engines warm up in under 5 Mts, so the 6 kilometre trips should not make a huge difference.

Well 6kms commute is pretty short to extract good mileage specially in bangalore-ish traffic. For more than half the distance the engine would be cold usually & that does lead to lower mileage.

My office commute is 47kms daily(both way included) & as per my observation I end up getting much better mileage(with moderate traffic) on this route compared to the usual weekend mall visit which is 7-8kms in total with minimal traffic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hertz (Post 4629893)

So, I hit the "reset to zero" knob near the fuel guage whenever the empty tank sign comes on. Then I fill 25 litres. The next time the empty tank sign lights up, I take the km clocked. I divide that by 25. This should work, no ?

Best way to calculate is Tankfull to tankfull. Basically next time you go for a refill, stop exactly at auto-cutoff, not before that. Reset trip-meter. Drive for around 200kms+ and then go for another round of tankfull(till auto cutoff). Now divide the kilometer reading when you reach fuel station by the number of litres this time & that should give you the exact figure.:thumbs up

Ok here's some unconventional advise:

1) Do you check the air pressure in the tires regularly?

2) Do you check air from the same fuel station always? If so, try checking it at another fuel station or a proper tyre shop. This will ensure that there are no calibration errors in the first fuel station.

3) Also do you observe that the air pressure is less every time you check? If so, check the tyres for any puncture or check the pressure more frequently.

I get 6 to 7 kmpl on my i20 CVT in Bangalore traffic. I would not be surprised at the 7 kmpl on Honda City, which is a bigger car with bigger engine. But Honda cars are known to be more efficient.
You can try driving in a manual mode for some time (at least for one of those FE test session) and try to be on the highest gear possible. For example, when you are going over a road-hump, CVT is likely to go down to the lowest gear ratio, but in manual mode, you will be able to pass in 2nd (even 3rd at times) gear. You may be able to get to get 5-10% higher FE.

Just a suggestion, why don't you try driving it on the highway for a few kms during the weekend . That way the engine may open up a bit and you might see a change in FE. (Guys please correct me if I'm wrong). Tried the same thing with my Amaze and the FE in the city went from 5-6kpl to 12-13kpl.

I have the same car (Mar, 2017) and it delivers 8-9 kmpl in typical intra-city traffic and 14-16 kmpl on the highways. I think your commute is the problem and not the car, it's too short and in choc-a-block B'lore traffic. Take her out and extend her legs a bit, over the weekends then you'll enjoy her true nature. That said it delivers far better mileage than the Grand i10 Auto that my son owns and is also peppier to drive.