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

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Originally Posted by akshays (Post 4719352)

The day I got the City delivered from the Dakshin Honda Magrath Road branch was heaven's day and it poured cats and dogs in Bangalore. The whole delivery process itself was weird uneventful and emotionless if you ask. Possibly because I've been through the drill multiple times earlier and this was yet another one. But this was rather special, a gift for my wife - she loved the City endlessly. The car I brought home was a disaster - issues with the lights, seat covers, alignment and many more. Let me just stop here. It's way too much to type and I rather speak at length about the whole sales experience and the rogue salesman at Dakshin Honda.Pics below. How expensive do you believe getting the bumper, RH fender and the roof fixed would be and is it worth claiming insurance in the first 90 days itself? My second service @ 3 months is due in the next 10 days and I rather get this thing done up along with the service too tomorrow itself.
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Sorry to see your new car collecting multiple dings in a short time. I agree Honda quality isn't what it was before, but sheet metal has never been one of Honda's strength's even from the hey day's of the first City's to come to India. They were basically tin can's that flew due to their light weight and their high revving engines. The early City's that came were prone to 'body flex'. That said I've had problems with my City's discs changed in 2018, Nov and of late had brake noise which was set right (04-12-2019) and again 1000 kms later (25-12-2019) it recurred that I had the misfortune of a stone embedded in the brake pad but the service advisor was courteous and he attended to the complaint and assured me that I had nothing to worry about and brake pads had 4.5mm thickness was sufficient to see me till probably 20k kms. On the way back there was heavy traffic and heard a light thud and two kids (pullingo:D) in their Honda Activa rear ended me and just took away like nothing had happened. Luckily no big damage and is away from view, I rubbed it off with some spirit. So far Capital Honda has been good for service and niggles. These things tend to happen; have an objective unemotional view and get it fixed.

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Originally Posted by akshays (Post 4719352)

Let me just say for starters, I have a particular OCD for keeping my cars right, drive them moderately and let go of them fairly early.

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Originally Posted by Durango Dude (Post 4719441)

So far Capital Honda has been good for service and niggles. These things tend to happen; have an objective unemotional view and get it fixed.

I have had my share of scratches and dings within the first 8 months of my ownership this year, and have had to resolve myself to the fact that these kind of "minor" incidents do and will happen from time to time, especially in a city like Bangalore with a million bikers milling around all the time. Do not let this mar the experience of driving this otherwise fantastic car, try and take it in your stride as part of the ownership experience. Easier said than done, especially for a new car, but I realized through trial and error that this is the best way to deal with these kind of occurrences.

I like keeping my cars as pristine as possible myself, and plan to get these small scratches and dings repaired in the next month at an FNG. No point wasting money at the Honda dealership for the same work.

I went through a similar experience when we got our City home way back in 2016.

Within the first week, the bumper had been scratched by someone while parked, the boot got dented when my dad reversed at full speed onto our neighbor’s Zen. While the City had a large noticeable dent, the Zen looked untouched and its owner didn’t even notice.
Unfortunately a few days later, due to a lack of judgement while parking, I had dented the LHS fender by hitting our ‘98 Maruti 800. Same story, major dent on the City and nothing noticeable on the 800.

We kept the car as is and got all the dents fixed at a FNG, the next year. Thankfully, after the first year the city didn’t experience more harassment.

These things do happen everywhere in the country and it’s better to get the car fixed periodically or when it starts looking too bad.

I love the car, and agreed it’s build quality is not the best, but it isn’t so bad that someone would need to sell it while new.

Also, I think Honda has made improvements in the NVH and fitting. Even after 3 and a half years, there are no rattles or squeaks anywhere in the car. And there also appears to be no rusting problems.
The 2014 and 2015 models seem to have more niggles.

Need an advice.

My Honda City iVtec completed 4 years this month and the extended warranty expired at the end of 4th year. I have got the services done at Honda ASS every 6 months irrespective of the KMs clocked on odo. Currently odo reads 36000 KMs (9000 KMs per year). Now that car is out of extended warranty, is it okay to service her only after 10000 KMs of running instead of every 6 months as Honda asks for? Hardly 10000 KMs are clocked in a year and it doesn’t seem prudent to get her serviced twice an year. Please share your thoughts and how you would go about it.

Thank you for your inputs.

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Originally Posted by yogesh.8984 (Post 4723637)

Servicing every 10 thousand kilometers or 12 months should be fine in my view. The requirement of doing it every 6 months is to ensure that warranty claims are not negated by Honda. I have a similar kind of running as yours, but would however still prefer to have my car checked every 6 months, but that is because I am slightly overcautious.

Practically speaking however, one annual service should be absolutely fine for your kind of running.

Folks, here is an update on my Clutch replacement on my 2014 Honda City at around 57,600 kms on the ODO. The Clutch had become hard though there was no gear slipping in my experience. I decided to go ahead with the Clutch Overhaul - the cost came to Rs.15,207 and was done at Magnum Honda - MES Road, Yeshwanthpur in Bangalore.

I have provided a detailed report of my clutch replacement experience along with a breakup/details of the invoice for the task on my Ownership thread here >

I own a 2017 Face lifted Honda city and recently noticed that the area under the glove compartment is exposed thanks to my wife's observation of her leg hitting this area while sitting in the front passenger seat during one of our recent drives! I took my car to the nearest Honda dealer (Maansarovar Honda-Chennai) and got it examined by one of their technicians-the feedback received was that all the recent models of Honda city come with this kind of fitting whereas the previous models of Honda city had this area covered! I have attached a picture of this area from my car -appreciate feedback from Team-BHP

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Originally Posted by vsrivatsa (Post 4724164)

The Clutch had become hard though there was no gear slipping in my experience.

Thanks for the post.
In my case, the clutch is slightly hard since the last 20K KM. It always gets better(softer) after the regular 6 month service.

Have been deploying the clutch a lot on a daily basis from day 1 in the heavy bumper to bumper daily traffic but I make sure I never ride the clutch.

Still going with the original clutch at 80K KM and hope it can carry on for another 20K KM atleast.

Interestingly, folks in the car dealership and service like to talk about clutch replacement event. During the car purchase, the salesman was like "sir, this is a high torque diesel engine, clutch will wear out faster around 30 to 40 K KM" and during the last 4 to 5 services, there is always a comment on 'clutch is slightly hard' :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshays (Post 4719352)

Let me just say for starters, I have a particular OCD for keeping my cars right, drive them moderately and let go of them fairly early. I had a couple of cars in the past the Millicento, multiple 800s (one still remains - '03 @ 33k current), the jelly bean carbueretted Zen, Maruti Alto, my precious Nano XTA (current), Hyundai Verna Transform, Hyundai Creta (current) and the recent 80 day old Honda City VMT (current).

Really sorry to hear about your predicament. I own the City and absolutely agree that the build quality is atrocious and I hate the rattles that I have to get fixed during every service. I too, am finicky when it comes to keeping my car dent and scratch free. Spent a fortune getting the 3M protection film on the bumpers and scratch prone areas. It helps in a city like Bangalore (Speaking from experience).

Having said that, as Bhpian Durango Dude rightly pointed out, Hondas were never known for their build quality. I wouldn't recommend selling your car. It is a lovely car and almost all modern cars would have suffered in the incidents you mentioned. Do check the 3M protective film. It has helped me a lot when it comes to bikers and auto rickshaws.