Team-BHP - Review: 1st-gen Honda Amaze (2013)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwheelz (Post 3720888)

Have done 26k in my Amaze AT since Dec'13. I had back pain due to the seat. With a neck rest and regular exercise, that is now gone. Did Pune-Coorg in Mar and Pune-Goa in April without any back issues. I also do couple of Pune-Mumbai trips every month. Happy with the car overall. The avg. FE is around 13-14. You really get good FE if you follow the ECO light on dashboard .

Driver's seat or rather both the front seats in Amaze are very bad for lower back. I have driven my May 2013 Ex MT Diesel for over 44000 kilometres now and just after first 500 kms was pushed to go for a back pillow. While it helped a bit but on long drives or even city traffic I have to really stretch my neck/ back at regular intervals which I don't even remember doing in my Swift for 85000 kms I drove it for. And I have got a real bad back now because of it. So whoever is buying Amaze should just buy a good back support. I used the one as can be seen in image (sorry for not so clear shot).

Having said that, booked XUV few days back as was time to move to my next car. While above issue did trouble me and was was an important factor in my decision to change the car, let me also accept that it is a brilliantly dependable car. No breakdown ever in 44000+ kms driven and average fuel economy in excess of 18 kmpl. The car is up for sale now and hope it serves the next user as good as it served me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deetjohn (Post 3803918)

Sorry to see this! Did you hear anything from Honda?

Could be a fatigue failure. Maybe the windshield glass is not insulated that well from shocks when the car hits a rough patch.

Honda says "replace". Cost would be 10k for glass & 2k for labor. They are still procuring the glass. 2 weeks have passed. Poor focus by CC. Will need to follow-up.

Meanwhile got SMS about windshieldexperts (website: http://www.windshieldexperts.com/). They are also in Mumbai. They try to repair first rather than replace.
Look interesting & also an alternative to regular Honda CC. Has anyone used / heard on their services? Looked all over their site - no mention of approximate / typical costs by them !

Got tired of waiting for Honda CC to replace. Checked out the Windshield experts who said they can put an AIS glass windshield for Rs.6100; replacement time 2 hours or so. Was suggested a local windshield shop by a friend who put an AIS windshield for Rs.4800 - all included. Came home and replaced - job done in 20-25 mins. I do not understand why the Honda CC margins are so high and hence discouraging.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarus_Deft (Post 3816921)

Driver's seat or rather both the front seats in Amaze are very bad for lower back. I

I am using a neck pillow and that bead curtain sort of back and seat thingy for my back but it is still horrible.

Is it possible to just switch these seats out entirely for some other car's seats? The figo has excellent lumbar support for example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hserus (Post 3873885)

So did I, while I had amaze with me till October this year. What I did was putting in an orthopaedic kind of cushion at the back and it proved quite handy though for 45000 odd kms I drove Amaze over 2.5 years. Recommend the same. There are few you get at aftermarket stores. Beads, plastic ones are not great. Would suggest a fabric one. Should cost you less than 1000 Rs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramzsys (Post 3829635)

Is the Amaze greedy in consuming tyres?

A 28k done MRF stock tyres has it's rubber totally gone; it's been always taken care properly at the alignment centers.

I have asked my uncle to think about Goodyear Assurance AG tyres having seen them perform good in my ecosport.

I changed to 195 mm XM2 at 10 K kms and then drove for 25K kms more. Total 35 K kms in 18 months. The tire looked as good as new. Car was sold after 35 K kms because of repeat niggling issues.

I have driven 26k km in 15 months on my SMT so far, and the tyres are pretty good for another 15k km atleast, according to my tyre alignment centre.
Regular alignment work and tyre rotation for every 10k km is what I have done. Never used the services of Magnum for this.
As far I have learnt, stock tyres generally wear-out after about 35k km.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarus_Deft (Post 3873894)

Yup - it was cheap / available at a nearby store so I just got it and it has been reasonable.

As it happens I just saw an orthopedic memory foam cushion on amazon earlier today and ordered it.

http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00S2J3DFK

There are some other such products (eg: backbuddy) at 2000-3000 rupees, this seems to be cheaper but still ok with plenty of decent reviews.

My uncle in another city has bought a Honda Amaze E-MT (basic model).

I told him that I will send him all the things required for basic ICE. I plan to send it by courier to him so that he can get it installed.

I have:

* Single Din Pioneer BT HU,
* 6.5" speakers for front (no wires)
* 4" speakers for rear (no wires).

Please tell me what else do I need to buy to make it working so that he doesn't need to buy anything, not even wires, coupler, things to cover 2-din HU space in the car, etc.

He needs an extra large wooden ring at the back to ensure that the 4 inch rear speaker can fit into the housing. That needs careful installation.

The other thing he needs is the appropriate wires - and make sure you use coupler and don't trim the wires to install it, or cut the rear parcel shelf to install it (the rear speaker's bottom and the rod that opens the boot are very close so a bad installation will damage your speaker, or make the boot lid tough to open or both).

My advice is to get him really good speakers for the front and let the rear speakers be whatever default they are. With the money saved get him a nicer double DIN HU.

Search this thread - several people have found suitable brands in jbl and pioneer for example.

Ask your local car audio guy what's in stock that suits your wallet and suits this spec - infinity, harman kardon, Polk whatever.

As I said just make sure no cutting of the parcel shelf or trimming of wires is done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hserus (Post 3880019)

agree: Exactly what I did sir, Left the rear speakers as it is, Changed the front to Hertz components, Plonked in a Rockford sub in the boot, driven by a Boston 2 channel amp and replaced the OE HU with Blaupunkt Las vegas. RESULT : Sounds Heavenly :)

I actually changed to fairly ordinary but decent pioneer 6 inch front (with a plastic ring) and 4 inch rear speakers - couldn't locate a 5.25. Seems to work well enough - haven't changed out the HU yet, it was fairly ok and the horrible speakers were the major culprit in producing poor sound quality.