Drove the iconic Honda City VTEC: 8 pros & 6 cons in today's context

Vtecs, Palio 1.6 , Honda accord , Baleno 1.6, E220 CDI, the list of icons goes on.

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Test drive of the first gen Honda City and how far and back we have gone at the same time

Happened to have a quick spin in a '98 1st gen Type 1 Honda city. Although the car was very poorly maintained by a wannabe boy racer , thought I would pen down my impressions.

Likes:

• Superb all round visibility from the driver's seat. I mean, i can see both the front and back extremes clearly. All the better, as this particular car didn't have parking sensors. Why don't modern cars ( especially sedans) have this sort of visibility? This instantly adds to the confidence to feel and judge the road and push any car to higher limits.
• Low seating position, makes you feel one with the road. Although forget about getting anyone aged 50 and above into this foetus like seating position !
• Smooth, knife through butter gearshift. With all the R&D available, yet to come across such a sweet shifting gearbox.
• Perfectly sized steering wheel. Not too thick, not too spindly. Four spokes and ample grip area for your hands
• The turbine smooth engine and the way in which it swings around the rev band. The car i drove was on its last legs with a blowing exhaust and poor maintenance, but everything is forgotten once you floor it
• Build quality. I mean even on this car which is one of the worst maintained ones I have ever seen, there was not a rattle or squeak inside, despite being close to 30 years old. I believe this was the decade when Honda was at is ABSOLUTE best. Yeah, the doors were sticky and power windows were snail slow, but even with this abysmal maintenance, this car is soldering on. Kudos to that
• Simple, elegant instrument cluster. No fancy readouts. Always legible.
• The classic and elegant SEDAN shape. Perfectly balanced front and rear styling. Not like the " about to take off" styling like the Tata Curvv.

Cons:

• Safety. Yes , 30 years is a century ago in terms of crash worthiness. So you will only be a little more safer than say... if you crashed a bicycle
• Low ground clearance. So exactly like a Ferrari or any other super car, attack speed bumps diagonally. Try that on any city road and people will start shouting at you for cutting into their lane !
• Peaky power delivery, not what you want when you are stuck in today's traffic
• Exhaust smell - it is smelly compared to BS6 cars, will give you nausea if you are in a confined parking space
• No matter what anyone says, IT CANNOT BE A DAILY DRIVER. Inevitably some part will go bust, leak, break and you will have to spend time and energy running around various spare parts shops for that

BUTTTT.....

all said and done, I got smitten, big big time !

Wish I was in my 30s when this car was launched .

Vtecs, Palio 1.6 , Honda accord , Baleno 1.6, E220 CDI, the list goes on.

Man, miss that era and those undiluted cars. Would have been the best days of my life to drive them with full dealer support.

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