Feedback on Elevate's build quality, engine & NVH by an old Swift owner

Honda has created a very practical and no-nonsense car for people who want hassle-free long-term ownership.

BHPian shan_ned recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Most of the review points are covered through various posts in the thread. From being an owner of a 16-year-old Maruti Swift (Petrol), I would like to share my subjective feedback.

• A significant and positive difference in the overall build quality of Elevate when compared to my Swift. Swift is no where near the quality level of Elevate.
• The engine's smoothness is very good. Surprisingly, the 16-year-old Swift engine is equally impressive. I am very specific about the engine refinement and I certainly hate diesel engines for this reason.
• Noise insulation is slightly better in my old Swift. This is surprising. I am attaching a few photos to explain why the noise insulation in Elevate is not great. The first two photos show how the rubber beading is installed on the Elevate. There is a single layer of rubber beading only. On the 16-year-old Swift, there is a double layer of rubber beading. One is on the door frame and the other is on the body frame as seen from the photos.

Honda Elevate: Rubber beading on the door frame

Honda Elevate: Rubber beading on the body frame

Swift: Rubber beading on the door frame

Swift: Rubber beading on the body frame

• This is again my subjective opinion. Many feel disappointed with the shorter gearing ratios of Elevate. The disadvantages are lesser fuel efficiency and a buzzier engine. In my opinion, I feel it is a good engineering decision from Honda. In comparison to Honda City, all the gears are very much shorter in Elevate. What it means is more torque availability at the wheel. The in-gear acceleration will be much better than the City. I certainly like this approach adopted for Elevate. For reference, I am attaching a photo which compares the overall gear ratios of all the gears/speed per 1000 rpm for both Elevate and City. In my personal opinion, it is a very good move from Honda.

Gear ratios of Honda City vs Elevate. Final gear ratio has been already taken into account for the calculation:

The above data shows a significant difference between City and Elevate gear ratios for all the gears. As mentioned before, this will aid real-world performance like better in-gear acceleration. In fact, Elevate gear ratios are shorter even when compared to a smaller engine car like Swift.

In-gear acceleration for Honda City:

In-gear acceleration for Honda Elevate:

From the above data, we can see how Elevate has a better in-gear acceleration performance compared to longer-geared City. Of course, City has a better outright acceleration from a standstill due to its weight advantage.

Source of information for the data on gear ratios: Autocar India

• This is just my speculation on why Honda has taken a very conservative approach to the engine options available for Elevate. Though Honda has a turbo petrol engine, it is not offered for any of the car models in India. One reason could be the increase in cost. The second reason could be the overall reliability/longevity of the turbo-based direct fuel injection engine made by Honda. This link describes some of the issues faced by Honda turbo engines.

For the Indian conditions, further tuning may be required for the turbo engines to operate reliably. If we look at most of the Honda big bikes, they are tuned differently for Indian conditions. I guess Honda doesn’t want to take the riskier approach when it comes to cars. In a way, they want to keep their image of being highly reliable. The downside is the disappointment for a few who love performance.

Conclusion

Honda Elevate is a very practical and no-nonsense car. By going the way of using their tried and tested 1.5L i-vtec engine, this will be a car for people who want hassle-free long-term ownership. There is a good scope for improvement when it comes to noise level insulation and adding other important features like having more airbags for VX/V variants.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.