Why I think the Honda Elevate is a sensible replacement for my City

I started looking for SUVs within months of Elevate's launch. Visited Hyundai Kia and Maruti showrooms.

BHPian CarMan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Well...it's my first review and I am excited. While I have been driving a car for around 15 years (11 years on Ritz, around 4 years on 2020 City CVT and Elevate CVT since February this year), I would not consider myself anything more than an amateur in this arena. I write this for those who may be considering switching over from an automatic City to Elevate.

Why did I choose to switch to Elevate?

I bought the City soon after the last model was launched in 2020 and it turned out to be between the two waves of COVID. I used it extensively in the city (Mumbai) and also on long-distance tours to Goa and Konkan several times. It was a pleasure to drive the City, with its swift responses and good mileage. However, my experience was jinxed by several minor experiences such as stones flying from other cars onto my car and minor accidents. Added to this were some manufacturing defects such as patches underneath the paint on the bonnet (noticed in the first servicing by the Honda service manager) and, the rear camera becoming dysfunctional in the 3rd year, which put me off a bit. Need to mention that these faults were gracefully accepted by Honda and rectified in warranty with no cost to me. Two more things that bothered me most were the thin walls on tyres which gave in to potholes that led to 2 replacements in the short time I had the car. Another issue was the ground clearance (I believe Honda increased the ground clearance on City after I bought it in 2020), which left the car vulnerable to getting hit underneath, and it also impacted the steering alignment. However, I liked the drivability and royal touch of the car. It never tired me even after driving for 14-16 hours. But ultimately, we decided to get another car, this time one with solid ground clearance.

I started looking for SUVs within months of Elevate's launch. Visited Hyundai Kia and Maruti showrooms. The new version of Creta had just launched and the dealer was not ready to give any sense of when it would be available. I found the interiors a bit too tacky (just a personal choice) and also felt that it was overpriced when I compared naturally aspirated to the Elevate top model. This was my 2nd time at the Kia showroom (the last one was when I bought the city), and it was equally bad. The response of the Kia team was tepid at best and I found the seating position quite uncomfortable. In the case of the Maruti Grand Vitara, I found the cost of a true hybrid (I don't know why Maruti calls the lower model a hybrid when it actually is not) quite atrocious and was badly put off by the flimsy translucent fabric cover for the sunroom.

Elevate was thus the choice for us. I liked the upright position, 220 mm ground clearance pleased me and I expected to get an experience similar to City since the engine is the same. So far I have driven the Elevate mostly in Mumbai and Thane, but have done a few highway trips to Pune, Nashik and once on the Samruddhi Marg.

• The car is quite comfortable to drive and responds well even on curves. The bonnet gives full visibility of the two corners and therefore it is easy to manoeuvre.
• It lags in its pick-up in comparison to the City and definitely gives a rubber band effect. This, I am told by the Honda service engineer, is because of greater weight and different tuning of the engine. The pick up however seems to be improving after the second servicing and after around 4000km as the car is freeing up.
• Average bumper-to-bumper traffic is a bit disappointing - between 8.5-10 and on the highway around 13-14. This was much more in the City, especially on highways - it used to be around 16.
• I drove the car on the Samruddhi expressway on a stretch of around 100 km from Shirdi to Igatpuri. I set the cruise control initially to 120 for about 30-35 km and reduced it to 100 as the speed limit was 100. I drove consistently at this speed for the entire stretch (about 45-50 minutes) and was pleased to find that the car responded very well. It did not get swayed by wind and the adaptive cruise control was a boon as I could change lanes without having to break as there was not much traffic. This really instilled confidence.
• My parents and family are happy because the car doesn't make them uncomfortable in the back as the City used to because of its problematic rear suspension. The suspension of Elevate is really well balanced - not too soft nor too stiff.

Overall, I find the Elevate CVT a sensible purchase if you are not looking for all the glitz and glamour of Creta and Seltos and value sturdiness and reliability over everything else. It fares better than the City CVT in regard to suspension, sturdiness, and driveability but lacks in giving you that royal feel and swift responses that the City does

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