2004 Honda City idsi 1.5 from Malaysia

Summary:

Benchmark in its class

Faults:

After 10 months, the oil breather chamber leaked. Replaced and fixed under warranty with no hassle from the service centre.

Battery was replaced once after its 2nd year. Nothing has gone wrong since.

It's now at ++90K kms.

General Comments:

Mine was bought new in 2004. It’s a 1.5 idsi. It's been wonderful.

Specs are really great for this category of car. Safety features are also rather generous for this category of car: ABS, EDB, twin airbags, G-con.

The space is magnificent. A huge trunk that swallows almost everything. Interior space is also above average. You can even put stuff under the rear seats. And if you want even more space, the rear seats come down neatly, creating a huge space. The interior has a nice modern feel to it, and all instruments are well placed. Build quality is not the best, but well above average.

Engine is nice and smooth. The CVT gearbox is tiny bit noisy, but you can live with. The engine only has some 80+ bhp, but the CVT ensures it's always in the powerband, which makes it great.

The engine, together with the CVT, is surprisingly good on hill climbs. Much bigger cars will be stunned, which they have on numerous occasions. It has sequential shift on the steering wheel, but I rarely use it. But it's good for downshifting actually. I use it when I want some engine braking like in a manual car.

Another plus point is it sips fuel, making it very easy on the wallet.

A drawback is that it's not good for long distance highway driving. It has a small engine, so that was expected. It's best for what it was designed for i.e. City driving as the name implies.

Handling is not the best, but adequate enough. You can’t expect to do a Jensen in this car. Tyres are skinny and car’s handling suffers a bit in strong side winds, or overtaking lorries at high speeds. After I changed to wider tyres (Not bigger, just wider), the problem actually went away.

Design… well it's not the nicest looking car around, but it actually grows on you. People here compare it to the Vios (same class), yes the Vios is nicer, but there's nothing special about the Vios’ design, it's just a very plain car design.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 15th July, 2007

2004 Honda City sdi 1.3 from Pakistan

Faults:

The mileage of car to me at least is highly disturbing. It is giving on the average 9.5 km per liter in the city driving conditions and around 13/14 km per liter in the highway condition. Despite lot of contacts and visits to the Honda workshop nothing has been done by them. The car is still giving same low mileage per liter.

General Comments:

The automatic door glass working started faltering and continued to do so despite visit to the workshop.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 9th October, 2005

2004 Honda City V-tec 1.5 from Malaysia

Summary:

Ultra Spacious and smooth as silk

Faults:

Misaligned Steering.

Wind Noise from Drivers door

Rattle from back board

Sticky rear disc brakes.

Beige Interior easily stained.

General Comments:

Smoothest 1.5 4 cylinder car.

Silent engine and transmission

Very very economical only surpassed by the I-DSL version available here in Malaysia.

Corners well, but electric steering feedback average only. Pretty good weight for town use though.

Extremely huge booth and interior space with excellent Ultra Seats. Good for carrying anything from dogs to pots and plants.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 5th October, 2005

2004 Honda City 1.5 1.5 Vtec from Philippines

Summary:

Very Good

Faults:

Paint scratches easily. One power window is very sluggish.

General Comments:

Acceleration on the 1500 model is not as quick as expected. However fuel economy is very good, as high as 18km per liter on the highway at 120kph, 3000rpm.

The front windshield pillars are quite wide and has become a blind spot several times, specially when turning left.

The 15 inch 55 series tires are a bit too low, 60 or 65 series will make it stand better.

Interior is super, no complaints. The ULT folding seats are very versatile.

I am concerned though that change oil is recommended every 10,000 km only.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 3rd May, 2005