Honda Amaze Diesel- Quick review

A friend of mine was keen on buying Honda amaze and sought my opinion. I hadn't driven this car earlier and based on his behest went to Honda showroom to take a quick test drive. A 2 km test drive is not good enough to judge a car, hence this post only shares a few information and observations.

Once I entered the Honda showroom, first thing that impressed me was the way they measure customer feedback. Anything less than 9 out of 10 is Poor for them, while others would think something in the lines of '0-3 is poor, 4-6 is average, 7-8 is good, 9-10 is great.

That apart, after few minutes of awkward waiting, one of the guys walked to us and asked what are we looking for. Once I specified Amaze, I was given a brochure and a sheet with pricing details 

Amaze diesel on road price starts at 7.4 lakhs and goes all the way upto 9.2 lakhs in Chennai. At this price point, Tata Manza, Swift Dzire and Toyota Etios are key competition to Amaze. Even Ecosport pricing largely overlaps Amaze price band and can be worth considering. With Swift Dzire is considered primary rival, rest of the review is largely focused on comparing the two.

I asked sales guy what is the realistic mileage one can expect from Amaze. He said existing customers are getting 18-20 kmpl (against a claimed 25 kmpl). Most of Amaze's rivals are capable of returning similar mileage in real conditions, hence fuel bill savings from Amaze is not going to be substantial.

In an earlier post I had advised against buying newly launched models immediately. However, for Amaze it seems safe, there's not been any critical complaints so far. But Amaze has a relatively new diesel engine while Dzire uses tried and tested diesel power plant from Fiat.

Below is the information on Amaze diesel variants and feature comparison.

Inside Amaze, the read rests are fixed and not adjustable, both for front row and second. While in Dzire, this is adjustable. Swift gets a dashboard mounted clock,  missing in Amaze. But that apart, I couldn't find any negatives in Amaze compared to Swift. In diesel, all variants get ABD, but in Dzire only higher variant ZDi get it.

Console looks fine, but extra cladding to the central one somewhat prevents view of other two smaller displays.

While most cars let you plug the USB in the dashboard, Amaze gets an hanging USB port below the AC controls. One has to stick the USB here. Looks clearly like an afterthought.

No parking sensors offered. Need to be bought separately.

Amaze's bootspace is bigger than Dzire (400 vs 316 litres), but amaze's fuel tank is smaller than Dzire (35 litre vs 42 litres).

I couldn't test the top speed/pickup etc in my short drive. If Honda's limited service network is not a bother, then Amaze is a good buy overall. For few colours and variants are readily available while others command a waiting period of up to 6 weeks. I asked the guy if we can take delivery in 2014, to gain advantage of 2014 resale value, I was told that is possible only if we pay the full amount now. Otherwise, prices are likely to be revised upwards in 2014, which will offset the difference in resale value, I am told.

As I walked out, no attempt was made to take my contact details- may be they have decided that I am not likely to buy or they were confident that real buyers will come back on their own, without having to do any follow up or cajoling. In contrary, on Maruti Suzuki's website, even to download dzire brochure, one has to enter half dozen details...