Honda Brio EXMT : My First Love

[coldfire2005]

Overview​

It all Began year back when I got my LMV licence on a Maruti 800, I am 28 and unmarried so I wanted to keep my Budget low and always planned for a small petrol car due to low travelling and also due to price difference between Petrol and diesel in Goa is only of 5 Rs with shoe string budget of 3lk , so Deisel was not an option.

I would like to thank, Doc_Praveen , bReeze AkA brIo , darkkid85 from this forum , for giving me good feedback on the car and settling my questions before I went for Brio .

My Review is in Two Parts, People interested knowing Car feedback aspect can go directly to Part 2 , other Interested in whole movie please go through it all

My Initial Choice (Part-1)​

Hyundai Eon: I Borrowed a relatives Eon and took it for 1 hour drive, car was really good for a newbie driver like me , I enjoyed easy controls of the car , but I just hated it gears , Hyundai has not done a good job on the Gear, whole gears level vibrates like crazy. several times I struggled to put the right gear and car could go off with less pressure on accelerator in low speed, I felt may be due to my inexperience on cars was showing up, but an experienced friend who was with me took over the wheels and even he hated the gears and thought gear vibration is due to some issues with the car but later we found it was a common thing in all Eon, I dropped the idea of Eon at once. What I did not like about the car was gearbox and Pricey tag and poor acceleration in lower gears. Liked gear shift indicator which I think every new car should have. (I could have loved to have it in Brio)

Maruti Alto 800: News of New Alto launch was in the air, so instead of taking TD of the old car I thought I will wait for the new car to be launched, but as soon it was launched I was disappointed with its looks Maruti might have sold 1lk Alto 800 but I was in no mood in making it my first car, and really never bothered to take a Td of the car. Soon there was no other car in my price range, so I had to compromise between this two cars but God had other plans for me.

Twist

Hyundai Eon or Maruti Alto 800 I was in a spin and was confused about which car to go for, Reliable car from Maruti’s stable but looks which I disliked or a car which I felt still has Technical issues but with Good looks and style. But soon God said not now, Twist was that I got a better job offer which meant good jump in $$, so I decided I will go above the segment and wait for few more months before I make a decision.

MY Second line of options

After I decided to move the segment I increased my budget from 3lk to 4lk, more options opened up and I started my online research and even spoke to many car owners about their experience on their cars, I soon down selected some cars, Key factors which I took into considerations when selecting below mentioned cars was looks, owner feedback, popularity, service issues, Brand and of course FE.

Maruti Alto K-10: I really liked the looks of this cars even though it is dated now, but car still looks much better than current New Alto 800 and comes with reliable K-10 engine from Maruti stable, fear of new Alto K10 coming soon and also less rear space broke the deal, I spoke to a K-10 owner who complained of poor clutch response while driving. Car priced at 3.5lk and me with higher budget meant I had privilege of looking for other car options. No TD done.

Chevrolet Beat: Price was near my Budget, I always loved the looks of this car, Borrowed Beat of my Friends who allowed me to keep it with me for 10 Days; I can say it was longest TD of any car I had taken , I took car out every day and I loved very responsive engine and good gear box , I could say at some point of time I could have brought this car , but it had to happen one day that I was seating in rear seat of the car , I realised that legroom is bad really bad , I felt Alto K-10 has better legroom then Beat , I was sitting with a lady friend and another friend , it was cramped and I was struggling to seat comfortably , whole trip was of only 15 minutes but was not easy on me , I was not impressed with rear legroom of the car , and poor sales and Chevy Brand had kept me in edge in past and after that ride I dropped the idea with heavy heart , if chevy can provide better legroom and improve their service , this car pull lot of Maruti customers due to aggressive price point . Every time I see a Beat my heart still skips a Beat, maybe it was due to car being with me for such a long time I still have an emotional attachment with it.

Hyundai i10: Popular car from Hyundai, Good looks and massive customer’s base allowed me to talk to lot of i10 Customers who were my professional friends, but I was there for disappointment many owners complained of poor FE of 14 in highways and even less (10-12 km) in city, Rising service cost of Hyundai was also due to which many current owners of the car did not advice me to go for it , car was in my budget but advices were against it , and final nail In the coffin was when one fine day a friend introduced me to Hyundai engineer who agreed that some i10 customers are getting poor FE , even though there are much more experienced drivers then I was , so I dropped this car too . No TD taken.

Ford Figo : Another car in my budget , went to the showroom to have a look at the car , car is Big and Defiantly value for money , with Big Luggage space, strong build quality and comfortable rear leg room it was a sure shot winner , but what went against it was the Salesperson who was begging me to consider Diesel option rather than Petrol , what was also funny was Petrol Figo Brochure did not have ARAI claimed FE which was strange since every other car highlighted it in theirs , little probing with the salesperson and he came out with the truth , “Sir Figo Petrol variant at best can will give you 15kmpl and over all 10-12km only , where else Diesel variant can give 20 kmpl and over all 16-18kmpl “ . I still tried to find some positives from this car and spoke to some Figo owners but all of them turned out to be Diesel figo owners and everybody told me to skip Petrol variant due to poor Fe and under powered engine and told me to go for diesel variant, So Diesel variant was out of my Budget and not a option. No TD taken.

Maruti Ritz: It was most expensive car among all, Goa had three Different dealers for Maruti and every one disappointed me, my visit to all three dealers left a poor taste about Maruti, No one attendant me for more than 15 minutes minimum, sales executives were only interested in knowing when I am planning to buy it, never showed even little interested in product information or even handed over a product brochures. Other showroom showed me a Diesel Variant since he did not have a Petrol variant, other did not have a single Ritz to show, I was disappointed with No offer and 30k expensive. All three dealers never offered me any TD of the car, two dealers never even followed up with me after the visit , so I dropped the idea. I am not against the car or Maruti, but showroom experience was bad and felt like unwanted, Maruti needs to train showroom sales executive well , I being from sales background know how first visit can lead to sales or no sale .

Honda Brio Experience: Took my brother along to the Honda showroom, I was attended immediately by very friendly sales executive there, who showed me the car in detail, explained me everything about the car and quickly offered me TD of the car, I was happy with the executive who attended me who took time to speak with me in detail about the car and also settled my quires about service cost which I was worried about since it was a Honda. My brother too was happy with the car and also how we were attended in the showroom right after we came from Maruti showroom, TD of the vehicle was taken three days later, whole thing was done in month of January. And my plans were to buy it in month of March to get better offers.

Now the Drama starts: it was March and it was time to book the car, when I went to check offers and booking details, I was informed that EMT model has been stopped and EXMT is the new base model which was 18k over EMT, I had planned to go for EMT and use the 18k for better ICE in the car, but fate had some other plans, in my next visit I was told that due to allocation issues Urban Titanium my first choice of colour was not available and I was offered Rallye Red they offered Pu leather seat cover worth 6k has free , but my whole family was against Rallye Red and again I told them firmly arrange Urban Titanium or I am going for some other car , after two days got a call from them that they have managed to pursue Honda Management to bill them EXMT Urban Titanium and told me to Book the car , in showroom I warned them that I want a new car of Feb or March make and will not accept the car if it is not of Feb or March make . They promised everything will be fair and promised freshly made March one.

PDI: After 6 days exactly I was told that car has reached from Honda Factory to their showroom and I was told to come for the Inspection , I went the other day , Vin number indicated it was March 2013 make so no problem there , it was MRF tyres , I was expecting them , checked properly found it brand new and in good condition, checked Battery it was Amaron so was happy about that , minor scratch near left side of the car was fixed right in front of me in minutes , checked below the car for any oil or gear leaks did not find any . Checked few electrical inside the car, everything was fine, called up HDFC and informed them to go ahead in processing my Car loan application, Made down payment with the dealer and informed them that I will take the delivery on 28th March 2013 .

Below Images were taken during PDI of the car

Deal I Got:

Insurance: Free
Loyalty Bonus (10000)
Holy Idol (Given)
Rubber Floor Mat (Given, Cheap Local Brand)
Front and Rear Bumper Protector (Demanded)



FYI car was brought under 50% loan from HDFC Bank at 10.50% rate of interest and 1000rs has processing fees, with very minimal documentation. SBI was offering 10.40% and required list of documents and 500Rs had Processing fees , so went with HDFC against Dealers advice to stick with SBI , everything was smooth at least in my case, but HDFC in past have given dealer nightmares in other cases .


The D Day: Car was registered three days prior from the Delivery date, I along with my family reached showroom around 10 in the morning, car was ready and parked in the Delivery area , immediately I was handed over all the documents of the car and explained about the car service periods and contact numbers of all the concerned parties including service head . I was taken near the car Executive gave me a 10 minutes Demo of the car , explained me all the features and how to use them , then took some pictures with my family and drove the car from the showroom all in 1 hours time . But Floor mats and Front and rear Bumper Protectors were not given since it was out of stock.

 

[coldfire2005]

PART-2 Feed Back of the Car ​

I have done 300 km till now, and everything seemed good and ok.

Exteriors: Honda has created a perfect illusion for Brio everyone who looks at the car from outside seems to think what a small car Honda has created, but it is quite an opposite. Looks in front are good and among the best in its class, Rear might be Hate it or love it for many, but for me it was all love.

Interiors: Car is big from Inside, many of my friends were quite surprised to see such a small car to have so much interior space, every one praised Interiors of the car, two in front have the most luxury and in rear 3 people can seat in comfort but any one above 5.8 might find head space little less in rear. Car can take 5 passengers with ease, even figo has the same width of brio (1680mm), so please don’t doubt about passenger comfort in rear, 3 with average height will find comfort.

AC: In First few days of ownership I was not impressed with the AC, it was not cooling enough, I kept changing Ac settings, and again went for default setting and it seemed AC finally woke up and cooling had improved I really don’t know how the improvement happen but it cooled much faster than earlier, so happy with the AC now.

Gears: I have heard about Biro’s sluggish gear before 5000km, in my Brio I found the gear to be smooth and responsive from the first day, changing gears in traffic or highway has been precise, never had difficulty in finding the right gear. Downshifting from 3 or 4th to 2nd has been smooth. Even a friend (Beat Owner) who took my car for TD had same feeling; I can easily say it is among the best in 1.2ltr class.. But I have to admit that first gear in Brio is “Nautanki Baaz” and goes off if not engaged properly, it has to be proper for car to move forward otherwise it stop , some time I need to bring it back to neutral and then back to first gear to move on , is it normal or is there a problem ?? (Feedback from other Brio owners required)

Engine: I-vtec Engine is smooth and very responsive, even with Ac on car never struggles and can pick up speed in no time, officially Brio’s engine is more powerful than Maruti’s K-12 Engines which powers Ritz and Swift .

Eco Mode: At first I found it little distraction, every time I was trying to change gears to be in Eco Mode and failed, it took time to understand perfect gear to speed ratio to keep car in Eco Mode and get best FE out of the car, Eco mode in 2nd gear is possible in 20km, 30km in 3rd , 40km in 4th gear and in above 60 in 5th Gear, I will advice new drivers to avoid looking at Eco Mode in your practice time and concentrated on driving and have fun.

Controls and Handling: Car has perfect steering and very responsive, it is perfect to handle in traffic and very stable in highways, never felt car going out of control even in high speeds.


Steering wheel : I just love it , it is among the best if not the best , I have been behind wheels of few cars and Brio’s Steering wheel looks and feels better than other cars .

Brakes: It is responsive and stops in required time, but sometime I feel Brakes could have been slightly better, it my feedback others might not agree with me on this.

Suspension : Stiff is the only word which can describe it , could have been better , but helps the driver realise if he is too close to the side of the road which might have uneven surface .

Internal NVH (Noise, vibration, and harshness): under body makes lot of noise if car is driven on dirty road, I mean road with lot of small stones and pebbles, it feels little noisy but in clean road there is not much noise. Engine is silent so it hardly brings any noise inside of the car, I will be getting under body coating for the car to prevent rust since I live in coastal area and I am hoping it will bring down the noise levels also.

Boot Space: I have to admit its small and ok for two medium suit cases, but for me I have no complaints and ok with it, in fact I never even opened it even once after taking car home. But for people with big family and with frequent trips, I will suggest other cars.

Fuel Economy: Tachometer has to be reset when going for new trip to get accurate reading of the fuel Economy, but I am not convinced with the Tachometer since I have spotted it showing even 21kmpl, is car FE so good? I am little confused about fuel economy here. I had made it full tank after I bought the car, and take it out only in weekends which has lead to limited kilometres on Odo once Fuel light comes up I will be able to tell proper Fuel Economy , which I will post later .

ICE: EXMT comes with Alpine music systems, Brand is that not popular one in India but prices of their music systems are more expensive than any other major brands in India, speakers are good and sound is good enough for rear passengers to enjoy the music, so I have avoided going for rear speakers, but option is open for future installations.

Pro:

Price is among Best, and comes with all goodies like music systems, PW, Manual Central locking.
Honda Badge, you should look at your neighbour’s face when you tell them it’s a Honda.
Good engine and good Interior space
Good FE
Wide rear mirror helps in parking and reversing.

Cons:

Small Boot space
Negative assumption by others that it’s a cramped car due to its size.
Horns need to be little more powerful.
Missing 60:40 rear seat.
Cost of Honda accessories is too high, need to be reasonable.

After i took Delivery it was taken to local Temple for Puja .

Interior of the Car

Rear View from Drivers Seat

Car Parked Near My House

 

[bReeze AkA brIo]

PART-2 Feed Back of the Car

I have done 300 km till now, and everything seemed good and ok.

Exteriors: Honda has created a perfect illusion for Brio everyone who looks at the car from outside seems to think what a small car Honda has created, but it is quite an opposite. Looks in front are good and among the best in its class, Rear might be Hate it or love it for many, but for me it was all love.

Interiors: Car is big from Inside, many of my friends were quite surprised to see such a small car to have so much interior space, every one praised Interiors of the car, two in front have the most luxury and in rear 3 people can seat in comfort but any one above 5.8 might find head space little less in rear. Car can take 5 passengers with ease, even figo has the same width of brio (1680mm), so please don’t doubt about passenger comfort in rear, 3 with average height will find comfort.

AC: In First few days of ownership I was not impressed with the AC, it was not cooling enough, I kept changing Ac settings, and again went for default setting and it seemed AC finally woke up and cooling had improved I really don’t know how the improvement happen but it cooled much faster than earlier, so happy with the AC now.

Gears: I have heard about Biro’s sluggish gear before 5000km, in my Brio I found the gear to be smooth and responsive from the first day, changing gears in traffic or highway has been precise, never had difficulty in finding the right gear. Downshifting from 3 or 4th to 2nd has been smooth. Even a friend (Beat Owner) who took my car for TD had same feeling; I can easily say it is among the best in 1.2ltr class.. But I have to admit that first gear in Brio is “Nautanki Baaz” and goes off if not engaged properly, it has to be proper for car to move forward otherwise it stop , some time I need to bring it back to neutral and then back to first gear to move on , is it normal or is there a problem ?? (Feedback from other Brio owners required)

Engine: I-vtec Engine is smooth and very responsive, even with Ac on car never struggles and can pick up speed in no time, officially Brio’s engine is more powerful than Maruti’s K-12 Engines which powers Ritz and Swift .

Eco Mode: At first I found it little distraction, every time I was trying to change gears to be in Eco Mode and failed, it took time to understand perfect gear to speed ratio to keep car in Eco Mode and get best FE out of the car, Eco mode in 2nd gear is possible in 20km, 30km in 3rd , 40km in 4th gear and in above 60 in 5th Gear, I will advice new drivers to avoid looking at Eco Mode in your practice time and concentrated on driving and have fun.

Controls and Handling: Car has perfect steering and very responsive, it is perfect to handle in traffic and very stable in highways, never felt car going out of control even in high speeds.


Steering wheel : I just love it , it is among the best if not the best , I have been behind wheels of few cars and Brio’s Steering wheel looks and feels better than other cars .

Brakes: It is responsive and stops in required time, but sometime I feel Brakes could have been slightly better, it my feedback others might not agree with me on this.

Suspension : Stiff is the only word which can describe it , could have been better , but helps the driver realise if he is too close to the side of the road which might have uneven surface .

Internal NVH (Noise, vibration, and harshness): under body makes lot of noise if car is driven on dirty road, I mean road with lot of small stones and pebbles, it feels little noisy but in clean road there is not much noise. Engine is silent so it hardly brings any noise inside of the car, I will be getting under body coating for the car to prevent rust since I live in coastal area and I am hoping it will bring down the noise levels also.

Boot Space: I have to admit its small and ok for two medium suit cases, but for me I have no complaints and ok with it, in fact I never even opened it even once after taking car home. But for people with big family and with frequent trips, I will suggest other cars.

Fuel Economy: Tachometer has to be reset when going for new trip to get accurate reading of the fuel Economy, but I am not convinced with the Tachometer since I have spotted it showing even 21kmpl, is car FE so good? I am little confused about fuel economy here. I had made it full tank after I bought the car, and take it out only in weekends which has lead to limited kilometres on Odo once Fuel light comes up I will be able to tell proper Fuel Economy , which I will post later .

image


ICE: EXMT comes with Alpine music systems, Brand is that not popular one in India but prices of their music systems are more expensive than any other major brands in India, speakers are good and sound is good enough for rear passengers to enjoy the music, so I have avoided going for rear speakers, but option is open for future installations.

Pro:

Price is among Best, and comes with all goodies like music systems, PW, Manual Central locking.
Honda Badge, you should look at your neighbour’s face when you tell them it’s a Honda.
Good engine and good Interior space
Good FE
Wide rear mirror helps in parking and reversing.

Cons:

Small Boot space
Negative assumption by others that it’s a cramped car due to its size.
Horns need to be little more powerful.
Missing 60:40 rear seat.
Cost of Honda accessories is too high, needs to be reasonable.

Hearty congrats for your new ride.

The gears are notchy, but would only become smoother with every km, and after 2nd service, it would be like butter. So let all nightmares go off your mind till then.

Surely, 60:40 split seat is missing. I wonder if we could actually get it altered at local upholstery vendors.

Horn, yes, it needs to be more powerful.

Dont check FE until the engine runs in for 5000-6000kms, and then try with tank full method. FE would be good, so relax and njoy your drive.

 

[himalayan3009]

coldfire2005: congratulations for the Brio mate. wish you lots of happy miles ahead.
BTW, is it only me who can not see the pictures or others too are also experiencing the same problem?

 

[manish09]

Congrats buddy on your new BRIO

Happy Motoring

 

[Doc_Praveen]

Congratulations dear on the brand new H! Brio. Gr8 review as well specially with the twist:)

 

[ank78]

Hearty Congratulations for the Honda Brio.
About MID Average FE, there's a difference of about 0.6 - 1 km/ltr from actual. I'v checked it using tank to tank method. I'm getting > 20 kmpl in highway runs.

 

[evox]

Congrats for your new Brio! wish you lots of happy miles ahead with your reliable Honda

 

[manish09]

If the dashboard display FE is so accurate than it's gr8 .

Hearty Congratulations for the Honda Brio.
About MID Average FE, there's a difference of about 0.6 - 1 km/ltr from actual. I'v checked it using tank to tank method. I'm getting > 20 kmpl in highway runs.

 

[nishant5858]

Congratulations Coldfire 2005. Excellent car and very well written review. 21.3 km/l is great. I managed to get 19 km/l till now.

 

[coldfire2005]

Congratulations Coldfire 2005. Excellent car and very well written review. 21.3 km/l is great. I managed to get 19 km/l till now.

It was a 30km trip on National Highway with Moving Traffic and without AC , Techo shows 19-20 quite frequently , i will wait till next refuel to get exact FE , 19 is also good .

 

[manish09]

Yes.. do post the exact FE

It was a 30km trip on National Highway with Moving Traffic and without AC , Techo shows 19-20 quite frequently , i will wait till next refuel to get exact FE , 19 is also good .

 

[coldfire2005]

If i am correct "Tank full method " is running the car when car is full tank and after few km , refuel it and then check how much fuel has been put and then minus that by km done , is it right ??

 

[manish09]

Experienced driver can through some light on this

 

[bReeze AkA brIo]

If i am correct "Tank full method " is running the car when car is full tank and after few km , refuel it and then check how much fuel has been put and then minus that by km done , is it right ??

Fill up the tank, drive for as much kms as you want (preferably until the reserve light turns yellow again), and fill it up again.

Now, total Kms run (after tank full) / No. of Ltrs (during re-fill) = FE