Honda City 2012 VMT Tafeta White - The Quest for "WhiteLight"

[Revs]

Many congratulations on the City, sir.
It looks gleaming in white shade. The review is very well written up and you do have some admirable writing skills.
City is the perfect midsize sedan in the 10l range and wish you have a trouble-free ownership.

Regarding the scratch, I bet it won't leave the car with 'Scratch Out'. It is just useless over large scrtches. But, you can try the technique given by 'hakki'.

Revs

 

[FlyByWire]

Hi FlyByWire, once you apply Scratchout, follow that up by a quick wax. In my case i observed that most of the minor scratches and swirl marks disappeared through this method. Previously i had applied only Scratchout and the scratch did appear after a few hours. Hope this helps

Well, I will certainly try this technique the moment I get back home next week. Thanks a ton, Hakki.

Many congratulations on the City, sir.
It looks gleaming in white shade. The review is very well written up and you do have some admirable writing skills.
City is the perfect midsize sedan in the 10l range and wish you have a trouble-free ownership.

Regarding the scratch, I bet it won't leave the car with 'Scratch Out'. It is just useless over large scrtches. But, you can try the technique given by 'hakki'.

Revs

Thank you very much, Revs, for taking time out to read my review! White was my choice of colour, but was met with most hostile opposition from the two ladies of my house - wife and daughter! But somehow I prevailed! God only knows how I pulled it off-convincing two ladies is not a task for the faint at heart! But I am a white loyalist - both my cars are white.

 

[Gurrala74]

Well, I will certainly try this technique the moment I get back home next week. Thanks a ton, Hakki.

Thank you very much, Revs, for taking time out to read my review! White was my choice of colour, but was met with most hostile opposition from the two ladies of my house - wife and daughter! But somehow I prevailed! God only knows how I pulled it off-convincing two ladies is not a task for the faint at heart! But I am a white loyalist - both my cars are white.

FBW

If it is white, then it always requires attention, that is how it looks rich with continuous cleaning

 

[FlyByWire]

FBW

If it is white, then it always requires attention, that is how it looks rich with continuous cleaning

Well, my experience with white has been just the opposite. White disguises mud stains pretty well. Of course, slush doesn't look pretty, though. I saw this after returning from a weeklong trip to Gwalior where I drove through some horrendously muddy under construction roads. The entire trip went without any wipe or wash but when I returned to Delhi, she looked pretty ok from a distance. Of course, any dark stains would stick out like sore thumb on white. I think blacks are the most difficult to maintain (had a black Accent) but black is also the most elegant and royal colour, especially on sedans.

 

[FlyByWire]

And I am back in town! But before that, HONDA DEALER woes!

Was going out of Delhi for 10 days. So, I decided to buy a body cover to cover "Whitelight" up while I was gone. I park my car outside in the open. So, a day before I was leaving, I phoned Automax Honda at Mayapuri to check if they had body covers in stock. The lady there confirmed that it was available. So, I went in the evening after work. Since I was going to miss my evening run, I decided to burn some and walked it down from Dhaula Kuan to Mayapuri...took me 45 minutes. After all that effort, when I reached there, the lady at the counter made me wait for almost 10 minutes before arriving with a cover. When I asked her if this had pockets for mirrors and antenna, she was unsure and began fiddling with her phone. Finally, I asked her to open it up and show it to me. At that time, she said "Sir, this is not a original Honda cover"! I asked her why on earth would I come to an authorised dealer to buy a third party cover at an exorbitant price. I'd rather pick it up from Karol Bagh!! When I asked her why she confirmed over the phone that it was available, she said "Sir, you didn't say that you were coming today"! Goodness, I thought only Central and State Govt offices were this bureaucratic! I just gave them a mouthful (which obviously did not have much effect on them, it was more of venting my ire!) and left. So, "Whitelight" had to brave ten days of dust, mud and, as luck would have it, rain!! When I returned, she was in a neglected state. So, this morning, it was time for TLC (Tender Loving Care!). But during the wash, I realised that there were a number of small black spots. Probably tree sap. It was on the horizontal surfaces (roof, bonnet and boot). They are leaving the car with light scraping by finger nails but there are just too many of them for individual attention! So, I am going to get some kind of Tar/Sap remover next week and work on those.

But, as advised, I tried Scratch out over the blemishes and Lo Behold! They disappeared! So, many thanks to Aditya and Hakki!

I have ordered 3D Maxpider Kagu Mats (Black) online from Carware.in and hope to get them soon. They set me back by Rs.5100. Will post pics soon.

 

[FlyByWire]

Power Window Discovery!!

Wow! Third post in a row!

Had a nagging doubt regarding operation of power window switch on driver side. This has a one touch Up/Down option. I was wondering how to use this to make the window stop at the requisite position if I didn't want it all the way up or down. So far, I have been interrupting the downward motion of the window with a click-up of the power window switch to stop it at the required position and vice versa. I wasn't too convinced about this method. I thought that if you flick the switch up/down momentarily, it operates in auto mode but if you keep it pressed longer, then it works in manual mode and window motion stops when you release the switch (much like how my ipod works when forwarding tracks!). But this was also not the case (got some inconsistent results when I tried this out).

It was eureka this morning when I discovered that the switch has two positions on each side of resting position. When you lift/lower it slightly, it operates in manual mode. (Something like a half press of a camera shutter release button) If you lift/lower it more, there is a light click which you get when encountering a ball detent. When you take it beyond this detent / notch, it operates in auto mode. This notch/ detent is pretty subtle in terms of force required and hence, escaped my attention so far. Also, this feature is not listed in the car manual (or did I miss it?) Wonder how many of the chaps knew this but I certainly was uneducated till this morning!!

 

[FlyByWire]

Re: Power Window Discovery!!

Also, this feature is not listed in the car manual (or did I miss it?)

Well, I did miss it!! The manual says Push switch down "lightly" for manual and "firmly" for Auto operation of power windows. So, I guess , after all!

 

[spinfreak]

Admirable FlyByWire. And I love your DP : Gonna make a sticker and stick it below my i-VTEC chrome badge in City :)

I also ordered the 2200 ELM327 Bluetooth Adapter. Is that working fine for you? Or should I reconsider? Can you also write data TO ecm through it - eg Idle Remaping, etc?

 

[FlyByWire]

Admirable FlyByWire. And I love your DP : Gonna make a sticker and stick it below my i-VTEC chrome badge in City :)

I also ordered the 2200 ELM327 Bluetooth Adapter. Is that working fine for you? Or should I reconsider? Can you also write data TO ecm through it - eg Idle Remaping, etc?

Hi Spinfreak! A Warm welcome to TAI. The sticker idea is great....why didn't I think of that????

The ELM 327 is working fine though I haven't used it much. I had a bit of a problem initially with the detection through Torque App and that was because it has to be manually paired with the phone before using Torque to detect it. Once I did that, there were no hiccups. As far as I know, ELM 327 that I have is a passive "listening only" device and so, it cannot write any data. But I am not one hundred percent sure about this. Also, I don't know whether this is a hardware limitation (of the adapter) or a software limitation (of Torque App). Anyway, I will check and confirm it to you soon.

Which variant and year is your City?

 

[FlyByWire]

So, something to report after a long time! I bought a Honda Body cover. It is an original cover. Here are some pics.



I thought I needed this since I am out of station for a week or two each month and my car is parked outdoors (no shade other than a few trees). However, the first time I used it, Delhi was lashed with heavy rains and Hail. The cover had come off in all that wind. Perhaps I did not fasten the underbody strap tight enough, I thought. When I checked the car closely, I saw some scratches on the body - nothing big or significant but I could catch them when I was polishing the car. After the second session of a week under cover, when the covers came off, I could definitely see light scratches. It seems that the cover is doing more harm than good and so, for the time being, I've decided to retire the cover!

Am I doing something wrong or do we just have to accept such scratches when using body covers?

 

[sarithj]

It was nice reading your reviews on the Honda City. I am going to book a Honda city SMT next week for my Dad.The only low i have heard about the Honda City is its clearance.I mean i heard that the Ground clearance is not so bad (170 i guess), but coupled with its suspension the underside of the car is hitting the roads. I am not sure how bad the humps are on the Delhi roads, or rather are there any humps!.Please advise me regarding this, i mean does your car frequently have issues with its underside scrapping/hitting the road.

Thanks
Sarith J

 

[FlyByWire]

It was nice reading your reviews on the Honda City. I am going to book a Honda city SMT next week for my Dad.The only low i have heard about the Honda City is its clearance.I mean i heard that the Ground clearance is not so bad (170 i guess), but coupled with its suspension the underside of the car is hitting the roads. I am not sure how bad the humps are on the Delhi roads, or rather are there any humps!.Please advise me regarding this, i mean does your car frequently have issues with its underside scrapping/hitting the road.
Thanks
Sarith J

Hi Sarith. As far as I know, the ANHC 2012 revision increased the GC from 160 to 165mm. More importantly, I believe they also tweaked the suspension a bit (stiffened). How do these tweaks translate into driving experience? Well, I haven't driven the pre 2012 variant of ANHC much but I can share what I have experienced on my car.

Let me start by emphatically saying the NO, I haven't had the problem of car scraping the ground often. In fact, in my 3000 odd km that I have driven, I have scraped only twice and that too, not in Delhi during normal course of driving around. Of course, I'll add the disclaimer that Delhi has fabulous roads, so, perhaps may not be the best place to test adequacy of GC. I have never touched the bottom at any of the Delhi speedbreakers, including an infamous one on Barapullah Flyover.

I have scraped once when I had to go off the NH8 short of Agra when driving from Gwalior to Delhi but it was a very light scrape which happened on a narrow, almost non-existant road where my left wheels were perpetually off the road. I did have a hard hit when driving to Jaipur near Rewari, when I decided to leave the paved road surface and go on to the shoulders of the highway while negotiating a long traffic jam. The height differential was too much, which led to that hit. It was pretty hard but it was purely an error of judgement on my part, going by the look of disbelief that people in other sedans had when they saw me do that!! Of course, when I had a look at the belly during my second service, I was pleasantly surprised to see no damage whatsoever!

Remember, its not just a question of GC. Its a combination of GC + wheelbase + softness of suspension. Its the last one that has been the greatest culprit in the case of the City but easily remedied if you slow down adequately. It is my feeling (though am not absolutely sure) that the speedbreakers where you touch the bottom even when you are dead slow (thereby taking the softness of suspension out of the equation), most other sedans (ie cars of similar wheelbase) would also probably touch (unless their GC is really large). (This is just a gut feeling...so, owners of other sedans, don't flame me!!)

The bottom line... I have absolutely no problems with the bottom scrapping on my Honda City but perhaps you may like to take the opinion of others who drive on worse roads.

Cheers!

 

[Theferrarifan]

It was nice reading your reviews on the Honda City. I am going to book a Honda city SMT next week for my Dad.The only low i have heard about the Honda City is its clearance.I mean i heard that the Ground clearance is not so bad (170 i guess), but coupled with its suspension the underside of the car is hitting the roads. I am not sure how bad the humps are on the Delhi roads, or rather are there any humps!.Please advise me regarding this, i mean does your car frequently have issues with its underside scrapping/hitting the road.

Thanks
Sarith J

yes it does but very rare. Whenever that happens,its a slight touch and does not damage. Go for it man,superb car. And I drive on the worst roads of gurgaon.

 

[kuwaronline]

Excellent thread with detailed review... I am too proud owner of ANHC2012 done 10k till now with long journeys like Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi, Manali, mussoorie, Nainital etc etc... only scraped few times in MP's Sendhwa area where road was not there only dirt track that too in very very bad condition due to rain.... normal cross over to have scrapped so I wont blame honda city for that... :)

 

[Sarvash]

Hi, I would like to know if your 2012 Honda city scrapes medium sized speed breakers with 4 onboard and a 70% loaded boot?

Is the ground clearance poor when 4 are onboard?