Like many have mentioned before, the view with the bonnet stretching out in front of you is an immensely satisfying one.
BHPian capnemo recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Just took a test-drive of the Elevate from Dakshin Honda, Hosur road Bangalore and my quick observations after a test drive of the Elevate ZX CVT.
Seating position, Space and visibility:
I’m 5’8″ and it did take me some time to find my ideal seating position. You almost walk and slide into the car seat and I felt ingress/egress would be good for senior citizens as well.
The seats felt well-cushioned, but I would have liked a bit more under-thigh support and lumbar support. Especially the later was a bit more discernible as soon as I started driving.
Visibility all around is great. Like many have mentioned before, the view with the bonnet stretching out in front of you is an immensely satisfying one.
However, the space offered is ostensibly lesser than on the Seltos. The Seltos’ panoramic sunroof, width on offer and the quality of the interiors uplifts the entire ambience of the cabin to a degree that the Elevate will never be able to.
Plastics, interior quality:
The VX was on display and it did feel a step down in terms of interior quality of plastics – hard plastics abound. The ZX with it’s leatherette finish felt much better. But, we checked out the City ZX as well and it felt far better than the Elevate in terms of the soft touch materials and the general roominess of the cabin due to the lighter colors.
I am not sure whether there is any correlation between the door’s thud sound and the actual build quality, but the Elevate’s doors felt far slightly heavier and closed with a reassuring thud, more so than the Maruti-Toyota cousins. Here again, I felt the City’s doors were thicker and slightly heavier than the Elevate.
The CVT drive selector however, felt crude and plasticky to operate. Perhaps long term use might make it smoother, who knows !
Drive and ride quality:
The engine was very silent upon start. Upon hard acceleration, the rubber band effect was evident, and the engine noise filters inside the cabin, throwing all impressions of good NVH out of the window. It settles down quickly though and to me, it didn’t feel like gaining speeds were an agonizing wait away. The roads were empty though so for overtakes, plan you must ! That also meant I couldn’t test how resistant the cabin insulation is, to outside vehicle and traffic noise.
Here’s the clincher though. Once the engine realizes it needs to attain higher speeds, the way the Elevate gained those speeds and it’s stability at speeds above 80 kmph speeds felt extremely confidence inspiring.
And at lower speeds, the high ground clearance meant that you don’t have to think twice about crossing ungainly speed breakers and deep potholes. What a relief on the roads of Bangalore !
Extended warranty for an additional 2 years comes at around 19k and seems like a steal.
One thing that I was pondering about, was the terrific value proposition of the vehicle, especially if a Bangalore resident gets a BH series registration from outside and avoids the humongous 3L up-front Karnataka road tax.
Keyword: Test drove the Honda Elevate : My impressions across various parameters