Hangout with Honda.

Last weekend I was invited by Honda Cars India for an experiment, to drive their latest car Amaze. Called as “Hangout With Honda” this was a first of its kind initiative by Honda to connect with the bloggers and auto-enthusiasts, the whole of Honda Management & Product team should be applauded for this unique experiment where they had test drives and both online and offline contests.

Honda had put in lot of thinking into this event as there were representatives from Marketing, Product & Management of Honda Cars India present. A brief run down on the Honda principles, their philosophy, the reasoning behind their first ever diesel vehicle in India was presented.

 Large part of presentation was set aside to explain the specifications of Amaze. Built on Honda’s program called Earth Dreams Technology, Amaze is the first diesel car from Honda with 1.5 Liter i-DTEC engine.

For testing we were given the top end model cars and it came loaded with features like adjustable seat heights, electronically foldable rear view mirrors, In Car Entertainment, Steering mounted controls for audio, lighter/charging port, usb port, aux input to plug devices like ipod/Mobiles and they also had placed a few tins of Diet Coke and chips to munch on while testing the car (Perks of being a Blogger, I must say).

There were 6 cars for testing, and a team of 4 drivers was made for each car. 4 Petrol variants and 2 diesel variants. I was in a team that got the petrol version of the car.

Destination was set, maps were given it was Cafe Coffee Day at about 40 odd kilometers from the city Narasapura on the Bangalore-Kolar highway, The test drive was Amaaazzzzziiinnngggg(No I am not exaggerating) with some serene views of the hills on the way! 

The handling and drive-ability of the car was excellent. Gear knob is short which gives a sporty feeling and I liked it very much.

Another standout feature in this car is spacious interiors and one of the best amongst the cars in this segment. Even with co-passenger seat pulled to the back, A tall person can easily sit in the passenger seat behind. The boot of the car is spacious and could fit 5-6 cabin luggages.

As I am not an Auto expert I don’t understand much about the technical aspects of the car. You can check them here.