Honda City Drive: Pune to Hyderabad

It seems the battle for the top berth of sedans costing around Rs. 8-10 lakh is heating up. For the better part of five years the Honda City has ruled the roost, quite easily seeing off rivals, thanks to the brilliance of its package and of course the Honda brand equity. In fact, the essence of the City seemed to be the stuff of dreams and while many could match the City on one or the other attribute, they all faltered when it came to the real deal. However, there is a new player with big bucks on the prowl on Indian roads and it has high ambitions of besting the City. No prizes for guessing that it is Volkswagen gunning for glory with its Vento (read all about that elsewhere in this very issue) and so while Volkswagen’s firepower is all there, the German OEM is not leaving any stones unturned to shout itself loud to one and all who would care to listen.

Never one to open its coffers (as most Japanese OEMs!) in the manner of its new German rival, Honda though thought it wise and prudent to make everyone get re-acquainted with its best-seller in the manner that is best: an all India drive for automotive hacks to put the City to the test! And given the glorious uncertainties (to borrow a quote much abused by cricket commentators) of the great Indian vistas, this was quite an apt, timely, questionable and fun thing to do. Being Honda, it broke up the long all India drive from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in segments and ZigWheels was slotted to do the job on the Pune to Hyderabad sector. The choice of route was down to us, we could chose from the straight and the true or take diversions to check up any interesting places as long as we adhered to a two-day schedule.

ZigWheels got Honda's Drive to Discover underway on September 1 with our Editor-in-Chief behind the wheel of the lead City and yours truly handling the second. The journey upto Sholapur was quite comfortable with occasional heavy traffic and plenty of potholes strewn around as on most of our highways. The ability of this compact Honda sedan to pull away smoothly out of tight situations is simply scintillating. The City has a tremendous ability to accelerate out of trouble in all gears and across the rev range and it does this without the fuel gauge going down in geometric progression.

One more point I would like to note here is with regards to the seating arrangement in this car; the front bucket sears offering tremendous comfort with almost no fatigue. While I am saying this I am not taking anything away from the excellent suspension the car is equipped with, especially the very competent damping at all deflections of the road springs. It is because of this ability to sprint marathon distances so easily had us in Sholapur by 12:30 p.m.! Sheer effortless motoring which began to ram home the point that it is not just engine but the package that delivers in sync!

Maybe the quick footed approach meant that we had some time on our hands and what better use could we put it to that trying to hunt for that special dhabha with the right local cuisine. India is as much about food as it is about interesting places and given that both Adil and myself opine ourselves as very involved foodies, the hunt for lunch began in dead earnest after topping up both cars.

And we found it some seven odd kilometers from the old fortified town of Naldurg, the leisurely two hour halt being an extension of the pleasure filled drive so far. The Hotel Welcome Palace at a village known as Andur churned up not just excellent fried fish plus curry and rice with accompaniments, the whole was cooked in front of us to our specifications! Gourmet fare on our highways was never better whipped up than here! And yes before I forget there was food for thought as well from the smiling faces which manned this watering hole. History, anecdotes, wild tales and lore flowed thick and fast and if ever you have time on your hands and eager ears to listen, then our dhabhas are the places feed you with more than food.

Within half an hour after lunch we were at the Naldurg Fort and our photographer Kunal Khadse unleashed his camera skills giving birth to some exhilarating photographs of the Honda City looking pretty with the magnificent fort in the background.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention here that the road from Sholapur to Naldurg has a sort of a table top surface and the Honda was cruising at speeds of 170 to 180 km/hr without throwing any tantrums in spite of the linear velocity very few sedans in this class can achieve and maintain. And yes the virtue of the fuel gauge not trying to hit rock bottom once again underscored why this is such an alluring car for the Indian family.

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Reaching the outskirts of Hyderabad at 5:30 in the evening was no big deal. But in life all good things must come to an end and hence two hours of driving in heavy traffic (a grueling distance of nearly 40km) was the price to pay for all the enjoyment so far. At 7:30 in the evening we stabled the two stallions at the Taj Banjara Hotel and were anyone to tell us to turn around and head back home, both Adil and myself were game to do just that, no not trying to prove ourselves but only taking refuge in the solid capability of the City to make whiz us back to Pune. Of course this wasn’t needed and we had not just a day but also two nights all to ourselves in Hyderabad. Remember the talk about cuisine? Well Hyderabad in Ramzan is the place to be for foodies and while it wasn’t exactly a hogfest, sampling Nawabi fare, especially the haleem along with the different biryanis was just as big a re-discovery as Honda’s drive.

The big takeaway after this drive for all of us after this drive points to the fact that creating and marketing a rival to the Honda City is no child’s play. The competing manufacturers will have to put in a lot of effort in the multiple aspects of a good family sedan. Believe me, in spite of being driven by different media representatives from Jammu to Hyderabad, the cars had no body rattles or any mechanical aches and pains. This shows good, solid, reliable engineering. There is no doubt in my head that even with more modern and focused rivals, many more Indians are going to discover the City in ever greater numbers and drive what is the benchmark saloon in class. Driven and discovered!