No AVN system, faux wood for Honda Mobilio

The Honda Mobilio was supposed to come in the AVN trim as the top spec variant – a strategy that the Japanese car maker has used successfully for the CR-V and the City. But, Honda has now announced that the AVN version has been put on the back burner as the company isn’t completely satisfied with the functioning of the audio, video and navigation touchscreen system it was to use on its seven seater MPV.

The version we drove came with this system nonetheless, and it did not have good visibility in the day time. Having dropped the AVN trim also means, there will be no faux wood pasted on the dashboard in any of the trim levels. The faux wood is one the more popular accessories for Honda cars and therefore, the company wanted to offer it as standard on the AVN version of the Mobilio. But, as our review of the Mobilio revealed, the faux wood finish looks cheap and a bit unbecoming of a car costing nearly Rs 10 lakh.

The AVN system which also doubles up as a reversing camera screen and comes with Bluetooth telephony, might be offered as an accessory along with the faux wood for the Mobilio. With the AVN gone, the top spec Mobilio will come with a 2 Din stereo system similar to the Amaze. It has decent sound quality and can play music off USB and AUX inputs. It still won’t play CDs though.

The Mobilio which will be launched on the 23^rd of July, will come in three trims levels – E, S and V – and two engine options. The 1.5-litre petrol that makes 119PS of max power is targeted mainly at city centric families while the 100PS, 1.5-litre diesel is meant for those who do intercity trips more often. There will be no automatic version for the Mobilio at launch but a CVT equipped petrol Mobilio is expected at a later date.