Honda Amaze : Detailed Review

Honda may not have been the first to the sub 4-metre sedan party, but it did shake up the competition with the Amaze. The car has worked well, helping Honda become a household name, being an affordable sedan, something the typical middle-class car buyer in India wants. Since its launch in 2013, Honda has moved close to two lakh units of the car, and claims the Amaze has contributed significantly to its cumulative sales over the past three years. Of course, the car has ticked a lot of boxes for buyers with its compactness, efficiency, comfort, affable design and value for money. But the recent past has seen its competitors up the game in the compact sedan space with a lot more equipment. An updated Amaze was expected then, no?

Unsurprisingly, or rather expectedly should I say – the changes are cosmetic. Of course, no one complained that the car was bad to drive or was lacking mechanically. It’s a Honda after all, and they’ve always been known to make good cars, be it in India or internationally. So the car maker decided it best to leave the Amaze’s mechanicals untouched, going in for what automotive journalists usually refer to as a nip-and-tuck job. You see, the term facelift comes from middle-aged women who start having a mid-life crisis about their looks and visit salons and parlours to look and feel better. Same goes for our cars I guess – somewhere midway through the lifecycle of a car manufacturers feel the need to give it a facelift to enhance its appeal without having to tinker around too much. 

That said, the new Amaze is now on offer with a CVT transmission, only for the petrol version though, a segment first. A facelift usually results in a younger, more appealing looking car, and of late it also includes the addition of newer features and technology. The Amaze gets exactly that. With competitors like the Maruti Suzuki Dzire and Ford Figo Aspire offering more bang for the buck, the Amaze was beginning to feel a bit dated inside out. So it gets a revised front end including a new grille and bumper, and redesigned tail lights at the back. The grille gets more chrome, like the other newer Hondas, especially the Mobilio, extending all the way to the headlights on either side. The bumper is now more muscular thanks to what look like flared nostrils at either end to house the fog lamps. The tail lights look a lot more attractive too, thanks to the new design.  

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The changes thus though not extensive, do give the car a fresher appearance. It’s the changes to the insides that impressed me the most though. This is the area where owners would spend the maximum time and Honda has reworked the cabin well to offer a better in-car experience. The highlight is the new dashboard, which looks more appealing with its two-tone beige and black appearance. Fit-finish levels are high as expected from Honda, and the cabin exudes a more premium feel. On the whole, the new dash looks nice with its thoughtfully executed, clutter-free layout. I wish the infotainment system screen was bigger and colourful instead of monochrome though. The Amaze also gets Bluetooth connectivity now, apart from the AUX and USB. It gets automatic climate control too, with a large display for the air-conditioning unit. 

The steering wheel is the same, but its rim uses a thicker, better feeling material which makes it chunkier to hold. The revised clocks look better too, which means the cockpit is a better feeling place now. The Amaze also gets redesigned door trims which give it a more upmarket feel, and do a good job of it. These interiors are the same as the upcoming BR-V, and work well in offering a more upmarket feel to the insides of the Amaze. 

Under the hood the Amaze still uses the same 1.2-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engines as before. We got to drive the manual petrol version, and the petrol engine in the Amaze has always been a likeable unit with its refinement. I would have expected some more pep from the motor but that’s not saying it doesn’t feel lively in its current avatar, offering 88PS and 109Nm of torque. The Amaze feels adept at its job of being a compact, zippy car to drive, especially in the city. We got to experience it in South Delhi’s traffic, which can be quite a challenge even in the afternoon. And that’s the typical domain for the Amaze, since most buyers will spend most of their time driving in traffic. The five-speed manual transmission is as slick as ever, offering precise shifts. 

The ride quality is plush as before and the suspension continues to offer a likeable blend of handling and comfort. The Amaze is indeed a comfortable car if you are a family of four with its kind of space inside as well, which is another important reason behind the car’s success. Further, Honda is claiming NVH levels on the diesel version of the Amaze are better than before now, but sadly we did not get to experience the car thanks to the petrol getting allotted to us. The 1.5-litre diesel engine offers 100PS and 200Nm of torque, which is impressive for the segment. I did not get a chance to drive the CVT-equipped version either – something I was keen on experiencing since Honda is saying the transmission has been worked upon extensively to offer good efficiency. 

Honda is also offering dual airbags as an option even on the base variant of the Amaze, and in fact will offer dual airbags as standard on all its cars to be launched the next financial year onwards. Finally, pricing for the new Amaze begins at Rs 5.30 lakh ex-showroom New Delhi for the base petrol variant. The VX (CVT), the top of the line petrol costs Rs 8.20 lakh ex-showroom. The base diesel variant of the Amaze is priced at Rs 6.41 lakh, while the top of the line diesel version, though manual, costs the same as the CVT petrol at Rs 8.20 lakh. That might be a small premium over the older car, but is negligible when you consider the new features and the enhanced feel inside, which makes it feel more upmarket. It is nice to see how a rather mild facelift and the addition of new-age features have brought the Amaze back in the game.