Honda Amaze Long Term Report: September 2019

The second-generation Amaze is one of the most successful cars from the Honda Cars India stable, as it sold 1 lakh units in just over a year. It has recently joined the autoX long term garage. After driving this sub-4-metre sedan for a couple of weeks in the city, we have learnt why it’s become such a phenomenal success and also what’s it like to live with it. Now, the previous generation Amaze was based on the Brio’s platform, and its design certainly wasn’t its strongest feature, but what made it stand out was its roomy cabin space in general and the spacious legroom for rear passengers in particular.

Let’s start with cabin comfort. As the current Amaze is based on an all-new chassis, it's longer by 65mm, meaning it offers even more rear legroom than the older model. The rear seats are comfortable, but the cherry on top has to be the under thigh support it offers, which is rare in this segment. However, it would have been better if the rear seats had adjustable headrest. Thankfully, the front seats have them, unlike the first-generation Amaze.

But does a more spacious cabin mean a compromised boot? Surprisingly, no! It now comes with 420 litres of boot space, and that’s 20 litres more than the older Amaze.

Our long-term Amaze is the diesel automatic version, so let’s first address the elephant in the room. Yes, the manual diesel trim boasts 99bhp and 200Nm of torque, but the CVT version gets only 79bhp and 160Nm of torque, which on paper doesn’t really make it an attractive proposition. We got behind the wheel and drove it in the city, and it was actually quite responsive in start-stop traffic conditions. The driving experience was effortless, to be honest. By reducing the power and torque, Honda has managed to eliminate the typical rubber-band effect of the CVT. Therefore, the transition of power is very smooth, without any sporadic bursts of power.

Our first impressions of the Amaze are quite impressive, as it taught us not to judge a book by its cover. In this case by horsepower.  

Also read - Sub 4-m Comparison : Amaze vs Dzire vs Elite i20 vs Swift vs EcoSport vs Vitara Brezza vs Nexon

Honda Amaze Review