Honda City 2015 Bloggers Fun Drive Experience
Honda City 2015 Bloggers Fun Drive Experience
Recently, I attended Honda City 2015 Bloggers Fun Drive Experience. It was a one day fun drive experience with fellow blogger friends in their latest Honda City. Honda City has been around in Malaysia and currently they are on the top of their market segment beating other competitors such as Toyota Vios.
A little background on my driving experiences, even though I am not a racer or sort but I have been driving since 1995 with almost 20 years of experience. I drove many cars in the past and I have driven small compact, medium compact, MPV, 4×4 and Hybrid. I test drive the old Honda City more than 10 years ago but I didn’t buy the City as I bought a higher segment car at that time. Now, I am looking forward more than ever to feel the difference between the old and the new Honda City.
The Honda City 2015 Bloggers Fun Drive is not just about driving but also some activities in between. We will drive the Honda City in urban areas as well as on the highway so we can get the feel the ride in two different sets of driving scenarios. In between, we went to Barista Guild Asia for simple coffee introduction before heading to MAEPS Serdang for testing the Honda City’s new VSA features.
The fun drive event started off at Rondaevoo Café with breakfast provided. I met up with many blogger friends and start taking pictures and mingling around before the event starts.
There was a brief introduction by Jordhat Johan Shrithra, Assistant Manager of Public Relations Honda Malaysia.
Then it continues with Ivan Khong, experienced race driver, car instructor and professional drifter. I heard and read about Ivan many times when he was actively drifting. It is great to have him on board as he goes through the safety features of Honda City as well as some of the key points of the car.
Let’s check out the car. The first impression of the new Honda City is good. It looks bigger and the size is almost like Civic. You can check out the detailing of the exterior of this car.
This latest generation of City is powered by the improved 1.5L SOHC i-VTEC engine (maximum power 120PS @ 6,600 rpm and maximum torque 145Nm @ 4,600 rpm) coupled with the advanced new Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) that was developed under Honda’s Earth Dreams Technology to provide the perfect combination of driving performance and fuel economy.
The safety feature is definitely the selling point of the car. It comes with 6 airbags all around. Yeah, six airbags for City, can you believe that? That is not all, it includes the standard ABS (Anti Braking System) and also VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist) for the first time for City.
The City is also equipped with a 7” Display Audio with MirrorLink function, 8 Speakers, Multi Information Combination Meter, Rear Ventilation Air Conditioning , 2 USB Jacks, 3 Power Sockets, 8 Cup Holders and smart storage compartments (on selected models). The 8 cup holders are really practical especially if you have a child and you need to put the bottles here and there. USB jacks and power sockets are handy too since everyone is a smartphone users and the ipads too.
The advanced Steering Wheel Hands Free Telephone Control and Steering Wheel Voice Recognition Controlare connected with the vehicle’s infotainment system to provide convenience at the driver’s fingertips (on selected models). I used to drive a car with similar steering wheels and this is handy and especially the free telephone control. It is convenient and safe and you do not need to worry about putting on your hands free set.
The bloggers were split to three teams, I was assigned with beautiful Kelly Chin and not so handsome Isaac Tan. We knew each other and we had so much fun in the car, talking and chatting. When you have a comfortable car, you get really cozy and feel good about it.
The first impression of driving the new City is it feels solid. It is definitely a better handling car than the City I test driven more than 10 years ago. This marks the significant improvement of driving experience and also the handling of the car.
The first stop is Barista Guild Asia, it is one and only independent coffee education specialist in Malaysia. I believe this stop is something to enhance our knowledge in coffee in general, not so much related to Honda City.
At Barista Guild Asia, we got to experience the art of smelling, measuring, brewing, filtering and even making latte art for our coffees. It sounds easy but in actual it is never been easy.
We were spoilt by baristas in cafes and things make look easy by them in café. In actual fact, it took weeks and months for them to perfect their skills to brew, filter and make that latte art for a cuppa of coffee. Making a coffee is not like pressing a button at the coffee machine, it is a skill and also an art. If you need a school to learn, well Barista Guild Asia is the place. They have proper classes to attend so why not give it for a try?
We got ourselves these cute certificates of attendance at the end of the day, a small token of appreciation.
Our second stop will be a yummy lunch break over at Crave Cafe, Oasis Ara Damansara. It is one of the few cafes in Oasis Ara Damansara, the up and coming food and beverages places in Klang Valley.
Our third and last stop is at MAEPS in Serdang and we had to do two fun activities. The first one is to test the Honda City, I do really mean testing it out.
We had to drive at fast speed and make a fast turn to over steer the car. This is to test the Honda City’s new feature, the VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist).
To over steer the car, I had to switch off the VSA (please do not attempt to switch off while driving the car on the road).
I tried my best to over steer the car when I drive but my basic instinct stopped me of doing so and I needed a few rounds to throw the car around. After getting the car over steered with toppling the car, we switched back the VSA.
With the same speed and same action, the VSA actually controlled the car by not over steering it. This technology is not new and it is available in most luxury cars so it is so important to have this feature in Honda City. It works perfectly together with ABS.
The last activity is to fill luggage bags, baskets, tupperwares and ice boxes in to the boot of the Honda City.
It sounds crazy and even looks crazy but with a boot space of a 536 litre capacity, this is nothing for Honda City so we had a little competition among three teams of bloggers. The team which filled the boot space in the shortest time will win a special prize (no it is not the car).
Our team didn’t win the game. We took a peek at the last prize and we loved it so we lost it deliberately. It was no wrong to let the rest to win and be happy with it. We loved our prizes, seriously.
Thank you Honda Malaysia for the lovely prizes, the coffee experience, the lunch, the driving experience and also the chance to over steer the car and ran over the cones. It was really an experience.
The All-New City is available in 5 colours: Modern Steel Metallic, Alabaster Silver Metallic, Taffeta White, Crystal Black Pearl and a new attractive colour of Brilliant Sporty Blue Metallic.
Honda Malaysia offers 5-year warranty with unlimited mileage and service interval is 10,000km to provide further ease to customers to make the City the vehicle of their choice.
Check out the price, specs and features of the All New Honda City at the link below:
http://www.honda.com.my/model/specifications/allnewcity
Prices (inclusive of 6% GST) start from RM71,400.87 for the 1.5l S variant to RM86,447.77 for the V variant. Price list: http://www.honda.com.my/model/pricing/allnewcity
