New Honda Amaze: First Drive

Watch First Drive Video of 2016 Honda Amaze Facelift

Its time for another facelift and this time it’s the Honda Amaze that has gone under the knife. We took it for a short spin to check out the changes

The Amaze was pretty much a landmark car for Honda in India. It was a car that was born out of government regulations that forced Honda to make the Amaze the way it is. Honda’s entry into the cut-throat compact sedan segment was also Honda’s first diesel offering in India. After selling 2 lakh units since its launch in 2013, Honda has finally decided to give it a much-deserved facelift.

Design

Like they always do, Honda has attended to minor details to refresh the Amaze from the outside. The front is where most of the changes have taken place. First up, is the shiny big grill which gets more chrome and is bolder as well. The bumper has been reworked as well and are more flared now adding a little more muscle. 

The Amaze gets new fog lights as well which seem to have been borrowed from the older gen City. Turn indicators find themselves on the ORVM’s which are now electrically foldable.

The sides remain the same with the very prominent character lines being present and the 10-spoke alloy wheels (the petrol variant gets a different design). The rear gets new combination tail lamps which look good as well. Overall, we’d say Honda has done justice with the facelift and the Amaze seems a lot more characterful than before.

Interiors

If there was one part about the Amaze that was one of its biggest Achilles heels, it had to be the interiors. The Amaze was (and still is) one of the most spacious cars in its class, but the overall design was pretty bland. Honda tried sprucing it up by adding a big display touch screen unit, but that wasn’t of much help.

The moment you get inside the new car though, you see a refreshing change. The entire dashboard has been re-designed and it looks pretty good.  It’s a very cohesive design and nothing looks out of place. The black and beige dual tone combo remains with classy silver inserts all around. 

Towards the center, you have an all-new audio system that gets Bluetooth, USB and AUX. No, its not a touch screen unit but still is a lot better than what the Amaze had earlier. Also new, is the air-con unit which now gets climate control and no knobs to play with at all. Again it’s classy to look at and feels good to use as well.

Finally, as you move your eyes towards the speedo console, you see some more changes. Firstly, the steering gets audio mounted controls. The speedo console has been borrowed from the current City and now gets a multi information display which gives out the range, average fuel consumption, instantaneous fuel efficiency, time and the ambient temperature.
 
The seats remain the same but get new fabric. The Amaze remains one of the most spacious cars in its class and now can boast of some very good interiors as well.

Engines

Engines remain unchanged and the diesel is still noisier than the competition and not to mention one of the most fuel-efficient. The diesel mill is the 1.5 litre i-DTEC pushing out 100 PS and 200 Nm coupled to a 5-speed gearbox while the petrol is the 1.2 litre i-VTEC which pushes out 88 PS and 109 Nm of torque.

The new addition here is the CVT gearbox that you can buy with the petrol engine that Honda claims is not only convenient to use in traffic but more efficient than the manual gearbox as well. With the CVT gearbox, the Amaze is also slightly more powerful with 90 PS and 110 Nm of torque. We are yet to drive the CVT and will comment on the cars performance and efficiency once we get our hands on it real soon.

Is the Amaze a better buy now?

Definitely. The Amaze was the 'go-to' car if space and efficiency were key priorities. Now, Honda has added a lot more appeal to the car by sprucing up the exteriors and totally revamping the insides. Yes, performance-wise and feature-wise the Ford Figo Aspire still betters the Amaze, but then the Honda offers the extra benefit of peaceful ownership in terms of better after sales service and better resale. With prices starting at Rs. 5.29 lakh for the petrol and Rs. 6.41 lakh for the diesel, the new Amaze is not a lot more expensive than its less equipped predecessor. If its space, efficiency and reliability that you are looking at, the Amaze fits your bill a whole lot better now.