Honda City Bloggers Drive 2015

Put your hands up, how many of you are Honda supporter? I believe there are quite number of you and Honda is a household brand that it had been thought to many of us since when we were young. It is a brand that many elder generation would prefer as Honda brand tend to have a strong second hand value after xxx years on road. This B-Segment car is also pretty well known to many young executive and young family.

Last weekend, we were given a special treat from Honda Malaysia by not only we were given Honda City to test drive for the day but the team had design a special long day program to keep us busy.

The First Honda City was introduce in year 1996 and till date 2015, they have came out with 4th Generation.

On the latest introduction from Honda is about their 4th Generation Honda City which we were gathered on the past weekend at gathering point, Rail Canteen, Kota Damansara.

We were all then brief on all the features of this new Honda City and a short presentation from the representative. Only then got to know that Honda City is Malaysia’s Best selling sedan car with estimated 145,000 units on road.

Right after that Honda Professionals tour us on all the necessary aspect and their improvement that Honda have added in that makes them won The Best Safety Car Award 2014 which got me very curious.

New and improvise features such as keyless entry that you need not even take the keys out from your pocket or handbag as when you approach near to the door, all you need to do is just to pull the handle. The same if you are going to lock your car, all you need to do is just press the black dot and it will lock.   

To those of you who love to pimp your car, definitely their usual high end sport kit – Modulo will be park under the package if you are keen for the upgrade.

Back to to my curiosity on its safety features, it comes with 6 airbags, Vehicle Stability Assist (which will be mention further on the post), Hill Start Assist, Emergency Stop Signal and ISOFIX for child safety seat and many more. 

The Girls are also all ears to the instructor.

Love the look and feel on its back with Modulo kit in it. Definitely do make the difference as its bold and stylish.. 

Car boot certainly do impress me as its really spacious and according to them, can easily fit 3 large luggage in its class with estimated 536 L. 

The 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.

Design of interior is in their books of improvement with their moto “Man Maximum, Machine Minimum” as with this, their overwhelming cabin space is definitely the winner in this segment. Not only that, as with our busy schedule it comes with comfortable 8 Cup Holders and smart storage compartments, advance steering Wheels Hans Free Telephone Control (S+, E and V variant) and steering Wheel Voice Recognition (V variant) for infotainment to driver’s fingertip.

Those who love music, the car comes with 8 speakers audio system, & 7″Display Audio with Mirrorlink function. 

People like me whom really scared of hot, back air con do give a slight advantage to passenger behind as not only that. With modern society and constantly mobile phone need to be charge on long journey, the car comes with 2 USB Jacks, 3 Power Sockets, enough to power up 5 passenger with extension USB.

Its very nice of them (Honda Team) to prepare us some snacks during the journey.

We convoyed to the first destination with estimated distance of 50km to allow the first driver to test drive on the unit to Putrajaya Marina Complex for our first activity  that remain mysterious with only hint is we will get wet. I constantly thought we gonna do wake boarding till we reach our destination.

First activity is Fly Boarding, I still do not know what is that till they further explain to all of us and do sound very interesting.

What is Fly Boarding? The Flyboard is the newest extreme sport! It is an accessory that attaches to a PWC (Personal Watercraft) which gives the Flyboard propulsion through air and water. The propulsion is routed through the primary nozzle that attaches to the feet of the Flyboard user to make the user to jet upwards. We were then brief on the safety method and also how to let ourself to jet upwards from the water.

First in the water, we have to position yourself in superman position. Follow that when the instructor yell ready, we have to force our feet to push the system downwards as if we are standing in the water (the most challenging area). The get the feel and stiffen your leg and knee then it will jet up slowly. 

Volunteer myself to be the first player, I am strap up and ready to go.

In superman position and ready to jet up. Its really challenging to stand in the water and after a couple of attempt, I finally get hold of it. Up and UP I goo. Wheeeee. . .

Its fun when you are off the water and feels like Iron Man in singlet version. 😀

Looking at the flyboard professionals playing it sure do looks fun as he is performing a few stunts.  If those of you are keen to try it, you can check them out at: Flyboard Malaysia

After that, we went to Dengkil Seafood Restaurant for lunch.

After lunch meal, we drove to Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) for Driving Exercises.

All of us got excited when comes to this session as we were told that, the professional driver will not only demo for us in the car as we will be the driver to do the test drive too such as emergency break and VSA Mode. Not only that, with high confidence that they have, the professionals do challenge us, if we are able to step till the break paddle break, they will give us the car for free! We are up for the challenge!

First round of testing we are going for their emergency break. We were ask to step full throttle to maximize on the acceleration then step hard on the break to allow its system to kicks in.

Second stage we are all in to test their VSA features as the con direction had change to a sharp left dogging turn (as if you are going to hit the front car with immediate left direction). We tried twice as once by default the VSA is ON when we drive resulted the vehicle had amazing traction control, even during dramatic swerves and skids that still make the car in straight direction upon stopping. When we off the system, test result do show the car do skid slightly more or swerves as the build in system is off and its fully on drivers alert on controlling it. When stop, the car is slightly to the right.

Why we need VSA? When driving in unexpected situations such as skidding or if you lose control of your car under unforeseen circumstances or during tight cornering, the VSA system stabilizes your by reducing under / over steering.

While waiting for the rest to do their safety test, we went to check out the cars space. I am sold to their car space, as front driving seat is set to my usual driving position and usually behind left very minimal space for a passenger to seat and here am I sitting behind and still got ample of leg room left with my height 185 cm.

Car boot do live with its expectation as what mention by the professionals as I put myself into test and can easily kidnap 2 of me and left some room to stuff other items.

Even 3 girls in the boot still do have some space left.

What is the difference between bottom picture left and right is actually on the spec. Exterior do not have any changes as left is the basic spec (City S & City E).

For City V Spec comes with all digital set in the car. It can also measure on your driving behavior by letting you know on average fuel economy or history of it.. Was told that RM 70 fuel tank (with RM 2.20 per/l) will get you about 450km average.

this is my first time doing such test drive and its definitely fun day out. 

We won second place for the instagram photo challenge . .

Special thanks to Honda Malaysia for arranging this fun activity and also special custom made luggage tag.

Overall, this car had won me over with their, the safety features from handling to breaking system and spacious from boot to leg room is a huge advantage as compare to many others. 

For more information on the All-New City or to book a test drive, 
     –     Visit any of the 82 Dealers Nationwide
     –     Call Honda’s Toll Free number at 1-800-88-2020
     –     Log on to www.Honda.com.my or www.facebook.com/hondamalaysia