Honda City 1.5E Test Drive

I tested the car this morning. I'm not going to bore you about the looks of the car, as looks are always subjective and anyone can determine it just by looking. I'm going into how the car feels for the average city run darting in & out of traffic.
These are the things I noticed:

1. The 1.5 engine is responsive! So much so I find myself pressing down hard on the pedal just for more. The engine makes a nice noise above 3.5K RPM. Some people might call it thrashy or unrefined, but I like it. The 5 speed cancels out this noise at higher speeds ie highway, so it's one quite ride - a very good combination. As a person used to 1.8 engines and above, moving from an old 1.8 to 1.5 really does make some difference in power expectations, but I'm happy to say that I'd gladly replace my 1.8 I'm driving with this 1.5, it's really that good!

2. Gearbox: Putting it into "S" mode will make it behave like manual on upshifts using the flappy paddle, but it will downshift by itself like an automatic. Shifting it into 5th at 60kph puts the RPM at just 1100rpm and puts the fuel economy meter into nearly 40km/l! Nice fun. However, coming to a stop in S mode in 5th will automatically make the gearbox shift back into 2nd or 1st. I tried several times, but it's virtually foolproof - I can't get the car to stop and start in other gears. On the downside, I keep having to look out for the flappy paddles, because it seems too small for my hands (and I'm not really that big of a person).

3. Ride & handling : No noticeable body roll at the roundabouts at high speeds. Good for when battling lanes with that other car for turning off the roundabouts. No major shudders over bad roads either. Just nice for city driving. It feels surefooted and meant to do exactly what it was designed for: stop-start city lane traffic battles. You can merge into heavy city traffic confidently without having to hesitate whether the automatic box will be too painfully slow to respond or worry about huge blinds spots, like on some other cars. Everything functions well together.

4. The steering is good overall, I understand it's speed-sensitive and electronic instead of hydraulic, but it has some (extremely minor) tracking issues, it tends to drift to either left or right slightly. It's not really noticeable and certainly ten times better than the Proton I tested the other day. The test drive unit is highly used so perhaps all they needed to do is just get an alignment done. Steering wheel is a bit on the small side for me but otherwise it's fine; I'm nitpicking.

5. Colors : I like darker shades, the Transformers-like grill works better with it. I also think it'd look great with red, but they tell me red isn't an option, which is a shame. Lighter colors makes the grill stand out too much and look like a mustache in my opinion.

6. Interior ammenities aren't that many, but an iPod / MP3 player connectivity is a nice touch, and the steering wheel controls are very good. However, the dashboard design is a bit weak and tacky. There's the radio/volume control on the steering wheel and the paddle shifts. The rear seats can be folded and anyone who has had this feature in their cars before will know that this can be a really useful feature. It's just too bad the seat cannot be folded upright.

7. The automatic did not have the sudden-shoot-forwardness of some other cars, and on slight inclines works exactly as I expect it to, I don't get worried that I would overshoot and hit something for minor inching movements on an incline. Kind of hard to explain this trait, but on some cars it is highly annoying that it does this. Good then that the City did not have it.