What happens when a compact SUV owner in India goes car shopping in Dubai? Obviously, he explores beyond small cars with high ground clearance. He picks up a sedan with no fear of bad roads!!
For those who don’t know, I happen to own some cars in India as well as in UAE. To be precise, my most powerful car in India is a Skoda Kushaq 1.5 TSI with the DSG that puts out 150 BHP and 250 Nm of torque. For the longest time, it has been the benchmark for me whenever I drive a car with a 1.5 litre turbocharged petrol engine in the UAE.
So, my family now got a requirement for a third car in UAE. While the plan was initially to check out the GMC Terrain, the bare-bones interior meant that it had to be kept as a second option. The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid too was another option but the fact that there was no test drive car meant that it had to be kept on the back burner, too.
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Honda Civic Chosen Over ZR-V
My family’s attention then shifted to the Honda ZR-V while I was in favour of the Honda Civic. Both vehicles have the same 1.5 litre turbocharged petrol engine making 180 BHP and 240 Nm of torque. Both cars were well loaded in terms of features and were priced decently, too, with the top-spec Civic at AED 126,500 (approximately ₹28.5 Lakhs). Meanwhile, the top-spec ZR-V was priced at AED 130,000 (approximately ₹29.30 lakhs)
Well, the Honda ZR-V didn’t really blow us away in terms of performance, I honestly found the engine to be too muted and the performance to be too linear. The mid-range felt okay and there wasn’t much to write home about except for the fact that it had a lovely interior. Usually, when you find one car with an engine shared with the other, there is a tendency to write off the other car and not try it. There was a bit of a similar situation here too. But I insisted on test-driving the Civic 1.5T. And boy it brought a smile to my face! And not only the engine but the handling and brakes of the Civic were by far the best that I had experienced in recent times especially given the price segment that car is in.
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Perfect Successor of Honda City VTEC?
That 1.5 TSI of the Skoda Kushaq had always been the benchmark for me, but now it’s the 1.5 Turbo from the Honda! Will I get one if Honda ever decides to bring it to India? Yes! This is actually the Civic that Honda should think about launching in the Indian market. True, the sedan market doesn’t enjoy the former glory but there’s definitely some hope. We recently had a slew of new launches in the form of the new Hyundai Verna, Skoda Slavia and VW Virtus. However, sedans are conspicuous by their absence in the D-segment, especially after the discontinuation of the highly capable Skoda Octavia.
This Civic, though, can spearhead the revival of this segment. Even though road conditions continue to leave a lot to be desired, there’s actually no denying the charm such performance-biased upmarket sedans offer. And the latest Honda Civic Turbo looks like the obvious logical successor to the original City VTEC we are all so fond of.
– Tanmoy
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