Honda City VMT iDTEC (2014) Ownership Review: Brown Phantom


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Hello people,

Just bought a used Honda City iDTEC VMT 2014 version in Golden brown colour.

Background:

As you all know that we used to have a 2012 VW Vento TDI HL and use a 2011 Toyota Innova VX.So,we were thinking to replace our Vento TDI since last year as we felt maintenance is getting higher and higher and resale is hitting very badly and did 1,00,000 Kms in almost 4 years.Finally,we had to sell Vento in Jan 2017 and the odo before selling was more than 1,12,000 Kms.So hunt for replacement of Vento has been started.

Hyundai Creta:

This is the car I have huge crush since it's launch.Had considered 1.6 SX,1.4S+ and 1.6 SX+ AT in Creta.Had decided to book this but had to drop since it was pricey and 6 people in my dad's circle owns this car.

Nexa Ciaz:

This car was strongly considered by my dad due to its higher FE and cheaper price tag.Had almost decided to book this one in June end before GST but after seeing the price tag of Alpha Smart Hybrid,which was ₹12.7L before GST now became ₹14L after GST.I felt ₹14L is not a worth for this car anymore after GST.All this later on.

VW Vento:

After getting used to Vento for almost 4 years,this was one of the strongest contender.Had considered Highline DSG and MT but I felt Vento is not a worth anymore and was not interested in buying another VW due to heavy maintenance costs and bad resale value.BTW,had TD of Vento TDI DSG in May 2017 and almost decided to buy one but dropped it due to the reasons mentioned above.

Skoda Rapid:

Another strongest contender.In Jan 2017,we almost decided to book Rapid after selling Vento and went to Skoda showroom to book the Rapid but had taken some time for deciding whether to go for Rapid or not.But in the end,Rapid is out of list due to bad resale,Skoda A$$ and heavy maintenance costs.

And finally,

Honda City :

My dream car since my childhood.I always wanted to have this car in my garage but bought Vento at that time due to lack of Diesel option in City.Had considered VMT new one which costs ₹14L on road Hyd.

After seeing all new cars,Had considered some used cars like Laura,Superb,Jetta and others but removed from the list due to its future.And one fine day,I was searching for used City Diesels but all were high run and abused one.I had seen few City Diesels sold by Honda dealers until I saw my Brown Phantom.


Part II:

On Jul 3rd,when I was searching for used Honda City Diesels,I had found 2 used City Diesels(one was 2015 UT colour City VX Diesel sold by dealer and it has run 14000 Kms and asking price was Rs.11.75L and City VMT Diesel 2014(Brown Phantom) for Rs.8.5L.The 2015 City's last asking price was Rs.11.5L by Honda dealer and decided to check her.Then I came across Brown Phantom afterwards and took the number of the seller and had a phone call of about 5-10 minutes with seller.He said,the reason for selling this car is he bought Polo GT TSI and since then,he stopped driving City so he was willing to sell off the car.And,on Jul 5th evening,went to his hospital along with my dad,to check the car(he works as a Doctor in that hospital).Saw the car and had a chat with that seller and my dad had negotiated it to Rs.7.9L and decided that she will be coming into my garage.So,on Jul 7th,paid a token amount of Rs.1.5L to the seller as we had decided to take loan on City.So,after a week,sent documents for loan and agonizing wait had started.I used to pester my dad,"when will the City comes to us?"On 20th Jul,the loan got approved and next day,mom had signed the agreement of loan and the car was supposed to come on Monday(Jul 24th) but due to payment issues(later we paid through RTGS to the seller).On 25th Jul,after my college got finished,went to dad's place and I got a mail from the loan guy regarding transfer papers and immediately took the printouts of those papers and went to the seller's place with dad in the seller's Polo GT TSI and the seller had given us the necessary documents of car and second key.The seller had signed the papers and gave the keys to us and said bye to him and dad drove less than Km and handed the car to driver to get the wash done and Pooja done and dad went in Innova along with him and myself went in City with driver and after few Kms,got her a well deserved wash and went to get the Pooja done and went home and parked the car.My mom doesn't even know that dad is getting this car until she saw her getting parked inside the house and dad said,I have surprised you by buying this car and she got shocked.Another gesture is the previous owner had given the car along with body cover and magnetic shades.Good gesture na[clap].

Why 2nd car?

The need for second car is more important because the second car will be used by mom and myself and Innova became too big for our needs and hence,decided to keep Innova for highways and City for city runs.

+ves of City:

+Afterall its a Honda and king of C2 sedan segment
+Honda reliability
+Rear seat is too excellent and its a poor man's Superb in terms of comfort
+Looks-Especially the rear one.It looks like BMW from rear and she looks hot in Golden Brown colour(my favourite colour in City)
+Resale Value
+Decent FE in city-I got 15.6 Kmpl in city traffic and gives way better than our Innova and previous Vento
+Features like reverse camera,cruise control even in V version
+Pickup is good and runs like a horse
+Bluetooth pairs flawlessly through my iPhone 6,dad's One Plus 3

-ves of City:

-Build Quality-Not good as Vento but better than Maruti and others
-Features like flip key,remote boot button,leather seats and Push button missing in V variant(now solved in 2017 version except leather seats)
-Low GC-already my dad complained about this issue and I hope tyre upsize will solve the issue
-Horn sounds like meek meek-It deserves much needed change
-Skinny tyres-will be upgrading to 195/60R15 soon after 40K Kms


Accessories/Mods planned:

1.Upgrade tyres to 195/60R15 Michelin P3ST or Yokohama Earth 1 after 40,000 Kms
2.Horn upgrade to Skoda ones
3.Alloys-Only if my dad allows me to change it
4.Spoiler-Love its looks on spoiler
5.3M paint sealant-Will be getting done as there are scratches and it costs me Rs.6200

Few points to be noted:

1.The City is our first Honda,second Diesel sedan,third sedan(first was Ford Ikon Petrol and second was VW Vento TDI)
2.This is our first TS registered car.Our previous cars were registered to AP before bifurcation.
3.When my dad felt that AC cooling was less,he by mistakenly switched off the AC(middle button) and I had to switch on that middle button.
4.My friend(City VX Diesel 2014 owner),had warned me to take care of City's GC as its bumper is bit lower.

Till now,we did 500 Kms+ in city traffic and the odo reading is 36000 Kms as of today and I got an FE of 15.6 Kmpl in city traffic,pretty decent na and way better than our Innova and previous Vento,considering the heavy traffic in Hyderabad.

And,another surprising moment is I had driven her for the first time on Sunday,but I got bit scared as I had given jerks while driving.

And,she got last serviced in November 2016 as per service history shown by Honda Connect,which I downloaded it in my iPhone,by the previous owner before getting his GT TSI and the odo was 31398 Kms when she went for 30,000 Kms service.Till date,she has run just close to 5000 Kms in 8 months.And,the previous owner had replaced the front bumper before,thanks to its low GC.
 

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kkn13

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Re: Brown Phantom-2014 Honda City VMT iDTEC Ownership Review

So currently we both have the same cars different models :D

2016 Innova 2.5 GX
2010 City IVTEC VMT

Congrats on your purchase
I havent driven the diesel City, is clutch and gearshifts very different from IVTEC?
 
Thread Starter #3
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Re: Brown Phantom-2014 Honda City VMT iDTEC Ownership Review

So currently we both have the same cars different models :D

2016 Innova 2.5 GX
2010 City IVTEC VMT

Congrats on your purchase
I havent driven the diesel City, is clutch and gearshifts very different from IVTEC?
Thanks kkn13 bro.I don't know about iVTEC but this clutch is way better than VW Vento TDI,which we used to have before.

BTW,can you please post the ownership reviews of your City,Innova?
 
Thread Starter #4
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First highway ride!

Today my dad took her for first highway drive and got this.

Today,filled Diesel ₹1500 and range had shown 500 Kms+ as per my driver.After 200 Kms of highway drive,it shows 345 Kms now.
 

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17 days and 1200 Kms done

17 days done and did 1200 Kms till now.She never failed to impress me and she became our daily ride now as we use Innova for highway and family purposes.

I got nearly 19 Kmpl when we filled it last week for highway run of 200 Kms.After that she did another 250 Kms+ in city traffic only and more economical to run than Innova.So,we did 90% in city traffic and 10% on highways on previous tankful.


But the heavy city traffic is ruining the FE so much[frustration]I think my mom's driving is ruining the FE and till now she is driven only by our driver.
 

kkn13

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Re: Brown Phantom-2014 Honda City VMT iDTEC Ownership Review

Thanks kkn13 bro.I don't know about iVTEC but this clutch is way better than VW Vento TDI,which we used to have before.

BTW,can you please post the ownership reviews of your City,Innova?
Yeah VW diesel clutch was heavy for my taste too

Im awaiting my next car in a couple of weeks, hopefully Ill post a detailed ownership review of it with my car history
 
Thread Starter #7
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37000 Kms done!

Yeah VW diesel clutch was heavy for my taste too

Im awaiting my next car in a couple of weeks, hopefully Ill post a detailed ownership review of it with my car history
Oh!Which car are you getting now?And,BTW,congrats for getting new car.

And,another news,Brown Phantom has completed 37000 Kms today and did more than 1500 Kms in exact 20 days and MID is showing 17.3 Kmpl after more than 1000 Kms on Trip-B.

Still 3000 Kms to go for her 40,000 Kms service.
 

kkn13

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Re: 37000 Kms done!

Oh!Which car are you getting now?And,BTW,congrats for getting new car.

And,another news,Brown Phantom has completed 37000 Kms today and did more than 1500 Kms in exact 20 days and MID is showing 17.3 Kmpl after more than 1000 Kms on Trip-B.

Still 3000 Kms to go for her 40,000 Kms service.
Have booked the Tucson GLS AT, eagerly awaiting its arrival[:D]
 
Thread Starter #9
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Re: 37000 Kms done!

Have booked the Tucson GLS AT, eagerly awaiting its arrival[:D]
Oh congrats for booking Tucson.Is it Diesel or Petrol?

Finally,Brown Phantom has got a chance to get a pic shot together along with our Innova after 3 weeks of buying her.
 

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Thread Starter #11
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First highway trip with her

Did a highway trip of 220 Kms up and down today and got this FE on MID today.Actually I got 27.1 Kmpl on MID but later got dropped to 26.8 Kmpl.

Overall MID showed 21.5 Kmpl after 220 Kms highway run and still 200 Kms remaining for next fuel as the MID showed 418 Kms after filling ₹1000 of fuel and we switched on the cruise control most of the time.I was thinking that my driver doesn't know how to use CC but to my surprise,he knew about this feature as he had driven a Benz before near my previous locality and the MID showed 25.1 to 25.9 Kmpl too.

I'm assuming that she would give me around 21-23 Kmpl of FE.

And,Btw,we have run 2000 Kms in almost 1 month(our usual monthly running).Hope I'll be completing 2500 Kms before completing 1 month with her as she became our daily ride and she has taken a share of running from Innova.

Odo reading is 37509 Kms after this trip.
 

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Thread Starter #13
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Congrats on the City [clap]

Honda diesel mills do fetch some incredible mileage figures. Wish you happy miles ahead [:)]
Thanks bro Vishnu.Hope I'll be having good relationship with my City.

And,till now,I didn't get any mods done on my Phantom.Hope I'll get something like paint sealant for her as there are scratches over the car and change her tyres to 195/60R15 after 40,000 Kms and get rogerab coil overs installed for ground clearance.

And,planned to get her alloys painted to Matte or gloss black through my cousin,who does DIY's on his Dzire.He did some DIY's like painting his Avenger by using plasti dip and he had installed black roof and painted his Dzire wheel caps by himself and planning to get the front grille wrapped to Matte black or gloss black and get rear spoiler installed.
 
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Thread Starter #15
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1 month completed

Last refill got me the FE of 21.96 Kmpl i.e 22 Kmpl.This includes 40% of highway drive and 60% of City driving.Not bad eh considering we have driven the car mostly in City traffic.

Now,she has completed 1 month with us successfully.We did more than 2200 Kms in a month.

Now the odo is 37600+ Kms.
 

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