Prepare to be Amazed

By Ané Theron

Do you remember the Brio Amaze sedan? It was, essentially, a Brio with a boot. With the new Amaze, Honda’s upped the ante considerably, and now brings us their latest baby sedan (less than 4 metres in size), decked out with everything a young or old driver could need. One of our Twitter followers remarked: “South Africa, meet your new line of Ubers!”

Indeed, the new Amaze is very much aimed at the fleet market: If you’re going to be taxiing people around all day, reliability and build quality are two of the most important features a people mover should have, right? But what else does it have that will ‘wow’ prospective buyers?

Looks...

Apart from its blunt little nose, the headlights and front grille which Honda refers to as the ‘solid wing face’, are very much Honda Civic/CR-V, as are the boomerang-shaped lights in the rear.

Inside the cabin, Honda’s theme (as explained to us in the presentation) goes by the name of ‘Serenity Passion’. It may sound like the name of an exotic dancer at a wellness retreat, but the neat and organized, upmarket cabin in two-tone black and beige looks decidedly classy for an entry-level car, and is solidly bolted together.

The beige seat material could probably turn into your worst nightmare once your kid’s dropped their chocolate ice cream onto it, but Honda has the ultimate prevention tactic for this potential problem:  Free man-made leather seats in black with beige accents, should you so desire! In this segment, this is almost unheard of. Even in the Renault Sandero Stepway, you’ll fork out 10k for the full-leather Monty. And what’s more: the faux leather feels smooth and very soft to the touch and looks stylish too, in black with beige accents. The seats themselves are nicely supportive, even for those of us who have lumbar issues.

While the Amaze for the SA market doesn’t come equipped with a touchscreen, it gets a sound system with all your integrated mod cons such as Bluetooth and audio streaming, which makes more sense if you’re a young driver or perhaps a retired one: I don’t care what anyone says, but touch screens distract you from giving your full attention to the road ahead.

Driving the Amaze

An all-new extended platform and a lighter chassis with more high-tensile steel are responsible for many things: nimble handling, a more comfortable ride, improved fuel-consumption, and less noise inside the cabin... but that’s not to say that it’s particularly quiet. Honda’s CVT ‘box sounds like a strained hair dryer, especially if you have a tendency for sudden, hard acceleration. In the CVT-transmission model, you have the option of using the (standard) steering-mounted flappy paddles.

The slick-shifting 5-speed manual is much more fun to drive, giving you maximum driver involvement and the chance to squeeze every last kiloWatt out of the 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine, which is not equipped with a turbocharger. This little engine has the heart of a lion, however, and when I first drove the entry-level Amaze from the airport to the launch venue, I thought that its powertrain was perhaps a 1.5-litre. In short: It’s ultra swift for a 66kW engine, and the Amaze’s low kerb weight obviously helps its case rather nicely. On the safety front, the Honda Amaze gets two airbags, ABS with EBD and Isofix anchorage points. While there’s no side airbags or stability control, Honda’s safety cell has always been highly regarded. We saw excerpts of crash-test videos for frontal, side, and rear collisions. If the dummies could walk away from the car, they would have done so, uninjured.

Grade Walk

The Honda Amaze 1.2 Trend (R 179 900) is equipped with the following: 15-inch alloys, electric windows x 4, a multi-function steering wheel, manual air-con, a 4-speaker audio system with Bluetooth and a USB port as well as a 12V socket, and a rear armrest with cup holders.

The 1.2 Comfort Manual (R193 900) and CVT-models (R208 900) have the following features as well: Automatic air-con, front fog lights, electric mirrors, automatic door-locking, body-coloured door handles and side mirrors, and LED headlamps. As previously mentioned, the CVT gets paddle shifters.

Verdict?

If you’re a young driver who has Honda Civic aspirations, the Amaze is your first step towards realizing this dream. Watch out Toyota Etios sedan!

*All models come standard with a 5-year/200 000 km warranty, a 2-year/30 000 km service plan, and 3 years of AA roadside assistance. (Service intervals: Every 15 000 km.)