HONDA: THE POWER OF V

Reliability. A word many motorist have taken for granted. In fact in a recent unquotable survey the average motorist in Indonesia have said that what they seek in a car is, by rank, good mileage, stylish looks, and value-for-money features. This is a reason why most of the cars we see today are small Japanese hatchbacks such as the Mazda 2 or the Toyota Yaris. Yet despite all these claims and surveys the average road-going Indonesian car (mainly in the Jakarta-Bandung region) have been old Japanese cars which oddly comes from the same manufacturer. Yes, I am talking about the bi-word of reliability itself; Honda.

 

Honda had been manufacturing cars since the 60s and through the years their inventions have been flooding the streets of the world. In fact Honda is currently holding seventh place as the larges automotive manufacturer group in the world and the second largest in Japan. Their success is due to many factors; their excellent customer service base, their innovative market segmenting, their stylish product bodywork, but most of all their reliable-yet-powerful Honda VTECengines.

 

The VTEC engines have been Honda’s ultimate weapon since the mid-90s where they used direct-injection double-camshaft with usually four cylinders at their disposal. Through the years these engines power Honda vehicles for mile after mile taking every punishment as they go. The VTEC engines were not only durable, though, but also powerful. In the range of Japanese cars the VTEC engines were the most powerful in displacement per litre. For example, a 1.5 litre All New Honda Jazz engine would produce up to 120bhp whilst its competitors could only produce 109bhp (Toyota Yaris) or even only 100bhp (Suzuki Swift).

 

Firepower aside Honda engines have been known to be tough. Proof is, you still see a lot of the old VTEC-engined cars running in the streets. You can still pass by an old MkI Honda Jazz commuting the long stretching Cipularang highway or an old MkII CR-V blitzing through the streets of Jakarta at speed. Sure, other car brands have also been durable enough to last the test of time. The Toyota Corolla series, for example, have survived for quite a long time in the streets of Jakarta, where you can see the old Great Corollas pass by with a proud gesture and a ‘Twin Cam 16 Valve’ sticker on its side. But fact is they will not surmount to the volume that Honda VTEC cars have in the market.

Shortly putting it Honda has made one of the recent best engines in the world. By reference even a UK motoring survey has placed it as the most reliable brand in history. So if you are thinking of buying a car, second or even brand-spanking new, keep in mind of the H badge with the VTEC behind it. In short, if you want Japanese, buy a Honda.

3-ROWS IS A ROW TOO MUCH? [Honda CR-V MkII]

Hello there and welcome back to my makeshift auto-blog. I want to begin this post with a question: is three rows a practical and/or sensible thing to have in a compact SUV? I wanted to take this topic into consideration as I am about to take you all back down memory lane. My memory lane. Please do doze off if you feel like it.

My family has an old 2004 Honda CR-V 2.0 automatic which, if I may be honest, is in quite a good condition (despite my mistreatment of turning it into a rally/off-road car). This model, though, had an original seat layout of 3 rows providing seven seats for seven passengers. And the question that popped into my head was; What were they thinking?!

The first and second row fitted the passengers nicely with ample legroom to the point that my 6’3″ brother could stretch his legs comfortably in the seats, but the last row was just ghastly. A small steel bench wrapped in paddings and a leather coating was placed in the enormous luggage space the car had, filling up the space where I could have placed a month’s worth of vacation-wear and objects. To make it more ghastly the ‘seat’ had no ergonomic at all and was a plain rectangular pile of cushion which wasn’t that soft at all.

Thankfully Honda decided to trash the rear seats in their 2005 release version and it was a 5-seater compact SUV ever since. Thank god they were sensible, the Japanese. But this left me with a notion; what to do with MY rear Honda CR-V seats?

After the tragic incident I had with my Nissan X-Trail (broken radiator + overheated + long toll road + got lost. do the math will ya?) I swapped cars with my father and took the CR-V as my day car. When I brought it to the shops for tuning and modifying, I asked the nice man in the garage to kindly REMOVE THE REAR SEATS. Ever since it was removed the car handled incredibly well, in fact what I gained from it was:

1) Additional luggage space (ample space, almost two extra adults worth of it)

2) Lighter rear balance (car goes on a straight and curves faster now)

3) An extra couch in my dorm room!! (uselessly short though, as you’d expect a spare seat to be)

So here’s a tip for you car owners and manufacturers; never, I repeat, NEVER, place extra seats in the back of a 5-seater compact SUV. It will just ruin it completely.

*p.s.) if it’s an MPV then by all means, go ahead. Just do it properly.