2018 Honda Amaze review, road test

The first-gen Amaze was a pioneer for the Honda brand in many ways. It was the first Honda in India to get a diesel engine and it was also the carmaker’s first crack at the compact sedan segment. It went on to become a huge sales success and in the span of five years, it reached 2.5 lakh households to become the second bestseller in the segment (after the Dzire) and the second bestselling Honda too (after the City). So the Amaze is a very important car for Honda, and, for this all-new model, the Japanese company has taken lots of learning from the first-gen car to take the game up several notches.

Gone is the built-to-a-cost Brio platform – a fundamental weakness of the previous-gen model; this time round, the second-gen Amaze is built from a clean sheet of paper, or, specifically, an all-new platform. Honda claims to have engineered and incorporated several features in the new Amaze, based on user feedback. Strengths like space and practicality have been enhanced, the premium feel has been upped and even claimed fuel efficiency, from the familiar 1.2-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engines, has been improved. The option of a diesel-CVT is a trump card that distinguishes the Amaze from its rivals. More on that later.

Initial demand for the new Amaze has been very strong and it has contributed to over 50 percent of the sales for Honda in India. In fact, prices have already been bumped up a bit, ranging from Rs 5.80-8.10 lakh for the petrol, and Rs 6.90-9.10 lakh for the diesel.