The practical sedan for city driving in an SUV world

I’VE had a soft spot for Honda for a while. A few years ago, my parents were involved in a horrific accident on the N3 just outside Harrismith in a Honda Jazz.

- WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE

When the assessor came by, he commented that had they been in any other similar-sized car, they would have ended up in the morgue rather than the hospital.

The Jazz has been replaced by the Fit, which isn’t the subject of this review, so we'll stick to the subject at hand, which is the Honda Amaze 1.2 Comfort auto. It’s their entry-level sedan, which is a bit of an anomaly in a world populated with crossovers and SUVs. Built in India, the third-generation Amaze is a relatively popular sight on our roads, having recently received an update to align it closer to the company’s global range in terms of styling and technology.

Honda refers to it as Man Maximum/Machine Minimum, focusing on maximising space and comfort for passengers, while minimising the space taken up by the vehicle’s mechanical components. There are three variants, starting with the Trend, the Comfort and the Comfort CVT, which is the one we had on test.

Exterior

The overall design is rather stylish with a hexagonal honeycomb grille, chrome trim and LED headlamps just below the bonnet.