HOLY SHIFT
The new City is the first car in India that also comes in a CVT variant, but what is CVT? Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) has actually been around in some form or the other for the last many decades. Earlier, it was mostly used in light industrial applications but with recent advances in microprocessor technology, it’s started appearing in cars. The main benefit of a CVT is that it closely matches the transmission with the optimum rev-range of the engine at all times, and conserves fuel better than conventional automatic transmissions. Also, unlike conventional automatics, which can snatch and jerk at times (with indelicate throttle modulation), the CVT is ever-smooth.
So how’s the CVT different from the everyday automatic? Rather than using a combination of gears, friction plates, hydraulic fluid and a torque converter, CVTs rely on a simple belt-and-pulley design. The pulleys are cone-shaped and the belt that runs between them can slide between the narrow and wide end of each pulley. This allows for a ‘continuously variable’ gear ratio, because the effective diameter of the pulleys can vary over a wide range.
The CVT feels smooth because no actual shifts occur, and the real advantage comes from its ability to vary gear ratios instead of engine rpm for any given driving situation. If an engine’s peak horsepower and torque occur at X rpm, a CVT allows the engine to remain at this rpm even when climbing moderate hills or accelerating. While a traditional transmission must shift between multiple gears to try and keep an engine in its prime operating zone, a CVT just slides its belt between the narrow and wide ends of the pulleys to create a much more efficient drivetrain. Is this the future of small, fuel-efficient city runabouts? You bet.
SECOND OPINION
The new City is purely functional, in the sense of ferrying kids, owners and wives to their various destinations. And it’ll probably die of shame if anyone ever had a good time driving it. Undeniably useful but unrelentingly dull, sums up the new Honda City for me.
– Shubhabrata Marmar
The new City is a great car for its price. It’s good-looking, contemporary, fuel-efficient and capable. Everything about it is perfect, except the name. Honda should have called it something else, because to me, the ‘City’ stands for one particular, legendary car.
– Srinivas Krishnan
Very refined. Very comfortable. Very boring. The City is dead. Period.
– Pablo Chaterji
I took people who drive the now ‘old’ City regularly for a test drive in the new one – and they hated it. They thought their car looked better and drove better. I can’t but agree. Great new car if you are the sort who would replace the ageing Nakamichi with an all-new VFM Sony.
– Bijoy Kumar Y
How about finally loaning us that ‘old’ VTEC long-termer I had requested for about two years ago, Honda SIEL?
– Parameswaran
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