Ashish Jha 
Everybody knows that the Elevate is a very important product for Honda in India. The company has, of course, tried out the compact crossover segment with the BR -V in the past, but that product did not do the brand any good.
And the Elevate is its first proper crack at this category, which is very populated with the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos; Maruti has entered the game with the Grand Vitara; there is Volkswagen with the Taigun, and Skoda with the Kushak, so the game is very intense. And the Elevate better be good to take on all these products and still make a mark for itself in the marketplace.
Is it any good? That’s what we are trying to find out in this drive report.
Design
Speak of the past — interesting designs with the original and follow-up acts of the CR-V, the controversial design of the second-gen City, the cute little Brio, and the awesome Civic in both its design forms. But with the Elevate, Honda seems to have gone a bit conservative and has adopted a more conformist approach.
Quite bold grille part gives this the identity on the road otherwise it’d get lost in the ocean of the similar design theme that we see going on in this space.
The side and the rear are rather generic and unless you’re a very keen observer, you’ll not be able to instantly identify the Elevate. That’s why the front looks the way it is — polarising as it may be — is important
Interior
Very simple and nicely thought out. It’s practical with good storage options in the cabin. The design itself is also nice with a nicely finished plastic trim with a fake wood look. The quality of the buttons and the AC vents, and all the bits on the steering wheel feel good and suggest fairly decent quality.
A personal view: I’d have liked the standing screen to be an integrated part of the dash — that might have looked nicer but the level of the dash panel itself is a bit low, so maybe that’s why — to be ergonomic and safe — Honda did this floating item. The rest of the cabin also feels okay.
The seats are good and the upholstery feels pretty nice. The back bench has may be a little too much recline angle for my liking but I’m sure almost 90% of the people buying will have no complaints. But a little more thigh support would’ve been good. Good room in the back too; ample knee room and you can slide your feet under the front seats with ease as well. The boot or luggage space is huge and will easily swallow all your weekend luggage and still have enough room for stuff.
What’s disappointing is that there’s no electric adjustment for the front seats. Again, I don’t mind this, but it’s a great flaunt item to have and in this segment, some of the cars are very heavy on the features list. But it’s got a sunroof if that can be taken as a saving grace! There’s also wireless charging for mobile phones and wireless access to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
ADAS Tech
The Elevate also gets Honda’s Sensing By technology. It gets driver assist features like collision mitigation — it’ll basically apply brakes if the car senses that a collision may occur and it works from speeds of 5 all the way up to 100kmph.
There is also Lane departure mitigation and Lane Keep Assist; so pretty straightforward — it’ll notify you through warnings and steering vibration and maintain you in between the lane markings by the application corrective steering torque. The road departure mitigation works from 65kph up till the max speed and the lane keep function is available from 72kph onwards.
One that I really like is the auto high beam function. It’ll automatically switch between low and high beams depending on the oncoming traffic behavior and it works at speeds upwards of 28kph. And of course, there’s adaptive cruise control as well
Driving
The first thing I noticed the moment we started the drive — and it hit me instantly because we were also driving on some winding hilly sections — was how noisy the engine is. We were hardly doing 30 to 40kph but it sounded as if we were pressed on to go to its max speed!
This is basically the issue of the CVT gearbox. It works okay, but the translation of the press of the throttle into the build of speed is not proportional. It still has that characteristic CVT feel. But that’s not to say it’s a bad gearbox. It’s actually quite okay and in the city, you’ll hardly find a fault. It’s when you stretch its legs does the car struggles on this aspect. Honda claims that with the step up-shifts and downshifts that are also primed for accelerating back, it’s better than before.
The engine is a simple naturally aspirated 1.5 litre vtec which makes 120 horsepower and 145Nm. It’s very clear that the torque build-up, while consistent, is still almost a tangent on the graph. There is about 125Nm available from around 1,800 rpm and it keeps building before it peaks out at 4,300 rpm before starting to fall and settling down at around 125Nm again at redline.
Power — similar story: consistent build up but you really feel that the gearbox Should’ve managed the deliveries with a bit more authority and urgency.
There’s a 6-speed manual gearbox on offer as well. Honda says that the manual has 7% better or smoother gearshift quality and it’s got closer ratios in 1st and 2nd and expands a bit more on flexibility as you go higher up the H-gate.
The suspension feels nice. There’s a large buffer clearance, the bump and rebound stroke has been increased and the damper angle is also optimized for the best absorption quality. It feels very stable, even playful — as playful as crossovers can get, that is — and I suspect the Elevate will give the new Seltos a good competition in the dynamics aspect.
It tends to stiffen up at the rear under sudden or rapid compression which might make you feel that the ride is a bit firm, but that’s only part of the story. It feels firm when you’re hustling the car around. But when you drive it within limits and at reasonable levels, it’s actually pretty good.
The steering feels a bit less connected to the car. The turn-to-directional change ratio isn’t the most proportional. It could’ve felt only a tad more responsive, but it’s really not a deal breaker, to be honest.
Conclusion
As I mentioned earlier, Elevate better be good if it intends to fight fiercely with the others in this immensely competitive segment. Thankfully, it does. But there are still a few bits missing that could hurt Honda to some extent.
Things like electrically adjustable and ventilated seats — a big item missing. Also, no type-C ports, and a few other things. However, it’s a good, solid effort by Honda. Had it been introduced a couple of years earlier; it’d have fine very well.
Right now, with the game having moved so far ahead with the refreshed versions by rival OEMs, it’s got its work cut out. It’ll appeal to Honda loyalists, but the major chunk of the market is outside of that.
So, only time will tell!
