Honda Elevate Facelift Driven: Refined, Comfortable And Feature-Rich

Why should anyone buy the new Elevate in this day and age?

Because of 1. How smooth and effortless it feels, especially the well matched CVT with 7 stepped shifts. 2. How balanced the ride and handling package is. You will be comfortable on bad roads, and also have fun on sharp corners. It’s a rare combination, but something people who love driving will really appreciate. 3. The high-seating position and excellent all-round visibility. The sorted ergonomics. Everything falls into hand easily, and there are no rough edges. 4. The 1.5 liter iVTEC engine that remains the absolute benchmark in the naturally aspirated petrol world. 5. Because of the improved interiors and feature-set.

The dashboard now feels plusher. The addition of 8 way power adjustability for the driver is a very nice touch, and it does elevate the overall drive experience significantly.

The 360 camera with blind view monitor is a good addition. It’s not Korean-level sharp but acceptable, and much better than the unit on the City Facelift. I would have liked the monitor to also display while turning right. Right now, it displays only while turning left.

Ventilation for the rear seat works, but only to make sure it doesn’t heat up rather than cooling your behind significantly.

The presence USB type Cs is good at the front and rear, but Honda should’ve added a fast charger to at least one of the ports.

Braking is now much sharper thanks to the addition of the new disc brakes. Electric parking brake: Seamless. I still pump the brake pedal a couple of times out of habit even after deploying EPB.

Styling: Very nice update. The car does look good, and turns heads, especially in the new Nordic Forest Pearl shade.

Overall, this is a good step up for the Honda faithful: people who want a sorted, smooth and reliable SUV with massive ground clearance of 220 mm.

But the NVH weakness remains. It is NOT the engine note/noise. The engine is superbly refined and insulated, and a delight to rev up.

Rather, NVH on the Elevate Facelift is the noise from the road that filters in – be it the wind, the traffic or even the tyres. Honda’s product planner did tell me that they’ve actually chosen the quietest tyre they could but it still isn’t enough in terms of NVH.

While Honda has added more insulation under the dashboard and even in the wheel wells, NVH can be improved further. This is the exact feedback I’ve given after the drive, and many of my colleagues who drove the car had similar things to say.

Is this a deal-breaker? Well, it depends. Let me explain.

So, we called up a current Honda Elevate owner who lives in Pune, and asked him about NVH. He said, ‘What NVH’? He drives mainly in the city and does not have any problem with NVH levels. He also said that people wanting a quieter experience can get some damping added to the doors.

So, NVH depends on a lot on where you drive, and how sensitive you are wrt cabin quietness. We had a super sensitive singer (Narendra Sharma of GearFliq) in the car with us. He acutely felt the higher levels of noise at 100 Kph.

And the AC performance on my car was so-so. While Jaipur was quite hot, I expected the AC to be stronger, especially on the rear seat. Usually, I don’t spend much time in the rear seat of cars during a first drive as I’m driving it most of the time. UV cut glass and sun blinds could have made a huge difference to the rear seat. Both absent on the Elevate.

In the Elevate’s case though, we were sharing cars, and I spent a good 100 Kms on the back seat. The rear seat is very comfortable for two in terms of space but three people can be squeeze thanks to the raised middle part of the seat, and also the transmission tunnel.

To sum things up, Honda has done well to make the Elevate Facelift better-looking and better-equipped than before. The car continues to retain its traditional strengths of a superbly balanced ride and handling package, superbly refined engine and gearbox, solid build quality and sorted ergonomics. However, it’s still a work-in-progress in terms of NVH levels.

Honda faithful will still love this car, but will it actually pull sales from the leading Koreans. I don’t think so!