2025 Honda Amaze Review: New Amaze In All Its Glory

Despite SUV ruling the roost of late, a small minority of buyers still prefer the charms of a three box compact sedan. Case in point is the Maruti Suzuki, which has been selling around 1,60,000 to 1,80,000 units of the Dzire for the past 3-4 years. Impressive and stable numbers. While the Amaze may not be such a stellar sales hit, the car does bring it a large part of the volume for Honda in India, infact around 50 percent Honda car sales are Amaze sales. So when Maruti launched a new Dzire how could Honda be left behind? Here is the new Amaze in all its glory.

LOOKS AND DESIGNHonda designers have tried to go for the family look with the new Amaze and have unimaginatively copied the front of the Elevate SUV with the same styling for the main lamps as well as the big chunky grille.The back end mimics the styling of the City sedan to the ‘T’. Infact from a distance, it is hard to tell the City and the Amaze apart, the styling is so similar. That said, the overall silhouette looks proportionate and much better balanced than any other compact sedan, including the Dzire.The alloy wheel design is also nice and the 185mm-section tyres give the car a balanced and purposeful stance as well.

INTERIORSMoving to the inside of the cabin, you can see styling inspirations heavily borrowed from the City and Elevate again. The cabin now gets a chunkier steering wheel, borrowed from the City. The ZX trim we tested came with ADAS control buttons on the right side of the wheel. The gauges are again from the City and the half analogue, half digital gauges do look sharp. However, the touchscreen is very average to use and looks and feels small as well. The fonts, menus, submenus all look too boring and the stereo’s sound quality is average at best. It feels decent but should have offered better bass.What is hard to fault is overall seat comfort. The seats are supportive and have the right amount of cushioning as well, surprisingly a front arm rest is missing on the driver’s side.

Plastic quality at par with rivals. The base versions of the car come with 6-airbags and a touchscreen as standard among other things. Moving onto the back seats, the Amaze has always been a spacious car offering more legroom than the exterior dimensions suggest and the new one does not disappoint either.The backrest angle is spot on and the seat cushioning is generous as well. However, there are no USB charging points inside the car at the rear. Only a 12v charging socket. In fact its surprising to see that Honda isn’t offering any USB-C type charging ports anywhere inside the car, shocking in this day and age. The 416-litre boot is generous to accommodate atleast three large suitcases.

DRIVE AND PERFORMANCEHonda’s 1.2-litre i-VTEC motor is a tried and tested unit for sheer reliability as well as refinement. Most buyers who have driven this unit in the Jazz, WR-V or Amaze simply enjoy its rev happy nature and quietness levels.Honda says that they have reworked the engine to deliver better low-end performance and responsiveness. The engine makes a modest 88bhp of power and 110nm of torque, which are at par with segment rivals. Power delivery at the lower end of the band is decent but you need to rev up this engine to get the best out from it. Being a four-cylinder unit, the Amaze is a lot quieter and refined compared to the Dzire, which has a three cylinder unit and doesn’t come close in terms of quietness levels. The Dzire feels harsh in comparison especially when revved.The manual gearbox is a typical Japanese unit with slick shifts and short throws making gear-shifting a joyous affair in town traffic. The light clutch action also makes it an easy-going car to drive in choc-a-block city traffic.However, if it is ultimate hassle-free driving that you are after then the CVT-automatic is the one to go for. This is the most affordable CVT in India and the only one in the segment. Honda also offers you paddle shifters behind the steering wheel.

RIDE AND HANDLINGThe Amaze has a very mature and comfortable ride that belies its compact sedan dimensions. It offers a very pliant ride and you will also feel confident at faster highway speeds. The ride is supple and the Amaze displays the ride comfort almost similar to the bigger and more expensive Honda City.The Amaze errs on the side of comfort. The steering is sharp enough for daily use but like the other cars in the segment you can’t call it a sporty handler. For most users though the there will be no reason to complain as average buyers only drive from office to home and vice-versa.

SHOULD YOU BUY ONE?The latest generation of the Amaze will sell along with the two base versions of the older model. The current car retails from Rs 7.99 lakh and goes upto Rs 10.90 lakh(both, ex-showroom) for the top end CVT.A sunroof and a front armrest are the only two notable omissions we can think of. But you get more useful features like ADAS safety tech which aids safety. Overall, if you want the best chauffer driven car at this price point then this Amaze is a good choice. (Review By Ashish Masih)