Honda Mobilio is the third car to be designed and engineered on Brio platform, and marks the company’s entry into MPV segment in India. After the introduction at Indonesian Auto Show, the automaker invited a couple of journalists to Tokyo for examining the vehicle up close. The Indian car market has hit a bit of rough patch and most segments have been beleaguered with low customer response and dropping sales. The Japanese automaker had quite a distinct benefit when it planned to try its luck in the MPV category. The Honda Brio has been designed and engineered on such a platform that it can be ported to be used on MPV or saloon. The all-new Honda Mobilio was designed keeping Indonesia in mind, simply as it is a market, which adores multipurpose vehicles and the vehicles already thrive in the country.
Honda Mobilio was originally manufactured and launched by Japanese automaker for its domestic market, which took the company’s i-DSI engine and Global Small Platform. Amongst its features were sliding doors, which could open for easy entry and exit in confined spaces. It was designed keeping recreational activities in mind and was introduced in the year 2002. According to Honda, the Mobilio attained highest fuel rating in seven-passenger vehicle segment and could be configured in five modes; these include long mode, utility mode, refresh mode, adjustment mode and twin mode. Its body was designed for providing protection to passengers in 64 km/h front offset collision, 55 km/h full-frontal collision, 50 km/h rear collision and 55 km/h side collision.
Design
Exterior
Honda is renowned for its amazing style and exemplary looks. Recently, the Amaze further enhanced its quality. While the company’s focus either designing an economical or a luxurious vehicle, it has been able to offer a perfect combination amongst these two in Mobilio. Like the Honda Amaze and Honda Brio, the all-new Honda Mobilio is based on the same platform. So basically, there’s nothing to hide as the other two vehicles are already known to everyone. Just like Amaze, its front is pretty much appealing with chrome bar placed between honeycomb grille and chrome furnished logo. In addition to this, there are rounded headlamps with turn signal indicators and foglamps with matte black finish.
Honda Mobilio’s rear end is quite simple and pretty much identical to that of Toyota Innova. The taillamps with small grille and turn indicators act like supplement to rear beauty. The overall length of this multipurpose vehicle is 4390mm with 2650mm wheelbase, 185mm ground clearance and 1610mm height.
Interior
The Japanese automaker’s intentions are quite clear; they are planning to introduce Honda Mobilio at an affordable price unlike other multipurpose vehicles in the market. It would offer comfortable seating for up to seven passengers along with adequate interior room comprising 3-row seat configuration. Most interior design elements, particularly the seats and dashboard, are carried over from Brio. The Mobilio is still under production stage and final interior design has not been frozen yet; nonetheless it offers voluptuous interior with excellent legroom and 60:40 middle seats. Once third row folded flat, you get plenty of cargo space.
Engine
The Honda Mobilio will be available with two engine choices: DTEC 1.5 liter diesel and i-VTEC 1.5 liter petrol. Both powerplants will be teamed up with a 5-speed manual gearbox. The petrol engine generates 116.3 horsepower @ 6600 rpm with 146 Newton meters of torque @ 4800 rpm, whereas the diesel engine churns out 98.6 horsepower @ 3600 rpm with 200 Newton meters of torque @ 1750 rpm.
Safety
The Honda Mobilio comes standard with advanced safety features; these include antilock braking system with EBD (Electronic Brakeforce Distribution) technology, which applies less or more braking pressure to every wheel in order to maximize stopping power while maintaining vehicular control.
The production version of Mobilio is likely to be revealed at Delhi Auto Expo this year and when it does, we could see the new king being crowned in India’s multipurpose segment.
