SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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We spend time with the 2013 Honda Brio 1.2 Comfort

Very Brio; but is there enough Honda?

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday February 26, 2013

Joshua Kaddison had Jessie; she was as flaky as a chocolate bar, but he adored her. We all know someone like that; sufficiently flawed to make them not quite faultless and therefore perfect. Like Honda’s Brio – not impeccable, just lovable.

Its engine is good, the body is safe, strong and well-engineered, it has two airbags, it’s decently economical, the brakes have ABS and EBD, it’s stylish, comfortable and well equipped and it’s easy to drive. It’s as cute as a button too, but the devil is in the details.

Because it was built down to a price, there are certain trade-offs. The pilot’s chair cannot adjust for height, but there is still a fist’s width of headroom for tall drivers and the steering wheel adjusts up and down only, but most people should be able to get comfortable. There is only one makeup mirror, on the left, but what else is the rear-view for?

The part that’s hard to accept is that fit and finish is not what one expects of Honda. Its glove box lid doesn’t fit very well, nor does the panel over the passenger’s airbag and the bean counters could surely have permitted some covering over the sections of painted panel inside the door bins?

We aren’t wild about the chocolate coloured insert on the black dash assembly either, but that will hopefully be corrected sometime. A couple of us buttonholed the design chief over lunch on the day of the local launch – seriously, he’s a nice guy and accepted that round-eyes don’t quite go for that. In the meantime, it isn’t too obtrusive and you could learn to ignore it.

What is right about Brio is that it feels solid and secure at all times, it turns on a button with its 9,6 metre turning circle and you can see clearly all around. Gearing is just right at about 3600 rpm for 120 km/h in top. That’s 900 revs shy of its peak but in the powerful part of the torque band, meaning that roll-on acceleration at cruising speed is strong and you don’t have to change down every time a slight upgrade appears.

The five-speed manual gearbox shifts easily and positively while the comfortably placed and slender gearstick with its small top fits delicate hands perfectly. The hand brake is well positioned for right hand drive so it’s easy to reach. There is even a small reward for driving carefully; an ECO sign lights up on the instrument panel whenever you do it right.

Back seat passengers are catered for with a pair of built-in head restraints, although three belts are provided. The seatback folds down in one piece, leaving a small step in the load floor. More a security feature than an inconvenience, the glass lid on the boot remains secured even when the doors have been unlocked. It opens with the ignition key or a release inside the car. The boot is small at 161 litres VDA and it’s deep and square. It loads at hip height and the cargo lid sometimes gets in the way, but we can’t have everything can we? The spare is fully sized. If you ever need the jack, it’s in a pouch attached to the back panel.

Honda’s baby Brio is safe, perky and does most things right. Whether its flaws irritate you madly or simply make it perfect, is up to you.

Test car courtesy of Honda SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R119 800
Engine: 1198 cc, SOHC, i-VTEC, 16-valves, four cylinders
Power: 65 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 109 Nm at 4500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 142 km/h practical/160 km/h eventually
Emissions rating: Euro4 at 135 gm.CO2/km
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,5 l/100 km
Tank: 35 litres
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km
Service plan: 2 years/30 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals

To see the launch report and more technical detail, click here

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

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