A Goan experience with Honda Mobilio

A drive to Goa is one that we all look forward to and if that is in a comfortable manner, with all the luggage placed conveniently, the journey is even more pleasurable.  Our companion on  this drive from Pune to Goa was the Honda Mobilio diesel and we got a chance to explore it in depth.

Honda had joined the bandwagon of the MPVs in India with its Mobilio in 2014. The Mobilio is a stretched version of the Amaze / Brio and shares the same platform. It is a long, spacious and premium looking MPV, though not as tall as some of its competitors, giving it the look of an Estate, more than that of an MPV. We started the journey early early in the morning at 6 am. This is always advisable in order to beat the traffic that ques up at the toll booth on Pune-Satara road. Well, we crossed the booth in no time and headed along the highway crossing Satara by 8 am and had well settled in the vehicle by then, getting accustomed to the was it drives and behaves. The seats are actually comfortable, though they do not appear to be so. The car is low slung, unlike typical MPVs and you can arrive at a comfortable seating position in no time with the steering height adjustment, though I wished for a driver seat height adjustment as well. There’s ample leg room not only for the front passengers, but the rear ones too. If you have been on long road trips frequently, you would understand the value of having good legroom. It make the journey so much more comfortable.

The Mobilio cruises along effortlessly. The diesel engine didn’t feel strained around speeds of 120km/h, at which the car was comfortably cruising, though the engine gets noisy and coarse at higher revs. A better cabin insulation would’ve taken care of that. The clutch is light too which helps in reducing the fatigue factor. What I liked about the Mobilio is the steering response. It provided adequate feedback and was very well weighted too. This kind of steering makes both city as well as highway drives easy, though i would’ve prefer it to be a tad heavier at triple digit speeds. The ride in the Mobilio is soft. It runs very well on good roads but the chink in its armour shows up when it encounters bad roads. This is not the vehicle you will revel on uneven roads and it easy gets unsettled. Also, it transfers the the undulation right up you spine and in case you are seated in the third row, it will be quite a terrible experience. The Mobilio is built to be driven on good roads and here it runs in a completely different fashion, which makes the journey comfortable.

We reached Kolhapur 9.30 and instead of stopping for a bite, decided to surge ahead and take a halt at Belgaum. Now, there are two routes you can take to reach Goa. Once you reach Nipani, after Kolhapur (around 320 kms from Pune), there is a right turn at an intersection that connects to Amboli. The Amboli road is a narrow one and has patches of bad roads in between, though now the roads are much improved than earlier. This road takes you via Sawantwadi and has scenic locales. However, we decided to take the other route, which is via Belgaum. We took a detour to enter Belgaum city and halted at one of the popular chain of restaurants called ‘Tumkur Tatte Idli’. This place is famous for its Tatte idli, which a large size Idli (almost 5-6 inches in diameter) and is another version of the Idli in Karnataka. If you visit Belgaum, do try out this place which serves very tasty and filling Idli and is very economical too. I was also pleasantly surprised at the politeness of the traffic policeman who requested me to park the car a little further ahead so as to not disrupt traffic.

After Belgaum, the other interesting part we crossed through was the Chorla Ghat. This road travels through dense forest and has a lot of twisties and turns that put the Mobilio through some grind. Mobilio isn’t a tall vehicle and that saves it from high body roll. Infact, it kept us quite  comfortable even while taking sharp bends and was stable. The handling is decent for its size and the steering provided decent feedback. The brakes are also adequate and provide good stopping power progressively. The good all round visibility the Mobilio has is very helpful on winding roads and of course while driving in the city, though there is a high level of dashboard reflection on the windscreen and it gets irritating at times. The rear windows are quite big and offer a wide outside view to the rear passengers.

The Mobilio we had came fitted with a touchscreen audio system with navigation. The navigation maps were accurate as it uses Map my India software. However, using the system was an unpleasant affair. The touchscreen is vague and requires a push instead of a touch, Also the screen is highly reflective and is difficult to read in daylight, especially when its sunny. The steering mounted controls support only volume and track change. It does not have mute or bluetooth controls.

We reached Mapusa, Goa by 2pm and headed to our place of stay at Saligao, called Richmond Park, which is a Villa Resort and is a lovely and cozy property.  Driving around Goa city in the Mobilio was a breeze. This MPV felt at home driven through narrow streets, markets and the scenic coastal roads. The sat-nav system further helped navigating ourselves across the city, even on less inhabited roads. The Mobilio has enough storage space for knick-knacks, bottles and cans and we munched and sipped enjoying the sceneries around Goa. The blue coloured Mobilio looked striking when we drove through the markets of Baga and Anjuna beach, not only during the day but also late night. The Majestic Blue colour really stands out in a crowd.

On our return journey to Pune, we took the route via Sawantwadi and Amboli and realised that this route was quicker, though it had narrow roads and some bad patches in between. The total distance clocked was around 1100 kms and Mobilio returned a fuel efficiency of 18 km/l on the highway and 13 km/l in the city. Not bad at all considering the size of the car which was loaded with passengers and luggage. The Mobilio proved to be a good companion on long journeys, providing a comfortable overall experience. Only if it had better composure on bad roads it would’ve felt even more complete, not to forget some more features as well.