Can Honda’s new 7 seater compete with the Toyota Avanza and Suzuki Ertiga? We’ve lived with this new MPV for week in order to find out.
Let’s be honest, seven seat transportation is not sexy, glamorous or luxurious, certainly if you don’t have full-size SUV money. No, if you’ve procreated to the point where a hatchback or sedan no longer offers enough storage solutions, and you’re on a tight budget, then the options are, to be honest, pretty boring.
There are three worth looking at, they are: the Toyota Avanza, Suzuki Ertiga and Honda’s new Mobilio which I’ve been driving for the past week. All of them follow the same template. A boxy, elongated design coupled with a small four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine coupled to manual gearboxes. The interiors are utilitarian and offer seating for seven.
So, you’ve only driven the Honda? It is a strange looking thing.
Indeed. The elongated rectangle is the perfect shape for freeing up interior space. Be too boxy and your design ends up looking like a school bus, fiddle too much however, and you run the risk of trying to hard or trying to polish a…you get the gist.
The Mobilio falls into the latter category, with some odd curves, slices of bodywork and glass spaces of varying sizes. It certainly isn’t pretty, and manages, only just, to not be massively offensive. And in the company of the Avanza and Ertiga, it manages to stand out, albeit awkwardly. The Ertiga though, in my opinion is the better looking of the three, embracing its boxyness rather than trying to cover it up.
So design winner it is not. What is the interior like?
In short, not very inspiring. But then this is not a market segment where one uses words like supremely comfortable, luxurious or first class to describe interiors. Budget seven seat people carriers’ modus operandi is to carry people, in relative comfort. Hard wearing, practical and versatile are more appropriate adjectives, and perfectly describe the Mobilio’s interior.
Granted, Honda could’ve done a better job of covering the massive areas of dash and console with something resembling a soft touch material. But they didn’t and as a result the perceived quality is rather disappointing. There are oddities too, like the shut line of the cubby-hole can’t really be called that because it looks permanently open, rather than shut. And the centre console which houses the CD/radio sits closer to the passenger than the driver, making way for an extra air vent and hazard lights button. Why they couldn’t swop those around in favour of the driver I’m not sure. Hazards light and air vent operation are not usually high on my lists of vehicle operables. Fortunately the interior is mostly black, and in this case that’s a good thing, as opposed to the tan options available on the competition.
Carrying seven occupants is the name of the game here and in that regard the Mobilio is just fine. Second row occupants have decent legroom, which can be increased and decreased via the sliding seat action. There’s acres of headroom too and roof mounted air vents just ahead of the second seat are a welcome addition. Although harder to operate for smaller people as they are out reach for most children – perhaps that’s a good thing though.
That second row sliding action obviously has an effect on third row occupants and when in their most forward position rear space at the back is quite tight. Most suited for smaller children on shorter trips – our pre-teen only just squeezed in and managed a thumbs up on quick outings. Access to the third row is decent with the large rear doors and the second row sliding and tilting forward. (The large rear doors did prove quite tricky in tight parking spaces with their length making it difficult to fully access our toddlers in the second row.)
There are no air vents right at the back though, so some might succumb to claustrophobia. But, the large windows go some way to making things more manageable.
With the third row seats in their upright position there is a useable boot which swallowed a few grocery bags and full-size baby pram. However, folding the seats down reveals a cavernous storage area. But, there is one issue, and that is the rear most seats don’t fold completely flat, folding and tumbling forward to rest against the second row. The backrest do fold individually which is convenient though.
Fold the second row down and you’re left with a strange storage space which is not flat at all – so loading bigger items for cartage will be a problem. Not a huge concern for most though. Conversely the Suzuki Ertiga manages a fully flat load area when all seats are folded away, and has a far better put together interior too.
Standard spec is pretty basic with the likes of a CD/radio with USB connectivity, electric windows and mirrors and central locking completing the ‘nice-to-have’ list.
Okay, so what is it like to drive?
Better than you think. The Mobilio is powered by 4-cylinder 1497cc petrol engine making 88kW and 145Nm of torque. Firecracker it is not, but it does provide enough get-up-and-go for most circumstances. Sure, show it a steep hill and it will have a bit of a sulk, and requires a constant gearbox rousing to keep momentum going, which fortunately in Honda tradition is reassuringly positive in action. With only five forward ratios though it does tend to be a buzzy at the 120km/h marker.
It rides well, soaking up most road irregularities without transferring any harsh bumps and potholes into the cabin. There is a lot of body roll through tight corners, but nothing out of the ordinary for anything in this segment.
Safety wise the Mobilio has ABS with EBD and driver and passenger airbags.
Let’s wrap this up!
Subjective design issues aside, the Honda Mobilio fulfils its brief of being a practical, hard wearing and fairly cheap seven seater, and with Honda’s renowned bulletproof mechanicals it should last a lifetime.
Interestingly the Suzuki Ertiga and Toyota Avanza both ship standard with a better service plan of 4 year/60 000km versus the Honda’s 2 year/30 000km, and when considering the ‘budget conscious’ labels these cars represent, coupled with the Mobilio’s interior quality issues, might be the deciding factor for many.
Thumbs up:
Peppy engine, solid mechanicals
Versatile, spacious interior
Fairly cheap
Thumbs down:
Looks a bit strange
Lack of interior quality
Doesn’t have a flat load area
Pricing:
Mobilio Trend R188 000.00
Mobilio Comfort R207 900.00 (Driven)
Mobolio Comfort CVT Auto R224 300.00