On the highway from Pune to Bengaluru, the Mobilio demonstrated its ability to cruise effortlessly. Maintaining a healthy 110-120 km/h is possible without breaking into a sweat at all. There’s enough torque to just dab the throttle a bit to overtake trucks and other slow-moving vehicles on the highway. On the Maharashtra side of the highway you will have to go through several diversions and going over the poorly surfaced diversions you realise that the Mobilio’s suspension is set up quite nicely to soak up the bumps and the potholes with a full complement of passengers and luggage. Past the Karnataka border, the highway opens up to reveal a smooth six-lane stretch of tarmac headed for the horizon. Push the throttle down and the Honda picks up speed strongly as you get up to cruising speeds. Driving at over 100 km/h the car feels stable and planted, despite some of the strong cross-winds that we experienced. A definite thumbs-up to the Mobilio then where highway cruising is concerned.
Turning off towards Belgaum city, which you’ll need to cross to get to the Chorla ghat (one of the routes leading to Goa if you’re coming from Pune), the roads become narrow and increasingly crowded. Negotiating the city traffic isn’t as difficult in the Mobilio as one would assume from its MUV proportions. In fact, being based on the Amaze platform, the Mobilio’s proportions are actually quite compact, for an MUV that is. As a result, it’s easy to drive and park as well. At the same time, Honda have been able to maximise cabin space to a point where getting six adults on board wasn’t a squeeze. What was even more surprising was that despite having all three rows up we could fit three pieces of cabin-sized baggage in the boot. Kudos to Honda engineers for that.
Back out of the city and into the ghat section, the road is not only narrow but twisty as well, though well-surfaced. Through the twists and turns of the Chorla ghat the Mobilio got its chance to prove its handling prowess. And it did, for at no point did the vehicle not inspire confidence. At the end of three days of driving around in Goa and then back in Pune I felt vindicated. My initial impression of the Honda Mobilio as a superb solution for people looking for a compact yet spacious MUV had been correct. Stay tuned for more on life with the Honda Mobilio.
