OTHER: Honda E test drive

In search for my wifes next car, which she wants to be electric, we decided to test the Honda E. After we tested the Mazda MX-30 the other day to have a somewhat direct comparison. To be honest the two concepts are very similar. Same battery size, same power, most of the features are the same, the price is more or less the same,  handling and even the interieur look is very similar. The main difference is: You get more car for the price from mazda when it’s about the size and overall costs. Also real Cork. But first. when we arrived we got greeted by this nice Citroen Mehari. The local honda dealer is also a Citroen dealer and it’s not everyday you see one of these.

While waiting for the showcar to return from a wash to be ready for us, we walked around a bit and saw this nice EP3 waiting outside. I somehow miss the times when Civic typeR’s where small simple hatchbacks, compared with what you get today…

And then it came… in a rather unexpected funky poisenous green. Overall i really like the funky mirrorless Retro-design reminding of the very early cars Honda made. It looks flawless and cool. Not weird at all but really modern and different….

First, the owner, which is one of the shop’s mechanic, gave us a little tour. And one of the main down points in my opinion are the many displays. while they have some funky and nice features and while everything is neatly integrated in the sleek (sadly fake) wood interieur, it’s a bit over the top and distracting in my opinion. And in typical honda fashion, the display menu looks like from the 1990’s with all the rectangular buttons in all the rainbow’s colours. There the Mazda looks much more like a designer piece from a modern playstation game…

However the Honda beeing smaller and thus lighter, this thing goes like a rocket. In my opinion almost accelerating a bit too much for a small city bug. I can imagine a few accidents here with that much torque and RWD in the snow…
If you switch it to sport mode there’s not a real difference which is a bit strange. Less power / torque in standard mode and this in the sport mode would have been nice tho…

Nevertheless. As a former honda fanboy i’m not a huge fan of their current lineup. Especially their not-so-sporty cars. But this thing is beyond cool. It looks great, has great and futuristic features and drives excellent to be honest. The only downside for me is the price compared to the mazda and the fact they went a bit over board with all the digital gimmickery…

I would definitely buy it in white. it looks a bit ASIMO-esque in white, which i like. but today i stumbled upon a blue version showcased at a local supermarket, which also looked cool and a tad more adult, compared to the green one above. Well, my wife is quite uncertain now. I was really positively surprised and would buy it in a hartbeat if i had the need for a small towncar…