Honda Elevate | First Drive Review | Comfort level: It’s over 9000!

Comfort and the perception of luxury

Honda returned to the design boards and sealed the outside of the cabin with some interesting man-made moulds to reduce road, tyre, and nuisance noises. If that was not enough, the most exciting part of the Honda Elevate is the seats. The seats have been designed to work in tandem with the car movements and ensure more cushioning to handle and minimise road impacts. The contours, front seat lumber support, soft thick cushions, leatherette feel, colours, and seat design almost make it feel fine when the car misses on ventilated seats. There is a standard sunroof which functions just like the City. Speaking of which, the steering seems a direct fit from the City e-HEV, along with similar Honda Sensing features with the front camera. Honda claims that Honda Sensing is almost level 2 ADAS, but take that with a pinch of asterisks. The visibility is good with all manual adjustments on the seats and steering, but the visible hood from inside makes one perceive that this car is much larger than it actually is. The interior design features a black dashboard with contrast matte silver finishes around the AC vents, HVAC tactile knobs and a wood finish insert bringing a sense of luxury to the vehicle.

The 10.25-inch mid-mounted floating-style touch infotainment brings nice customisable widgets and wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay. Also, it becomes the screen for the LHS-assisted rearview monitor cameras or the multi-angled rear view camera with ultra-wide angle 180-degree, wide-angle 130-degree and top-down displays. The part analogue features a speed counter, while the part digital part of the MID is so coloured and matte, neat enough to camouflage as an analogue rpm meter or showcase tonnes of other animated information, including Honda Sensing warnings. There is an armrest with one of the most cushioned sets among rivals doubling as a storage area with a dedicated bay for wireless charging and actual tactile buttons for most operations, including some for the large touch-infotainment. Including a vanity mirror on the driver’s side, a button-clad steering wheel, and some of the most satisfying paddle shifters on the CVT make the Honda Elevate a relatively feature-loaded pack. However, it misses out on the booklet-level features of some cars in its competition. The rear passengers get AC vents, 12V sockets and some storage, though the miss of type-C ports on the car feels questionable. Still, this car supports wireless everything, including a Honda Connect subscription offered free for the first 5 years for Elevate customers. Overall, with the armrest at its rear sporting two cup holders and all seats featuring one of the best comforts in its class, this car is hard to give miss, especially with the extraordinary suppleness of the ride quality.