2014 Honda Brio 1.2 Comfort

Super compact hatches are trending at the moment with a very diverse buyers market, no matter if you are a doctor, mom or student, practicality is what people are looking for. Maybe it's not for your long distance country run or family outing, maybe you are just looking for a run about, but want all the bells and whistles. A lot of manufacturers have tapped into this market but have all of them got it right?

Well Honda has almost got it right, with the new 2014 Brio 1.2 Comfort. I say almost because, although the formula is almost there, the Brio does fall short on a few things, but on the other hand some may look at it as a positive.

When I saw the Brio, the first thing that I thought about was that it will look wicked in a set of 17's (I've add a picture from a Google search, not too shabby...), the Comfort comes standard with 14" alloys. Although the car is somewhat stumpy, it's attractive in its own way. For some, maybe a little less, but it does grow on you. The headlights, grille and air scoop on the bumper are boldly designed, which make it look serious and elegant at the same time.

The rear end has an almost flat back look, which I'm not a big fan of, but it works with the overall design of the car. The boot lid is the actual rear window, which gives you good access to the bin type boot space that was created to maximize the interior cabin area.

The inside is very basic and retro at the same time, with rounded controls, dials and vents but with a touch of modernisation. Air-conditioning and front electric widows are standard equipment. Choice of materials for the interior is where you get let down a bit, although it looks good, once you touch it you realise that everything is made from hard plastic. But this may be a good thing, because this interior will last you a very long time, if not forever. But I must say, from all the super compact cars in its segment, this is by far the highest quality.

You get satellite controls for the radio on the steering and Honda has taken an interesting step with the radio here, which is the exclusion of a CD/MP3 player. The only form audio input is a USB/MP3. so I don't think that this wouldn't hurt sales.

Then it was time to put the car on the road and really see if 65kw and 109nm of torque is enough to for the little Brio. The take off was sluggish, but once it got going it seemed to be fine, I would also take into consideration that there were a total of three adults on the car and the model that I was driving was an automatic.

On the freeway it did good to keep up with the speed limit, although overtaking had to be planned in advance due to the lack of power. Once we got back into the urban areas of Umhlanga, the Brio seemed more at home, bobbing and weaving through traffic effortlessly. Even parking was a breeze, you just zip into the bay without thinking too much about it.

And that's what the Brio is all about, it's a city car with just enough spunk to get you around while doing a cool 6.4l/100kms, and giving you maximum comfort while doing so. The automatic sits at R153 900 (Oct 2014), which is higher than it's competitors such as the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107, but the Brio sets itself apart with it's unique styling and standard comfort features, you also get a 2 year/30 000km service plan and a 3 year/100 000km warranty.