We presented the Honda Zest back in February of this year,a small city car that can be categorized in the K-Class (a special type of car in Japan that has a small engine to provide tax and insurance benefits for the owner).
So, to recap, the Honda Zest is a "K-Car" (easily identified by the yellow license plate) with an i-DSI 3 cylinder 660cc engine that develops 64bhp in the Turbo version, and that power is delivered to either 2 or 4 wheels. It's a fuel efficient car and low on pollution, this Zest offers a emission level 75% lower than the Japanese standards.
Honda announced at the launch of this model that they would raise the standard by not only offering a rather cheap car (the first model retailed for 7000 EUR), but also a car full of surprises. As you can see on the inside, with a spacious interior and full feature list. there is a full range of accessories for both the interior and exterior of this car, like a GPS system that looks like it comes straight out of a S-Class or 7-series. There's TV, DVD video playback, a HDD, MP3 and WMA support, the possibility to connect an iPOD, handsfre phone integration, ...
Security is guaranteed by not only a double airbag but also lateral airbags, and that's a first on a car of this class and budget in Japan.
When it comes to handling, this car is completely adapted to the Japanese market, and the car feels at easy on any type of road (highway, city, country roads, ...). The engine is not a big block though, so the performance on main roads is rather limited, and it's normal that you don't have to expect Carrera GT3 accelerations from this 660cc hooked up to an automatic gearbox. But that kind of performance is not the selling point of this car, this car is designed to be handy in any big city.
To sum things up, we can say that Honda did well in designing this mini car, and if you're looking for a small car that feels like a big one in the city, offers solid security features and a full range of accessories to personalize it, you can't go wrong with this Zest. But , yes there is a small "but", we were quite annoyed by the "Parking Brake" pedal (instead of the conventional hand brake) during our tests, since it's not placed in the best way and we hit it unintentionaly on a few occasions, but that's merely a matter of getting used to and a habit of placing your left leg accordingly to avoid touching it.
Honda Zest, Test Drive
