Honda Concerto 1.6-16V SE - weird
Discussion
Ever since we bought our example of this 'grandad' car, I've been complaining that it MUST have the wrong gearbox. It has been very reliable, has all the bits and bobs but it's just odd what Honda have done.
Recently I found out that it has a different gearbox to the rest of the range because of the more freely revving 16v engine.
What I don't understand is why Honda made it so uselessly uneconomical to use.
At 80mph it does 4250 revs - at 90mph it is 5000 revs (so I've been told) - which makes any motorway drive a complete nightmare for fuel economy. On accelerating from standstill I can justify changing into 5th by the time I reach 40mph! 5th feels like another 4th gear in practice.
When accelerating, most time seems to be used up changing gears than actually achieving any forward momentum.
I don't know whether this is because the engine seems to have a tiny power band (about 2250 to 3000) or because Honda messed up on the gear ratios.
The high revs also make the car a lot noisier than it should be.
Anyone have any information? I just can't understand Honda's thinking behind this 'top of the range' model.
Recently I found out that it has a different gearbox to the rest of the range because of the more freely revving 16v engine.
What I don't understand is why Honda made it so uselessly uneconomical to use.
At 80mph it does 4250 revs - at 90mph it is 5000 revs (so I've been told) - which makes any motorway drive a complete nightmare for fuel economy. On accelerating from standstill I can justify changing into 5th by the time I reach 40mph! 5th feels like another 4th gear in practice.
When accelerating, most time seems to be used up changing gears than actually achieving any forward momentum.
I don't know whether this is because the engine seems to have a tiny power band (about 2250 to 3000) or because Honda messed up on the gear ratios.
The high revs also make the car a lot noisier than it should be.
Anyone have any information? I just can't understand Honda's thinking behind this 'top of the range' model.
Well if it's any consolation, my Mercedes 190E 2.0 automatic (4 speed) does only 20mph/1000 rpm in top gear, which makes it noisy as well. I think older cars were just naturally higher geared. Even if you step into a fairly recent petrol hatchback with 5 gears you will notice they are quite low geared for motorway driving. I think it's just easy to get used to modern large cars and diesels, and their low revving/higher geared nature?
mekondelta said:
parts bin special...?
Not sure what you mean. The car is standard as it left Honda - the gearbox is correct for that model, except I can't work out why on earth Honda chose to gear it so weirdly. A lot of driving is done 50+ by most UK drivers so why did they choose to make it so uneconomical with this model just because it has the 16V engine?
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