The Stream Is Here

My new Honda Stream is finally here. The car is exactly as expected. It is no surprise, because in the age of the Internet nowadays, we can do lots of research online, particularly reading the first-hand honest reviews from drivers who don’t make a living out of writing reviews. Yet at the same time, I am discovering so many new things, both good and bad, about the car.

This will be my first car with a sunroof. I’ve always liked to have a sunroof. It is not a necessity, and I don’t even think I would actually use it regularly. But it is a nice luxury item to have. For just $1K more, I can get a Stream with a sunroof. So why not? There are practical benefits too, such as letting hot air out more easily and cool the car quicker on a hot sunny day.

The colour is silver. Not my first choice actually. Both my wife and I wanted a dark gray, or what Honda calls Umber Metallic. But they didn’t have any more “2008” Honda Stream in this colour, and we felt it didn’t make sense to pay $3K more for the “2009” version to get the colour. We eventually settled for silver. It’s an odd outcome, because I had previously disliked silver. Silver was and still is too common. But there are some practical advantages to silver. Dirt cannot be easily seen, and a silver car can go unwashed for some time and yet still look clean. Scratches are difficult to see too. The other options to consider were white and black. White is too difficult to maintain. Black shows dirt and scratches too easily. So when we evaluated the choices again… silver seems like the colour to go for. All things considered, a silver Stream does look quite good too.

At 1.8l, this car has the largest engine capacity of all the other cars I’ve had. It is also the first to fall into the COE Category B. So this certainly feels more like a real upgrade than any of my previous cars. (Oddly enough, with all the declining prices in recent years, this upgrade actually almost costs the least!) The Stream’s engine produces quite a lot of power and torque compared to other 1.8l engines, so it is not surprising that the car feels quite nifty and responsive. Its lower centre of gravity and firmer suspension makes handling pretty good.

There are many sweet things about the Stream. Little things that you usually notice at the showroom or even while test driving because you’d be too busy checking other things. The instrument panel is beautiful. It has white lights coming through the markings when the car is running, blue lights around the edges of the dials when the headlights are turned on. In fact, even the front cup holders are lit by a diffused blue ring. The cabin lights and instrument lights fade out, instead of instant-off. The ignition keyhole is lighted. Oh okay, I seem to be very fascinated with lights. But, there are other things too. Seat belt reminder light and audible alarm is activated periodically if the driver’s seat belt remains unfastened. (Does this count as a light too?)

Compared with the Altis, there are a few things I’m missing in the Stream. First up is automatic door locking when the ignition is turned on. The Altis would automatically lock all doors, provided all the doors area closed, when I turn the ignition to start the engine. The Altis also automatically turns on the hazard lights when any door is opened while the engine is running. Nice things to have, which I’m sure can be fixed into the Stream with an aftermarket accessory. But so simple things that you’d expect a new car to come with them in the first place. The Altis came with locally fitted alarm system, which has audible feedback when the system is armed or disarmed. The Stream’s factory supplied security system lacks this feature, but having an all-in-one immobilizer and remote integrated into the same key is great.

There are a few things I need getting used to. The parking brake is the foot pedal type. Several times I find myself grabbing at the centre divider area before realizing there is no parking brake there. The gear shift is on the centre console, another thing that I sometimes forget.

There are two things on the Stream’s instrument panel that keeps me engrossed. First is the ECO light. It indicates when the engine is running in economy mode, so that there is better fuel efficiency. This is a really good thing to have. It turns driving into a little game. Aim of the game is to keep the ECO light lit as long as possible. Now, instead of trying to figure out what it means to be “light footed”, you now have a visual indicator to help you along. The other thing is the display for fuel consumption rate. You get to see the average l/100km reading since the tripmeter was last reset. So this other game is to get this number to be as small as possible. Would be more interesting if they could show a more instantaneous readout, such as the l/100km over the last 1 minute.

This will be the 4th car I’m driving, the 3rd that I’ve bought. It started from a Corolla, then a Civic, followed by an Altis (which is a Corolla too), and now the Stream. You can see that I’ve been alternating between Toyota and Honda. Both are excellent Japanese car brands, but they are quite different. I think Toyotas are generally all around good value for money. But Hondas are made to make driving fun. That’s why a Honda is a driver’s car.