Honda City

About Honda City

The Honda City is a popular midsize sedan that has been a favourite among car buyers in India for many years. Known for its sporty design, reliable performance, and feature-packed interior, the Honda City has consistently been one of the top-selling cars in its segment in India. Honda has continued the car's legacy by introducing the new 2023 City facelift with a host of updates inside and out. 

The new Honda City is available with a 1.5-litre petrol engine. For 2023, Honda also offers the strong-hybrid variant with the 1.5-litre engine. The standard variant comes with a 6-speed manual or a CVT gearbox. The hybrid model gets an e-CVT transmission. The sedan also gets a plethora of creature comfort features and advanced safety features. With the fuel-efficient hybrid variant, Honda has polished the already successful formula of the City. If you are looking for a premium midsize sedan with sporty looks, peppy performance and sound technology, the City could be the one for you.

Honda City: Quick Review

The following sections will take you through the various aspects of the Honda City, including the exterior design, interior, features, performance and safety.

Exterior Design

The new Honda City looks sportier than ever, thanks to the bold honeycomb grille and the prominent chrome strip up front. The sleek LED headlights with LED DRLs seamlessly integrate with the grille. The sporty front bumper further enhances the aggressive look of the sedan, and the faux carbon fibre treatment on the chin accentuates the looks of the front fascia. 

The rear profile of the Honda City features the classic sedan silhouette with clean lines. The prominent shoulder line runs across the front to the rear, which renders it an elegant look. The chrome door handles and the sporty alloy wheels enhance the premium appeal of the sedan. When looked at from the sides, the City looks to be a mature sedan with ample touch of premium design elements.

The rear fascia of the Honda City features a boot lid spoiler, which makes it a sporty-looking sedan. The split tail light cluster and a sporty rear bumper with faux carbon-fibre treatment give the rear end a sleek and sporty look. Overall, the new Honda City sports a premium, aggressive, edgy exterior design, blending the classic sedan silhouette with modern elements.  

Interior and Features

The Honda City features an elegant interior with a dual-tone dashboard. A large touchscreen infotainment display dominates the dashboard with silver accents on the steering wheel, around AC vents and gear shifter housing. The fit and finish, quality of materials and overall build quality of the interior is top-notch, which is one of the main highlights of the cabin.

The cabin also gets practical storage spaces, including cup-holders, large door pockets, a bit of space under the front armrest and ample space to keep your phone. The City is also good in terms of seating comfort, as the rear seat offers ample knee room and shoulder room. However, the headroom might be tight, especially for taller passengers. Overall, the City’s cabin offers practicality, premium-feeling and a comfortable driving experience.

The Honda City also gets an expansive list of features. It includes an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, automatic climate control, engine start/stop button, rear AC vents, paddle shifters (CVT only), ambient lighting, an electric sunroof, an illuminated cargo room and more. The City is a feature-loaded sedan with excellent build quality inside and out.

Engine Performance

The standard variant of the Hona City draws power from a 1.5-litre petrol engine churning out 119.3 bhp and 145 Nm of torque. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual or a CVT gearbox. The engine offers peppy performance with brisk acceleration. However, the engine lacks punch compared to the competition with turbo-petrol engines.

The hybrid variant of the Honda City delivers a combined power output of 124.2 bhp. At slow speeds, the sedan is capable of running in pure EV mode, which translates to a smooth and refined driving experience. Even at higher speeds, the hybrid powertrain packs a punch and delivers peppy performance.

The standard model delivers a claimed fuel efficiency of 17.8 kmpl for the manual variant and 18.4 kmpl for the automatic variant. The strong-hybrid variant returns a phenomenal fuel economy of 27.13 kmpl, thanks to the electric drive motor. Note that the mileage figures are as per the ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) rating.

Safety

The Honda City gets standard safety features like four airbags, ABS, EBD, brake assist, traction control, Vehicle Stability Assist, Electronic Stability Control, reverse parking sensors, hill-start assist, TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System), a reverse parking camera, ISOFIX child seat mounts, etc. The top-spec and the hybrid variants get additional safety features like ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) with features like adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, etc. The top models also get six airbags, a lane watch camera, etc.

Pros and Cons of Honda City

Pros

• Sporty and aggressive exterior design.

• Spacious cabin with ample knee room and shoulder room.

• Premium cabin with best-in-class fit and finish and high-quality materials.

• Peppy performance from the petrol engine.

• ADAS comes as standard on all variants except the base variant.

Cons

• No diesel engine is on offer.

• It misses out on a few features like ventilated seats, a powered driver seat, etc.

• The rear seat headroom can be a bit tight for taller passengers.