Refreshed City gets ready for the next round of competition

For a large part of the 19 years that the Honda City has been available in India, it has been a ‘dream car’ for many car buyers. There are more than 6.5 lakh Citys out there on Indian roads. Since its first launch in 1998, the City has also gone through many changes, and while in its initial years there were fewer competitors, the latest generation has met with the biggest challenges in the market. The launch of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz in 2014 was one of them. There have been months when the Ciaz dethroned the City from its numero uno position.

Honda Cars India has now launched the new, refreshed version in the hope that the City can climb to its pre-eminent position. The 2017 City has been upgraded with a wide range of exterior and interior features. To find out more, we test drove the latest version of this car. Our test mule was the flagship grade — ‘ZX’ in petrol automatic (CVT) trim.

The new City 2017 gets integrated LED daytime running lamps, LED headlamps, LED fog lamps and new 16-inch alloy wheels with wider tyres to boost the exterior design. You might miss them on first glance, but take a closer look and you will spot the new 2017 City’s slimmer chrome grille on a honeycomb mesh connecting the two headlights. To make it look sportier, it has a wide-opening bumper design which is quite visible and smaller projector-like LED fog lamps. By the way, the company has made the LED DRL standard fitment across all its variants. Basically, after avoiding LEDs in the past, the company has now swung to the other end and plugged in LEDs every where, including the trunk lid spoiler. The side profile looks mostly the same. The only difference is the new diamond-cut and two-tone alloy wheel design for both 15 and 16 inch wheels. It also gets auto-folding door mirrors in V, VX and ZX grades.

The dashboard looks quite similar to the previous version. But, when you sit down on the driver’s seat, other changes become visible. For instance, there are the new LED interior cabin lights, and a new frameless fully auto-dimming inside rear-view mirror. The sunroof also gets a convenient one-touch operation. Another attempt for a premium look is the soft-touch, hand-stitched-leather style dashboard on the passenger side.

The important addition to the interior is the 17.7 cm touchscreen infotainment system, called the Digipad (available in V, VX and ZX grades) that has features like satellite-linked navigation, voice recognition, Bluetooth telephony and audio streaming. It is also offered with 1.5 GB internal memory, two USB-in slots, two microSD card slots and a HDMI-in slot, It also has Wi-Fi hotspot support and Mirror Link for smart phone connectivity.

The instrument cluster is similar, but the new one has a 3D multi-information meter. Other interior features include chrome plating on steering switches and chrome plated knobs for the rear-AC vent. The cabin space remains the same, but the ZX trim comes with rear-adjustable headrests, which is a positive addition. We would have liked the front centre armrest to have been made adjustable for improved support.

The heart of the 2017 City remains the same with the diesel engine being the 1.5L i-DTEC and the petrol variant being powered by the 1.5L i-VTEC engine. The outputs remain the same too, with the diesel offering maximum power of 100PS at 3,600rpm and a max torque of 200Nm at 1,750rpm. The petrol i-VTEC offers a maximum power of 119PS at 6,600rpm and a torque of 145Nm at 4,600rpm. The diesel engine offers a claimed fuel economy of 25.6 kmpl and has been mated to a six-speed manual transmission. The petrol engine is offered with both the five-speed manual transmission, which delivers fuel efficiency of 17.4 kmpl, and the CVT automatic with its steering mounted paddle shifters and a claimed fuel efficiency of 18 kmpl. Performance wise, the ZX CVT we drove is a trim that impresses one easily with its drivability and poise. Gear shifts are imperceptible, and handling chaotic city traffic with short sprints in between is easy with the paddle shifters. But we felt that cabin noise levels could have been lower.

The competition for the Honda City is on the rise with the new Hyundai Verna being due out later this year, and the closest competitor — the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz — already offering options like the smart hybrid. While the Ciaz is priced more aggressively, the price tag of the new City ranging between ₹8.5 lakh and ₹13.6 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) is still attractive. Honda also has its loyal City customers and as many as 5,000 bookings have been received after its pre-booking announcement. The rest of the year will be an interesting tug-of-war between the competitors.