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-   -   4th-gen Honda City : Official Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/145656-4th-gen-honda-city-official-review-432.html)

Hi,
A newbie here from Kerala but a long time follower of TeamBHP. I own a Honda City 2014 version (Petrol). Ran only 13k in 5 years because we have another car (Innova) in our garage. I am planning a road trip with friends and taking City for the drive. Do you recommend changing the tyres due to the 5 years under usage timeframe? Heard rubber gets harder even if not used. If I have to change, do you recommend 195/60/15R or 205/55/15R? Rather than comfort, I am looking for durability during the trip.

Thanks in advance. Happy weekend, guys.:)

Given that the usage has been very low, the tyres would have sufficient tread depth for sure. Get the tyres examined for cracks in the rubber. If there are no minute cracks observed running along ir between the treads, you could use them for one more year max, but that would be pushing your luck, especially if they are run at high speeds for sustained periods.
Changing the tyres every 5 year mark even if the tyre appeared good is something I've been diligently following.

If you do decide to change them right away, don't go for 205/55/15, stick to 195/60/15.

Thanks much. Yes, treads are fine but there are some cracks observed on the sidewalls, that explains why decided to ask people who are knowledgeable here. stupid:

My neck problem with City's front-tilted head restraints has increased over last few days. I drove Santro Xing for 12 years but never got such a problem. Now if someone says I was driving in wrong posture all this while would be difficult to believe.

While driving with seat little reclined doesn't touch my head all the time, every once a while it feels as someone is touching back of my head is annoying. It puts strain on my neck and shoulder.

I have tried all the options like reclining the seat, adjusting head restraint (out of all the uncomfortable positions, the lower position of it is the best), adjusting seat position back and forth and not to forget the steering position too. Just fearing this dream purchase doesn't turn out to be a nightmare.

Finally decided to turn the head restraint around and it was a little better than earlier. Will drive it like this for a couple of days to see if it eases pain. I know it is not the right thing to do but driving 3 hours daily with such a problem is very frustrating and was almost killing me.

Meanwhile I googled it and looks like I am not unique, there are hundreds of others facing the same problem.

I clicked this pic of my friend on passenger seat. I didn't see anything wrong with his posture and his head was touching the head restraint. Now even he felt uncomfortable with this when we drove out for 10 min. Adjusting the restraint didn't help much. Slight recline may help passenger to some extent but not the driver as more recline means strain on shoulders while reaching out for steering wheel.

I am definitely looking to bend the rods of head restraints a little to get slight room between head rest. and back of my head.

Instead of trying to bend the rods yourself and taking the risk of damaging it, can you please ask one of the custom seat guys to make one for you with a different angle? If multiple people have faced the problem, it is likely that they would have tried different things and probably already know the solution. Good luck!

This is a design flaw in the seats and gets very irritating as the car ages and the soft seats start to say. My solution has been to simply pull the headrests out and fit then back facing the other way around. Instead of them pushing your neck forward and giving you neck pain, you will have a couple of inches of clearance.

People tried neck pillows and turning around restraints. Turning it around is a solution but it leaves too much gap between head and restraint. So, someone bent the rods slightly to push the restraint that much little backwards as required.

I am still trying to get used to it. Will give myself a few more days. If nothing works out then aftermarket restraints or bending the rods will be the options I will look into for sure.

My 2 cents:

Please get neck pillows . But don't bend the rods of the headrest neither turn them around.

By doing so you will compromise on the safety aspect of these head restraints.

Honda must have thought something before designing these.

This is my suggestion.

I am facing a peculiar issue with my 2014 Honda City VX CVT. I use the car only on weekends and it's parked inside a locked garage at home. I do not lock the car when it's inside the garage. Now after 2 months, I get a 'key low battery' warning. This is the second time it's happening. Could anyone tell me what is the issue? I am using genuine Honda battery for the same. Is the not locking the car causing this problem?

Seems to be the only logical explanation. It's just a hunch, but in layman's terms, maybe the key transponder and the corresponding receiver one in the car try to locate each other more frequently or then continuously in the condition that the car engine is off yet the car is unlocked. This may cause power draw in the key battery. Maybe it wouldn't be so if you simply lock the car.

Again, this is just what I think it might be. I personally think you'd be better-off locking the car. What's the harm? Also, locking it would be the only way to confirm the cause of the issue. I think that would solve it.

Also, I think it's highly unlikely that your regular Service Advisor would be able to give an accurate answer for this but trying asking him wouldn't hurt.

All the best.

These are known as forward tilting headrests in new generation cars and they are certainly not a design flaw but intentionally made that way to minimize the risk of cervical/neck whiplash injury in the event of a rear collision.
This is backed by years of research and the idea is to minimize the rearward travel of the head during a rear shunt and to keep the head touching or as close to the headrest as possible.

Tampering/straightening the headrest rods or flipping them to tilt backwards is a bad idea and significantly increases the risk of cervical whiplash injury.

No one is denying it is researched but no two people have same body structure. It may be good for majority but may be an issue for minority even if negligible percentage. While no one wishes to be in crash or similar situation and nothing can be predicted but personally I have to take measures else I will develop some serious issue without any crash. I am trying to get used to it but if it doesn't work then definitely a middle class fellow like me can't sell off his brand new car :D so the only option would be to look at alternatives. Whether that is a neck pillow or turning the head restraint around or bending it, can't say right now.

In theory, you are right. The seats and headrests work perfectly when the car is new. This problem is only found in older cars as the seats are soft and prone to sagging. There isn't much back support to begin with, and when that little bit also sinks, you end up sitting with your upper back hunched and the headrest pushing into your neck making it tilt forward. Leads to severe neck and shoulder pain in just a few km of city driving.

I can relate to this.

We have both a 2015 SV and 2018 VX Honda City. The 2015 car with fabric seats is the one I use more often.

I'm 6'2", and prefer a relatively upright driving position.

In the 2015 car, either

• I set the seatback angle to my preferred nearly upright position and deal with my neck tilted forward uncomfortably, or
• I recline the seat further so that my head is more comfortable; but now my seat recline angle is more than what I prefer.

Now that I think about it, I have never felt uncomfortable in the newer VX car during the few long drives I did in it.

On a related note, our (now sold) 2005 Chevrolet Optra's headrests could be adjusted for tilt (in addition to height)!