My 5th-gen Honda City ownership review: Upgraded from an 8th-gen Civic

Everyone suggested we go for an SUV, compact SUV or crossover, but we stuck with the sedan body style.

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Likes and Dislikes summed up

Likes:

1. The amazing 1.5L free-revving motor is a joy to drive. Sounds terrific too.
2. Mated to a slick 6-speed MT with a sweet clutch.
3. Well-tuned steering.
4. Good equipment levels.
5. Physical buttons for the entertainment system and climate control system.
6. Has good street presence in times when sedans are literally dead.
7. Spacious cabin and boot make it a practical choice for families.
8. Honda's reliability.
9. Good ergonomics and supporting seats.
10. 5 Star safety with good safety kit (ASEAN NCAP for the international model)
11. Good highway manners with balanced suspension set up at fair speeds.
12. Good interiors with improved part quality.
13. Some smart touches in the cabin design like phone holders, driver-side dashboard compartments and strategically placed small lights.
14. Honda Connect app is useful- more for those using the services of a paid driver.

Dislikes:

1. Weak low-end torque felt especially with passengers and taking the second gear speed breaker test and on small inclines.
2. 185 section factory fitted tyres: Upgrade advised for enthusiastic driving.
3. ADAS concerns especially regarding the emergency auto-braking system (CMBS).
4. No wheel well insulation. Road noise filters into the cabin even with better tyres.
5. Steel rim space saver (read: cost saver) spare wheel.
6. Poor resolution of reversing and lane watch camera.
7. No USB-C port.
8. Non-adjustable driver's armrest.
9. No ventilated seats from the factory.
10. No option to turn off Auto headlamps.
11. No 360-degree camera.
12. No TPMS to show exact tyre pressures- though it gets a tyre deflation warning system based on wheel speed calibration.
13. Honda Connect app acts glitchy at times.

Prelude:

Since we sold our 8th Gen Honda Civic a few months back (Story is here), we started scouting the options to fill the void. In times when SUVs, compact SUVs, cross-overs, etc are in rage, we felt like outliers whenever we discussed getting a sedan with family and friends. We all have our own car opinions and true to it, we got so much advice from all our friends and well-wishers who surely meant well, but none of them suggested a sedan. Also due to the market demand and dynamics thereof, the C-segment sedan market has dried up of options with basically only 4 cars to choose from: Honda (City), Hyundai (Verna), VW (Virtus) and Skoda (Slavia). Sorry if I ignored Ciaz, but only after Maruti did

Choice of car:

Of all the cars above, design-wise I liked the Virtus the most with its clean lines, and the Euro design philosophy paired with the timeless looks. For me, a car has to look good first and Virtus was the best-looking of the lot. Somehow not a fan of Slavia's looks and interiors. Verna was too loud for my taste. We didn't visit the VW showroom because if we had, we might have fallen for the looks. I kept my cars for a long, and honestly, VW didn't give me confidence in terms of long-term reliability aspect which is another very important criterion for me, hence we did not consider the Virtus at all despite being the looker it is.

However, we did visit Hyundai just to check the Verna since my wife had gotten her i20 recently and she liked the Verna then too. I liked the proportions and the side profile of Verna but the front and rear end styling was too radical and polarizing. My wife seemed to like it, especially in the black colour but unfortunately, it simply didn't click for me. Also, the suspension seemed to be tuned a little too soft. The ventilated seat was a tempting feature and if we went for the City, we would miss it (Or did we - read on to know) as even the top-end City didn't have it.

Coming to Honda, I liked the 5th Gen City since it was launched. Honestly, given our good experience with Honda, we were more or less already decided about the City. Generalizing- but in the long term, Japanese cars, especially the likes of Honda and Toyota tend to prove reliable workhorses. The City looked good from most angles. Though proportions-wise, Honda could have done better, especially in the boot compartment and the rear end still I would rate the overall design as good. The front looks wicked, especially with the LED headlamps. Even the projector lamps on the other variants looked good on this car. In the top variant (ZX), carbon finish inserts in bumpers and the grill made the front styling look pretty aggressive.

We walked into the showroom casually (Victory Honda, Ranchi) on a Sunday for an average experience and checked a Blue ZX and a White VX variant. The VX is an absolute value-for-money variant. My 8-year-old daughter had just one simple demand- she was okay with any car but it must have a sunroof and thankfully that was available in VX too. The VX ticked most options for us and we made a mental note that we would get the VX since the ZX was a good 1.25L higher.

[As per Honda's nomenclature: ZX>VX>V>SV]

Choice of colour:

The Blue and Brown shades looked lovely in person but given the lazy soul I am, maintaining such colours would have been a nightmare for me. White also looked good but somehow most City(s) we came across on the road those days were White, giving us the impression that it had become a common colour. The only colour which wasn't available with the dealership was Silver. No variant. Also, we used to spot a lot less Silver City(s) on roads. My wife wanted a darker colour but for ease of maintenance, we finally decided to go for silver even without seeing the colour in person. I wanted some more time to get my research done fully so we did not book the car at that time.

Started reading about the variants and features of the car and noticed that the carbon inserts on the front and rear bumpers of the ZX variant looked really good. Also, the honeycomb grill on ZX looked better compared to the simple plain slatted VX grill. The ZX came with LED headlamps which were a looker. I am not a fan of the rear trunk spoiler but the ZX gets that too. I would have been happy without it too. However, more than that, the feature list of ZX included full leather seats (other variants get fabric seats), leather-wrapped steering, a better music system, very premium auto-dimming rearview mirror, 16" wheels (more on this later), all windows auto roll up/down & rear sunshades among many others which totally justified the premium over the VX. Hence we decided to stretch a little more and get the ZX and be done with comparing what we get vs what we miss if going for any other variant. Going for the top variant also avoids any after-market addition as most features are already built-in.

The Impulsive Booking:

Once we had made the variant choice clear, we visited the dealership to take a good look at the Blue ZX display piece they had and booked the car paying a nominal amount. Booking was almost impulsive as we didn't plan to book it on the same day. Crossing our fingers, we put the money on the silver colour without even seeing the car due to the non-availability of the shade just hoping that it would look good. We ideally wanted to delay the purchase by a month at least but soon Honda announced a price hike from April up to the tune of 30K and this is when we decided to go get it in March itself.

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