My 5th-gen Honda City: Purchase & ownership experience

During my road trip to Tamil Nadu, the City returned a fuel efficiency of over 21 km/l.

BHPian AnnaRocks recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The car purchase story

I was looking for a 5-seater or higher, automatic car. Going with the current trend, CSUVs were the first preference and under 20 lakhs was the budget. No Marutis (reason given ahead). Also, the road to my home is a bit narrow at places due to some of the neighbours’ obsession to stretch their boundary walls by that extra inch and hence the size of the car played a factor too. The following cars were considered/dropped.

Kushaq

The first choice. Was a fan of Skoda cars, even though their service reputation was a mood dampener. Nevertheless, decided to take the risk. I was eagerly following this car. The slow and painful gimmicks like multiple reveals and delays were taken in a lighter mood in the hopes of getting hold of a good car. The features or the lack of it compared to competition was a downer but the ridiculous pricing was the final decider. What was supposed to be the OTR price was announced as ex-showroom. I had asked the salesperson at the Skoda dealership in my city for any updates and even asked him to contact me once bookings began. I never got any update from him. The first call I got was in November, probably after the initial craze settled down. But by then, I had already booked my car. To be fair, I checked out this and the Taigun too.

The Tatas

After Kushaq’s disappointment, I started searching for the next option. I suddenly got that Desh ki Mitti feeling charged up and decided to go for Tata. I checked out Harrier, even though it was a slight stretch on the budget, and the Nexon EV. I went to the showroom in Kochi, got a cold response. The saleslady there noted down my number assuring me to contact me when the test drive vehicle was available for either of the models. That call never came. I thought maybe I was not lucky enough to get a good salesperson when I walked in. So I tried the Trivandrum Tata dealership. Here the initial response was better but somehow, the salesperson fizzled out during follow-ups. I might have given out that Window shopper feeling I thought. I finally went to the Kayankulam Tata and let’s just say the attitude of the salesperson I met there made me swallow the Desh ki mitti feeling and I made up my mind to try Tata probably the next time. Three back-to-back sales guys with whom the wavelength wasn’t matching. I said Tata to TATA with that. I strongly believe that the salespersons of any product or service are the most important aspect of the system as they represent the brand to the customer. I guess the sales numbers were so high since the pandemic that the response from most showrooms was very casual. This applied not just to Tata but most of the car dealerships.

Even in the case of the car that I eventually bought, I had almost made up my mind to buy my car from Kollam but decided otherwise due to the tone of the salesperson.

Koreans

Next, half-heartedly checked out the Korean twins. Again the ‘Buy it if you want or leave’ type response made me let go of whatever little intention I had of getting one of these. The Hyundai guy was keener on selling me a test drive car at a discount for some reason. Verna did not appeal as the design was a little bit aggressive (purely subjective) and the rear seat space was also not that great. Never got a callback or follow up from Kia post the Seltos TD from Kochi and Kollam. But the sales guy was honest enough to admit that the orders are so high that they are not able to service many customers who need the car urgently and I needed one.

Nissan/Renault

Looked too outdated especially with other markets already offering its new model. Kicks was a risky option and hence skipped.

Toyota

Innova was excessively pricey for what it offered IMO as an overall package and anyway the length of the car was a concern in getting it to my home. There was no other offering from them that catered to my needs.

Vento/Rapid

I like these cars but both were in phasing out mode and hence avoided this. After the delay caused by Kushaq and their pricing strategy on display, I did not want to wait for Slavia.

XUV700

Car of the year IMO. Voted for it in our poll here too. Ticked all the boxes on launch, but again I did not have the patience to wait for Mahindra's infamous initial niggles to be ironed out and also play the waiting game for another year. Had my purchase been a year or two later, this would have topped the list of probables then.

Maruti again

We have been a Maruti family for a long time with a Fiat Palio and a VW Polo being an exception. Our previous three cars were Marutis and hence we decided to just stay away from Maruti and look for a different brand, preferably a European car. I remember reading an article here on the forum, regarding car brand fatigue. Probably that was the scenario in our case too. The poor response from the showrooms made me rethink that and I went back to Maruti. S-Cross was the car I considered for Test Drive although the people there were keener to push Ciaz. I must say, I was pleased with the service. I dropped my number on some online portals and got calls from three different Marutis in town and all three of them had excellent follow-ups until the day I confirmed that I had booked another car. Since I wanted an automatic, I hope you can assume how the TD with the Maruti automatic must have turned out. How I wish Maruti had good options car in the 10-20 lakhs segment. I did not buy a Maruti this time but I will say aloud that they have the best service among all and that is the reason why they are the number one and will stay so for some more time for sure, no matter what substandard abomination they bring out as a car.

City

One day, while going through the TBHP pages, I noticed the City, something that was there right in front of me. Yes, it was not a CSUV but there were many other things in favour of the city. I have driven the third-gen City automatic 2009 model extensively and used to love it. In fact, that car made me consider the Automatic as a future purchase. The ground clearance of the Third Gen was a downer and the rubber band effect too weighed in, although it was decent enough considering that the car came out over a decade ago. Therefore, I decided to take a TD. The ground clearance surprised me. It handled all major potholes on my usual route near my home and did not scrape even once. The rubber band effect was very minimal and I only felt it once when I raced it on an isolated strip. Negligible. Considering the condition of our roads, we were lucky to find the road empty during the TD.

Couple of mentions: Ask for Iqbal from Sai Service Kochi for Maruti Nexa or Chinnu from Palace Honda Kayamkulam if you are considering buying either from any of these towns. Excellent sales folks.

So, the 5th Gen Honda City ZX CVT was decided. Once again checked with a few dealerships across different towns. The overall sales experience from where I bought it was average. The advance amount was paid. A Whatsapp group was formed. Let us just say that the Goa Trip Planning WhatsApp group of my school friends was more active than this one. The car arrived in a month’s time. There was not much communication from the company/dealer side during this one month and I used to call up/mail and check for any updates. The car delivery day was normal. Handed over a gift to the salesperson. There was no additional bargaining for freebies. No covered car revealing or any such stuff. A cake was cut. The staff gave a cheering send-off while I took the car out. That was it. Never heard from the sales guy after that. Although I once called him up to check about a warning light that was popping up during my first long trip. He did not have a clue and neither did he bother to check later if it was sorted out. LOL. Had to Google to find the solution. I used to get continuous calls from another guy at the dealership to rate them 5 stars on Google and put in a few good words. His calls stopped once I obliged. I would like to mention that the salespeople from where I bought Marutis 8 years and 4 years ago are still in touch. Either the dynamics are changing or perhaps I was unlucky this time about the salespeople I came across with.

The first service is done. The experience at the service centre was good. Their follow-up and overall approach were also good.

Here she is.

Accessories

I did not buy any accessories from the showroom as they were priced exorbitantly. I bought the following from Amazon.

I bought a 7D mat. Providing the image from Amazon of what I bought. The detachable mat on the top does not stay in place as the hook comes off as you can see in one of the pics below. However, I will insist that you try out a 7D mat in some other brand maybe. The beige color complements the look IMO.

Another addition was the DDPAI Mola N3 dashcam. Okayish product. The Antivirus software on the mobile regularly detects the DDPAI app as malware.

A night image of the way home. You can see how narrow it is and even riskier is the turn ahead.

Malware?

Then, I bought this wooden car freshener with some cartridges. The smell was not that strong. I replaced the cartridge with camphor, sorted out.

I bought the hammer and seatbelt cutter. I hope I never have to use this in the car.

My ownership story so far

I was a little skeptical as Sedan is a diminishing segment and Honda does not seem to be focused on India. I got a call from Honda after 3 months of showing an interest on their portal. Some of my friends even suggested that Honda might be on their way out with their factory closures, VRS for employees and higher management exits and no new exciting product on the horizon. With their laziness in introducing any new product in the hot SUV or EV segments or any segment for that matter, and squeezing the max out of the City and Amaze like your local sugarcane juice seller does out of the cane, Honda exiting the country seemed a likely possibility. Amidst all these doubts, I decided to take the leap of faith. The company and the dealership experience so far have been meh, but I absolutely love the car.

I drive mostly on the Kochi-Trivandrum route, a bulk of which is a 2-lane highway. Very rarely do you get a stretch on those roads where you can safely push the pedal gleefully during the day. And whenever I have tried my luck, there have been cops hiding in bushes at the most convenient spots where people are bound to speed. Driving on these pothole-loaded roads also comes with a bonus challenge provided by the government - manoeuvring and escaping the state-run KSRTC buses.

So I wasn’t exactly looking for a race car. I must say that I am happy with the linear acceleration that this NA petrol engine provides. People coming from diesel or turbo backgrounds might be a little disappointed but for my purpose and usage, I have no complaints. I have not been able to use the cruise control feature for more than 30 seconds at a stretch on the above-mentioned route. However, during my trip to Tamil Nadu, I was able to use it extensively and this was the trip where I got 21+ kmpl. The usual mileage ranges from 14 to 18 kmpl on the above Kerala routes depending upon the traffic.

• I feel the NVH level could have been a lot better on this car. It is a bit noisy for the category it is in. I am thinking of getting a sound dampener in future. Another couple of features missing is TPMS with readings for individual tyres and maybe ventilated seats. Have not missed the latter though, so far.
• A C-cable charging point would have made it future proof.
• The lane watch camera and the reverse camera reminds you of the VGA cameras from the ancient Nokias. I use the lane watch camera mostly for parking and while turning in tricky areas.
• The touch screen is not bad or unresponsive but the camera quality makes it appear worse. Nevertheless, the UI and look are fit for a car that was launched 10 years ago, not a segment-leading car.
• The engine gets noisy when revved and whether that sounds like a grunt or music to ears, depends on my mood and the reason why I revved.
• I read many comments that people do not use sunroof/moonroof after the initial few days. I drive mostly with the blinds open and sometimes open it fully to let the air in. The ingress/egress can be a slight pain for maybe 70+ elders. Although they have provided the grab handles.
• Boot space is more than sufficient. Helped me well in shifting.

I like the little features like controlling the ignition and window open and close and all those little fancy things that can be done using the remote. The Honda Connect app provides good info including reminders.

The more I drive this, the more I love this. This is one car that you will definitely look back at, at least once after you park it for the day. The way home is still a challenge but I am getting used to it. I am sure I will soon be able to park it without a second person's help.

I would like to thank Latheesh, Autoconsultant (awesome travelogue), TrackDay (beats most official reviews here) and all other friends of Tea-BHP, especially SRC (your go-to guy for anything). All you folks' posts and interactions helped me in this journey. Humble thanks to all of you on the forum.

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