2020 Honda City Review: Classy & Feature-rich

2020 Honda City Overview: A Brief Introduction

Take a quick looking back to the old days when the Honda City defines itself as an agile, fun-to-drive and premium C2 segment sedan in the Indian market. The first Honda City hit the country in 1998 and until now, we’ve been seeing 4 generation changes of the Honda City in the Indian space. Despite being on the roads for more than two decades now, the Honda City has managed to keep updating itself to catch pace with the competition and redefine itself as the most sought-after sedan cars of India.

2020 marks another year that the Honda City sees a major update. In its fifth-gen avatar, the Honda City gets a whole new design with the refreshed front fascia, a revised interior, added features and updated powertrain system on boards. Upon its market launch, the 2020 Honda City has received mixed reactions. Some say the fifth-gen City is rather boring and unenticing to stay with while others think the new City is flashy and classy enough to bring back the magic of the original first-gen car. By our end, we wonder if all these can help the City top the sales chart where the strong players like Maruti Ciaz, Hyundai Verna are standing. Luckily, we get a chance to take the new Honda City with all of its engine-transmission combinations out for a spin and here’s how we feel.

2020 Honda City Exterior Review: How Does It Look?

Over the generations, Honda City has always been an aspirational car, especially for its look. While sedans, in general, have taken some beating ever since the SUVs enjoy more affinity from the domestic auto enthusiasts but Honda City is still standing there, firmly and fiercely throughout the test of the time.

During the course of its launch, the 2020 Honda City makes the headlines with its new design. However, there are mixed opinions on it with some saying that the new-gen City looks dull while others complement its sportiness. For us, the 5^th-gen City deserves a thumb-up. The new-gen sedan stays true to the conventional design philosophy with a 3-box silhouette and no coupe-like stance on offer.

Front view

The new-gen Honda City is an absolute attention-catcher. It looks a lot sharper and posher than the outgoing model with a long hood with sharp creases on it, sharp-looking full-LED headlamps that flank a thick-chrome slat housing Honda logo in the middle as well as a nice set of DRLs. The revised bumper of the new City boasts of many creases at the lower part, around the headlamps and fog lamps. The car gets a lower stance that adds more to the dynamism quotient of the subcompact sedan.

Side view

This is where the new-gen City’s enhanced proportions are more apparent and its massive length does a good job in escalating the upmarket visual appeal of the car. Unfortunately, the hood line seems a bit flatter and doesn’t cohesively merge with the pillars as what we’ve seen in the previous-gen model. Also, even with a set of 16-inch dual-tone alloy wheels sourced from the RS trim, they still look a tad small under the vehicle. The sharp body line of the Honda City 2020 gets inspiration from the Japanese Katana sword that stretches well over from the front wheel arches to the tail lamps. Having said, the beltline might not look as menacing as the one in the older version but it does add a fair bit of flavour to the overall design.

Rear View

The rear end of the 2020 Honda City is just gorgeous. The wraparound sleek taillamps boast of Z-shaped LED elements, giving away an excellent dotted-effect. Honda doesn’t give the tail end of the new City any chrome treatment that would be a bit of letdown for some. However, we do think that it still looks nice without chrome. The rear bumper features even more creases than the front with two nicely-fitted reflectors on the edges. A shark-fin antenna is mounted on the roof as well.

Overall, the 2020 Honda City gets an attractive design and for us, there’s none of the boredom here. This styling design might help the City appeal to a wider set of buyers in the Indian space.

2020 Honda City Dimensions: Length, Width, Height & More

At the first glance, one thing that you would notice straight away on the Honda City is its massive proportions. The 2020 Honda City has grown much in terms of dimensions with a length of 4,549 mm, making it the longest car of the sedan segment. It is also the widest offering of the lot with a width measured at 1,748 mm. And with the height of 1,489 mm, the new City isn’t any short at all. Here we give you a comparison between 2020 Honda City vs old Honda City to see how it measures up against the outgoing car in terms of size.

The Japanese carmaker has claimed that the new-gen City is more rigid thanks to the larger use of high-tensile strength steel and stiffer roof. That’s while the new City is a lot heavier than the outgoing model but it would be compensated by the enhanced safety along with noise insulation levels for sure.

2020 Honda City Interior: What Does It Offer?

Interior Design

As with the exterior, the Honda City interior has been updated thoroughly, not only in terms of design but also the functional aspects. It gets a dashboard layout that looks much classier than the outgoing unit and is divided into two parts by the faux wood trim. The dash also features leather inserts in some places.

 The 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system stands out in the middle, flanked by two vertically-fitted AC vents at two sides. It’s thoughtful of Honda to give the dashboard’s top a black finish, all the ways to avoid reflection on the windscreen. However, the only grouse here is the position of the touchscreen. While the screen offers a good touch response, it’s not in the best placement that makes the drivers a bit difficult to look at, especially on sunny days. The dual-tone black-beige treatment gives it an airier look and feel.

Comfort Features

Honda has equipped the 2020 City with almost all the bells and whistles that one demands a premium sedan model. Honda has just burned its midnight lamps to work on a driver-centric interior of the new City. The major features highlights on the new City include an 8.0-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto compatibility along with Alexa Remote, premium sound system with 4-speakers and 4-tweeter setup, climate control with physical knobs, 7.0-inch multi-colour TFT screen along with analogue speedometer, keyless entry with remote engine start, rear AC vents, automatic door lock and unlock telescopic and tilt steering, sunroof, driver’s seat height adjuster, steering-mounted controls, paddle shifters, cup-holders and storage spaces. Sadly, the decent-sized glovebox of the new Honda City misses out on the cooling functionality that’s quite a necessary fitment during the hot weather conditions.

Seating Capacity

With the increased dimensions, the 2020 Honda City surely offers decent room for the passengers on the inside. The City has the capacity to seat five people on a single drive. At the front, the seats are contoured very well and provides decent supports for the under-thighs. However, the rear winners here should be the rear seats. Apart from getting the plush quality, there’s a generous amount of legroom and shoulder room for three. That said, the rear bench here should be best in the class.

Safety Features

As far as safety features are concerned, the new Honda City is packed with a plethora of features. It is one of the safest cars with six airbags on offer. Also, there are ABS with EBD, tyre-pressure monitoring system, ESC, hill-start assists, 3-point seatbelts for all occupants, rain-sensing wipers, Lane watch camera, seatbelt reminder, auto-dimming IRVM, rear parking camera, auto headlamps and many others.

All in all, when comparing the new Honda City with an older version or even with its rivals, the 2020 Honda City interior has been much more advanced, comfortable and luxurious for sure.

2020 Honda City Performance: Engine Review

Engine Specifications

In its latest-gen avatar, the all-new Honda City is available with two engine options under the bonnet – a 1.5-litre petrol engine paired with a 6-speed MT and a CVT along with a 1.5-litre diesel mill coupled with a 6-speed MT unit. While the petrol engine can deliver 121 PS of max power at 6,600 rpm against 145 Nm of torque at 4,300 rpm, the diesel burner is tuned to develop 100 PS  at 3,600 rpm with 200 Nm of torque measured at 1750 rpm.

Performance

As we all agree, Honda’s i-VTEC petrol engines are always fun-to-rev, fun-to-drive and refined, to say the least. All these go for the 2020 Honda City pretty well. It feels enough power right at the first rev where you can hear it roars to life by one press at the start-stop button. At high rpm or in the mid-range, we hardly notice any vibrations to complain about on the inside the sedan while at idle, it is completely silent. While exceeding 3,000 rpm, it makes some audible sound that would even urge you to press the pedal more often.

The oil engine, on the other hand, is the same one that powers the fourth-gen City model. The power and torque output figures are appreciable. The motor is known for giving high NVH levels but Honda has made some efforts to keep them lower and succeeded. At idle, the diesel clatter is quite persistent even at high rpm. The 6-speed MT is really of help clocking more kilometres for a reduced fuel level. Still, the engine feels a bit underpowered at times, especially when compared with other modern-day powerful motors of the same size on offer.

2020 Honda City Mileage: Is It Fuel Efficient?

When it comes to the fuel efficiency, Honda claims that the new-gen City can clock around 18.4 kmpl per one litre of fuel it gulps for the petrol-automatic variant while the manual petrol models can do it at 17.8 kmpl. The diesel-powered City seems to be the most fuel-efficient of the range with an ARAI-rated fuel economy rating of 24.1 kmpl

2020 Honda City Prices: Is It Affordable?

Honda has always defined itself as a premium carmaker. The Japanese company is selling the new-gen Honda City alongside the fourth-gen version in the Indian market. While the older-gen City sedan is priced at around Rs 9.29 – 9.99 Lakh, the new Honda City is pricier with the price bracket of around Rs 10.89 – 14.64 Lakh (all prices, ex-showroom, Delhi). Check out the table below for the variant-wise prices of the 2002 Honda City in India.

2020 Honda City Colours: How Many Options?

Currently, the 2020 Honda City is available in 5 different exterior colour options – radiant red metallic, platinum white pearl, lunar silver metallic, golden brown metallic and modern steel metallic.

Verdict: Is 2020 Honda City Worth Buying?

It’s certainly worth a buy if its pricing is no object. At the price starting from Rs 10.89 lakh, the 2020 Honda City comes off as a good option for a premium C2-segment sedan. From the base variant, the City has been loaded to the gills with features so it’s safe to say that the new City scores well in the value for money quotient. It is stylish on the outside, feature-laden on the inside, not to mention that it is one of the largest sedan offering the utmost comfort of the lot. And finally, considering many carmakers in India are giving up the diesel motor, the Honda City totally deserves applause for its presence.