Battle Of Its Own: 2020 Honda City Old vs New

How much progress has the fifth-gen model witnessed over its predecessor?

Update: Honda has launched the fifth-gen City in India with prices beginning from Rs 10.90 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). You can read more about it here.

Honda has revealed the official details of the fifth-gen version of its venerable City nameplate for India. It has some big shoes to fill in and that’s why we put it side by side in a comparison with the existing model. Here’s what’s different in the 2020 City that’s going to launch in July.

Exterior

• The upcoming model is sleeker and gets a Civic-like (more premium) front end flanked by sharp LED headlamps and daytime running lamps. The front bumper has a cleaner design and an intricately designed housing for the LED fog lamps. The old City also gets LED headlamps and daytime running lights, but the new one offers 9 units in an array compared to the relatively bigger 3 in the old one. 

• Side profile of the new City is much more coherent as a cleanly drawn shoulder line connects the headlamps to the tail lamps. The wheel arches are slightly more pronounced and so are the 16-inch machine-finished alloy wheels in the new City. The older model bears multiple lines and it also sits on differently designed 16-inch machine-finished wheels. 

• The rear end of the new City is adorned with side-sweeping LED lamps against the clear lens lights on the older model.  

• The new City is 109mm longer, 53mm wider but 6mm shorter than its older iteration. Thus, it sits a lot squatter and looks a bit sportier. The wheelbase remains identical at 2600mm. 

Interior

• Interior witnesses a major change in the new car which gets a dual-tone black and beige dashboard theme. The central console that tilts towards the driver in the old one has levelled up a bit. 

• The new City gets a bigger 8-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Weblink support compared to a 7-inch unit in the existing one. 

• The climate control switches now feature conventional dials unlike the touch panel on the existing City which is a smudge magnet.

• 2020 City buyers will get a 7-inch semi-digital instrument cluster that has a g-meter to display the magnitude and direction of acceleration. It will also relay tyre pressure stats and digital speeds. The current model makes do with an analogue setup.

• Another addition is the Alexa remote control and Honda connected apps that allow the remote opening of doors and cabin pre-cool feature among others.

• While the Thai-spec City we saw last year missed out on a sunroof, the India-spec model comes equipped with it just like its predecessor. 

• Safety suite of the new City includes six airbags, ISOFIX mounts, ABS with EBD, hill start assist, vehicle stability control and LaneWatch camera for blindspot monitoring. The last three features are new for the City. 

Engine

• Powering the new City is a set of 1.5-litre petrol and diesel engines. The 2020 City’s petrol delivers 121PS in comparison to the 119PS on the older model. The new model has a 6-speed manual whereas the old one utilizes a 5-speed unit. A CVT can be had with both though. 

• A 1.5-litre diesel engine paired with a 6-speed manual can only be had with the new City.

For fuel efficiency comparison, take a look at the following table.

Price and Availability

• Prices of the 2020 Honda City are likely to be in the range of Rs 11 lakh and Rs 16 lakh. Its launch is scheduled for July. 

• The current Honda City is likely to remain on sale as a petrol-only model alongside. It currently retails at Rs 9.91 lakh and Rs 14.31 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Read More on : City on road price