2017 Honda City facelift review, test drive

What’s it like on the Inside?

Honda has always been great with interiors and the City is no exception. The new car keeps the best bits of the City’s interiors intact while trying to pile on the premium quotient and tech. The first thing that will catch your eye inside the new City is the new ‘Digipad’ infotainment system. Available in V, VX and ZX trims, this system is equipped with a 7.0-inch capacitive touchscreen that has great resolution, legible icons and is pretty easy to operate.

The system also offers new features like Wi-Fi support (use your smartphone as a hotspot and it will connect to it), MirrorLink smartphone integration, navigation with real-time traffic data, 1.5GB of onboard storage, two USB slots, two microSD card slots and even an HDMI port. Connectivity is the buzzword for customers today and Honda seems to have kept this in mind.

The City’s premium quotient has been upped a bit with a greater use of soft-touch plastics and chrome trim on and around the dashboard. The City’s traditional strengths like the comfortable seats, rear seat space and flat floor remain unchanged.

On the safety front, dual front airbags, ABS, EBD and ISOFIX seats are standard across the range. The top ZX variants get side and curtain airbags as well, but at this price point, perhaps ESP or traction control could have been included too.

What’s it like to drive?

The City continues to be powered by the same set of petrol and diesel engines. The 1.5 litre i-DTEC engine that makes 100hp and 200Nm delivers great low-end performance and is smooth and linear in a very un-diesel-like way, but rev it hard and it becomes rather noisy. Honda claims to have added more insulation for lowering the NVH levels in the diesel, and, though it is a marked improvement, there's only so much that could be done to curb what is inherently a noisy engine. Ambient sounds have gone down a bit, but the diesel engine rattle is still an issue.

The petrol option is of course the tried and tested naturally-aspirated 1.5 i-VTEC engine developing 119hp and 145Nm. The motor is still a riot for enthusiasts, revving out eagerly to its red line and making a lot of its power at the top end. It's quite usable at the bottom end too and, as the revs climb, it can get a bit vocal.

Gearbox options remain the same as well with a six-speed manual for the diesel and a choice between five-speed manual or seven-step CVT automatic for the petrol. With India’s crowded roads and newfound fondness for automatics, it’s sad that the City doesn’t offer such an option on the diesel, but that's just something that will perhaps have to wait for the next generation.

With no mechanical changes to the suspension either, the ride remains largely the same, which is to say agreeable by class standards, but not the class best. There's still a fair bit of roll around corners and the ride quality can get a bit choppy at times. The top ZX variants do get new 16-inch alloys and wider tyres, and thankfully they don't seem to have hurt the ride quality at all. As for the handling, we didn't get much of a chance to test it on Delhi's wide, smooth and straight roads, so the verdict is still out on that one.