City Life

Twenty-two years after Honda first introduced us to the game-changing City, the fifth iteration of this popular sedan is here to take on all challengers

- Anosh Khumbatta

With over two decades behind it, the honda city is one of the longest-running car badges in our market, with timely updates and fresh models keeping it relevant in an ever-changing landscape. competitors have come and gone over the years, the advent of crossover SUVs and subfour-meter sedans has eaten into c-segment sales, but, through it all, the city endures, continuing to be one of the bestselling sedans in our market.

For 2020, honda have given us the fifth-generation city which builds on the outgoing model’s strengths with an eye-catching design, class-leading interior space, and excellent driving dynamics. the car is being offered with either 1.5-liter petrol or 1.5-liter diesel powerplants, and I recently spent a day with the top-end ZX variant of the petrol-powered city, equipped with the optional CVT automatic.

The design of the new city is clearly an evolution of the fourth-generation car, retaining the broad chrome strip running across the nose and a familiar side profile. headlights are now slimmer and get an array of nine LEDs each for illumination, plus Led DRL strips above and slim Led turn signals below. the bonnet seems to have muscled up, while the darkened Led tail-lamps have also been redesigned and create a unique light signature as they wrap around the corners of the rear at the same level as the sharp shoulder-line.