2020 Honda City

The Honda City is perceived as a fun, agile, and comfortable C2 segment sedan. It was introduced for the first time in the country in 1998. By now, Honda has introduced 4 generations of the City in the Indian market. Now in 2020, Honda has launched the 5th-generation of the City.  With the generation change, it gets a new design, updated powertrain, a revised interior, and addition of some more features

2020 Honda City Review – Exterior

Sedans, in general, possess a 3-box silhouette, and Honda has stayed true to this philosophy while designing the 5th-gen City. It gets a long hood, followed by a proportionately long cabin and boot. There’s no coupe-like roofline here, thus it looks posh than being outright sporty. On the front, the new 9-segment all-LED headlamps are attention-seekers, and in between them, sits a thick-chrome slat that houses the Honda logo.

The new bumper boasts of sharp recesses and gets LED fog lamps without any chrome embellishments around them. Now in the new-gen avatar, the Honda City is the widest car in its segment with a width of 1,748 mm. Thus, the front facet of the car looks distinctive with a fair amount of bling on its side. Also, the bonnet gets two sharp creases, which help in hiding away the heft but adding a muscular touch to the front facet.

Moving over to the sides, the first thing that anyone would notice is its length of 4,549 mm. This makes it the longest car in the segment. In comparison to the last-gen model, the 2020 Honda City looks a whole lot different from the sides. The hood line is flat and does not merge with the pillars as cohesively as in the outgoing model. With a height of 1,489 mm, it isn’t the shortest either, therefore gets a large greenhouse area. It gets 16-inch dual-tone alloy wheels, which are borrowed from the RS trim that is offered in the international markets only.

The ORVMs are mounted on the doors and are of a decent size. The tail lamps are wraparound units; they extend all the way to the sides and serve as marker lamps as well. Also, there’s a strong and sharp beltline that connects the headlamps with the tail lamps, giving the side profile some visual drama.

From the rear, the new-gen City looks gorgeous. It gets a set of sleek tail lamps with a Z-shaped LED element inside them, which features a dotted-effect on the sides. Interestingly, Honda has not used chrome on the rear-end, which will have mixed reactions for sure. But, the overall design is wonderfully perceived. The rear bumper gets more creases than the front one and houses 2 reflectors on the extreme edges in a vertically-stacked layout. A roof-mounted shark-fin antenna can also be seen.

2020 Honda City Review – Interior

As on the outside, Honda has updated the City from the inside as well. It now gets a new design for the dashboard, which looks much better than that of its predecessor’s. It features a faux wood trim that divides the dashboard into two. The dashboard also gets leather inserts at places. The AC vents are now redesigned and vertically stacked. The dashboard’s top is finished in black to avoid reflection on the windshield. Interestingly, Honda has not used the Digipad 2.0 from the last-gen model here. It gets a new 8-inch infotainment unit, instead.

This new head unit is mounted a little off the centre and features a host of connectivity and compatibility options. It gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility along with Alexa Remote Capability. It also works as the monitor for the LaneWatch camera, which is mounted on the left-hand side ORVM. While the touch response of the screen is great, its placement is not the best. Honda could’ve fixed it in a driver-centric fashion and with a volume control knob. In its current position, it is not the best screen to look at on a sunny day. As all that you see is glare and reflection.

Nevertheless, the sound output of this system is great, courtesy of the 4-speaker and 4-tweeter setup.  Beneath the infotainment unit, now sits the HVAC controls. Thankfully, Honda has not used a touchpanel this time to operate the climate control unit. What you get is a set of physical knobs, instead.

The steering wheel is redesigned unit too. It now gets a hexagonal boss pad and a better layout for the controls. Right behind it sits the instrument cluster, which now gets a 7-inch multi-colour TFT screen along with an analogue speedometer. This configurable display showcases a host of data and information to keep the driver updated with all the stats.

Talking of the storage spaces inside the cabin, they are in plenty. Starting from the door pads, they can accommodate a 1L bottle with ease along with some other essentials. There’s a small coin holder in the dashboard on the driver’s side, whereas the passenger side gets a decent-sized glovebox, which misses out on the cooling functionality here. In the centre console, there are two cup holders along with some space to keep your belongings. Plus, the front-row armrest can also be used to store some small knick-knacks

The interior features a dual-tone black-beige treatment. It helps in accentuating the overall appeal and ambience of the cabin. Also, the seats here are big and supportive. While the squab feels nicely bolstered, the backrests should’ve had lumbar adjustments on the front seats. The rear bench, on the other hand, is the best in the business.

The braking duties on the new-gen City are performed by ventilated discs at the front and mechanically actuated drums at the rear. They are good at stopping the City right in time, without making it lose its composure. But, this is only possible with the ESP working as the guardian angel in the background, since the City rides on a set of low-rolling-resistance Ecopia tyres from Bridgestone.

They are 185/55 R16 in dimensions but lack the grip that is required to enjoy the City’s direct steering, which also offers a lot of feedback. In an age of power-assisted steerings, it is tough to come across a precise and feedback-rich steering system, and the 2020 City gets one for sure. While it is surely light at slow speeds, it doesn’t show any tantrums to gain weight as the speed increases. On the whole, the new-gen City offers a great balance between ride comfort and agility. The only gripe that we had, was the tyres, as Honda could’ve used softer and gripper rubber for the nice-looking 16-inch rims.