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-   -   Honda working on City Facelift. EDIT: Launched at Rs 8.5 lakhs (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/172436-honda-working-city-facelift-edit-launched-rs-8-5-lakhs-42.html)

I have personally rear ended the 2014 honda city with my Honda city zx 2006 model. The break failed on masangudi slope while coming back from Ooty. I don't know how to express but I also felt that the build quality of 2014 HC was slightly inferior to my city. The back portion of new city was completly damaged. Even I suffered damages but the order was notch higher for new HC. I don't know if Honda or any other car manufacturers engineer their cars more for frontal impact and less for rear impact.It may be a good point to ponder. But the only thing I still vouch for is the bullet proof reliability of my city. I went to EU for 3 months once without doing anything and the car started on first crank on my return.

I feel honda should have priced the CVT Automatic better and got us atleast 1 variant below the 10L mark maybe even the S AT to save on taxes. The petrol MTs are nicely priced and the V MT looks more VFM than any other model of the previous gen Honda city. The diesels are at quite a premium and with the ciaz getting the hybrid advantage in delhi the difference between the 2 will be almost 3L. So for petrol it has be the city but am afraid ciaz will take away the majority of diesel sales as it has been doing.

P.s. nice to see you are back on the forum. Good to see you could take out some time out from the hectic life of a final year student.

Slightly :OT, but did anyone notice the way the presenter was holding the steering wheel of the city? It was like watching a cabbie review the car! And he was accelerating whilst barely having a grip on the wheel! How do such people become presenters? The City does accelerate rare quick, isn't it rather better to have a firm grip on the wheel at all times? Experts can correct me if I am wrong!

So now we have a facelifted, more premium City in a league of its own. Add a few airbags and a few cosmetic upgrades, it suddenly is no longer competing with the Ciaz or Vento, but more as threat to the likes of Elantra and Corolla in terms of pricing. I was checking at the facelifted City in Malaysia; the top variants have VSC, hill-start assist, 3-point seat-belt for all rear passengers etc. Probably Honda India did not want to position the City right in the D-segment and hence avoided those features.

It's a bit like Colgate saying - No, we don't compete with Patanjali. They cater to a different set of customers. :uncontrol

After battling Ciaz for 4 years now, Honda is planning to win the war by just ignoring the adversary and not fighting directly anymore. Yeah, City has a few base models to take on Ciaz, but City is in a different league altogether - is the message Honda is trying to convey to its customers.

In my current car the headlamp bulb replacement costs Rs. 100-150. What would be the replacement cost of these LED headlamps. I am assuming a single LED can't be replaced and the whole headlamp assembly would have to be replaced. Maybe the life of such LED headlamps assembly is more but still the replacement cost would be quite a bit more

Got a chance to see 2017 edition yesterday, here is the link.

The on-road price of a top variant Petrol CVT in Bangalore comes close to 17 lakhs. Check the dashboard finish :eek:

May I ask this,

What's wrong with the marked portion ? Are you thinking about that line dividing the upper & lower part ?

If so, then there is absolutely nothing wrong in terms of fit & finish. The lower part houses climate control & the upper part the Audio. In case to remove these 2 parts separately the cutout/spliter is given.

I hope others don't misuse this as to referring the car having uneven panels gaps.

Do you see any difference in terms of fit and finish ?

You tell you are not a fan boy then go ahead mentioning city is now competing with altis. Dont you think thats taking it a bit too far? I agree its competing on price.

Is it a competitor to altis in all the other international markets as well? Or honda gives the privilege only to Indians?

I think it's just the photo angle which is making it look different. Also, the Updated model gets Soft Touch Dashboard, hence the finish is slightly different though I line with what Thai/Malaysia Spec City has.

Refer the image.

The cost of 4 additional side and curtain airbags (two front ones being standard) will cost atleast 1.5 lakhs extra if provided as an option. Maybe will cost even higher if you add in the airbag sensors, control units and other fitments. One might as well pay that extra amount and go for the higher variant providing the additional 4 airbags.

If one observes the pricing, the lower variants are actually priced quite competitively and the incremental higher cost of every higher variant is actually adding up to the cost of the extra features that each variant comes with. There is no free lunch :)

I'm not trying to justify the prices, merely stating that offering a wide range of variants from 10 lakh all the way to 17 lakhs would cater to a wide segment of buyers right from the upper B segment all the way to lower D segment customers.
The core C2 segment buyer would mostly stick to SV, V and stretching upto VX, the lower D segment buyers would have ZX in their options list.

4 extra airbags definitely don't cost any more than 30-40k, case in point look at Ford offering it in Figo (even as an option) and in the Ecosport (the difference between Titanium option and titanium)

And clearly Honda is making more money on the higher variant so they don't want to let go of those sweet sweet margins. Just meant to say that the feature list doesn't necessarily improve in proportion with the price hike.

It's the same case as apple making more money on the higher storage tiers of the iPhone. The difference in cost in only about 20-25usd for Apple, but it costs consumer 4 times that.

I respect Honda for introducing the 6 airbags but they're definitely not making their way onto most models that will actually hit the road.

In the Vento thread, I also observe that VW is pushing the Vento closer to Jetta territory. Maybe, this is a play by some manufacturers to plug in that gap between their entry model and the next up model.

In any case, Maruti will make merry because of this gap. When someone is offering 80% of the car for 30% less (imaginative numbers, please excuse), a majority of folks who just want a sedan would swing to the one which is cheaper in cost. There will always the segment who'll pay whatever for a particular brand but I'd venture a guess that this segment is also fast dwindling in number.

The bright spot on this is the upcoming Verna. If they too price it in City/Vento territory, then Maruti can just relax and enjoy the cushion provided. If Hyundai price it aggressively, then we get good discounts and competitive pricing from both. It's just that I hate to see cars like the Vento which I got for 11.5L on road in 2013 is now going to hit 17-18L in 3 years. I believe Toyota is these manufacturers aspiration, seeing how the Innova is priced. Unfortunately, they don't understand the loyalty Toyota commands with Indian customers that is significantly lacking in the others. Let the chips fall where they may and lets allow the sales figures in a few months to do the talking.

I think there is no denying the fact that the top variants of facelifted Honda City is overpriced. We have to wait and see how will the market respond, we have an objective method to track that as well. So we will leave the people to decide whether it is worth it or not.

Regarding the comparison with VW Vento, we can't deny the fact that European cars are better built. Atleast that is the impression I get when I step into one. Infact my dad has always had a soft corner for Skoda, we almost bought the Laura in 2008 but backed off at the last moment because of the possibility of expensive maintenance and Skoda had fewer service centers than Honda then.

Even last year, when there was a discussion of upgrading the Honda City, we went a full circle from Skoda Superb to Innova Crysta to BMW X1 to square one. The point I am trying to make is, for most of the buyers they will look for the overall package which includes good car, better reliability and more importantly honest and quality service. The last two points is where brand like Honda and Toyota excels.

Atleast that is the general perception among the buyers and having owned the car of last 8 years, I can vouch for the quality of their service.

Owning a car should never be about making a statement but most of us fall in to that trap, we almost did when my dad almost went for BMW X1. Well, he could have definitely bought it but since he is handicapped we have to rely on drivers and its quite difficult to get a quality driver in my village. And we will be anxious each time we take the car out. What is the fun in doing that?

For me atleast, a car is affordable only if you can bear the cost minor fender bender without relying on insurance and not dent the monthly budget. Weird, I know. Lets see, when I get back to India, I will start the car hunt again.