Team-BHP - 4th-gen Honda City : Official Review

Quote:

Originally Posted by VWAllstar (Post 4452169)

A dear friend is looking for a Honda City Petrol. He is skeptical about the below points, you all who have been owning and driving the City for a long time can help.

1. Many owners of City call it a heavy drinker. With a city average of as less as 7-8 and highways not good either being 11-13 kmpl (petrol)
2. After 10k kms the parts start rattling. Apparently it is getting worse than Maruti which has improved it's fit and finish with Ciaz.
3. The low ground clearance scrapes at speed breakers especially in the interiors.
4. The suspensions are very soft making the ride boat like feeling.
5. Spares are very expensive especially the clutch plate and brake pads. Wear and tear is very frequent and early.

Please help to understand the truth in the above.

Following is based on my experience , around 13500 km done in 3 years:
1. Yes for bad city mileage. On highway you can expect 14-15

2. Rattling is due to engineering flaw, it can start even from day 1 as it has for many of us. It requires many trips to ASS to get it fixed which seems to be more about luck
3. No
4. No, that is said for Verna. Suspension is in fact quite hard in City
5. No issue on reliability front based on my first 3 years experience. However the hard gearbox is one of the worst things in the car

Quote:

Originally Posted by mxh (Post 4452360)

4. No, that is said for Verna. Suspension is in fact quite hard in City

Old story for Verna. The new one has no complaints for ride and handling capabilities. From our official review -

Quote:

On the highway, most road irregularities & undulations won't bother you. There is no wallowing or bouncing that was seen in the old Vernas. It is only large and sharp potholes that can make themselves felt. Hyundai suspensions have matured, with each new car from their stable exhibiting neutral on-road behaviour.

High speed stability is better than its predecessors. The Verna can cruise at triple digits all day long without any nervousness (no tank this, but stability is satisfactory). It feels planted enough and even slightly rough patches of road do not seem to affect its composure.

Where the previous-gen car was lovingly called a 'boat' by us, the 2017 Verna has sorted road manners (it's no Linea though). No doubt that the Elantra's more premium platform is a contributor here, as is the Hyundai engineering team finally learning how to tune suspensions.

Whereas here is what the official review mentions about the City -

Quote:

Ride quality is acceptable under normal driving conditions and gets better as the speedometer climbs up. The suspension is compliant over most road conditions, although it's not plush. Like most Hondas, the City can get unsettled on broken tarmac. Medium & large bumps do filter through to the cabin.

Also, when driving on undulating roads, the rear end suffers from excessive vertical movement. It won't stay planted on uneven patches of Indian highways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR (Post 4452367)

Old story for Verna. The new one has no complaints for ride and handling capabilities. From our official review -

Whereas here is what the official review mentions about the City -

Thanks both of you. It is really difficult to chose one. Verna tops in almost everything but the light weighted steering wheel is a downer. City is good in many ways but the quality of materials used are very flimsy and especially looking at the price of the car.
Vento/Rapid are perfect in many terms but the after sales service, resale value and suspensions of Vento are on the softer side.
Ciaz has everything apart from the fun to drive factor. Almost certain to be a chauffer driven car and not for self driving.
If you had 12 lakhs to put on one (sedan or a premium hatch) then which one would it be?

I replaced by stock horns with Hella Trumpet horns. I also faced the same issue of the dual horns not blowing together and the Honda service center was also not able to help much.

The relay of Hella horns do not require any change in the connections of the stock and you can safely put it in place from any local installation guy. I went for the service also after installing them and the SE was not having any issues as such with it. In fact he appreciated that I had changed it as he too felt that the stock ones are not upto to the mark.

Quote:

Originally Posted by esoticoreventon (Post 4451962)

Hello all, I have a 2018 Honda City iVtec V MT. The car has been great, but I have a couple of niggling issues.

1. The Horn. It was perfect but lately I see that one of the horns stops functioning occasionally. Its not always, it just alternates. Has anyone else faced this?

And the service people say it's normal and were pushing me to get VW group like horns for 2300. I know for a fact that this isn't normal and it was pointless arguing as I had to leave, and getting the other horn is something I am interested in as I had it on my previous car and it was perfect, but should it cost 2300? I had Bosch horns on my car and it costed 1000 bucks back in 2011! The thing about Honda's horn is that it comes with warranty and no other part's warranties are affected.

2. Rattle. I have noticed a rattle from the dashboard and I lucked into identifying it as a noise from the ORVM adjustment button. Can this be rectified without the service center pulling apart the dashboard?

Quote:

Originally Posted by quadmaniac (Post 4452589)

This largely depends on the city/traffic. My ODO average on the new City (bought in 2017) after 8k kms is about 13.6 kmpl. I wouldn't call it bad at all.

Till now I don't have rattles, but yes, I wish the build was more solid, Vento/Polo esque.

You are the first who have given me a number north of 11. Every other friend who owns a city had to buy a diesel hatch for their daily commute.

I was not into cars till 2012. But realising a lot that these brands play on our psyche a lot more than we really understand. After a lot of deliberation I am confident that City is exorbitantly priced for what it offers. Especially looking at the quality of materials which is going down. On the other hand Ciaz has priced it's top end petrol manual at 11.5 on road Mumbai. Surprising that there is nearly 3 lakh difference between the city top end petrol and ciaz top end petrol manual. Yaris had an opportunity but priced it too high. Expect this from Toyota. They are taking the liberty of our perception of quality and trust in the T badge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VWAllstar (Post 4453026)

I dunt think so that the FE is that bad. I get ~14 with 60% highway and 40% City commute daily on full load with 5 people in the car(as I Car Pool) and AC in Auto mode. Even a bumper to bumper commute gives me ~11 and all these statistics are as per the display FE. Car is 2017 Petrol Manual.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhisheknandan (Post 4454081)

Everyone's definition of bumper to bumper traffic is different. Come to Mumbai sometime and drive around suburbs area / western express highway in peak hours. City will give around 8 mileage, that too if everything is 100% ok with the car (If not the mileage will be even less).I wouldn't recommend this car if mileage is a concern- best to go for diesel/ CNG for best running costs.

My answers based on 2014 petrol V-MT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VWAllstar (Post 4452169)

1. Many owners of City call it a heavy drinker. With a city average of as less as 7-8 and highways not good either being 11-13 kmpl (petrol)
I haven't ever reset my trip meter 2 and it shows 12.3 over 54k km with 40% Mumbai city driving and balance 2 lane highest driving. I find it very acceptable.

2. After 10k kms the parts start rattling. Apparently it is getting worse than Maruti which has improved it's fit and finish with Ciaz.
This is a problem. I have now gotten used to it and increase the volume couple of notches.

3. The low ground clearance scrapes at speed breakers especially in the interiors.
Strong NO. My factory road is the worst and have never faced issues in loaded vehicle also.

4. The suspensions are very soft making the ride boat like feeling.
Nope.

5. Spares are very expensive especially the clutch plate and brake pads. Wear and tear is very frequent and early.
Till 54k km, I've only replaced brake pads once. Rest all stock.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mxh (Post 4456199)

Well then I will further surprise you by telling that I travel every second week to Mumbai and stay there. I commute from Powai to Versova via JVLR--> Andheri Flyover--> Juhu circle and trust me, the traffic is bumper to bumper by anyone's definition. Still the FE is not as bad as 8.

Also, if the intention of the discussion is to take the feedback on the FE, then we should be open. However, if it is conclude that the FE of City is bad, then we don't have much scope for further feedback.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VWAllstar (Post 4452169)

All this would be true for the 3rd gen Honda City. It is surprising to hear these comments for the 4th Gen.

Having done more than 58K kms in the 4th Gen Honda City ownership, I can safely say that almost all the points above are nowhere close to reality. Here's my take on those points:

1. Overall FE over 58K kms is 12.2 kmpl. 60:40 City to Highway Ratio. ON highways, one can very easily extract 16-17 kmpl with 100-110 kmph speeds. Cruise Control can bump it up even further if you can manage to be patient with the traffic.
2. Dashboard Rattles & Squeaks are real for sure in the 4th Gen. But no issues like falling parts or so. A little higher volume and the rattles are drowned out. Asking the ASC to resolve the rattles does not make much difference as factory fitment is never achieved again and ends up rattling again. But this rattling started after over 25-30K kms.
3. Ground Clearance is same in terms of mm in 3rd & 4th gen Honda City. the 4th Gen, however, has a stiffer suspension doing away with most of the ground clearance issues. Rest assured, very few cars would pass un-scraped if the 4th Gen Honda City has managed to scrap the bottom somewhere.
4. Ride Quality is a little hard due to stiffer suspension. But then, you win some (Better GC) & you lose some (ride quality)
5. Only brake pads & Tyres changed till date apart from the regular service parts like Oil Filter, Air Filter etc. Stock brake pads too lasted about 52K kms which is quite good. I haven't seen anybody on the forum as of yet who has had to get the clutch replaced or have any other major part replaced.

With regards to your question on which car to choose in the segment:

When it comes to the segment competition in petrol cars, there would hardly be any car that would be able to plaster a smile other than Honda City when you are looking for performance. Probably only the Vento TSI would be a consideration against this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VWAllstar (Post 4452169)

I have attached snapshot of highway trip of more than 300 kms.
I regularly do highway trips and have clocked 45000 kms in past 3 years. I get more than 18 kmpl in my highway runs. IMO this is one of the most fuel efficient 1500cc cars in India

For daily drive in pune city traffic milage is between 11-13kmpl.

My current mileage over a 1400 km period is 10.3 with AC, always used at full blast in South Delhi traffic. My car is 2014 model Automatic CVT.
When AC is not used mileage tends to be in 12-13 range, so I personally would vouch for daily use good mileage in petrol automatic Honda City.

Dear BHPian,
There were several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.
Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use a spell-checker.