[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Just curious as to why?

City is longer and takes up more space on the road, consume the same amount of fuel as well.

Taller car; can't see through its windscreen clearly enough to gauge traffic movements ahead unnecessary blocking of someone's view just for someone else's personal satisfaction of sitting on top of everything else is what I feel. I don't mind if it is being driven well but more often than not it wouldn't be piloted well given our country's laxed licensing norms.

[sam264_2000]

Between the 2 cars (& their variants) that you have shortlisted, I have voted for the Honda City.

Primary reasons:
1. Safety features provided in City VX - you can't add these aftermarket This alone is a factor for me to opt for City.
2. No reasons to worry about Honda's future or long term reliability of City. They have been selling the City for 20 years in India and has always been the segment leader.
3. Ride quality is comfortable compared to the stiff ride of Seltos. I had a Zest which had a stiff suspension and I used to feel the potholes on the steering wheel and bumpy low speed rides.
4. I expect better reliability and lesser insurance & maintenance costs of City over Seltos.

W.r.t Fabric vs leather seats - you can opt for aftermarket leather seats provided by manufacturer. I won't recommend this to avoid messing with the 6 airbags system of City VX in event of an unfortunate incident. However, Honda dealers maintain that there won't be any issues. One of my colleague opted for leather seats for his City V CVT and the fit and finish is fantastic.

I am in a similar dilemma as you, albeit between City ZX CVT vs Creta automatic (Petrol & Diesel) vs Seltos Diesel automatic. If you want, you can go through my thread https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/what-...ta-seltos.html (Upgrading from a Tata Zest - City or Creta or Seltos?)

[arindambasu13]

I am no different from the overall wave of opinion in this thread and will advise you to opt for the City when compared to the Seltos. The new City is a genuinely awesome car. I have always maintained that the Honda City is a close to perfect mix of practicality, performance, reliability (the three most important considerations for me when picking up a car) and the new one is even better than the 4th Gen City which I own. The 1.5 iVTEC is a legendary engine, and as they say "it just works". No matter how much certain people tend to bash Honda for their laid back attitude in the Indian market, the indisputable fact remains that the City is a stellar and solid product that one cannot go wrong with, and that has held fort for the company for decades.

I am not enamoured by Kia at all (whether it is the Sonet or Seltos), especially given their questionable safety and ethical standards which I keep reading about. Further, if you are looking at the turbo petrol DCT, the oft-reported transmission gremlins are also something to be considered.

[Shiftlock]

I am unable to vote yet however if I could, my pick of the two would be the City simply because of the variant to variant comparison. The City CVT VX in my opinion has almost all features that anyone would want in a car and more. Most importantly it comes with 6 airbags, Hill assist, Brake assist, VSM and Traction Control. All of which are missing in the Seltos HTX. The comparison favours the City even more when you consider that the City VX CVT is cheaper by around a Lakh rupees.

[pgsagar]

City, it is for me. By a long shot. No one can beat Japanese in core engineering. Especially, Toyota and Honda. Sure, they don't bring bling to the table but trust me bling wears off in no time. Too many features also bring a lot of headache as they start failing one by one as the vehicle starts ageing and keeping those features functioning gets irksome affair. Our dusty, humid, bumpy road take heavy toll on electronics. I am not confident about Korean cars. Not after seeing so many issues.

[kushagra452]

Another vote for the Honda City. You just can not go wrong with this car. I have the 2004 model ("Dolphin model") and the car has never let me down in the past 16+ years. The new City looks great and the space is excellent.

[GRAND23]

Voted for City (assuming you have closed doors for diesel).

After I test drove the 5th gen city, I became fan of that naturally aspirated 1.5L engine. Manual was fun and CVT is butter smooth.

If you want to go for diesel, then buy Seltos Diesel Torque Converter.
If it is petrol, close your eyes and buy City (manual or CVT).

Safety aspect: I think City must be definitely better than Seltos.
Features: I think this is personal choice. Depends what features you are interested in.
Comfort: City wins with best ergonomic in place.
Ride and handling: City is better than Seltos stiffer ride.
Ground Clearance: Ofcourse SUV's win here.
Space: Honda is known for this.
Reliability: Honda is again King. But Koreans are not too far.
Ownership cost: More or less same for both cars.

Hope this helps?

[ramki.grandhi]

I personally love sedans, because of the way it handles and lower price compared to equivalent CSUV/SUV.

For sedans, the biggest deal breakers for me are:
1) At night time, even a scooter guy or auto driver or cab drivers can blind you easily with high beams, if you are sitting low. In the past, it used happen only with lorries, busses and other big vehicles.
2) It appears that ground clearance is decent enough but when the car is fully loaded with 4 adults and week's luggage, you will definitely scrape your car.
3) Getting in and out is slightly difficult for older people.


But if you ask me specifically between City vs Seltos, i would definitely pick City. I cannot trust Seltos because of lower crash test ratings, brake issues, what not. City is much proven car in India, and its Honda's flagship product.

[M00M]

Day before your yesterday a massive car accident happened on the mum - pune expressway where lorry hit the cars from behind. it was a creta and all the passengers died on the spot.

while the city crash rating is not yet available the thailand spec is 5 stars and even if honda india has watered down something it will still be better than the seltos which is only 2 stars.

the koreans after 2 - 3 years will give you a lot of maintenance and im talking from first hand knowledge and experience. i recommend the city zx cvt if you have the budget for it eyes closed.

[Nav-i-gator]

Barring maybe the new Verna, Sedans are tremendous VFM against crossovers. And apart from high GC (at the cost of driving dynamics) they do not offer much that a sedan cannot give.

Now, GC is a very important criteria in India. So if the roads you frequently travel are bad, go for a crossover (I would still ask you to avoid Seltos, for the pathetic performance in crash test).

If you go for City, you will love the very direct steering response as well. even at slow speeds upto 30KMPH, I just love to steer slightly late and slightly hard on bending roads, just to feel the superb response and the car just holds the intended line perfectly.

I did check all cars in the same segment before going for City CVT. Honestly, Seltos didn't strike me as a car that deserves that much money. I felt Sonet's interiors were better in quality. Door thud was pretty ordinary (not that City is miles ahead, but it just feels safer with that long bonnet and boot that cocoons the passenger box).

One thing you might want to recheck in the city is the rear/side views from the ORVMs. I feel they are too small and do not give you a view that is needed for a confident reversing or driving in tight spaces. I simply can't see the edge of the boot.

In terms of GC, I am surprised (and happily relaxed now) to experience that City has never scraped the underbelly over any pothole/speed breaker till now. I am still wary of the long front overhang though. But it has been much better than what I expected. The most difficult hurdle to finalize City was the GC, so you can imagine how relaxed it feels now. Though I have yet to see how it will perform with full passenger and boot load. But - no comparison to the peace of mind a crossover can offer in this regard at least.

[stealthcraft22]

I am unable to vote on the thread, but I think it doesn't matter now since the scale is overwhelmingly in City's favour and rightly so!

You will also notice that there is not a single comment which suggests you to go for Seltos. What does that mean? I think it means that there is nothing reasonable offered by Seltos which outsells City. It's just a rich man's poor car. On the other hand, City is a rich car irrespective of how fat or thin your wallet is.

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator

In terms of GC, I am surprised (and happily relaxed now) to experience that City has never scraped the underbelly over any pothole/speed breaker till now. I am still wary of the long front overhang though.

The underbelly scraping issue that was reported on the 3rd Gen Honda City was largely neutralized by stiffening the suspension on the 4th, and now 5th generation City. I drive my 4th gen regularly in Bangalore, which has a plethora of bad to downright terrible roads and it has been only in very few situations where I have faced any severe scraping incidents. Of course, I do baby the car over potholes and speed breakers as a general part of my driving style, but that usually ensures that the suspension is largely guarded from any untoward mishaps.

On the more specific topic of this thread - the safety ratings of the Seltos and the general manner in which the Koreans have been neglecting Indian customers etc is enough for me personally to stay away from the brands. That being said, even on price considerations, I have felt the Seltos and Sonet twins to be way overpriced for what they offer. Bangalore prices, especially for higher end variants, really reach astounding levels of insanity where these cars are concerned. The City offers greater value on almost all parameters.

[poised2drive]

The verdict is overwhelmingly tilted towards the City - the King of Indian Sedans, and it is not at all surprising.

And I would agree with the majority.

Owning a Honda City (IDtec) , I could only find a few cons

1. Low GC - In last 7000 Km I drove, I remember it scraping the belly just once on a worse under-construction highway approach . I must confess I was worried many a time on pot-hole ridden/debris filled roads and hesitantly pass over them only to heave a sigh of relief. Of course, I always exercise caution and it never hurts to be cautious.

So unless you drive on kutcha , deep pothole filled roads on a daily basis, there is little to worry about.

2. Illumination : The lights from the City are satisfactory, but given its low seating position and every other vehicle including 2-wheelers switching on Highway beam in the city traffic ( which is ridiculously atrocious) , the lights from the opposite vehicles would most certainly blind the driver , unless of course you switch on the Highway beam over those idiots .

Changing to a powerful Headlamp might also help .

3. Handling: City is one of the best cars in terms of reliability, practicality and space, but it is not a great handler. Of course, this can be solved to a certain extent by a tyre upgrade . The Steering is very light and a boon in city traffic, but tricky on highways at highspeeds.

Future of Honda India

I think this is no concern at all, given the volume of Honda cars on the Indian Roads and the numbers it sell every month. One of the biggest letdowns of owning a Honda City is the utter lack of novelty . One can find so many Honda Cities on road that you feel it like an Ambassador of 90s . Honda India is only lousy to encash the Indian market unlike Kia or Hyundai , but it seems it is slowly waking up to catch the bus by introducing CSuV and Honda city Hatchback ( hope it would not be too late) . Nevertheless, Honda has Cities and Amazes going in decent numbers, much larger than most of the other companies. So, it does not make much sense to worry about this aspect.

So in totality, City offers more in terms of Safety, Reliability, Comfort, Practicality & Space .

You cannot go wrong with a Honda

[Carz77]

I voted for City....like most of the votes

1) Honda is a very well established company globally and their i-vtec engines are at a different level, super silent and refined
2) Long term reliability is given in any Honda cars. In the past I have driven Civic and Accord in US and now I have Jazz (5+ yrs) in India. There is absolutely nothing to do apart from regular servicing
3) You can wait for next 3-4 months for Skoda/VW SUVs that are quite promising (if ground clearance is an issue and you like SUVs) and then make a decision

All the best

[racer_7]

I am in a similar situation like you. Well not exactly. Its been more than a month I booked my Seltos IVT but still no update on delivery. The sales guy doesn't even remember me when I call him for the status! Just wanted to know that will the 25k deposit which I have paid get refunded if I cancel the booking? I cannot go with a Honda City owing to parking space constraints so will probably go for a Brezza or something as I need a car soon.