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Why I decided to buy a Honda City Hybrid instead of MG Astor

5th July 2022, 13:06 by Rahul Nagaraj

I did a cost analysis between the two and e:HEV made perfect sense to me.

BHPian Greenville recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi friends,

It was never easy for me to decide to buy a Hybrid. Firstly, I will fall into the category of early adopters who will enjoy some limelight but be at risk if something goes wrong. In addition, Hybrid has a steeper premium over City 5th Gen. I was drawn to the vehicle because of its seamless integration of electric motors with the petrol engine (and the mileage it provides) as well as its ADAS technology.

The MG Astor Savvy variant was my first choice before e:HEV as I was really excited about its ADAS level 2 features (especially on highways). The Chinese lockdown delayed my car's delivery for an indefinite period, while Honda announced City Hybrid. The real-time city mileage statistics provided by Astor owners were quite alarming, especially when petrol prices reached Rs 120/L. Therefore, I did a cost analysis between the two and e:HEV made perfect sense to me.

Apart from my highway drives to my native place Kochi, I drive approximately 1000 km per month within Bangalore. It is possible for e:HEV to break even in four years, even if I take the only city drives into account. (I am not factoring in the opportunity cost for the premium amount I am paying for City*Hybrid). I hope I have considered all other aspects of this evaluation.

Here's what BHPian sandeepmohan had to say on the matter:

Without any real-world stats for the City HEV, it's hard to say. 20kmpl sounds optimistic. I'd drop it down to 15Kmpl and see what it does. You need to add a median price increase on fuel over the course of 4 years, based on the increase we've seen in the last 4 years.
Let's forget the km/l numbers displayed on the dashboard. We need to know how far Honda's HEV can go on a tankful of gas.
Dependability should be the least of your worries with a Honda. HEV is new to India. Not for Honda.
The MG is an SUV. I've yet to come across any petrol SUV that can deliver over 10kmpl in the city cycle. Those fuel economy numbers should come as no surprise.
I assume a top of line Honda City costs around 5lac less than the HEV variant. Let's assume you spend Rs. 10,000 a month on gas, you end up spending Rs. 120,000/year. 4 years = Rs. 480,000. Is that breaking if you buy an HEV City? Sure. Want to save more? Buy an EV.

Here's what BHPian attinder had to say on the matter:

HEV will also need fuel, assuming 50% less it will take 8 years to break even. After 8-9 years battery will need to be replaced, and add another year or two to the break-even period.
Right now unless someone's mileage is super high even EVs don't make much sense. They are neither cheap or green.

Here's what BHPian Mumbaiker had to say on the matter:

If the comparison is between the Petrol City and the e:HEV, then it's a no-brainer that one needs to go for the petrol city.
But having driven both the petrol and the e:HEV back to back, I can safely say that the performance on the e:HEV is absolutely different compared to the petrol. It feels much more powerful as well as the other gizmos do add to the experience.
I have been in the same boat looking for a sedan and after the launch of the VAGs, I got even more confused.
Below is my calculation of cost breakeven considering a 15kmpl on the e:HEV and 10km/l on the other cars.
While breakeven with the City Petrol would take around 125k km, the breakeven with the other cars would be around 30k km.