2017 Honda City Facelift: Price Expectations And Major Changes

The City is Honda India's bread and butter offering. Recently though with the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz taking up a large chunk of the market share, the facelift and the updates come as a much awaited shot in the arm for the ever popular Honda City. There is no doubt that it has always been one of the most popular cars in India, ever since the launch of the third generation City in 1998. The current model is the sixth generation iteration of the City and gets a host of updates to the exterior as well as the interior. The car has now gone on sale in India starting at Rs. 8.49 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

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Exterior

The Honda City facelift will get an updated front end with a new grille, new bumper and re-designed headlamps. In all probability, the headlamps will be LEDs and so will be the fog lamps. Also, the car will get LED DRLs, making it look fresher and bolder.

(The 2017 Honda City facelift will get LED lamps all around)

At the rear, the tail lamps too will be LED units and there will be a spoiler with LED stop lamp as well. The City facelift will also have new diamond cut 16-inch alloy wheels. Here are 10 things that you should know about the Honda City facelift.

Interior

A fresh new exterior look can only be complimented with some updates to the interior as well. So Honda has given updates to the interior in terms of upholstery and colour tones. The top trims will have leather upholstery. Also, there is a new touchscreen audio-visual navigation system that will have phone link option and can be connected to certain apps along with voice control as well. Unfortunately, there will be no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto featuring in the updates.

(The 2017 Honda City gets a 17.7 inch touchscreen infotainment system)

It would have been actually great because the new-gen Hyundai Verna will surely be getting them. There will be climate control and a start-stop button too along with cruise control. Also, the top trims will have a one-touch electric sunroof. Honda has already started taking bookings for the City facelift for a token price of Rs. 21,000.

Safety

As far as safety is concerned, dual-airbags, ABS and ISOFIX mounts for children will be standard fitment across all trims. The higher trims will get up to six airbags which include side and curtain airbags. Few days ago, the brochure for the Honda City facelift was leaked, which tells us more abou the variants and the features.

What remains the same?

The engines and dimensions! The city will continue to be powered by a 1.5-litre iVTEC engine with a CVT and a 5-speed manual transmission option and a 1.5-litre iDTEC engine with a 6-speed manual transmission. The CVT variants will get paddheshifts like the curent model on sale as well. The overall dimensions of the car remain the same.

Price expectations

The Honda City facelift will have five trims, which are the S, SV, V, VX and the ZX, where the VX and the ZX will be the top trims. We estimate that the prices for the City facelift would begin from Rs. 9 lakh for the base petrol variant and go up till Rs. 13 lakh or so for the top of the line diesel variant. As far as competition is concerned, the Honda City facelift will be going up against the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, Skoda Rapid, Volkswagen Vento and the soon-to-be launched new-generation Hyundai Verna. Of course, the competition is not to be taken lightly, but the City facelift will surely want to be the segment leader again.