As reported in Indian Drives, Honda has recently launched its latest variant of the highly popular City sedan with an attractive pricing of Rs.6.99 Lakh, for the base variant. This vehicle has all the potential to become the strongest competitor of the Hyundai Verna that is also similarly priced.
The New Honda City, with its facelift has become even more attractive, though the Hyundai Verna, with its fluidic design continues to mesmerize onlookers. Hence, it is ideal that the two vehicles are compared with respect to features, looks, drivability, comfort and pricing to identify the vehicle that offers greater value for consumer money.
The Looks:
Provided with impressive upgrades, the Honda City has vastly improved its looks. An Electric Sunroof has been provided having tilting and sliding functions. It also comes with turn indicators fitted to its mirrors, chrome in its grille and door handles, new knobs for the AC control, freshly designed bumpers, enhanced boot lid as well as reflectors integrated to the rear bumpers. LED lamps fitted to the tail lights have added to its appeal.
The instrument cluster in the Honda City has been given a blue backlighting and its ground clearance increased from 160mm to 165mm. The car length has a 20mm increase owing to its redesigned bumpers. The Honda City is now more contemporary looking, although its original arrow design has been retained.
The Hyundai Verna with its flowing aerodynamics thanks to the trapezoidal grilled and its headlamps pushed back, incorporates a sporty look. Hence, it is extremely difficult to choose the better looking car.
Performance on Road:
The variable-valve timing 1.6L DOHC engine of the Hyundai Verna achieves maximum power 123Bhp and peak torque 159Nm. The five-speed manual transmission gearbox ensures optimum performance. However, its base variant gets a lesser-powered engine in the 1.4L VVT that achieves figures of 105.5Bhp and 137.7Nm.
The engine in the Honda City delivers power 118Bhp and torque 146Nm, which figuratively is lower than the higher-end variant of the Verna. However, on driving this car, one can notice the refinement of the engine. With smoothness in shifting gears and linear acceleration, the car does not give you the chance to complain much. It also responds sportingly when you rev it up and does not let down on the performance factor. It also claims a 16.8km/liter mileage, which makes it slightly more fuel efficient compared to the Verna.
Although the Verna has been given major improvements in the handling aspect, the steering of the Honda City is more precise in its functioning. Both cars are slightly vulnerable on bad roads, though the City conducts itself marginally better.
Spacing and Comfort aspects:
The Honda City maintains the rich tradition of Honda cars in providing excellently spacious interiors. The driver ergonomics is precise too. The latest variant has been given a refreshingly new cabin with improved central console and instrument dials. Seating arrangement is comfortable for both short and long drives. Adequate legroom has been provided for rear passengers and adequate boot space exists also.
Compared to the simple interiors the City has, the Hyundai Verna has incorporated its interiors with more style, enhanced further by a glossy finish. However, with its rear seats slightly lower than expected, the rear passengers might be a touch uncomfortable on long distance journeys.
Features:
Features included in the base variants of the cars have been made the basis for comparison here. The Verna base model is provided with music system and fog lamps that are missing in the City base model. However, features like the ABS along with EBD as well as twin air bags that have been incorporated in the safety features of the Honda City are indeed of great value.
On the top variants of the two cars, it is seen that the Hyundai Verna offers loads of features at comparative lower prices than the New Honda City – certain features the Verna has like Rear-view camera, parking sensors and more are not provided in the City.
The Value for Money Aspect:
Both the base editions are similarly priced at Rs.6.99 lakh. However, the New Honda City top-end variant costs Rs.10.22 lacs against the Rs.9.64 lacs of the top-end model of the Hyundai Verna. It has already been discussed that the Hyundai Verna scores in respect to features provided to the variants of both cars. Also, the mileage parameter does not have much to separate the two vehicles.
Based on these aspects, it looks like the Hyundai Verna has it going in his favor to become the car that will provide greater value to its customers’ money.
