Face-lifted 2023 Honda City Debuts In India

The refreshed fifth-gen Honda City has finally debuted in India this week. Besides exterior and interior design tweaks, this mid-cycle refresh also sees Honda upgrading the model’s on board features for the Indian market.

Two powertrain choices are offered there, those being the familiar 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol 4-cyl and a 1.5-litre 4-cyl hybrid – the same offered in the current model on sale locally. Crucially, Honda has opted to drop the diesel powertrain choice here in India. Also, both CVT automatic and a 6-speed manual transmission are offered there too, the latter offered exclusively in the model’s new bargain basement SV entry level variant.

Moving on to the visual changes and, as seen in a recent online leak prior, the front fascia now sports a slimmer chrome bar to accompany a new grille featuring new honeycomb mesh inserts. Matching that is a redesigned front bumper that incorporates new black trims in both the fog lamp sections and lower intake.

The all-LED headlamps remains unchanged, but there’s now new alloy wheels designs abound. At the rear, the updated rear bumper design now sports a black faux-diffuser plus relocated reflectors and a newly added boot lid rear spoiler. Capping off the exterior chanfes comes a newly added Obsidian Blue Pearl paint scheme option pictured.

On board, cabin design changes are minimal, but the level of kit laced here has improved – depending on variant of course. Higher grade variants come primed with a 7-inch full colour TFT instrument cluster display, tyre pressure monitor, as well as an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support plus an 8-speaker audio system.

Other key new features include rain-sensing wipers, ambient lighting, wireless smartphone charging pad, automatic air-conditioning with PM2.5 filter and rear vents, as well as keyless entry and ignition. It’s also worth noting that the City model for India also gets a sunroof plus a rear windscreen sunshade.

Besides six airbags lining the cabin, there’s sleuth of Honda Sensing driver assistance systems available too. This adds autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane keep assist (LKAS), auto high beam (AHB), adaptive cruise control (ACC) with low-speed follow and lead car departure alert, as well as the Honda LaneWatch system, amongst many others.

As expected of any mid-cycle refresh, changes all-around aren’t drastic, but much of the new on-board features sees the City now stack up better against its segment rival in India. Crucially, some of these design tweaks and new features might make their way into the Malaysia-spec City when it gets refreshed, which we believe will happen later this year.

Aside from the bolder exterior design, which new feature are you most excited to see added into the local Malaysian-spec City when it gets refreshed? How do you think it will stack up against the upcoming new fourth-gen Toyota Vios? Hit the comments below with your thoughts, then…