The 7th generation Honda City is now in its 2nd facelift run in Thailand and will come to Malaysia soon.
It feels like just yesterday when we were welcoming the 7th generation Honda City to Malaysia with its introduction of the e:HEV hybrid powertrain to the B-segment in fully locally-assembled form. This model got a minor facelift back in August of 2023 and more recently, a second facelift was teased, then launched in India in sedan form. Over the weekend we heard that Thailand received its launch of the updated product in both sedan and hatchback form, so Malaysians can certainly expect to have their new entry level Honda model arrive soon.
What’s new for the City this time around is a massive redesign to the front end. The face looks completely new with the Honda logo moving to the hood, leaving the grille blank and reminiscent of the current Prelude design. The headlights have slimmed down as well and now feature a new daytime running light design. Some variants feature a unibrow LED daytime running light element across the grill as well, connecting the two headlights. The bumper and lower elements have been designed and there are at least two versions catering to RS and non-RS variants.
Around back, nothing much has changed at first glance. Well, the taillights are now clear on some variants, and the bumper and lower elements are also updated, but the look is overall quite similar to what we’re accustomed to on the sedan model. The hatchback model appears to have received even fewer changes to the rear exterior. There are also new alloy wheel designs.
The interior gets ambient lighting on higher tier variants but the highlight has to be the new 10″ infotainment unit and the new 360-degree camera, but some will be disappointed to learn that blind-spot monitoring is still not included and LaneWatch is still relied on in the City.
What’s interesting about the new Honda City is that the brand has brought the entry level price down and it now starts at below the equivalent of RM70,000 in Thailand. That doesn’t mean that all variants have gotten cheaper, and in fact, some of these prices are temporary and only for Thailand so the pricing strategy could be completely flipped in Malaysia. The hatchback variants in Thailand have actually all seen a small price bump but there are also new e:HEV variants further down the tier list, which may indicate Honda’s willingness to fully embrace hybrids as the standard powertrain. Personally, I prefer the 1.5L in naturally aspirated form but I do like their 2.0L e:HEV models.
The 1.5L hasn’t been available in Thailand in this generation as far as we can tell. They’ve moved to a 3-cylinder 1.0L turbocharged petrol engine at the low end, similar to what the Nissan Almera offers here but with ‘VTEC‘ flavour. This motor has an output of 122PS and 173Nm of torque and is paired to a CVT, as expected. The e:HEV models have the same output and configuration as ours. 109PS and 253Nm of torque from a e-motor that drives the wheels, charged and aided by a 1.5L naturally-aspirated petrol engine on the Atkinson cycle for maximum power and efficiency.
