This newly-refreshed Honda City Hatchback nets a small facelift but a big safety upgrade.
Following on from its initial debut over in Thailand earlier this year, Honda Malaysia has since launched the facelifted City Hatchback locally. And while it may look largely identical to its pre-update predecessor at first glance, there are actually quite a few important enhancements that further increases the appeal of this small(-ish) Japanese hatch.
And likely the most important enhancement here is for Honda Malaysia to finally include its Honda SENSING active safety suite as standard in all trims of this newly refreshed City Hatchback, with the Japanese marque throwing in a new Lead Car Departure Notification (LCDN) system to the already pretty comprehensive list of driver aids too. This being Honda however, it is unfortunately unsurprising for it to have kept what is probably the most useful feature — Low-Speed Follow (LSF) for the Adaptive Cruise Control — exclusive to only the top-trim e:HEV RS variant.
Though while on the topic of the RS variant, another one of the more major enhancement worth highlighting with this freshly facelifted City Hatchback is the addition of a new petrol RS trim, which sits right below the existing flagship e:HEV RS. This new purely-combustion RS nets much the same slightly more aggressive exterior enhancement pack as its electrified sibling, with only the omission of an electric parking brake and the aforementioned Low Speed Follow feature differentiating the two.
In breaking down the exterior enhancements made from this facelift meanwhile, the City Hatchback has since gained a slightly revised front fascia, courtesy of a reworked front bumper and new honeycomb grille. The rear bumper lower garnish has also been tweaked slightly, with the RS trims further gaining a sportier-looking rear diffuser and new 16-inch Berlina Black alloys, in order to match the variant-exclusive prominent fog lamp garnish up front.
Moving on inside now, among the more flashy changes made within are dials on its automatic climate that are now illuminated and change colour according to the temperature set. The more mundane (yet likely more appreciated by buyers) enhancements in this area however includes for the E variant and up to now net 8 speakers, while RS trims also finally net Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay integration. Both RS variants are further fitted with Honda Connect services as standard, while it is has been made available as an optional extra on the rest of the range.
There has been no changes made to the powertrain of this refreshed City Hatchback from the pre-facelift model, with the purely-petrol trims still soldiering on with the same 1.5-litre naturally aspirated four-pot and CVT combination that delivers 121 PS and 145 Nm to its front wheels. The e:HEV RS on the other hand is driven either by a 1.5-litre Atkinson cycle inline four or an electric motor, which has a total system output of 109 PS and 253 Nm of torque.
Incidentally, the new exterior changes have added 5 mm and 20 mm to the length of the non-RS and RS trims respectively. Though its length is far from the only thing that has grown with this facelifted City Hatchback, as likely from the addition of Honda SENSING across the range, its base price has also since ballooned from the prior RM 78,900 to the current RM 85,900.
The full price list per each spec of facelifted City Hatchback in Malaysia are as follows:
- S – RM 85,900
- E – RM 90,900
- V – RM 95,900
- Petrol RS – RM 100,900
- e:HEV RS – RM 112,900
Honda Malaysia is currently offering the purely petrol powered facelifted City Hatchbacks in Ignite Red Metallic, Platinum White Peal, Meteoroid Gray Metallic, and Lunar Silver Metallic. The flagship e:HEV RS trim on the other hand curiously misses out on the last of the aforementioned colour option.
