A drive in the City Hatchback shows that are still a few reasons out there to consider a Honda over the many Chinese competition. 

Amid the tidal wave of Chinese cars currently sweeping through Malaysia, some prospective new car buyers may have found themselves asking a fairly blunt question: is there even a reason to choose a Honda anymore?

And honestly, it is not difficult to see where that scepticism comes from. These newcomers from China arrive armed with lengthy spec sheets, flashy screens and price tags that undercut the Japanese incumbents at almost every turn, seemingly offering far more for your money than what a Honda can deliver.

In fact, some may even argue that Honda, buoyed by decades of local goodwill, is now simply coasting on its reputation while continuing to charge a premium for hardware that increasingly feels unremarkable.

But having recently spent a few days back in a City Hatchback, this writer came away with a slightly different conclusion. Look past the skinny spec sheet, and there remain some very real reasons why one might yet be swayed back to the House of H.

Easy As Pie To Use

For those who judge a car purely by its brochure, it is easy to see why a Honda might feel short-changed. And the City in particular is perhaps one of the clearest expression of Honda’s current brand philosophy, one that, to put it very generously, leans heavily into Japanese minimalism at a time when its Chinese rivals are quite literally packing their cabins to the rafters.

Yet while all this equipment provides ample ammunition for a salesperson trying to close a deal, it is worth asking how much of it actually gets used on a daily basis. And this is where the City quietly claws back some ground, simply by being so easy to live with from the moment you get in.

Here is a bit of inside baseball from the world of car reviews: having driven a wide variety of new cars, many of them laden with the latest tech, it often takes far longer than expected just to get comfortable before setting off. In the City however, all it took was just 15 seconds to settle in and drive away.

There is a refreshing beauty in the City’s simplicity, with everything exactly where you expect it to be. There is no need to dive through layers of submenus just to adjust the fan speed, nor that risk of going deaf when you cannot turn the volume down quickly enough because the controls are buried behind glossy haptic panels. Physical, tactile buttons remain, and they work exactly as intended.

The infotainment screen similarly follows the same philosophy. It does what a screen should do, and little more. Wireless Android Auto also connects reliably every single time, which is more than can be said for some far more technologically ambitious systems from other cars coming from China. One small request to Honda though: perhaps it is time to upgrade the reverse camera resolution, which still looks like it is streaming in something close to 360p?

It Still Drives Well

Another area where the City continues to impress is how it drives. Its thick-rimmed steering wheel feels good in hand, and the steering itself has a reassuring weight and sense of connection that, while no Porsche benchmark, is still miles ahead of anything currently coming out of China.

Ride and handling are similarly well judged. Where many Chinese sedans favour a floaty, softly sprung setup, the City feels firm and planted. It manages to feel confident and stable despite its relatively small footprint, even holding its own against larger and ostensibly more premium cars.

That said, this is still a Honda, and thus sound insulation remains a weak point. Road and engine noise are more noticeable than ideal, and the particular test car here sounded slightly more raucous than previously remembered. Yet it says something when this writer’s parents (his regular rear-seat occupants) remarked that they would rather sit in the back of this small (yet surprisingly spacious) Honda than in several larger and more luxurious Chinese alternatives.

Best of all, this City not only has sufficient poke when pushed, but still returned over 15 km/l even when driven like this writer stole it for much of the time — not something most turbocharged Chinese cars can realistically come close to.

There’s Still Some Value In That H Badge

Finally, while it may be uncomfortable to admit, but there is undeniably still a degree of badge value attached to that H logo, both socially and practically.

Without wanting to open the can of worms on the social aspect, the practical benefits of that H badge are in any case hard to ignore. The House of H is after all an established marque that will almost certainly still be around to honour warranty claims years down the line. Then there is the ever-present “R word” in the minds of Malaysian buyers: choosing a Honda still offers a near-guarantee of respectable resale value when the time eventually comes to sell.

Also, that same aforementioned simplicity works in its favour here too, as fewer features mean fewer things to break, and a lower likelihood that the car will feel dated before the loan is even paid off. That simple infotainment screen can easily be swapped out in the future if it starts to feel slow. And while analogue dials may look old-school, but will never truly go out of fashion.

Just between you and me as well, with the influx of Chinese automakers, Honda is now offering incentives on a scale previously unseen, simply to draw customers back into showrooms. That alone makes this a particularly good time to consider a Honda, at prices that would have been almost unthinkable not too long ago.

Honda City Hatchback 1.5L RS Facelift Technical Specifications

Engine: Inline-4, 16-Valve, DOHC, i-VTEC, Petrol
Capacity: 1,498 cc
Gearbox: Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT)
Max Power: 121 PS @ 6,600 rpm
Max Torque: 145 Nm @ 4,300 rpm
Top Speed: 193 km/h
0-100 km/h: 10.7 seconds
Price: RM 100,900