The Honda City is one of the oldest running nameplates in the Indian automotive market, dating back as far as 1998, when the first-generation City was launched in India. Now, this was technically the third-generation City globally, but as this is where the Honda City’s India story begins, it is fondly called the first-gen Honda City in India. Fast forward to 2023, and the Honda City name has been going strong for 25 long years in the Indian market. While reasons behind that are many, there’s one that particularly stands out, and that is the legendary Honda reliability.
Honda’s have a whole different reputation in the second-hand market for cars as their core aspects such as the powertrain and chassis are rumoured to be immortal and can run for lakhs of kilometres without any serious maintenance. A well-maintained Honda City still fetches good value in the second-hand market and can offer quite a good driving experience even in today’s age. But all of that aside, let’s take a look at some of the things you should be keeping in mind when buying a used Honda City.
Pre-owned Honda City Generations
The Honda City is currently in its fifth generation in India, and in its seventh generation globally. But for the sake of clarity, let’s stick to the current generation City being the fifth-gen model in India. As far as going back in time is concerned, we will only be revisiting cars as old as the third-generation model of the city, fondly called the arrow-shaped City, as cars older than that will no longer have valid registrations and fitness certificates.
General overview of the car’s history and the number of generations that were sold in India. If it’s a new model, only mention the current generation on sale. For the generations below, only write about the cars currently available in the used car market (skip generations older than 2010)
Generation 3: 2008 – 2014 Honda City
The Generation 3 Honda City or the arrow-shaped model as the Indian audience liked to call it was a sort of return to the old ways for the City. You see, the previous generation model of the City had lost some of its edgy design and performance capabilities because Honda made the sedan a little more sedate than many would have liked. But with the Gen 3, the City returned to being the revered sedan it always was.
Generation 4: 2014 – 2020 Honda City
The Gen 4 Honda City is the one that changed the game for Honda in India, as they introduced the diesel version of the City. While it was a departure from the smooth nature of the City that we had come to expect all these years, it definitely boosted the City’s credentials of being a fun-to-drive car, while being quite efficient at the same time. The facelifted version of this City is actually still on sale in India, alongside the more modern fifth-gen version of the sedan.
Generation 5: 2020 – Present Honda City
The current-gen City simply looks out of this world. It maintains those simple City proportions, but has grown in size over the last generation model. The current generation City is actually not only available in petrol and diesel, but in a hybrid avatar as well. However, the hybrid model of the City is a niche model because of its price, and will very rarely be available in the used car market, so for the purposes of this article, we will not be focussing on it.
What to check in a pre-owned Honda City
Low ground clearance issues
The Honda City can be termed the original low-rider of the millennial generation, and that resulted in the car’s underbelly scraping in multiple places. With Indian roads being unpredictable at best, it means that most City’s on the road will have scraped their bellies multiple times when going into deep potholes or over large speed breakers. Regular scraping of the belly can cause damage to the underbelly protection of the car, and over time, this can start to affect the actual mechanical components of the car. Many Honda City owners have reported that the engine sump is one of the easiest underbelly parts to break on the car, so if you are looking for a used Honda City, we suggest that you start there. Overall, if you are looking to bring home a second-hand Honda City, have it lifted on a hydraulic lift and take stock of the underbelly of the car, before committing to buying the car, or settling on a price. This is a known issue across all generations of the Honda City, although the newest generation of the City does have better clearance than the older generation models of the sedan.
A/C issues
The third generation Honda Cities were quite often criticised for this issue, as the air conditioning often stopped being effective in peak summer conditions. This issue continued to plague the generation four of the Honda City as well, although it was fixed in the latest generation of the sedan. The air conditioning in the older cars required regular upkeep and that meant you had to get the A/C serviced more often than listed in the service manual of the car. If you’re going for an older version of the City, make sure you give the air conditioning a thorough check, which means driving it around for half an hour at least. If the air conditioning is in an outright faulty condition, factor this into your buying cost as Honda City A/C’s are not cheap to fix.
Diesel-engine clatter
This is an issue that affects the fourth generation Honda City, and the latest fifth-gen model to an extent. While Honda’s have a reputation at being the most forgiving when it comes to bad maintenance practices, the diesel engine of the Honda City has one aspect that can become worse over time, and that’s the engine clatter. In fact, badly maintained diesel Honda City’s have a really bad engine clatter, and this is indicative of them not being serviced at regular intervals. Ideally, stay away from cars like this as irregular service intervals means an owner who doesn’t really care about the maintenance of the vehicle. Even if you do end up buying such a car, keeping in mind Honda’s forgiving nature when it comes to badly maintained cars, we suggest you factor this into the upfront buying cost.
Also reads: Should you buy a used Honda City in 2021?, Honda City: Sedan Alternatives to Consider
Summary
The Honda City is one of the best models for buying a used car in India as it is a very reliable car. Keep in mind however that well maintained Honda City’s do have a higher asking price as well, as certain repair bills of the City are quite expensive. However, going for one of these models means that you can be assured of these cars running faultlessly for years to come, with proper general maintenance. Also, legend has it that there are still many Generation 1 Honda City’s that are still running faultlessly after 25 years of running on Indian roads, as nothing major ever goes wrong on these cars.
