New Honda City automatic variant introduced

Honda has introduced the S AT automatic variant of the City priced at Rs 9,09,000 (ex-showroom Delhi) with the same trim level as the manual S version.

The City S AT gets all the goodies available on the manual S, including beige interiors, fabric seats, alloy wheels, chrome dash inserts and steering mounted controls besides paddle shifts like the higher priced V AT models. The same 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine produces 118PS of peak power and 146Nm of peak torque. The car is 50kg heavier than the manual, and returns 15.6kmpl.

According SIAM figures, the City accounted for 11 per cent of cars sold in this category in July, with 1843 units sold compared to the 5300 units of the segment leader Hyundai Verna. The lack of a diesel engine and higher costs are hurting sales, and Honda is bidding to regain market share it lost to Hyundai and Volkwagen group companies in this segment. At Rs 9.09 lakh the City undercuts the petrol auto variants of the Verna (Rs 9.93 lakh) and Vento (Rs 9.39 lakh). Other competitors with auto variants in this segment are the Ford Fiesta, Maruti Suzuki SX4 and the Skoda Rapid.