Introduction

There was a time when the City was Honda’s most affordable offering in India. Today, this sedan remains to be Honda’s most expensive offering. Things have changed considerably over its existence for so many years. Now its popular petrol model continues to be offered along with the availability of an oil-burner version as well. We have tested both these models and extracted data from our Vbox GPS data logger for these speed and time measurements. Here's an analysis of the acceleration data to give you a quick and clear idea of the performance of both these models.

Acceleration

0-60kmph

0-100kmph

In terms of capacity, both get 1.5-litre four-cylinder engines, the i-VTEC petrol mill delivering 119bhp of power and 145Nm of torque, and on the other hand, the i-DTEC diesel unit churning out 98bhp and 200Nm of torque. Apart from being a little more powerful, the petrol version is also lighter than the diesel model.

Still, both of them put up a similar 0-60kmph sprint time with the petrol version taking 5.34 seconds and the diesel 5.17 seconds. The difference in acceleration times gets apparent further as the petrol model got to 100kmph from standstill in 10.57 seconds, while the City's diesel version took 12.82 seconds.

Roll on times

20-80kmph in third gear

40-100kmph in fourth gear

In our in-gear roll-on tests of 20-80kmph in third gear, the petrol model took 11.5 seconds whereas the oil-burner completed the same test in 8.61 seconds. It isn't a surprise that the diesel's in-gear times are better, thanks to the loads of torque which helps considerably in driveability as well. Then in the second test, the petrol version sprinted from 40-100kmph in fourth gear in 17.14 seconds, while the diesel again put up a better time of 14.81 seconds for the same feat.

Conclusion

It's clear that the diesel version does have an advantage with its additional torque helpful to lug around all its weight at low speeds or even overtake long vehicles on a highway. Then, of course it’s frugal, so if your usage is considerably high it will help reduce fuel costs. But then, the price gap between petrol and diesel is getting negligible, to say the least, in our country. The cheaper petrol model then will suffice most of your needs as its performance is still at par with its diesel counterpart.

Pictures by Kapil Angane

Complete comparison road test of the Honda City petrol vs diesel