CityHonda City e:HEV

Overview

The City has spent its life as the sedan you buy when the other mid-size options are appliances, and this generation keeps that flame alive with a 1.5-litre petrol engine making 121 bhp and 145 Nm. It is the rare car in this price band whose steering has weight, whose manual gearbox has gates you want to use, and whose seats support a back through a six-hour drive. The 506-litre boot means none of that driver-focus comes at the family’s expense.

The e:HEV hybrid variant at the top of this listing is the more surprising half of the range. Honda’s system leans on its electric motor most of the time, so the car moves off in silence, accelerates with the motor’s instant torque, and returns economy that embarrasses diesel rivals in a city while still taking 120 km/h quietly. It is also where Honda Sensing sits: adaptive cruise, lane keeping and automatic emergency braking on a sedan whose safety score, in truth, needs that electronic help.

Because here is the asterisk: a three-star adult crash score is the weak note in an otherwise accomplished listing, and six airbags only arrive on the upper trims. The suspension is firm in a way that suits back roads and punishes poorly-built ones with a jolt to the rear bench, and the automatic, a competent conventional box, is no longer the quicksilver thing it once was against dual-clutch rivals. The City remains the driver’s pick of the segment; it just asks you to do a little homework before signing.

• 121 bhp 1.5-litre petrol, the best-driving sedan here
• e:HEV strong-hybrid variant at the top of the range
• 506-litre boot and class-leading rear seat