Deciding between the Honda City Hatchback and Sedan? These are the compromises needed

• City Hatchback is more expensive than City Sedan, but does it offer more?
• List of features are not 100% identical
• One drives better than the other

The Honda City Hatchback has just been launched earlier this week, with prices starting from RM 75,670 (technically it’s an estimated price but actual prices will not differ by more than a few Ringgit). Viewed from the front half, it’s nearly impossible to tell the Hatchback variant apart from the Sedan.

Although it’s essentially a City Sedan with its boot chopped off, there are still quite a few major differences between the Hatchback and the Sedan that prospective buyers should know.

The hatchback is more expensive, but you don’t really get more for your money

Like-for-like, the City Hatchback is slightly more expensive than the Sedan, around 1.5 percent more (about RM 1,100 to RM 1,400 extra, depending on variant). Honda says that's because the City Hatchback comes with Ultra Seats, which require a different centrally mounted fuel tank underneath the car, and those two items are not cheap.

But you also lose some other features too, so it's debatable if you are getting more for the extra money.

*Price is for Peninsular Malaysia, excluding insurance, valid until 30-June 2022
**Estimated price

Rear air-conditioning is standard in Sedan, but not for Hatchback

The most glaring omission in the City Hatchback is rear air-conditioning, which is available even on the cheapest Honda City Sedan S variant (RM 74,191), but not the Hatchback.

For reference, the rear air-conditioning is also not available in the Toyota Vios or Nissan Almera. Rear air-conditioning is a Honda City-only feature.

In the City Hatchback, rear air-conditioning is only available in the most expensive RS e:HEV variant, whose prices will only be announced next year. For other City Hatchback variants, the space left behind by the missing rear air-conditioning is replaced by a small utility storage bin.

Considering the City Hatchback is more expensive than the Sedan and air-conditioning is an important feature for our market, Malaysians will have strong opinions about this.

Of course, the counterargument is that none of the City Hatchback’s rivals has this feature anyway, not the Perodua Myvi and certainly not the Toyota Yaris.

But the Hatchback offers more rear legroom

This sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true and it has been confirmed by Honda Motor themselves – between the larger Sedan and the smaller Hatchback, it is the City Hatchback that has more rear legroom.

This is despite the fact that the City Hatchback is 204 mm shorter than the Sedan.

Why? The simple answer is that the City Hatchback benefits from a more expensive but more space efficient centrally-mounted fuel tank.

With the fuel tank moved from the rear to under the front seats, more space is freed up in the rear.

Also read: The Honda City Hatchback is smaller than the Sedan but has more space inside, how?

City Hatchback gets more practical multi-folding ULTRA seats, not available for Sedan

The Honda City Sedan gets an already very good 60:40 split folding rear seats as standard. That’s already a step up from the Toyota Vios, which only offers this feature in the higher range E, G, GR-S variants.

The City Hatchback however, gets an even better upgrade in the form of Honda’s signature ULTRA seats, thus ensuring that model’s spiritual predecessor, the Honda Jazz’s most important feature, lives on in the City Hatchback.

ULTRA – short for Utility, Long, Tall, and Refresh – the four different folding modes for the front and rear seats, is what makes the Honda Jazz so much more practical than the Toyota Yaris.

Whether it’s a tall ladder or a potted plant or a standing-type BBQ pit, the City Hatchback takes in large items better than even more SUVs from one segment above. It might be small on the outside, but it swallows cargo like Captain Marvel’s Flerken cat Goose.

Also read: Honda City Hatchback's ULTRA seats, as clever as the Jazz's, and still the segment's best

Even if you were to put aside ULTRA seats, the City Hatchback still offers way more utility space at the front than in the Toyota Yaris, which you will struggle to find a place to keep your house keys, autogate remote, Smart Tag, security access card etc.

But to be fair, the Toyota Yaris outclasses the City Hatchback’s list of safety features by offering 7 airbags as standard, while autonomous emergency braking, AEB (Toyota calls it PCS, Honda calls it CMBS) is available at a much lower price (RM 80,380, Yaris 1.5E).

The City Hatchback only gives you 4 airbags (S and E variants). To get 6 airbags, you have to pay more (V and RS variants, from RM 87,860).

Also read: Toyota Yaris is still No.1 seller, but the Honda City Hatchback has target locked on it

City Hatchback is smaller, but is about 15 kg heavier than the Sedan

The Honda City Hatchback is 204 mm shorter than the Sedan. Being a smaller car, it is implied that the City Hatchback uses less materials in its construction and therefore it should be lighter than the City Sedan. In theory this is true. Keyword is in theory.

The City Hatchback’s body-in-white (BIW, industry term for bare metal shell, which by the way is not white but grey) is 7.3 kg lighter than the City Sedan. So far so good, everything still makes sense.

However, once the trims and other body panels are fitted, the City Hatchback’s weight balloons like the fitness freak who had suddenly went on a carbs eating binge.

By the time the City Hatchback leaves the production line, it’s about 15 to 16 kg heavier (depending on variant) than the Sedan, despite it being a smaller car.

The reason? A hatchback’s tailgate and its larger rear glass is a lot heavier than a Sedan’s simple boot lid.

Also, the Ultra Seats more complex structure weigh a lot more than the City Sedan’s simpler 60:40 split-folding rear seats. And yes, although the rear seats are different, the cushion material, thickness, and comfort level are the same.

Curiously, Honda says the claimed fuel consumption figures for the City Hatchback remain identical to the Sedan, 3.6-litre / 100 km for the RS e:HEV, and 5.6-litre / 100 km for the regular model.

The City Hatchback handles corners better than the Sedan

In terms of component material, both the City Hatchback and City Sedan use identical steering and suspension parts.

However, both cars have slightly different character – not big enough that you would call them different cars, but different enough to be felt even by a casual driver.

Having a shorter body also helps its agility, and Honda says the City Hatchback’s steering and suspension is tuned and calibrated differently from the Sedan to give it a ‘sport hatchback’ character.

Also read: Review: 2022 Honda City Hatchback 1.5 V in Malaysia – The more traditional, non-hybrid Yaris competitor

For the City Hatchback, Sensing is only limited to RS e:HEV variant

The City Sedan’s range has a better spread of safety features. In the City Hatchback, Honda’s signature Sensing advance driving assistance systems (ADAS) feature is limited only to the RS e:HEV variant, whose price has yet to be announced, but it will certainly be above RM 100k.

Also read: Review: 2022 Honda City Hatchback RS in Malaysia – Jazz won't be missed, Yaris should be afraid

For the City Sedan, there’s an additional V Sensing variant, priced at RM 90,212. Honda Malaysia says there are no plans to introduce the V Sensing variant for the City Hatchback, at least for now.

Also read: Honda City Hatchback - What’s the minimum salary needed / monthly repayment?