Nameplates in the local automotive industry have now received their fair share of mid-cycle updates, including two of the most popular city cars in the segment: the Honda City and the Nissan Almera.
On that note, we check out how both sedans stack up against each other as we pit them together in a one-on-one battle. Let’s find out which vehicle will come out on top in the city car encounter.
The Honda City has an overall length of 4,580 millimeters (mm), an overall width of 1,748mm, and an overall height of 1,467mm. Its wheelbase is 2,600mm.
Meanwhile, the Nissan Almera measures 4,495mm long, 1,740mm wide, and 1,460mm tall. It has a wheelbase of 2,620mm.
The Honda City now wears a more aggressive fascia, thanks to a new mesh-type grille with larger holes rather than the honeycomb-design found on its predecessor. It also gets new headlamps, daytime running lights, and fog lamps.
Its side profile is adorned with new 16-inch wheels, a black side mirror, and body-colored door handles.
The rear end of the Honda City gets more striking diffusers and reflectors positioned far off the flanks of the sedan. Also found here is a rear spoiler and a pair of LED taillamps.
On the other hand, the Nissan Almera is going for a rather sophisticated look rather than the sporty-aggressive vibe the aforementioned Honda City is going for.
At its front is a new iteration of the brand’s V-motion grille with two LED headlamps and fog lamps on each side.
Showcasing its refined nature, the Nissan Almera flaunts new 16-inch wheels, black side mirrors, and body-colored door handles.
Its rear sports taillamps that echo the design of its lights at the front. It also has a diffuser and two reflectors on the far ends of the car’s body.
Overall, both cars are neck and neck when it comes to their design and suite of exterior appointments. That said, we will call this round a tie.
The range-topping Honda City offers leather seats, a three-spoke leather steering wheel, and interior trims with colored accents.
Rounding up the interior features of the Honda City is an instrument cluster with a 4.5-inch full-color thin-film transistor meter, an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and an automatic air conditioning system.
As for the top-of-the-line Nissan Almera, it offers occupants seats and a steering wheel that are wrapped in leather. Similarly, it has interior trims — like its dashboard — with colored accents.
In the area of in-car tech, the Nissan Almera packs a seven-inch instrument cluster with a mix of analog and digital gauges, an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and a single-zone automatic air conditioner.
With virtually identical interior amenities, we once again call this round a tie.
Powering the Honda City is a 1.5-liter engine mated to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). On paper, this setup makes as much as 119 horsepower with 145 Newton-meters (Nm) of torque.
On the other hand, the Nissan Almera only gets a smaller 1.0-liter powerplant, which can be paired with either a five-speed manual gearbox or a CVT. Together, the powertrain system makes 98 horses with 152 to 160Nm of pulling power.
For this round, we will give the win to the Honda City.
Safety-wise Honda gave the City standard features like seatbelts and airbags, an anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), vehicle stability assist, hill start assist, a reverse camera, and agile handling assist.
Further, all models now come as standard with Honda Sensing, which includes features like adaptive cruise control, a collision mitigation braking system, lane keep assist, road departure mitigation, lane departure warning, and lead car departure notification.
Not to be outdone, Nissan slapped the Almera with a host of standard safety technologies like airbags and seatbelts, ABS, cruise control, vehicle dynamic control, a tire pressure monitoring system, and a high-mount stop lamp.
Even more, the highest Nissan Almera variant comes with the Nissan Intelligent Mobility advanced driver assist technologies like blind spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure notification, an around view monitor, forward emergency braking, and hill assist.
Pushing the envelope even further, the Nissan Almera’s highest trim now gets NissanConnect Services that allow owners to enjoy new features like automatic collision notification, an SOS emergency call button, a “car finder,” remote engine start and stop, and remote lock and unlock.
With a more robust list of safety features, we give this round to the Nissan Almera.
Honda City
City 1.5 E CVT – P973,000
City 1.5 S CVT – P998,000
City 1.5 V CVT – P1.073 million
City 1.5 RS CVT – P1.128 million
Nissan Almera
Almera 1.0 EL Turbo MT – P839,000
Almera 1.0 VE Turbo CVT – P1.059 million
Almera 1.0 VL Turbo CVT – P1.149 million
This city car encounter is deemed a tie as both cars neither want to give up in the one-on-one battle for supremacy. On that note, choosing between the two is just a matter of preference and priority between power and safety.
Photos from Juan Paulo Papa, Ruben Manahan IV, Honda, and Nissan
Also read:
Here are the updates offered in the new Nissan Almera
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