Friday 12 September 2008

Showdown: 2009 Honda City or Toyota Belta (Vios) facelift?

With the all-new Honda City coming to Malaysia before 2008 comes to a wrap, this new B-segment sedan is set to entice present City owners to 'upgrade'. Perhaps some of the previous generation Toyota Vios owners as well?

Have your pick...

Click on all images to enlarge



Dashboards and frontal interiors:





Rear three-quarter angle views:



3 comments:

BMW.Toyota said...

I love these side-by-side comparisons. You should do more of these, drlong!

Overall, the City is definitely more sporty, not to mention fresh. The Vios is more conservative. It will all depend on consumer's taste.

Unknown said...

No doubt the new City is looking great physically. Nevertheless, Vios has a more pleasant and "standard" dashboard design.

In addition, City is more appearing on male buyer. Vios, on the other hand is more feminine towards female buyers.

The main crucial consideration is the pricing of these difference cars. Under this budget car model, I would say a rational buyer would consider the pricing apart of its built quality.

Thus, Vios won't lose out the majority portion of potential youngsters. It's just a matter of different cup of tea for different buyer. Keke....

To me, instead of paying twice for Japanese CKD car, I would rather go for the national car, i.e. 2008Proton Saga. Size wise, it's slighly shorter (roughly the length of short ruler) and with some quality issue and technology lacking behind, it's a worth buy for Malaysian. Unless I have plenty of money to spend,.... it's otherwise. hahaha!

drlong said...

Valid observations and comments you have there. The new Saga is indeed a decent car in its own right. I have sampled a manual one over a few days and the IAFM enabled 1.3 performed admirably well for a budget B-segment sedan. In fact, its interior space and ergonomics are better than the Gen.2 and hence, the Persona as well. E.g. Rear seats and headroom et al.

However, due credit must be given to the City and the Vios, for if it's not because of these cut-cost models - primarily for Asean and India - a Honda and a Toyota would be out of reach of most average Joes and Janes. Afterall it is no secret that the new City cost circa RM55k - RM65k in Thailand, or in Langkawi for that matter.