Honda City vs Hyundai Verna Base Variants: What City Offers For 1 Lakh More!
Honda recently launched the updated City facelift in the market. The City is one of the oldest nameplates in this segment, and it is also one of the most loved cars in the category. The Honda City has been launched at a starting price of Rs 12 lakh, ex-showroom. It competes with the likes of the Hyundai Verna, Skoda Slavia, and Volkswagen Virtus in the segment. The Hyundai Verna is also a popular sedan in this category, and prices for the Verna start at Rs 10.98 lakh, ex-showroom. Both these sedans belong to the same segment, but why is the price difference between them so huge? What is Honda offering extra for the additional Rs 1 lakh? Let’s find out.
Actually for the extra 1 lakh that you are paying Honda is offering features like touchscreen infotainment system, push-button start/stop, a speaker system, TPMS, hill start assist, telescopic steering adjustment, soft-touch materials on the dashboard, a shark-fin antenna, wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, one-touch open/close function for driver side window, driver armrest with storage underneath, automatic climate control, rear parking cameras and so on. In fact Honda is offering around 10-15 features for the 1 lakh you pay over the Verna.
Hyundai recently updated the Verna sedan for 2026. As part of the update, Hyundai revised the variant nomenclature. The base trim is now called the HX2, which is offered with a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine paired with a 6-speed manual transmission. The engine on this variant generates 113 Bhp and 143 Nm of torque.
The base variant of the Hyundai Verna comes with a decent number of convenience and safety features. It gets six airbags, hill-start assist, ABS, EBD, ESC, rear parking sensors, a day/night IRVM, automatic headlamps, keyless entry, a rear defogger, halogen projector headlamps, 15-inch steel wheels with covers, a dual-tone interior, fabric seat upholstery, manual seat-height adjustment, a rear centre armrest with cupholders, front adjustable headrests, all power windows, tilt-adjust steering, Type-C ports, and electrically adjustable ORVMs.
Even the naturally aspirated engine on the Verna is available with manual and CVT gearbox options, but the base variant only gets the manual transmission.
After Hyundai, let us now take a look at the base variant of the recently launched Honda City sedan. The City comes with a fresh-looking front end and uses a 1.5-litre DOHC naturally aspirated petrol engine. This engine generates 119 Bhp and 145 Nm of peak torque. On paper, it is more powerful than the Hyundai Verna.
Apart from the features that are mentioned above, here is quick list of what the base variant of the City offers. . For Rs 12 lakh, ex-showroom, Honda is offering automatic LED projector headlights with LED daytime running lamps (DRLs), LED tail lamps, LED turn indicators on the outside rearview mirrors (ORVMs), 15-inch steel wheels with plastic covers, a black grille, functional air vents on the front bumper, silver garnish on the rear bumper, body-coloured ORVMs and door handles, a shark-fin antenna, a beige-and-black dual-tone cabin theme, fabric seat upholstery, fabric padding on the passenger-side dashboard and armrests.
We also gets a leather-wrapped gear lever, an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a 4-speaker sound system, an analogue instrument cluster with a 4.2-inch coloured MID, automatic climate control with rear AC vents and a PM2.5 filter, a 3-spoke steering wheel with mounted controls, tilt and telescopic steering adjustment, front and rear USB Type-A and Type-C ports, push-button start/stop, a height-adjustable driver’s seat, a driver-side power window with one-touch open/close function.
Along with this you get a front centre armrest with integrated storage space, a foldable rear centre armrest with cupholders, a multi-angle rear parking camera with sensors, 1-litre bottle holders on all doors, a vanity mirror on the passenger-side sun visor, foldable grab handles, six airbags, 3-point seatbelts and dedicated headrests for all seats, ISOFIX child-seat anchors on the rear seats, hill-start assist, a manually adjustable inside rearview mirror (IRVM), a tyre-pressure monitoring system (TPMS), a rear windshield defogger, ABS, EBD, and brake assist.