Vitara Brezza vs Honda City Comparison

Maruti-Suzuki Vitara Brezza vs Honda City Comparison

Overall, the Honda City is technically a far superior vehicle than the Vitara Brezza. Especially the petrol powered City, which has effectively 50% more power, musical levels of refinement, better dynamics and comfort than the Vitara Brezza. Agreed that it works out to be over a lakh rupees more expensive than diesels, but in terms of performance and refinement it is 2 segments above the worse-than-hatchbacks diesels. What makes it even better is the fantastic CVT automatic gearbox, with those fantastic Paddle Shifters, making it our pick of this test. Amongst the diesels the City still trumps the Brezza thanks to better drivability, performance, dynamics and ergonomics that trump Brezza’s extra electronic gizmos anyday.



Honda City vs Vitara Brezza Comparison Video:

 Pricing & Features: Vitara Brezza’s top-most variant, the ‘ZDi+’ diesel retails for 9.54* Lakh, Ex-showroom, Delhi, which is identical to Honda City’s ‘S’ diesel variant  costing 9.59 Lakh. However, Brezza has innumerable more features (enlisted below) than an equally priced City. These features are easily worth a lakh rupees making the Brezza that much cheaper to buy than a City. (Honda City petrol-manual ‘S’ variant retails for 8.23 Lakh and petrol-automatic ‘SV’ variant retails for 9.89 Lakh)

Common Features: ABS, Driver Airbag, AC, Power Steering, Front Power Windows, Central Locking, Keyless Entry, Stereo: FM, USB, Aux, Bluetooth + 4 Speakers, Electrically Adjustable Mirrors, Electric Tailgate Release, Driver’s Seat Height Adjust, LED DRLs, Steering Wheel Switches, Parking Sensors, Auto headlamps, Auto Wipers, Parking Camera, Projector Headlamps, Electrically Folding Mirrors
Extra Features in Vitara Brezza (ZDi+): Passenger Airbag, Alloys, 7” Touch-screen, Navigation, 2 Tweeters, Push Button Start & Smart Key, Climate Control, Cruise Control, Electrically Folding Mirrors, Rear Defogger, Fog Lamps
Extra Features in City (S): none

Performance & Drivability: Honda’s famous iVTEC engine is nothing short of a precision instrument that has been honed over the better part of five decades. Either of the diesels are no match for the sheer refinement, rev hungry character or the ballistic acceleration of the iVTEC. Honda’s fantastic CVT automatic gearbox makes it even better. It runs like a dream around town and comes with Steering mounted Gearshift Paddles, which come in handy when you need to simulate a downshift during overtakes. Brezza’s Fiat sourced Multijet diesel, which has been bestowed with the title of ‘National Engine of India’, is seriously outclassed by both the Honda mills. Even the diesel powered City is a far more drivable and much too easier to pilot around town compared to the Brezza. Mid range shove and outright acceleration is also weaker in the Brezza compared to the diesel City, albeit by a very small margin.

Power (PS@rpm): Vitara Brezza (diesel) – 90@4000, City (diesel) – 100@3600, City (petrol) – 119@6600
Torque (Nm@rpm): Vitara Brezza (diesel) – 200@1750, City (diesel) - 200@1750, City (petrol) – 145@4600
Kerb Weight (kg): Vitara Brezza (diesel) – 1185, City (diesel) – 1150, City (petrol) - 1049
Power to Weight Ratio (PS/ton): Vitara Brezza (diesel) – 76, City (diesel) – 87, City (petrol) - 113
Torque to Weight Ratio (Nm/ton): Vitara Brezza (diesel) – 169, City (diesel) – 174, City (petrol) - 138

Fuel Efficiency: In our back-to-back tests, the diesel powered City was consistently 1 kmpl more efficient than the Vitara Brezza. The petrol powered Cities (or should it be Citys), both manual and automatic were over 2 kmpl less efficient than the Brezza during our real-world tests.
ARAI Mileage (kmpl): Vitara Brezza (manual diesel) – 24.3, City – 26 (manual diesel), City (manual petrol) – 17.4, City (automatic petrol) - 18
Fuel Cost for 75,000 km (Lakh): Vitara Brezza (manual diesel) – 2.38, City – 2.23 (manual diesel), City (manual petrol) – 3.95, City (automatic petrol) – 3.82
*assuming usage of 1250 km per month for 5 years

Space & Comfort: City is undeniably the more spacious, ergonomic, luxurious and comfortable car than the Brezza. That being said, the Brezza itself is more than adequate on all those parameters for five occupants. However, it does lose ground big-time when it comes to boot-space, with the City’s 510 liter capacity being way larger than Brezza’s 328 liters. Brezza’s high seating position does give it some brownie points, especially in terms of all-round visibility and easier ingress-egress.

Length (mm): Vitara Brezza - 3995, City - 4440
Width (mm): Vitara Brezza - 1790, City - 1695
Height (mm): Vitara Brezza - 1640, City – 1495

Ride Quality & Handling: The City outshines the Brezza in terms of dynamic capabilities. It has excellent balance around the bends, with a decent steering feel and precision. Honda’s ride quality is also far better than the Maruti irrespective of the speed. However, Brezza is better suited to Indian road conditions given that you don’t need to worry about scraping the underbelly over broken tarmac and speed breaking mountains. In spite of selling the City in this country for 2 decades Honda refuses to re-engineer the City’s suspension adequately for Indian conditions for no rational reason whatsoever.

Ground Clearance (mm): Vitara Brezza – 198, City – 165
Tyre Size: Vitara Brezza - 215/60R16 (Z, Z+), 205/60R16 (L,V), City – 175/65R15

Reliability and After Sales Service: Both Maruti and Honda have legendary reputation for product reliability and service support in our country. However, for the first time in its history there have been sporadic complaints about niggling problems with this model. In Brezza’s case it is too early to comment, but given that it is touted to be Maruti’s very first 100% Indian effort taken up as a challenge from Suzuki Japan, we sincerely hope that no corners were cut during development. Overall though, Maruti still leads by a huge margin, thanks to its widespread network of 2000+ touch points compared to Honda’s paltry 250.

Resale after 5 to 7 years est. (Lakh): Both cars are certainly bound to hold unbelievable residual value thanks to their more or less flawless reputations earned over the past 25 years in our country. 
Vitara Brezza (Diesel manual) – 5.70
City (Diesel manual) – 5.70
City (Petrol manual) – 4.95
City (Petrol automatic) – 5.95

Total Cost of Ownership (in Lakh): (Vehicle Price + Fuel Cost – Resale Value)
Vitara Brezza (diesel manual) – 6.20
City (diesel manual) – 6.05
City (petrol manual) – 7.25
City (petrol automatic) – 7.80

Verdict: The Honda City is technically a far superior vehicle than the Vitara Brezza. Especially the petrol powered City, which has effectively 50% more power, musical levels of refinement, better dynamics and comfort than the Vitara Brezza. Agreed that it works out to be over a lakh rupees more expensive than diesels, but in terms of performance and refinement it is 2 segments above the worse-than-hatchbacks diesels. What makes it even better is the fantastic CVT automatic gearbox, with those fantastic Paddle Shifters making it our pick of this test. Amongst the diesels the City still trumps the Brezza thanks to better drivability, performance, dynamics and ergonomics that trump Brezza’s extra electronic gizmos anyday.

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