Through the years, we have come to know the Honda City with a home-grown image that means an affordable, practical, safe, and fun car in the subcompact offering range. This year, the Honda City continues that same tradition, all while keeping with the times with the Honda SENSING technology coming as standard in all trim levels, which takes the car a step further in terms of safety.
Exterior Styling
The exterior of the 2025 Honda City 1.5 S Sensing retains the same styling features as last year; that means sleek, sharp styling reminiscent of the Honda Civic, albeit in a more compact package. This particular unit comes in Honda’s Meteoroid Gray Metallic, which with this trim level comes with black plastic accents on the front bumper and lower grille, and a large, chrome-keyed piece serving as the upper grille, which extends on top of each front headlight; once again, a look very much similar to the Honda Civic of this City generation’s vintage.
However, what makes this particular Honda City 1.5 S different is the fact that it comes with Honda’s factory available Modulo Sport Package which includes front and rear bumper spoilers, side skirts, a rear wing, and stylized 16 inch alloy wheels exclusive to the Modulo package; all these elements combined helps give the Honda City 1.5 S a more sporting appeal.
Interior Styling, Space, and Creature Comforts
The Honda City 1.5 S welcomes occupants with a comfortable, spacious, and very usable interior. It features firm, but comfortable fabric-wrapped seats as well as interior-colored door accents, and a generous use of black plastic, which makes up a fair majority of the interior surface of the car.
The dashboard is a simple and organized collection of black and silver accents, which adds a bit of a stylish touch to a dashboard that seems to prioritize function rather than form. Additionally, you’ll also find that on the 1.5 S, you get one vanity mirror built into the sunshade on the driver’s side only.
Speaking of, on the driver’s side, you’ll find an instrument cluster composed of a combination of analog and digital readouts; two ambient lights surround the cluster on each side and glow between shades of white and green as opposed to red found in the RS trim level.
Although the instrument readouts are mostly complete, the City does lack a dedicated water temperature gauge, and drivers are instead provided with indicator lights to inform the driver of cold or hot coolant temperatures.
The steering wheel is tilt-adjustable, and features additional controls for the infotainment and driver assist systems, aiding the overall convenience for the driver; although it does lack paddle shifters, which are exclusive to the RS trim level, and so users of all trims below that are left to make-do with the “sport mode” found on the somewhat notchy shifter.
The center of the dashboard houses the 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, which comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Weblink. It also has Bluetooth and USB functionality, and the audio is outputted to a set of four speakers for the 1.5 S, in which the audio quality can be described as acceptable.
The City 1.5 S also comes with a manual climate control system with no vents for the rear seat, as the automatic climate control and rear vents come with the higher-grade RS and V variants. However once you look past the absent rear vents, you’ll find that one of the highlights of the Honda City is the excellent cabin space; three passengers in the rear have plenty of legroom even with the front seats in more laid-back positions, making the interior a nice place to be whether seated in the front or back.
Headroom for taller rear passengers, however, can be a bit short due to the low roof at the back, and the rear seats are fixed for all trim levels, which is unfortunate, since folding rear seats would add even more utility to the already spacious trunk, with a total available volume of 519 liters; more than enough to fit long baggages, and even items from grocery runs with more immense volumes.
Engine & Performance
All trims of the 2025 Honda City will continue to be offered with Honda’s PGM-FI equipped 1.5-liter DOHC i-VTEC engine that puts out 121 horsepower and 145 Nm of torque. The engine makes its peak torque in the upper mid-range of 4600 RPM; this means that the engine will create a bit of buzz getting the car up to speed.
But despite that, the Honda City 1.5 S retains its responsive and rev-happy characteristics, as its Dual-Cam i-VTEC engine is more than eager to rev up and deliver smooth, linear power with a pedal press, all while complying with EURO 5 emission standards and providing excellent fuel economy.
Handling Performance & Tires, Suspension, and Braking
The 2025 Honda City 1.5 S is offered with the same suspension system as the previous model year, being anti-roll bar equipped MacPherson struts up front, and a torsion beam at the rear as standard on all trim levels. The standard 1.5 S also sits on 185/65 tires on 15-inch alloy wheels, which in our case were Modulo 16-inch wheels, thanks to the factory available Modulo kit mounted on our test car.
In terms of driving the 2025 Honda City 1.5 S, you’ll find that the car itself expresses a light, nimble steering feel, which, when coupled with the peppy and responsive acceleration of the 1.5-liter DOHC i-VTEC engine, gives a sporting and involving experience even with the lack of paddle-shifters for its CVT transmission, which are exclusive to the 1.5 RS trim.
During harsh cornering, the City 1.5 S expresses a more than ample amount of stability and grip; body-roll is present but highly controlled, all with moderate front-end plow, which comes on gently once you approach the limit of its 185-width tires. All models, including the 1.5 S, also remain equipped with front ventilated disk brakes, rear drum brakes, and ABS, which help to provide good stopping power with a manageable and non-touchy pedal feel.
Everyday Driving Comfort and Fuel Economy
The 2025 Honda City 1.5 S offers an excellent degree of ride sophistication; it provides a firm, quiet, and comfortable ride with good stability in both city and highway driving. Even at higher speeds, road and tire noise remain minimal, albeit with a slight buzz from the engine when merging onto the highway or when passing traffic; The noise, however, does fade during stable cruising with more minimal throttle inputs.
One of the things we have come to expect from the Honda City from both past and present is fuel efficiency, which, in this case it’s pleasant to see that the 2025 Honda City 1.5 S continues its frugal tradition. Honda claims a UNR-101 test rating of 22.2 kilometers per liter; in our test, which consisted of light city and highway driving, we had managed to gain an average fuel economy of 21.1 kilometers per liter, at least from the onboard fuel-mileage computer, which certainly proves the practicality of the Honda City even in its current form.
Safety
The 2025 Honda City 1.5 S comes with a variety of safety items which includes 3 point seat belts which are height adjustable in the front seats and fixed in the ISOFIX equipped rear seats, as well as front and side airbags for the 1.5 S and all other trims except the RS, which comes with side curtain airbags.
Another feature which is currently standard for the Honda City is the G-CON body structure, which is essentially a Honda design which is intended to allow the structure of the car to absorb the impact from collisions more effectively; combined, these safety features allowed this current generation of Honda City achieve an NCAP safety rating of 5 stars.
The City 1.5 S also comes with keyless entry, which, for other trims, is “smart entry” which lessens the use of the key even further, but the standard keyless entry system is still nicely convenient.
To make driving the Honda City even safer, the car also comes standard with anti-lock braking and electronic brake force distribution systems, as well as stability assistance, hill start assist, and even includes “Agile Handling Assist”, which further enhances the stability of the vehicle during cornering.
However, the 2025 Honda City takes safety a step further with the notable Honda SENSING driver-assist technology, which comes standard in not just the 1.5 S, but also the V and RS trim levels.
What makes the Honda SENSING system noteworthy is its array of driver assist systems which includes collision-mitigation braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, lead car departure which reminds the driver when the car in front has started to move from a standstill, auto high-beams which automatically triggers in darker environments and adjusts to oncoming traffic, and lastly, a road departure mitigation and lane departure warning system which provides audio-visual warnings for when the vehicle detects swerving without using the turn signals, as well as when the vehicle also detects veering off of the normal road course.
In action, we found that the Honda SENSING system truly helped keep you out of trouble whether in stop and go traffic or during faster-paced highway cruises, all without being too intrusive to the driver and passengers, and being that it is standard in all Honda City trim levels ensures the enhanced safety of its occupants, all in an uncompromised and attainable package without the need to avail for more expensive trim levels.
Conclusion
It’s easy to see that this generation of Honda City carries on in its mission and intention of providing an affordable, reliable, safe, and practical form of transportation, while also providing a bit of flair in the form of a light and nimble sporting characteristic and a good amount of sleekness and sophistication. Even outside of the top-of-the-line RS model, the Honda City 1.5 S doesn’t fail to show its appeal, whether that be in the form of its spacious, fuel-efficient, and easy-to-drive nature with its array of safety technologies, or its more playful, peppy, and agile side expressed through its responsive engine and nimble handling. Overall, the 2025 Honda City 1.5 S remains a sure buy in delivering a little bit of everything for everyone, all in a practical, fun, and safe package.
Price: P998,000*^
*Correct as of this article’s writing
^Excludes any accessories fitted to the vehicle.
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