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Gallery: Honda City Hatchback vs Toyota Yaris – Which is the better-looking hatch?

Jan 12, 2023 3:13 pm

The B-segment hatchback market was set ablaze when Honda unveiled the all-new City Hatchback in Malaysia. With a modern design, plus all the modern creature comforts that one would expect in a car these days, the Honda City Hatchback does sound like the obvious choice for the segment today… but we can’t just brush away the good ol’ dependable Toyota Yaris too.

Although it’s now a few years old, the Toyota Yaris has been given several iterative updates over the years to bring it up to speed with the other younger competitors out there. So how does it stand up against the Honda Civic Hatchback? We’ll be going into a deeper dive over the next couple of weeks, but for now, here are some photos to help with your first impressions!

In the interest of price and performance parity, we opted for the Honda City Hatchback V, one step under the range-topping RS variant, to go up against the Toyota Yaris G. That means it unfortunately loses some of its extra flairs, like the sportier rear bumper, two-tone 16-inch wheels, and extra black accents on the front fascia.

Still, when compared to the Yaris, the City Hatchback does look significantly more modern, thanks to the slimmer LED taillights and cleaner lines. Credit where it’s due, though, we have to say that the Toyota Yaris’ new front fascia design from its latest facelift update does help even things out quite a bit, especially when contrasted to what the model launched with back in 2019.

ALSO READ: All-new Honda City hatchback vs Honda Jazz – What are you getting more (or less)?

The same story continues inside, where the two cannot be further apart in terms of appearance. While they are mostly equal in terms of functionalities and amenities, the Toyota Yaris’ dashboard design, especially with the faux stitching (moulded on hard plastic!), just makes it look 10 years older than the City Hatchback.

The Honda City Hatchback, in this V specification, also feels a lot more premium thanks to its leather-wrapped seats; the Toyota Yaris will have to settle for fabric seats across its entire variant line-up.

Both the Toyota Yaris and Honda City Hatchback V feature a 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated inline-four engine and CVT gearbox powertrain combo underneath their bonnets. However, in terms of outputs, the City Hatchback trumps the Toyota with 121 hp and 145 Nm, compared to the Yaris’ 107 hp and 140 Nm.

How much does the 14 hp and 5 Nm extra translate to actual driving? Well, that’s a story for another day (keep your eyes peeled, we have a lot more content on these two cars coming right up!). But for now, enjoy the detailed photo gallery below, and let us know which of these two is the better-looking car in the comments section below!