Previewed earlier this month, the 2026 Honda City facelift is now on sale in Malaysia, with the car making its official debut earlier this morning. The 2026 iteration is the second facelift for the fifth-gen sedan, which arrived here in October 2020 before it was replaced by the first facelift in August 2023.
Three years on, the latest update – which was unveiled in India back in May before making its Southeast Asian debut in Thailand a month later – introduces a new face and some minor cosmetic changes to the exterior and a few upgrades to the interior. Before we get to the changes, let’s take a look at the available variants and their pricing.
The current line-up largely follows that for the first facelift, save one exclusion. Similar to the downscaling taken with other Honda models, the base Grade S variant has been dropped for this new cycle, which means the City sedan range now consists of four variants, in this case three petrol versions (E, V and RS) and a sole hybrid option, the e:HEV RS.
The 2026 Honda City facelift range is priced at (all on-the-road, without insurance):
- City 1.5L E – RM89,900
- City 1.5L V – RM94,900
- City 1.5L RS – RM99,900
- City 1.5L e:HEV RS – RM111,900
The prices are identical to the previous City facelift, except that the previous RM84,900 S is no longer available, pushing the entry price up to that of the E. At the launch, HMSB announced that the first 2,400 City buyers will enjoy a RM3,000 rebate, applicable to all variants.
As it with all Honda models sold in Malaysia from September 1, the City facelift now comes with an eight-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, with the e:HEV getting an additional 10-year hybrid component warranty.
Save for a change in length brought about by the front and rear end revisions, the exterior dimensions of the car are unchanged. The non-RS versions of the 2026 City stretch the tape at 4,577 mm long, three mm shorter than previously, while the new RS measures in at 4,594 mm, five mm longer than the 2023 version. Width remains at 1,748 mm and height at 1,467 mm. Likewise, boot space, which is 519 litres on the petrol versions and 410 litre on the e:HEV.
As indicated from the preview, the exterior rework for the GN2 brings about a sharper front end, with slimmer headlights and a new bumper, with different lower profiles depending on model grades – both RS petrol and hybrid versions feature a central air intake with a sharper, upturned design, while the non-RS petrol variants get a unit with a less edgier, downturned styling, flanked by aggressive-looking air curtain elements finished in black.
Elsewhere, the honeycomb grille has been slimmed down, and the Honda logo (which is still the old shape instead of the new “H” mark, but presented in a flat 2D style like on the Prelude) has been relocated from the grille to the upper part of the body-coloured ‘unibrow’ element. Unique to the RS is a light bar running across the width of the grille.
The refresh standardises the headlights to LED projector units across the range, which means the E moves up from the halogen projectors from before, and its door handles are now body-coloured (previously, chrome).
The E continues to ride on 15-inch alloy wheels, shod with 185/60 profile tyres, the only variant to do so. The V and RS are equipped with 16-inch alloys, with the RS getting new turbine-style units – finished in Berlina Black with a darkened machined face, they are wrapped with 185/55 series Toyo Proxes R57 rubbers.
A note about the spare tyre – while it was never provided with the e:HEV, it has now been dropped from the petrol City variants. There’s no specific reasoning for this, but the company highlights that it’s safer and faster to use tyre repair kit, spending less time at a road shoulder. In any case, for major tyre damage, HIP offers 24/7 towing assistance to a tyre shop.
Meanwhile, the rear retains its familiar shape, but of course there are styling changes. There’s a redesigned rear bumper, which is dressed up with a black grille-like “mesh” centre, a diffuser-like insert, twin “tusks” and vertical reflectors. The trapezoidal tail light design has been carried over, but the unit on the RS now gets an ‘albino’ look, its internal design elements presented in a mix of clear and black, lighting up in red when active.
Mimicking the Civic RS in visual approach, the RS versions of the City get plenty of black elements, in this case on a trunk spoiler extension, door handles, shark fin antenna and side mirror covers.
The interior is unchanged in terms of layout and configuration, but some areas have been upgraded. The dashboard trim on the RS moves away from the all-red finish previously to a more textured silver finish (with a red accent line), and it also gains ambient lighting, red for the RS and blue for the V. The side mirrors also gain an autofold function.
While the E continues to feature the same eight-inch Display Audio touchscreen head unit with wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay from before, the V and RS versions move up to a new, larger 10-inch Display Audio infotainment touchscreen.
The new unit, which brings wireless AACP to the V (wired, first facelift), comes with the 360-degree camera system that was added to the City earlier this year and has now been updated with a multi-view angle and moving object detection interface. A switch has been added to the tip of the left steering stalk to provide users with the ability to cycle through all the angles.
Meanwhile, the seat upholstery on the RS has also been revised in terms of presentation – the central stitching on the previous facelift’s front seats has been ditched, the unit now plain, and the reddish contrast perforation surface on the central spine seen previously has been relocated, now placed on the sides. As mentioned in the preview post, the Malaysian-spec City will not get the ventilated seats or sunroof seen in other markets.
As for powertrain and outputs, the same options continue as they are from before. All three petrol versions have the familiar L15Z 1.5 litre DOHC i-VTEC four-cylinder, offering the same 121 PS at 6,600 rpm and 145 Nm at 4,300 rpm, paired with an Earth Dreams CVT.
Likewise, the i-MMD system on the e:HEV hybrid is also unchanged. The system consists of a primary electric traction motor with 109 PS and 253 Nm providing drive through a single-speed transmission, with an Atkinson-cycle version of the 1.5 litre mill acting as a generator to recharge the battery. The engine, which has 98 PS from 5,600 to 6,400 rpm and 127 Nm between 4,500 and 5,000 rpm, can also clutch in to provide mechanical drive at higher running speeds.
Safety-wise, the City facelift will continue to come equipped with Honda Sensing as standard. The driver assist suite includes autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control (with low speed follow on the e:HEV RS), lane centring assist, road departure mitigation, front departure alert and auto high beam.
2026 Honda City sedan facelift specification sheets and price list. Click to enlarge.
New to the 2026 car is blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, and this works with the existing LaneWatch camera to now provide alerts to the driver on both sides.
The exterior colour palette has been scaled down from six on the old car to four now, the range consisting of Blazing Red Pearl (taking over from Ignite Red Metallic), Meteoroid Gray Metallic and Platinum White Pearl and Stellar Diamond Pearl, the latter only available for the V and petrol RS.
As it was with the initial facelift, Honda Malaysia is offering a range of optional accessories for the City, including two Modulo styling kit packages, each of which consist of front/rear under spoilers and a front/rear black Honda emblem set. While the front under spoiler is slightly different for the non-RS and RS packages, the rear unit is identical for both packs.
2026 Honda City sedan facelift Modulo/accessories packages list and prices Click to enlarge.
GALLERY: 2026 Honda City sedan facelift, e:HEV RS
GALLERY: 2026 Honda City sedan facelift, e:HEV RS with Modulo package
GALLERY: 2026 Honda City sedan facelift, petrol RS
