I bought a city in March 2005. This is my first big car - the earlier car that I drove (I still have it - looking for a good hand who could take it over from me) was a Santro, the base model. So it was ofcourse a very leisure change for me. As you would know from what I own, I do not give a lot of weightage to the way cars looks from outside, unless it is absolutely horrible as is the case with Versa et.al. :). However my wife is a great fan of the City looks from the outside too. What makes me crazy about this new City are its interiors. And the model that we bought was Gxi - the one that comes with beige interiors. It looks awesome and the interiors are just too comfortable. It is a very very easy car to drive - good steering and very smooth and definite gear shift. The most amazing thing is the sound proofing of this car. You don’t feel like you are driving in the midst of the city. And believe me, it makes a very big difference in terms of the comfort feeling it provides. We normally do not notice this feature while doing a test drive of cars. Other things such as power adjustment of side mirrors, height adjustable seats and steering, AC ducts for back seats, 2 glove compartments, so many cup holders, etc are features that are very handy and are some easily noticeable features that make this car a cut above the rest, just incomparable. But I agree that this car does not have a strong enough pick-up as compared to an Ikon, but it is good enough to drive on city roads, unless you are one of those rash drivers who zoo-zoo everywhere, before crashing on some pavements :-) One more possible improvement could have been in the pedals (accelerator, brake, clutch). One has to really move a lot in order to operate the clutch. I have seen a better clutch in smaller cars such as a Santro.
After about 2 months of driving the city, I really enjoy being in it. Very smooth and quiet. And the Gxi makes the interiors look really classy. I have got a mileage of about 12.5 for the ~1000 kms that I have driven. This was in crowded streets - mostly on the Aurobindo marg, which means a standard city traffic, with the AC switched ON at all the times. So I am pretty satisfied with that number, although I am still hoping that this number will climb to about 14, because this what I had heard from others.
But beware of the service centers and of the Showrooms. Believe me in this - the City is a great car but the people who manage it are HORRIBLE to say the least. The experience that I had while I had made a visit to get the car, had been a misery. No one is there to attend the case, Honda executives will generally wander anywhere. No one knew where is my car and no one knew what all accessories was I supposed to get as part of the deal. Believe me, I have had better experiences while I had purchased the Santro, or for that matter any big item like an AC or a Fridge. And the pains do not stop there - I was supposed to get some registration papers and the number plate later in the month. I had to call them INFINITE (yes, that is pretty close) number of times. And the bad thing is that these guys are not at all professional - no better than a sabzi wala. By the way, I am talking about the dealer from which I bought my car (SouthEnd Honda in Badarpur, on the Mathura Road). Maybe others are better. Another warning is that SouthEnd Honda in Green Park is also the same branch, so everything applies to them too.
And when I went for servicing my car, I was really disapointed. The service station (in Badarpur) is horrible. The staff is completely sub-standard, the office looks no better than a road side repair center. These days petrol pumps have better (in terms of professional behavior and technical knowledge) staff than what those bunch of jerks are inside the Honda service station. I had been using the Hyundai service station at mathura road for so many years, and the comparison would give Honda 0 marks out of a 100. I am surprised that such a wonderful car maker has so poor staff to maintain their facilities. Hopefully they will improve over the years.
Despite all these pains with the staff, the car stands way above any car in that segment (Esteem, Accent, Ikon, Baleno, Indigo, etc.).