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The City is light and nimble, so even though it's almost 30 bhp down on the Optra, it feels livelier when experienced from the seat of the pants. Power delivery is smooth and refined, while the gearbox is a delight to go through. Something that can't be said of the Optra. While gearshifts are notchy and rubbery, power delivery is abrupt, and when you floor the throttle and nothing happens. It's as if the accelerator is trying to wake up the engine by saying. 'Oye, you there in the front, wake-up! It's time to get going'. Take-off is slow and things start to happen at about 3500 rpm after which it drops its entire load of 104 horses.
On the performance front, the City takes 5.5 seconds before the speedo reads 60 kph, while the Chevy takes 5.1 seconds. The Optra is faster on the 100 kph run too, but for a moment, forget the cold, light-of-the-day performance data. I know numbers don't lie, but drag races speak the truth. So, when we gunned them off the lights, the Optra was always a full car length's ahead. Even during in-gear roll-ons the Optra's 104 horses always worked harder. However, neither are fit enough to make it to the street-racer dreams. It has to be said that the City is the quieter of the two, and is leagues ahead in terms of NVH.
When it comes to ride and handling, neither are great shakes. The City has a slightly better slow speed ride, yet, when you drive the Optra, you don't have to look out for potholes as much as you need to in the Honda. It's pretty neck-and-neck in the corners too. The City, due to its EPS, has an initial lightness that the steering suffers from, as you begin to turn into a corner. And when you really start loading the inner tyres, it gets a bit fleet-footed, whereas the Optra stays planted. However, as I said earlier, both are not good enough to induce a grin.
So then, which one is better to live with? Well, the City's got a bigger boot, but the Optra, especially the Royale version that we have on test here, has a lot more equipment. But the City is cheaper to run and overall it is still the better buy. But it really isn't that simple.
You see, the City is as exclusive as a Nokia 6600. Yet it's as funky as a Vaio, and the big 'H' on the hood makes it a zillion times more reliable than a Windows XP. Not to mention, the higher resale that it enjoys. And to be fair, the Honda is a generation ahead of the Chevy in terms of the development period, and it shows.
Wait, the champagne can stay corked for a while. Because the Optra has a few virtues that the City doesn't. Firstly, it's got a plusher rear seat and is more of a chauffeur's car than the City. It's slightly faster, and scores higher on perception as well. So, if that's what matters more, then the Optra's for you.
And another thing. The City's been around for four years and while the facelift should be out by the time you read this, what I would really like to see is ABS and airbags on its options list. Now that would be a complete package, wouldn't it? Not quite. Because the one that I really want comes with the letters V-T-E-C on the bootlid.
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