Good question. My family has a 2nd Gen Vios and a 5th Gen City.

I drove and sat in the City on many more occasions than the Vios. But i assume both aren't really too far off. The most noticeable is that the Vios's electric power steering is alot heavier than the City.

But anyway, I've mentioned on this thread before that the Ativa is NO WAY NEAR.....NO WAY NEAR as comfortable than the 5th Gen Honda City.

Vibration damping, sound insulation, handling pot holes, driving position, you name it, everything still loses out to the City by a very very high margin.

Not being a Perodua hater, but this is just facts, I am an Ativa owner of 5 months.

The City is already 10 years old and still drives and ride like new, of course there has been some repairs needed. Compared to my brand new Ativa, within 1 month, the dashboard started rattling. And every now and then, I would hear odd mechanical sounds.

Of course, the only aspect where the City loses out to the Ativa is through electronic features. But even this, where the Ativa should hold advantage, a lot of those features fall flat on their face. I've mentioned before, the turbo engine doesn't vibrate as much on idle, but the vibration is more noticeable when driving, which all car reviewers failed to point out. The engine vibration is enough that it can result in dashboard rattling. The ACC is so harsh that as a cruise control lover, I never use the ACC at all. LKC also doesn't do much since its essentially a slightly more proactive version of the lane departure prevention feature minus the visual and audio warnings.

And don't even get me started on the silly in car head unit. Unless you're STILL running android 10 below, or you're extremely lucky, or you have an iphone, you're not going to be successful in mirroring your phone to the head unit.

The Ativa is the perfect car for the marketing and sales department. New DNGA platform, 33% more stiff, ACC, LKC, BSM, RTCA, LDW, LDP, ADB, turbo charged engine D-CVT, Llumar tinting, dash cam, premium bridgestone turanza tyres. A whole long list of marketable features. But when you assess the performance of EACH AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL FEATURE that they promote, every single one of them falls flat to the ground face first.

1. New DNGA platform 33% more stiff: who cares if the ride quality is still poorer than a 2008 City and the plastics used for the interior cabin rattle like marbles in a box.
2. ACC/LKC: ACC is too harsh and almost not usable at all, LKC makes steering looser on high speeds when it should be tighter and heavier for control.
3. 1.0 Turbo Engine: still consumes more fuel vs the myvi engine, unnecessarily introduces a bunch of NVH imperfections into the cabin that was non-existent in lower end cars like myvi or bezza. Torque (not sure if peak) only comes in from 2.5k rpm, which is somewhat pointless since most Malaysians tend to accelerate at that rpm on naturally aspirated engines.
4. D-CVT can still feel like ordinary AT gear box on very low speeds. Every time you move from a standstill at low speeds, you will feel an upshift (yes I know CVT's don't do that but this one does). Because of that, when you're crawling in jams and you're gently stepping and letting off the gas pedal, the car will jerk.
5. Llumar tinting, you will still feel the sun and you will still sweat unless you turn the A/C up higher.
6. Bridgestone tyres: not common and cost 400 per tyre.

Point i'm making here, every feature on the car that was promoted, doesn't function properly at all to the point that the car is essentially a jack of all trades but literally a master at none.

The features are so half assed that it ends up making such a good looking car a half assed car.

In hindsight, if i knew the Ativa was going to rattle like hell, I would've gone straight to a J spec Yaris, which at that time, was selling under MYR 70k.

Bad car to buy, but fucking good car to sell.

I don't own them, but waiting for Ativa. I did test drive Ativa and Vios though. What kind of comparison are you looking for?

One is compact SUV and one is a sedan and hatchback car.

They are both quite different, and I think it boils down to 2 things,
1) Which one fits your purpose?
2) Which one your heart tells you to drive it?

Myself, I was driving a manual Myvi which was already 16 years old, I don't want to drive a manual anymore with the increasing jam 😂

Ativa is a fun car with decent boot space and relatively new tech P2 can offer. I like to try something new. It has a fresh and modern design to it that I really like.

Vios is a car that everyone know that it's built for durability, the 2nd hand value wouldn't drop much as compared to other cars. The interior is a bit too dark to my liking, and feels dated. I can imagine myself driving Vios but will stare and admire Ativa or newer cars on the road 😂

Or if you can wait, see what's the new Vios like when it launch/reveal in Thailand next month.