The difference between the two engines is not just what it seems, brothers Toyota is not scamming us as much as honda because it offers newer engines on time and also to the lower level trims, with all that said for op city looks like a better option, and i am more inclined towards honda due to their advanced way ahead of time technologies but honda atlas is a scam! The 1.6 toyota engine in question is proven durable and has vvti on both cams which suits performance and economy it is lighter in weight and it has doh cams and this is more powerful as compared to the particular honda engine as max power is available at a fairly low rpm (6000) and in theory it should pull faster because max torque is available at around 5000 rpm. So it has more than just space going for it , so stop bashing it haters, all that said as per op's requirements he should go for city 1.5 now , and for those who are going to say that the altis was bound to have poor economy , they should think again , if our people actually knew what the engines were except 1.5 and 1.6 and 2.0 then imc would gave given us -FAE versions instead of -FE versions, those engines have variable lift just like Honda's vtec and hence combine the best of both worlds (toyota and honda) , as these engines are giving around 18kmpl regularly in a heavier car namely the new premio (2nd gen) . I hope I make sense and somebody actually reads this 
peace
