Honda City 2008 Review

Honda City

What we liked
>> Interior space rivals larger competitors
>> Simple, but well designed interior
>> Six airbags and ABS standard

In contrast to those key markets, in Australia Honda is launching the car to fill a hole Civic has moved up, up and away from -- both in terms of dollars and dimensions.

Opportunity knocks for City also, says Honda, in the growing section of the Australian population that favours traditional sedans over hatches. This is not only an age 'thing', says Honda Australia boss, Yasuhide Mizuno. Large sections of the Aussie community that count English as a second language are predisposed towards sedans. With Civic too far up the food chain, the brand has been missing out, he opines.

Indeed, sedans' share of the light car market has grown strongly from 7.9 to almost 14 per cent, since 2005. With City arriving next February (2009) and Fiesta and other entrants potentially to offer sedan variants, the growing global and local trend of downsizing, could see this segment grow its share, and the light car market as a whole.

Launched just days ago in India, and earlier in September in Thailand, the City we will see early next year is the third generation of the car.

Project chief, Takeshi Nakamura, says the car was developed from a concept of 'pride of ownership'. While this is probably more of a consideration for customers in developing markets, it nonetheless benefits Australian buyers, in that the City presents as a well styled and integrated sedan, rather than a Jazz with a boot.

That's not necessarily something that can be said of the City's main competitor Down Under -- Toyota's Yaris. Holden's Barina sedan is perhaps a closer parallel in design integration (in so much as not looking directly like its hatch counterpart), but when it comes to comparing the Holden and Honda, the difference is chalk and cheese. Overall, the City is a handsome four-door -- especially so in up-spec versions with their Focus XR-style Y-spoke 16-inch alloys.

Developed separately from the new Jazz (more here), Nakamura-san says the decision to adopt the hatch's platform and centre-fuel tank configuration came relatively late in the piece. He says the City's needs were "totally different", nonetheless his team considered that they could be met best by modifying the Jazz's underpinnings. In the finished product there is almost 60 per cent parts crossover between the models.

The company says it is yet to finalise pricing, badging and specification on the City, but has confirmed it will offer two models, both powered by the same 88kW/146Nm 1.5-litre four as fitted to top Jazz models. Manual and auto transmission versions will be available (five-speeders like Jazz) and all City models will come equipped with a high-spec iPod-ready audio system, six airbags and antilock brakes. After that, frankly, we're guessing -- and so are our colleagues.

In Thailand, the City actually undercuts the price of the Jazz model-for-model. The margin is around five per cent at the lower end of the three-tier Thai model line-up, but narrows at the highest spec. Honda Australia officials have, however, hinted that the entry-level manual City will be offered at a "small" premium over the similarly-equipped $18,170 1.5-litre Jazz VTi five-door hatch.

Auto will add around $2000 to the bottom line, based on Honda's local bill of fare.

Assuming a similar spec upgrade between Jazz and City trim grades, the top manual four-door should be priced close to the VTi-S Jazz's sticker of $20,590. By way of comparison, the entry level Civic VTi is priced from $21,790.

We can confirm that Honda will offer five exterior colours for the City (white, black, silver, blue and red) and the interior will be monotone black. The Thai-built City offers the choice of a two-tone beige cabin.

Other changes include no paddleshift on the automatic models (at either trim grade -- the auto VTi-S Jazz gets paddles in Oz) and the standard fitment of a 60:40 splitfold rear seat. In Thailand and other Asian markets, reclining rear seats are offered in lieu.

We expect the base City to sport 15-inch steel wheels with wheel covers. Standard equipment will include power windows (one-touch driver's glass) and mirrors, central locking (with immobiliser) and in-IP multifunction display that includes instant and average fuel consumption, plus range, etc.

The top-spec City will sport 16-inch alloys and could even potentially feature Honda's own Modulo bodykit add-ons. If not, expect these to be offered as an accessory.

Suspension settings are unique for the City, and according to Nakamura are tuned towards comfort. It's worth noting the latest Jazz gets bespoke settings for the Aussie model. The City does not.

Under the bonnet is the Jazz's new 1.5-litre SOHC 16-valve four featuring Honda's high-low version of i-VTEC. This system increases the lift and duration of the intake valves at high rpms to improve top-end power.

The 1.5 also features a number of top-line technologies including resonator-style variable length intake manifold -- see our Jazz review here for more.

The only five-speed automatic transmission in the Light car class, the City/Jazz's autobox features a Sport mode but, in the absence of paddles, no tiptronic-style function on Aussie models. The box uses active lock-up control to improve fuel economy and improve response during standing-start and in-gear acceleration.

Power and torque figures are unchanged from Jazz for the City installation, however, fuel economy is improved. Though the City is between 20-40kg heavier than the circa-1100kg Jazz, the sedan has improved aerodynamics (lower drag and smaller frontal area) and benefits from it in statutory test modes.

ADR fuel economy figures place the manual and auto City at 6.3 and 6.6L/100km on the combined cycle -- a 0.1L/100km improvement over the 1.5-litre Jazz variants. Whether this translates to any real difference on the road is yet to be seen, but very drop counts to some...

At 4410mm long, the City is a substantial 510mm longer than the latest Jazz (the platform upon which it is based) but still 140mm shorter than Civic. At 2550mm the City's wheelbase is 50mm longer than Jazz, which itself has grown 50mm this generation. The sedan is also 55mm lower than Jazz, but matches the hatch in width -- both are more than 50mm narrower than the Civic.

The City retains the Jazz's centre-mounted fuel cell (located under the front seats) and the car's clever, flat folding 60:40 split-fold second row (and even its underseat storage).

The wheelbase stretch compared to the hatch is all aft of the B-pillar which means the City has class-leading rear legroom. Indeed, as noted above, Nakamura-san says there's 15mm more legroom in the City than the current Civic.

A quick car-to-car comparison suggested to us that dimension is conservative. Though the City uses the Jazz's rear seat frame, in seems the profile of the seat is different which allows the rear seat passenger to sit more 'in' than 'on'. This appears to increase both the effective legroom and headroom.

It's worth noting too that the City gets its sibling's extra wide opening rear doors. The Jazz's doors are claimed to swing to 80 degrees and the City's look to be close to the same. This makes accessing and alighting from the rear bench even easier.

Up front, the H-point of the driver's seat has been lowered by around 15mm compared to the high, wide and handsome position of the Jazz. That said, it still seems more upright than the Civic -- a function of having to accommodate the fuel tank perhaps?

Honda says it has paid special attention to driver's sight lines with the City. It claims the A-pillar configuration and uncoupled external mirror (and rear screen) have been optimised for better visibility.

Only the top-spec Oz City will get both tilt and telescopic adjustable steering, says Honda sources. Those buying a base level will need to be able to get comfortable with tilt only.

Boot capacity is huge at 506 litres!?! That's big enough for four nine-inch Golf bags or Coleman's largest esky, says Honda. Though the City's short rear deck might limit load size, Nakamura says inserting the big cooler's no sweat.

The City features Honda's ACE (Advanced Compatible Engineering) structure and has been tested for 'real world' impacts including dissimilar vehicles, front, front offset, etc. No NCAP rating is available for the car at this time.

Both City trim grades will feature six airbags (front, side and curtain) as standard and get antilock brakes.

It will be interesting to see whether more of the Small Car segment sedans are cross-shopped with City. In practical terms this vehicle offers the same sort of room as the likes of Corolla and Focus sedan, not to mention Mazda3 and Honda's own Civic.

The City could also be a thorn in the side of the 'cheaper' small cars such as Proton Persona and Holden Viva. This is after all a Honda and, if initial impressions are anything to go by, presents with same sort of build quality as Civic and Accord.

We can't therefore tell you a hell of a lot, save for confirming that the car is relatively softly suspended and essentially vice-free.

Though Honda Australia is using terms like 'sporty' in introducing the City, there's little doubt the suspension settings et al are aimed at comfort, not speed. This is not a bad thing -- and indeed, the City may suit some of our roads better than the Jazz -- but the local team will need to temper their enthusiasm a touch, lest they attract the wrong sort of buyers.

Though we're only going on memory, the steering seems a touch lighter than the Jazz but at least the weighting is consistent. There's also a little more body roll in corners, though the longer wheelbase seems to control fore and aft pitch better.

Like the new Jazz, the car has good directional stability and there's little obvious pendulum from the rear if you lift off in a corner as someone might in a panic situation.

There were no manual examples of the City to drive at Bira. Perhaps that's a clue as to the expected preference of the majority of buyers Down Under? Coupled to the auto, the 88kW four gets the job done, but fill the City with four and that big Coleman cooler with ice and tinnies and it'll be working hard.

Refinement overall appeared to be up to Honda's usual strong standards, though the engine did seem a touch more vocal in the City than the Jazz models we drove at the recent Aussie launch. A back-to-back comparison would be needed to tell for sure.

It seems unlikely that two such different sets of consumers -- developing and developed nationals -- could be satisfied by the same car. That said, the overall competence and integration of the City is testament to the project team's efforts to achieve the improbable...

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