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By
EWAN KENNEDY
16 February 2009
Honda's
new City is very much a car for the times. A model that has been
sold in other markets for many years, City is aimed at providing a
good sized car with excellent fuel economy. Economy that's
obtained from using a smaller engine than we have been accustomed
to in cars of this size in Oz in recent years. But one that now
makes a lot of sense in an era when buyers are more and more
concerned with low emissions.
City
isn’t a lot smaller than Honda Civic, indeed if you go back a
few generations the Civic was smaller than City is these days. Not
that that's entirely a fair comparison, because a reasonable bit
of the added size in current model cars is due to extra length in
the nose to provide crash protection for both occupants and
pedestrians. Honda has long been a leader in pedestrian safety and
City carries the Japanese company's latest thinking on the
subject.
Interior
space in the Honda City is impressive, with good head and legroom
front and rear. The low floor in the back seat means three adults
can be carried, though two and a child would be a more reasonable
load.
The
boot of this sedan is voluminous, being bigger than the big Aussie
rear-drive family cars. That's partly due to the lack of a
differential under the Honda's floor, but we are also told that
Honda engineers were briefed by Honda Australia chiefs on the
desires of local motorists, and were told that Aussies like big
boots. Resulting in an esky being sent up to Japan, and the rear
end styling being raised to make room for it!
Power
comes from an engine displacing just 1.5 litres, deliberately so
in the interests of low fuel consumption. Torque is at a sky-high
4800 rpm, typically Honda you could say, but the peak of 145 Nm is
impressive from an engine of this size. Peak power is 88 kW.
On
the road the City doesn’t have a huge amount of performance, but
buyers are increasingly willing to forgo grunt in the interests of
low fuel use, in this case just 6.3 litres per hundred kilometres
in five-speed manual format when measured to official standards
(6.6 with the five-speed automatic).
The
automatic ties in nicely with the engine, being willing to change
down a gear or two to get the engine up to somewhere near its
torque peak. Circumstances meant we didn’t get a chance to drive
a manual gearbox during the City’s introduction to the press in
a drive program in Sydney. But we've yet to drive any Honda manual
that we didn’t like.
Incidentally,
those who know their cars will recognise many of the mechanical
details as being the same as the Honda Jazz hatchback. There are
many out-of-sight similarities in the two, as well as in the
visible areas of the cabin, but the City sits on a longer
wheelbase, has a totally different body and is significantly
longer.
Honda
City is impressively quiet for a machine in this class, with
little increase in sound levels when on coarse surfaces. No
unsealed surfaces were traversed on a trip that was, naturally,
aimed at city and suburban running.
Handling
is pleasant, with the City being happy to turn into corners and
stable once in them. It's happy to change direction and only when
you are pushing it hard does (safe) understeer come into the
equation.
There's
bad news as well. The dive of the Australian dollar against the
Japanese yen has forced Honda Australia to charge a substantial
$20,490 for the lowest-cost City, thus putting it way above other
cars in the class, such as the Ford Fiesta, Holden Barina, Kia Rio
and Toyota Yaris. Senior Director of Honda Australia, Lindsay
Smalley, said that even at that price his company is likely to
lose money. Smalley indicated that he expects other companies to
follow Honda's lead. We wait with interest to see what happens.
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Marque Publishing Company
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