2014 Honda City | new car sales price

Effectively a sedan version of the third-generation Jazz hatch, the new City is 45mm longer with a 50mm longer wheelbase.

Malcolm Flynn

Editor

CarsGuide

13 May 2014 • 3 min read

Honda’s new City sedan is the second-generation to reach our shores, and the new model boasts a new body with improved interior packaging, the latest in Honda smartphone integration technology, and a more efficient revised drivetrain with the availability of a new CVT auto.

DESIGN

Effectively a sedan version of the third-generation Jazz hatch due in July, the new model is 45mm longer overall, with a 50mm longer wheelbase that has helped to add 60mm in rear legroom along with headroom and shoulder room gains.

The previous model’s surprisingly huge 506-litre boot has also been stretched to a Ford Falcon-beating 536-litres VDA, creating room for four large golf bags according to Honda. The back seat folds 60/40, but the seat base continues to be fixed and there’s a spacesaver spare wheel under the boot floor.

RANGE/VALUE

The new City is available in the same VTi and VTi-L trim levels as its predecessor, but the $15,990 entry manual VTi and $17,990 VTi automatic have dropped by $500. The auto-only VTi-L’s $21,390 list price has risen by $900.

The City is second only to the new Odyssey people mover to offer Display Audio, with Honda’s touchscreen interface for Bluetooth audio and phone functions standard on all City variants. When connected to an iPhone 5 via an HDMI cable, the system can mirror the iPhone’s display along with swipe and scroll interactivity.

A number of third-party apps can also be mirrored, including the $49.99 HondaLink satnav app that can be downloaded from iTunes – enabling three years of satnav coverage.

The Display Audio system uses a seven inch touchscreen display on both variants, and includes a three-view (normal, wide and birds-eye) reversing camera on all variants. Rear parking sensors are optional though, and cost $495 fitted.

Along with Display Audio, VTi models come equipped with cruise control, multifunction steering wheel, four speaker audio, rake and reach steering wheel adjustment, eight cupholders and 15 inch steel wheels with wheel covers.

The VTi-L adds a leather wheel and gearknob, climate control, paddle shifters, push-button start, eight speaker audio, and extra pair of 12V outlets for the back seat, front foglights and 16 inch alloy wheels.

ENGINE/TRANSMISSION

The new City sees the return of a CVT auto to Honda’s mainstream light car lineup, with only the Hybrid version of the existing Jazz using the efficiency-boosting auto design. The rest of the auto Jazz and City lineups have used a five speed torque converter unit after the CVT in the (2002-08) first-generation Jazz lineup, and the new third-generation Jazz will also use the CVT for auto variants when it arrives in July.

The new CVT has helped fuel consumption drop to 5.7L/100km (from 6.6L/100km) for automatic variants, while the five speed manual available in the price-leading VTi is rated at 5.8L/100km (down from 6.3L/100km) combined, despite packing one fewer ratio than some rivals.

Also contributing to the lower consumption figures is the attention paid to internal friction and rotational mass reduction for the City’s 1.5-litre petrol four. Outputs remain at the same 88kW/145Nm as previously, but max torque now arrives 200rpm earlier at 4600rpm.

SAFETY

Both VTi and VTi-L come with front, side and full-length curtain airbags, plus ABS, EBD, brake-assist, plus stability and traction control. Honda says the new City has been designed to achieve the five star safety rating of its forebear, and will be tested by ANCAP in the coming months.

Honda chose India to take the wraps of the new City sedan that will go on sale around the world in 2014, arriving in Australia towards the second half of the year.
The debut location reflects that the Jazz-with-a-boot is far more popular in overseas markets than here, where it's failed so far to excite Australian buyers, luring only 588 of them so far this year against the Jazz hatch's 5147.
Overseas markets will get the choice of the City's first diesel -- a 75kW/200Nm 1.5-litre -- but we're likely to see only the revised carryover 1.5-litre petrol unit, with unchanged 88kW/145Nm outputs.
Honda will confirm full specification and pricing closer to the City's Australian launch, but with the little sedan being a slow sales shifter it's unlikely the prices will move much from the current $16,490 entry for the five-speed manual VTi version, and $2000 and $4000 more for the auto Vti and top-spec auto VTi-L respectively.