Honda's new City is just four months away

HONDA Australia will import a new compact sedan that will slot in below the Civic from next February.

Called the City, the new model is based on the all-new Jazz and will compete against sedan versions of the Toyota Yaris, Holden Barina and Nissan Tiida.

Pricing is yet to be determined, but the two-model range is expected to be positioned between $18,000 and $21,000.

The entry-level manual City will represent a small premium over the similarly-equipped 1.5-litre Jazz VTi, which starts from $17,990, and a higher-specification model should come in below the entry-level Civic sedan at $21,990.

It might be new to Australia, but this is the third generation of the light car that was introduced in Thailand in 1996.

The first-generation City was made only for the Thai market, which is big on compact sedans, but the second-generation model was exported to destinations including Japan, Turkey and Africa.

Honda Australia has been considering this City model for the last three years and believes it will fill the gap left by the Civic has become bigger and more expensive with each generation.

“Every Civic gets larger and larger. It has grown in size and moved more upmarket,” said Honda Australia managing director Yasuhide Mizuno. “The City will give us a sporty entry-level sedan, the sort of position that the Civic used to fill.”

Mr Mizuno said the City’s sharp styling will appeal to young people, who are not usually drawn to small sedans. “This is not an old people’s pensioner car, but a car for young people, an entry-level car,” he said.

Honda Australia is hoping the sleek new City will help it to lower the average age of its customers, which currently stands at 50 years. The average age of people who buy the Jazz, which was expected to bring in more young customers, stands a 55.

The City sits on the same platform as the Jazz, running the same MacPherson strut front and torsion beam rear set-up.

It is powered by the 1.5-litre engine from the Jazz, which produces 88kW at 6600rpm and 146Nm at 4700rpm. While the Jazz hatch also has a 1.3-litre entry-level engine, that unit is not used in the City.

The transmissions match those in the Jazz, including the five-speed manual and five-speed automatic. Fuel consumption figures are yet to be finalised, but are expected to be a strong point for a car that weighs about the same as a Jazz (1050kg).

When it comes to dimensions, the City is not that much smaller than the Civic sedan. In terms of overall length, the City measures 4410mm compared to 4550mm for the Civic, while overall width is 1695mm for the City compared to 1750mm.

Honda Australia claims the light sedan has more legroom than the Civic and not that much less than an Accord. It also has more boot space with a maximum volume of 506 litres.

In Thailand, the City is used as a taxi/limo and comes with retractable rear seats. The cars being imported to Australia will not come with this feature, instead using a 60/40 split-fold arrangement.

While the City models sold in Thailand only come with front driver and passenger airbags, the Australian models come with front, side and curtain airbags. ABS brakes will be standard but, like the Jazz, electronic stability control will not be available until 2010.

Sedans currently represent only 13.7 per cent (year-to-date) of the light-car market, according to VFACTS figures. Honda expects demand for light sedans to grow, not just thanks to the introduction of the City, but also because a lot of Australians are down-sizing but do not necessarily want a hatchback.

The Barina and Yaris are the only other serious players in the light sedan market at this stage, although Chinese contenders such as the Lifan 520 could change that.

While a lot of Tiida sales are accounted for with rental fleets, Mr Mizuno said Honda would not chase those sales. “We don’t want to do rentals, maybe business fleet and of course user-chooser, but not rentals,” he said.

The latest City was introduced in Thailand on September 10 and sales in the first three weeks hit 4300 sales, which is quite remarkable given the annual new-car market is worth around 600,000 sales.

Watch this space for GoAuto's first drive of the new Honda City from this Thursday.

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