A City Slicker equally at home on the open road

Looking at the local Honda line up last year we wouldn’t have thought there was enough space between Jazz and Civic for the new City to fit all that comfortably. But while the City is new to Oz it's actually the third generation of this model, having already sold over a million cars in Asia/Oceania alone over the past 12 or 13 years. The City clearly sits closer to the Jazz end of the line up as it draws heavily on that model using, among other things, the same suspension layout and 1.5 litre i-VTEC engine.
Honda gives you two model choices – the VTi and the VTi-L. Our test car was the latter - with 16" alloys in place of 15" steel wheels, telescopic steering wheel adjustment in addition to the VTi's tilt only, front fog lights, and an upgraded interior treatment being the major differences. Buyers have the choice of a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 5-speed auto for an extra $2,300 – ours was the auto. The City is only available with four doors and a boot. This boot though is something special, as it not only contains a real spare wheel but also has a full 560 litres of available space – more even than the Accord or Accord Euro.
Keyless entry, air conditioning (non-climate controlled), cruise control, power windows & mirrors, a height adjustable driver's seat and a rest for the driver's left foot all make for pretty civilised and comfortable driving.
Secondary safety is well covered in the City with energy absorption engineered-in along with load-limiting sensors in the front seatbelts and dual front, side and full-length curtain airbags. While the primary safety features include ABS with EBD and Brake Assist unfortunately there will be no Traction or Stability Control available until 2010.
With its diminutive 88kW the 1.5 litre City doesn’t pretend to be a sports car but it drives and handles very comfortably and predictably. Honda reckons you'll average 6.3 litres/100km in the manual and 6.6 litres/100km in the auto City. We went close, at 7.2, but probably had a touch more town than country driving in our mix. We still did enough freeway and highway driving however to demonstrate the City is quite at home on the open road - one simply has to be prepared to use all those 88kWs when overtaking etc.
City pricing starts at $20,490 (plus on-roads) for the manual VTi and tops out at $25,290 for our auto VTi-L. Honda offer a 100,000km/3year warranty.
The Honda City neatly fills the gap (which we hadn’t previously seen) between the Jazz and Civic line ups. Only one area prevents us from highly recommending the City – the lack (for now) of traction and stability control.

Tested August 2009

Vehicle provided by Honda Australia Pty Ltd