By David Bonnici
While it never enjoyed the popularity of the Jazz hatchback, the Honda City sedan has blossomed into a decent and competitively priced car, with a roomy interior and cavernous boot space providing an excellent compromise between practicality and economy.
It’s also a nice-looking car and pretty cheerful to drive.
The 2014 Honda City 1.5-litre, four-cylinder engine couples well with the constantly variable automatic transmission to provide a smooth and reasonably responsive ride. It does lack some oomph, but the trade-off is excellent fuel efficiency of just 5.1 litres per 100 kilometres combined driving (city and country). This is further improved with an eco-option for city driving. There isn’t a noticeable difference in performance, but blue neon-looking lights around the gauges turn green when you’re driving efficiently to provide a feel good factor.
The VTi-L’s dashboard is very modern- looking with a tacho and speedo being the only analogue gauges. These are accompanied by an LCD display with the usual trip computer information such as mileage, fuel gauge, fuel consumption and range to empty.
In the centre of the dash is a 7-inch glass touch screen, which looks big in this car. This is one of the better systems though, like many cars, you need an Apple device to use it to its fullest. There’s no in-built sat nav, but you can download a Honda navigation app in your iPhone which displays on the screen when connected via a HDMI cable.
The touch screen is clear and allows for swiping movements, though I found it was easier to use audio and phone buttons on the steering wheel while driving.
The reverse camera display is a highlight. The picture is really clear, with guidelines that predict your path to assist you when reverse- parking or turning out of tight spots.
Other driving aids include hill-start assist and speed alarm, and there’s a host of safety features, including six airbags and whiplash absorbers in the front headrests.
With the base model City VTi starting at $17,990, this should prove popular in the small-sedan category, though it remains to be seen if it will give the Jazz a run for its money.
The Honda City is available at Western Highway Honda, Ballarat Road, Caroline Springs. www.westernhwyhonda.com.au
