Beating urban challenges with all-new Honda City

Hera Diani and Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

We thought we had gotten used to the traffic in the city. But it turns out that the congested roads, the seemingly never-ending lines of cars and never knowing how long it will take to get somewhere are still frustrating after all these years.

And alas, that was what we had to deal with when we hit the streets last week to test out the new Honda City. Indeed, we deliberately sought out congested areas (as if we could have avoided them) to see how it felt driving the new car through traffic jams. Unfortunately we ran into a little more traffic than expected because Kampung Melayu was flooded, affecting the Central Business District along Jl. Sudirman and the Casablanca area, which we were trying to negotiate.

So, did the new Honda City help us conquer the traffic? Yes and no. The traffic was so bad that no car would have made much of a difference. And we were test-driving a model that came with manual transmission rather than automatic, so our legs started getting tired after a while as well.

(Hmmm, maybe next we can test-drive the seven-speed automatic model. It has Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) and is equipped with steermatic, which allows you to change speed from the steering wheel.)

What helped us, though, was the shape of the car's nose, which is shorter and more compact. It especially helped when maneuvering between cars in the middle of the traffic jam and when making U-turns.

Because the nose is short we were easily able to make a U-turn in one go, without making the traffic worse by going forward and reversing several times as the cars behind us blared away on their horns. This was possible because the Honda City has a turning radius of 4.7 meters.

And the aerodynamic shape, again with the short nose and all, also acted as an ego booster because people were staring at us (well, OK, at the car). Some motorbike riders even pointed at the car and (apparently) talked about it.

The Honda City was launched by PT Honda Prospect Motor on April 22, and the car even surprised some of the journalists covering the event.

"It does not look like earlier models of the Honda City. The change is quite radical. They should give the new model another name," one reporter at the event told The Jakarta Post.

Indeed, not only does its compact design make it easy to maneuver in limited space, but it also has a huge 500-liter capacity trunk. You could probably even sleep comfortably in there.

How can a compact car have such a large trunk space?

First, Honda put in a very compact i-series 1,500 cc engine with a feature called the i-DSI, which stands for Intelligent Dual and Sequential Ignition, allowing for better and faster ignition.

The system uses two spark plugs in each cylinder for maximum ignition efficiency. Meanwhile, the ignition chamber is designed to increase the rotation of air and fuel mixture.

The engine is capable of producing a torque of 13.1 kilogram per meter at the low engine rotation of 2,700 rotations per minute (rpm). This allows a driver to get ideal power with low engine rotation.

Little wonder it was very easy to pass other cars in the middle of Jakarta's horrifying traffic.

Since the engine is compact, designers were able to move the passenger cabin forward, allowing for more trunk capacity. Furthermore, Honda engineers decided to put the fuel tank under the front seats instead of under the trunk.

What if you need even more capacity?

Well, the rear seats can be folded down, providing additional storage space. So it feels like driving a station wagon or a multipurpose vehicle rather than a compact.

Are you transporting a very long item? Fold down the navigator seat and your problems are solved.

As soon as we got out of the traffic and made our way onto some more open roads we experienced more of the car's benefits. Again, the short nose makes it really easy to maneuver, giving you full control even when speeding along an empty toll road.

A down side, however, of the shorter nose is that it made it a bit more difficult for us to estimate the space between other cars.

Jonfis Fanndy, Honda Prospect Motor's general manager of sales and marketing, told the Post that the low and short bonnet was not only the latest trend in automotive design, but was also aimed at reducing injuries when a car hits a pedestrian.

"The new round design, called G-Force Control or G-Con, is aimed at minimizing injuries for both the passengers and pedestrians compared to older designs with sharp corners.

"I think drivers should adapt to the new design. I am sure all drivers will get used to the feeling after driving the car for a month or so," he said.

With a price tag starting at Rp 152 million for manual transmission and Rp 163 million for automatic, the Honda City would be an ideal car for a young family or a university student trying to beat the traffic while carrying lots of groceries.