Beating urban challenges with all-new Honda City

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.