Popular Honda City now larger, offers more features

When it was launched in April 2003, the all-new Honda City became the talk of the town for its rather unconventional proportions, with its bonnet shorter than its trunk section.

However, the second generation of the line-up enjoyed robust sales in the compact sedan segment, with 7,680 units sold in 2003, while last year 8,330 cars were sold. Despite rising costs of living by September this year, 6,053 cars sold.

Japanese car assembler PT Honda Prospect Motor claimed a market share of 56.8 percent in the segment, including fleet sales to taxi companies.

On Oct. 12, the company launched the third-generation Honda City with a mission to maintain its lead in the market.

This time around, the car comes with a more proportional bonnet and bumper design, so no more will the car have a shorter "nose" than its "rear".

"The new Honda City closes in with cars in the medium (size) segment thanks to the longer body," Honda sales and marketing general manager Jonfis Fandy.

The car is still available in two engine options -- the fuel- efficient intelligent dual and sequential ignition (i-DSI) and the more powerful variable valve timing and lift electronic control (VTEC) engines.

Both engines are of identical four-cylinder capacity of 1,497 cc with single overhead camshaft (SOHC) technology. The difference is that the i-DSI engine has eight valves while the VTEC engine has 16.

The i-DSI engine unleashes top power of 87 horsepower (hp) at 5,700 rpm and maximum torque of 128 Newtonmeter (Nm) at 2,700 rpm while the VTEC engine produces 110 hp at 5,800 rpm and 143 Nm at 4,800 rpm.

"Using the i-DSI engine, drivers can get better fuel efficiency and abundance torque in low and medium rpm," Jonfis said.

"Meanwhile, those who want a more powerful car can use the VTEC engine which is still a fuel-efficient machine."

Each engine variant comes in two transmission options -- five- speed manual transmission or seven-speed automatic with continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology. The automatic version also comes with Steermatic technology allowing drivers to shift gear down or up from the steering wheel.

The car still boasts spacious trunk space of 500 liters.

Not only that, those using Honda City i-DSI can use the passenger space as an extra storage area with the car's Ultra Seat technology allowing multiple seat arrangements.

"Long mode" will store equipment up to 2.6 meters long, while "tall mode" fits 1.2-meter tall objects inside.

The Honda City VTEC, meanwhile, has fixed rear seats equipped with under-seat drawers and arm rests for extra comfort.

The interior color scheme is also differentiated, metallic- black for the VTEC and beige-black for i-DSI.

Honda still applies its G-Force Control (G-Con) technology to ensure passenger safety by controlling and absorbing the g-forces from an impact plus the provision of side impact beam.

Other safety features include an anti-lock braking system (ABS) with electronic brake force distribution (EBD) and brake assist (BA) and the provision of dual supplemental restraining system (SRS) airbags for driver and front passenger.

All passengers get a three-point safety belt with load limiter and pretensioner except the middle passenger in the rear seat who only gets a two-point safety belt.

The new Honda City is available at Rp 176 million for manual i-DSI, Rp 186 million for automatic i-DSI, Rp 180 for manual VTEC and Rp 190 for automatic VTEC.

Customers now can choose three new color options of alabaster silver metallic, purplish blue metallic and silver moss metallic in addition to nighthawk black pearl, royal ruby red pearl, satellite silver metallic and vivid blue pearl. -- Novan Iman Santosa