[JayPrashanth]

Mod Note: Team-BHP's Official Review of the Honda City has been uploaded at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the review thread.


This year's Tokyo Motor Show will see the official unveil of the 2014 Honda Jazz/Fit hatchback, a car based on an all new platform. The Honda Jazz/Fit platform will underpin two other cars, the City sedan and the Honda Urban compact SUV. All three cars will be latest generation models spawned out of the Jazz platform. Eventually, the Indian car market is expected to receive all three of the new cars based on the next-generation Jazz platform.



While the 2014 Jazz is poised to see an Indian launch in early 2014, word emerging on Twitter suggests that the 2014 Honda City could be unveiled as early as December 2013. However, the 2014 City's launch in India is expected to happen after that of the new Jazz. The 2014 City could share a lot of parts with the new Jazz as both cars are underpinned by the same platform. Given that the 2014 Jazz gets larger, both on the inside and outside, a similar story might pan out with the next generation City sedan.

Apart from a brand new design and more spacious interiors, the biggest change on the 2014 City will be the addition of turbo diesel power. The 1.5 Liter i-DTEC turbo diesel engine, first seen on the Honda Amaze compact sedan is expected to be used not just in the 2014 Jazz, but also in the City sedan. Currently, this engine is available with a 100 PS-200 Nm state of tune on the Amaze compact sedan. As the City is a much larger car than the Amaze, the 1.5 Liter i-DTEC engine could be tuned to output extra torque to cope with the additional weight.

Until the arrival of the Honda Amaze, the City sedan has been the mainstay of Honda Cars India for many years. The car has been a consistent top seller for the Japanese car brand, despite being available only with a petrol engine. The diesel-ization of the Indian car market meant that the City sedan, once a best seller in the C-Segment sedan space, ceded ground to cars such as the Hyundai Verna and Volkswagen Vento, both of which were available with both petrol and diesel engine options.

Even so, the current-gen City sedan, considering that it is available only in petrol guise, still manages to deliver decent volumes for Honda. With the new i-DTEC turbo diesel engine under its hood, the 2014 Honda City sedan could be a force to reckon with. With the pricing of the Honda Amaze, the Japanese car maker has demonstrated willingness to bite the bullet when it comes to pricing cars competitively. If Honda manages to do a Amaze with the 2014 City Diesel's pricing, the competition will have plenty to worry about.

[nik_kapur]

I think they will certainly unveil the car by the end of the year as we have heard Honda India talk about this a few times. The City is a very important car for the Thai market and they will launch it there first. Going by Honda India's record, we should get it soon after. Honda India's strategy is clear for the moment- Next Gen City, Mini Suv and the Jazz. No plans or news as such to bring in the Civic, new Accord or Crider.

[gomzi]

If Honda is planning to get the diesel engine in the City, they have to do it ASAP.
Honda has missed the diesel boom season and if the price disparity between diesel and petrol stays around Rs. 12-15 the buzz around diesel may soon disappear by the time they launch newer diesel models.

[paragsachania]

When we went to TD the Amaze at a dealership in Bangalore few weeks before, the Sales consultant also shared the same "news" that apparently the City will be launched with a Diesel mill in December. Now that I am reading this piece of information, I hope this is going to happen as rumored.

[man_and_machine]

The Verna, Vento, Rapid and the Renault+Nissan C segment cars together account for around ~7 K units. The petrol City averages aroung 2 K units. The diesel mill will eat both into the Petrol car segment of the City and into others meaning you could look at 3 - 4 K additional units (say). With a d-option Jazz and good pricing this could add another 2 - K units. That means their production capacity of 10 K p/m is already way passed. 2014 is when their new plant will get ready, my guess is that the new Jazz, City might start to get advertised, however I would see that they will hit the road in 2014. But they need to fix their GC and suspensions first.

[rajshenoy]

1. Do we have any spy shots of the new Honda city anywhere in the world ?
2. Have we seen in it India ?
3. Have we seen the current Honda city undergoing trials with Diesel engine(noisy city is easy to spot)
4. Does Honda have production line for scaling up until next year mid ?

So Just wondering if we will see any action this year. My guess says, we might get it end of 2014, when the new production lines are up and running and even then Honda might first launch Petrol variants and diesel might only come in 2015 !! (Ongoing Diesel hike has made people think more sensibly now)

[bharatbs]

Originally Posted by man_and_machine

The Verna, Vento, Rapid and the Renault+Nissan C segment cars together account for around ~7 K units. City might start to get advertised, however I would see that they will hit the road in 2014. But they need to fix their GC and suspensions first.

Except for the Verna none of these other cars can deliver a similar, responsive yet fuel efficient engine in their petrol variants at the moment.

I own a 2011 Honda City and the suspension is a grouse (lot of oversteer) and so is the ground clearance (which has however been increased on subsequent models) but the brilliance of the engine, gearbox and overall refinement just makes up for anything else. Red-lining the engine as you shift-up is pure bliss.

One of the ways of dealing with the soft suspension IMO, would be to go in for Bilstein suspensions from Red Rooster racing or any other equivalent performance house. If you can try and exchange/sell your original suspension, you will get the best deal.

[fine69]

Should this be of any consequence to someone who's planning to buy a City in the next 1 or 2 months? I assume that the prices of the new petrol City would only go up so does it make sense to wait for a few months and buy the old City with good discounts?

[bharatbs]

Rumoured Spy Pictures are available from Thai based auto websites: http://www.hondasacuras.com/2012/12/...a-concept.html

The main changes visible in spy shots are Front grille, trapezoidal air dam, new design alloy wheels, projector headlamps and LED treatment for tail lamps.

The New City comes with more beefed up looks apparently, but the tyres still look puny.

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by fine69

Should this be of any consequence to someone who's planning to buy a City in the next 1 or 2 months? I assume that the prices of the new petrol City would only go up so does it make sense to wait for a few months and buy the old City with good discounts?

Nothing is confirmed. Till date we are just speculating when the new City will be launched. But it is definitely not going to be very soon, maybe somewhere around Diwali 2014 and that is lot of time.

So if one wants to buy City now, there is no problem in it.

[pyrodrive]

Honda are already late on the diesel option. But this petrol only sedan is selling 2-3 k units a month! If they did nothing else, but plonk in the diesel mill, the city will likely be the segment leader again.
I dont think we will see the Indian launch till their second plant is up and running..their current production capacity is just 10,000 units. They are hardly able to meet the demand for the amaze. How can they meet the demand with the three new launches? My guess is launch by mid 2014 only.

[KarthikK]

We have a ~4 year old Honda City 1.5 V AT in my extended family, and I absolutely love driving that car every single time. If the new City comes out with the 1.5 i-DTEC in higher state of tune and with an automatic box, I am sold with the idea of upgrading the 1.5 V AT to the diesel City AT. Not to forget, if the City comes out with an AT option in a diesel, it will decimate every other sub-12L sedan on the sales charts. The urban market is waiting to lap up something like this - it will be a huge runaway success on 2 counts: Honda's unquestionable brand name and reliability, and Diesel's efficiency and running costs. The only other option right now in diesel automatic sedans is that pathetic 4-speed AT on the fluidic verna.

[Tats07]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

So Just wondering if we will see any action this year. My guess says, we might get it end of 2014, when the new production lines are up and running and even then Honda might first launch Petrol variants and diesel might only come in 2015 !! (Ongoing Diesel hike has made people think more sensibly now)

I agree with you. There was some confusion about the CRider launched in China, and some thought it would be Honda City. I don't think we are having a new City, if at all, before end-2014 or 2015. What would Honda achieve by getting a new version other than a suicidal price hike? Won't it be better to try out putting the diesel in the same model with changes in suspension and GC (165 mm has already addressed it to some extent)? I don't expect the diesel to have more BHP output, might have a 250ish torque figure though. And if they launch a new model with diesel in Dec, won't that be too late given the diminishing petrol-diesel gap?

And they may not think of getting a higher powered version of iVTEC - we know new Civic launched internationally does not have a huge update in terms of power or torque. A new City iVTEC model coming out cannot be less than 10.5-10.75 ex-showroom in Bangalore, which would make the on road price 12+. Do we have takers?

What if Honda decides to give the new City a miss (and I mean not manufacture it at all) like Civic? After all, City is specific to South Asian/Australian/select European markets, and does not have a global presence like Civic. They can still run the current one as their bread and butter with a diesel engine. It will somewhat dent the diesel figures for all others for sure, and at a much lower cost to Honda than launching a new model altogether.

Originally Posted by bharatbs

Except for the Verna none of these other cars can deliver a similar, responsive yet fuel efficient engine in their petrol variants at the moment.

Does Verna really have a good petrol engine? I don't know, since I hear that the petrol engine does not feel as powerful or responsive in spite of the 122 PS figure.

Originally Posted by bharatbs

Rumoured Spy Pictures are available from Thai based auto websites: http://www.hondasacuras.com/2012/12/...a-concept.html

I think these pictures are quite old, and have been discussed in a thread (now closed) in the forum. The 95% covered car really can be anything. And also, these pictures surfaced before the launch of Honda CRider in China, so some think that these were actually spy pictures of that car.

I will wait to see if Honda proves me wrong on all the above counts. The new Jazz might be a possibility though. Maybe that's why they have stopped production of Jazz in India.

[nik_kapur]

Originally Posted by Tats07

What if Honda decides to give the new City a miss (and I mean not manufacture it at all) like Civic? After all, City is specific to South Asian/Australian/select European markets, and does not have a global presence like Civic. They can still run the current one as their bread and butter with a diesel engine. It will somewhat dent the diesel figures for all others for sure, and at a much lower cost to Honda than launching a new model altogether.

Sir, the new city will come to India and that has already been announced by Honda India a few times. There is no way Honda will let Verna rule the roost for any longer. They have also not put the diesel mill into the current city as that involves some expensive engineering, something that it does not want to indulge in given the 5 year old body shell of the current City. The new City is in fact needed by Honda IMHO as it will bring them back to 4000-5000 sales figures and that is going to pay handsome dividends.

[Tats07]

Originally Posted by nik_kapur

Sir, the new city will come to India and that has already been announced by Honda India a few times.

I am not sure Honda India has officially announced new City, that too a few times. Can you point me to the official news link for the announcement?