New Honda City out in Thailand

All-new model features a much more mature and cohesive design

The original Honda City was a novel concept, it promised Japanese design, engineering and quality at Asean prices and they did it by building the car in a low-cost production centre, Thailand.

While prices were Asean, so were the quality, only the badge and engineering were Japanese.

The second generation City departed from the plain-Jane styling of the original and went for something memorable.  Honda engineers focused so much on function, like the need for space and practicality and almost forgot about the form. The second-gen City was never accused of being pretty. Functional, practical and friendly yes but pretty? Never.

By now their engineers realise that Ugly Betty, no matter how talented she is  is never going to be as popular as a good looking car with talents so they set out to draw something more exciting.

Al I have to say is, bravo. The new car looks great, especially from the front three-quarter angle.

They incorporated the new Honda face onto their Asean car and gave it a genuinely memorable grille. This car is immediately identified as a Honda from 50 paces and it wil probably stand out against the more plainly designed competitor.

The new shape is also successful in hiding the car’s height, the key to its cavernous cabin through the very positive use of horizontal feature creases on the flanks and wedge profile.

Just take a look at the amount of metal above the frotn wheel arch and you will realise just how tall the car probably is.

The rear of the second generation City looked like it had a boot tacked onto it, this time they resolved the problem by giving the rear screen a more aggressive rake.

The compromise is evident in the shorter boot adn this will probably effect boot opening size but they have tried to resolve that problem by lowering the bonnet and extending the boot opening downwards. Just take a look at how deep the bonnet opening is.

This is good news because it means you don’t ahve to lift heavy luggage too high befire sliding it into the boot.

The angular rear lamp cluster also adds dynamism and movement to the rear of the car. it also helps to hide the thickness of the boot.

Notice also the very gentle kink in the rear window, this is a design trick to make the eyes move upwards to the base of the C-pillar and rear screen without it realising just how high it is positioned to accommodate the boot area.

Where the exterior is eciting, the cabin is slightly more predictable. The silverplastic centre console and door inserts help to relieve the monotony of dark plastic, which dominates the cabin.

The swooping lines that separate the upper and lower portions of the dashboard adds interest to the design and reflects the swooping door pocket openings.

The steering wheel is similar to other Honda models, which means that it looks good.

Seat fabric in this Thai model looks appealing but a bit too dark for my liking. Unfortunately light coloured trim gets grubby very quickly so the darker trim is actually a necessity in entry-level models like the City that are destined for first time buyers and young families.

Look carefully under the rear seats and it looks like the Thai variant does not feature the magic seats, isntead it may have under-seat storage bins.

From this picture ot appears that Honda has not compromised on headroom, in fact the rather tall rear seat position allows them to reduce seat pitch (the distance between the front and rear seats) without cramping the passengers. This contributes to the boot space.

Below is the ful Press Release from Thailand

 PRESS RELEASE:

Honda Begins Sales of All-New CITY in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand, September 10, 2008– Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC), Honda’s automobile production and sales subsidiary in Thailand, today began sales of the all-new CITY.

The design of the new CITY is based on the total pursuit of a compact, yet dynamic form with road presence. In addition, class-leading*1 interior space was achieved to create a cabin that surrounds the occupants with an open and secure feeling. The new CITY is equipped with a 1.5-liter i-VTEC engine, which is further advanced in every way, including greater output and fuel consumption. Furthermore, with Honda’s unique commitment to provide both advanced safety and environmental performance, the new CITY achieves the highest levels in every area in the effort to become the new bench mark for subcompact sedans.

The first generation Honda CITY was introduced in 1996, quickly responding to the growing needs for automobiles in Asian markets associated with economic growth in the region. Today, CITY is produced in seven countries*2 and enjoyed by customers in 39 nations around the world. CITY also is becoming one of Honda’s core models, along with Civic, Accord, CR-V and Jazz (Fit), with cumulative sales passing the 1 million unit mark in late May 2008.

The sales of this third-generation CITY will begin in Thailand from today and expand successively to other existing markets. Honda also envisions further expansion of CITY sales, in order to meet growing customer needs, especially in emerging markets.

Regarding production of the new CITY, HATC will support the startup of production in developing countries including ASEAN markets, India and China. Honda’s automobile production capabilities in Thailand have grown continuously for more than 20 years, which is helping accelerate the advancement of automobile production in the region as a whole by providing technical support for other production operations in neighboring countries. Honda has been strongly promoting local autonomy by transferring more production and procurement functions from Japan to Thailand with the goal of strengthening Honda’s production strategy and to increase local parts sourcing. In addition, increased coordination with local R&D and production engineering functions (production equipment and tooling) is supporting the advancement of Honda production operations in Thailand as the leader plant in the region. As a result, the local content of the new CITY has now reached 93% from 83% of current model.

The second HATC plant will begin operation in late October of this year, expanding the total annual production capacity to 240,000 units. HATC will also expand auto exports and technical support to other operations to enhance its role as the leader plant, and strengthen it’s competitiveness in the world.