New Honda City 1.5 i-VTEC (CVT)

Report: P. Tharyan, Photography: Mohd. Nasir

The new fourth generation Honda City has oodles of space, is fun to drive and gives you great fuel efficiency. This is a rare combination. And mind you, it’s not just the 4 cylinder DOHC i-DTEC 1498cc diesel engine which gives you some great fuel average (26kmpl as per ARAI) but also the petrol ones. In fact the 4 cylinder SOHC i-VTEC petrol automatic gives a wee bit better fuel efficiency (17.9kmpl) than the manual petrol car (17.8kmpl).

An automatic is the best bet these days in an extremely crowded world of ours. Honestly speaking, when you have scooters, motorcycles, rickshaws, trucks, buses and cars fighting for space on the eternally crumbling Indian roads, it’s best to drive an automatic and let the engine and the transmission do all the  driving. All you got to do is to keep your eyes on the roads and enjoy while the horses drive you without a sweat. I got a chance to drive the automatic new Honda City.

Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) unlike a dual clutch transmission is not known for its sportiness. A CVT takes care of your wallet first (returns great fuel efficiency) and then lets you have fun with some gentle acceleration. The new CVT from Honda delivers fuel efficiency of around 18 kmpl.

With a new stylish look, almost fluidic in nature, this car has everything a person looks for in a premium sedan. The company says that the all new Honda City expresses Honda’s new design concept “Exciting H Design” which will be applied to all future Honda global models. City is the first model in India to adopt this new design concept. Honda always puts the human at the centre, and at the core of our “Man-Maximum Machine-Minimum” philosophy. 

Exterior

Thus with the H design as the base concept, the styling concept of New City is referred to as Sleek Crossmotion characterised with a “low front face “, “airy bumper design” and “advance and high class solid wing face”. The front design gets further accentuated with the smart “four head lamps”. The clear cut side panel and a powerful looking fender adds to the side charms. The rear design too is appealing, especially with the stylish rear lamps.

Interior

Honda calls it a Layered Floating Cockpit which is expressed by advanced and high quality textures and a feeling of comfort. Everything about the inner fascia looks fascinating, be it the control panel lights, the touch controls for the air-conditioner, or the audio system. The new City features an advanced 5 inch monitor Audio system with a unique LCD display. The number of buttons are minimised to make it user friendly. The audio features an inbuilt hands free telephone system, and the hands free telephone and audio control switches on the steering wheel give the driver easy access to a wide range of audio system functions. Parking is made easy with a rear camera display on the monitor.

 But it’s the blue and white illumination meter with chrome accents that makes the car truly sporty and premium. The combination meter displays a variety of information for the driver. There is also an ECON button on the City that helps the driver to further enhance the fuel economy.

The nips and tucks

While overall the length of the new City stays at 4,440mm, the wheelbase has been extended by 50mm, and is now 2,600mm. Also, while the width of the car stays same at 1,695mm, the shoulder room has been increased by 40mm. The front head clearance is improved by 10mm and the overall height of the new City has been increased by 10mm. The knee room is up by 70mm and the rear legroom improved by 60mm. For those who love moving with a tons of luggage, there is good news. The total capacity of under and above floor in trunk room has been secured at 510 litre. Besides, the trunk opening has been widened further for better usability.

Engine

This innovative Honda Original CVT was developed as “Earth Dreams Technology” and has been carried in City. High tension belt, CVT fluid, and efficient oil pump are newly developed based on the technology of the conventional CVT. Highly precise cooperative control “G-design Shift” with DBW delivers fun to drive performance. Honda is betting big on this transmission, especially with its new fluid. Except for that sound emanating from the engine as if it is trying to tell you that it’s getting into the next gear, the CVT performance is smooth. Knowing the three generations of Honda City charm, I can bet this one’s too going to be a rage among the achievers!