Honda’s new City here in April

HONDA has announced a new generation of the pint-sized City sedan will arrive in showrooms during April, about three months before the new Jazz hatch which shares its platform.

The sixth-generation City features improved fuel economy from its reworked 88kW 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine, down from 6.6 litres per 100km to 5.7/100km on the combined cycle.

Sending power to the front wheels is a new CVT automatic from Honda’s Earth Dreams series, replacing the old five-speed torque converter, or a price-leading manual gearbox, likely with six speeds rather than the current model’s five.

The new City also features even more boot-space than the current model – a mammoth 536 litres, compared to 506L for the current one or 496L for the much larger VF Holden Commodore – meaning cargo storage will remain a City strength.

There is also more headroom, legroom and shoulder room than the already spacious-for-the-class City, an improvement echoed in the new Jazz hatch version.

It also gets the same Display Audio system as the new Odyssey, which mirrors the functions of an iPhone – it operates Siri Eyes Free and your phone’s navigation system – but not Android or Windows. It will sync with non-Apple iOS operating systems via Bluetooth.

As with the current model, the new City will be sourced for Australia from Thailand. It is sold in 55 countries, with more than 2.2 million delivered since the first generation launched in 1981.

Honda will again offer the City in VTi and VTi-L specification levels, and with manual and auto (this time CVT) transmissions.

Pricing of the new model will be announced closer to the car’s launch. The current model costs between $16,490 and $20,490 plus on-road costs.

The micro-sized sedan market in Australia is miniscule, with the Nissan Almera, Kia Rio and Holden Barina sedan the City’s main rivals, along with the larger but cut-price Proton Preve.

The City is one of a trio of new-generation or entirely new models spun-off its new light architecture to be launched in Australia between April and early in 2015, alongside the Jazz hatch and Vezel mini-SUV.