Review: 2009 Honda City 1.5 E

Reinventing the wheel.

WORDS Marvin Tan PHOTOS Marvin Tan  | 3 May 2009

Now that Honda has released the all-new City to the market, I can safely express my honest, closely-held opinion about the previous one. Which is that it was a horrendously ugly car. A dubious cross between a flat iron and Golum. It had the proportions of a mountain troll afflicted with both acromegaly and hydrocephalus. It was hideous. It seemed like a wart in the Honda model lineup, which was filled with brilliant vehicles. Even the name was damning: “City” seemed to connote that it was nothing more than a basic, bland and boring commuter car – which, well, it originally was, way back in the 90s. In other places, it’s called the “Fit Aria”. I’m thankful we got “City”. Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly. The previous City didn’t actually look that bad. In truth, it probably looked even worse. And apparently, Honda Motor Co. thought the same. Remember the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Well, Honda did a whole lot of fixing with the styling of the all-new 2009 City. Which is just a roundabout way of saying that a whole lot was broken with the styling of the all-old City. And fix it they did. Because the 2009 City now looks absolutely incredible. It is a beautiful car. It’s a design that grabs your eyes at once. It is a design that almost seems to apologize for the frumpiness of old and is determined to make it up to the motoring public. Up front, the new City is bold, powerful and authoritative, perhaps even menacing and sinister. The headlights form a continuous sweep with the grille, which is massive and substantial as on a Ford F-150. Very in-your-face. Very confident. Imagine a leering Sylvester about to eat poor Tweety Bird Toyota Vios. Imagine Darth Vader to the Toyota Vios’ Princess Leia Organa. Walk around the flanks and on to the rear and it’s clear that the proportions of the City are thankfully much closer to that of a conventional sedan’s than the old one was. The hood is longer, the rear deck is shorter, the greenhouse is more defined and the A-pillar and windshield isn’t raked as sharply as a minivan’s. The lines are simpler and are consistently angular from bow to stern. It is a marvelous design. Who would have thought that an entry-level car could ooze with so much personality, so much charisma, so much presence? If only it had larger wheels – 15” wheels are standard on all grades of the City – it would be perfect. The cabin is a gargantuan improvement over the old City’s. The design is much more interesting with City v3.0. Bold black is the dominant color of the interior, accented nicely with glossy piano-black plastic and faux aluminum trim. Build quality is impeccable, and the materials are generally of good quality. The cabin is dominated by hard plastic – the door sidings are particularly tinny – but nothing out of place in the City’s class. Classy orange Optitron gauges with artful 3D-style markers a la Accord lend grace to the instrument panel, and as in the Jazz, the fabulous fat steering wheel from the Civic – complete with tilt and telescopic adjustment – makes its appearance to please your hands. It’s hard to believe how much subcompact sedans like the City have grown over the years, and how far upscale they’ve moved. Interior space is noticeably more generous compared to the previous City, and it certainly feels roomier than a Civic from 1999. There’s now a left footrest for the driver too, correcting both of the major ergonomic complaints about the old City (the other is the telescoping steering wheel). The interior remains plasticky, but there’s a real sense of quality and artful design in the City’s cabin. Even the seat fabric is excellent. Nice touches: the doors open nearly 90 degrees, there are many cubbyholes and cupholders, and the turn-signal and wiper stalks won’t be out of place in a Lexus. Too bad that as in the Jazz, leg and foot comfort in the back seat is compromised by the upward-sloping floor – not a surprise since the Jazz and the City are based off the same underpinnings. Moreover, the City loses the brilliant acrobatic flipping and folding “ULT” seats that the old City had, and the new Jazz still has. Too bad, but then again, haulers will gravitate toward the Jazz anyway. But who cares about magic rear seats, right? What you want to know is how the thing drives. To find out, we went to Bohol, perhaps to ask the tiny tarsiers. I found out from the tour guide that females have three pairs of mammary glands, only two pairs of which are used for feeding. The third pair is ostensibly reserved exclusively for Mr. Tarsier. And did you know that they are unable to turn their eyes? However, they could turn their heads a full 180! Sadly, the tarsiers just stared blankly, seemingly petrified at tourists pointing massive cameras up their noses. But no matter, because the paradise island of Bohol offers proper driving roads – smoothly cemented and largely devoid of vehicular flotsam. On the desolate straights, I gun the engine. Drive-by-wire throttle means maximum efficiency, but it just can’t match the immediacy and feel of an old-style cable-actuated throttle. With only 145 Nm (107 lb-ft) of torque, I have to really step on it if I want to get anywhere. Below 4500 rpm, there’s almost nothing, and there’s probably more torque in the door handles than at the wheels. From 4500 all the way to 6800 rpm, the power finally comes online, though it’s hardly of the neck-snapping kind. Flogging it this way introduces a buzzy racket into the cabin, but thankfully the engine note is mildly aggressive if not quite memorable. Eventually the speedometer sweeps past 120 kph with the tach needle glued to between 5 and 7. My butt finds the ride quality to be very, very good. Almost supple, in fact, on these good roads – something new to Hondas and frankly I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s not floaty and yachtlike, only confident and smooth just as it should. Bumps on the road go by quietly, as if the City were a cut-down Accord. None of that hollow ka-blag! noises that make you wince from small cars of old, like, say, on a 1999 Civic. Or a Picanto. Or the old City and Jazz. A right-hander looms in the distance, 3… 2… 1… hard on the brakes. The brake pedal feels great, firm and easily modulated, but somehow stopping distances don’t feel particularly short. Could be the Godyear GT3 tires, which aren’t exactly performance rubber. 60 kph, ease up on the brakes, swing that wonderful steering wheel right… the ballet shoes moan at the load, but the car understeers far less than I expected. The electrically-assisted steering cuts with remarkable precision, although discerning drivers will wish for more feedback. Approaching the cornering limit, the car is stable and the rear-end stays put as the nose washes out in moderate understeer. It’s no Mazda Miata, of course, but in its class, this new City (as well as its Honda Jazz twin) is at the top of the charts in the fun-to-drive factor. It somehow all gels together very well on the road – the 5-speed automatic transmission that’s always in the proper gear, the precise steering and the sporty steering wheel, the well-controlled suspension, the rev-happy engine, even the styling and the interior color and the bold instrument cluster… all in happy agreement that the City is a joy to drive fast. You won’t even feel guilty going fast: the on-board trip meter showed an average 11 to 12 km per liter for the 1.5 variant, after many dozens of kilometers of high-speed, high-rev motoring. In contrast, the old City never made me bother about going fast in it. It was just so blah! This new one is a massive improvement, a massive refocusing, not only outside but also inside and underneath. Of course, not all people want to drive fast. Which is okay, because going slow in the City turns your attention to the excellent (by the class’s standard) audio system: USB input, MP3-ready, good sound quality. Not to mention, going slow is the best way for people on the street to gawk at the Robocop styling. So is the City the perfect small car? Well, it’s a bit more expensive than a Toyota Vios, which itself isn’t cheap already. The bare-bones fleet model City 1.3 A manual starts at P676,000, going on to P716,000 to P756,000 for the City 1.3 S (depending on transmission) and topping out at P806,000 for the City 1.5 E automatic. For it to be the perfect small car, they’ll have to hold the price, add power and torque, upsize the wheels to 16” on the 1.5 and put better tires. But as it is, this new City pole-vaults from being the ugly duckling to the top of the small-car class. Along with its fraternal twin, the Honda Jazz. Honda has a pair of winners here. If still in doubt, take a test drive, and then write that check afterward. SPECIFICATIONS: 2009 HONDA CITY 1.5 E Vehicle type 4-door, 5-passenger subcompact sedan Vehicle layout Front-engine, front-wheel drive Price P 806,000 THE GOOD Bold styling inside and out, high quality, fun to drive, smooth ride, good audio, excellent fuel economy THE BAD Engine lacks torque, no magic ULT seats, could have done with bigger wheels and tires, priced on the high side THE LOWDOWN Getting a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for: this is the best in the small-car class. Length 4,395 mm (173.0 in) Width 1,695 mm (66.7 in) Height 1,470 mm (57.9 in) Wheelbase 2,550 mm (100.4 in) Curb weight 1,145 kg (2,524 lb) Engine L15A; naturally aspirated 16-valve SOHC EFI inline-4 gasoline Displacement 1,496 cc Engine features Variable valve timing (i-VTEC), drive-by-wire throttle Max. power 118 hp @ 6,600 rpm Max. torque 145 Nm (107 lb-ft) @ 4,800 Transmission 5-speed automatic with paddle-shifted sequential manual mode Front suspension Independent: MacPherson struts, lower control arm, stabilizer bar Rear suspension Non-independent: rigid axle, coil springs, stabilizer bar Brakes (front/rear) Ventilated disc / disc; with anti-lock Tires Goodyear GT3, 175/65R-15 Major standard features Driver and passenger airbags, power windows, mirrors, door locks, anti-lock brakes with brake assist, multifunction trip meter with fuel economy meter, stereo with single-CD slot, AUX input, USB input and MP3 capability, turn-signal repeaters on side mirror housings, engine immobilizer and anti-theft alarm, keyless entry bigbigcar.com TEST RESULTS Acceleration, 0-60 kph No instrumented testing Acceleration, 0-100 kph No instrumented testing Acceleration, 60-100 kph No instrumented testing Fuel economy, city not available Fuel economy, highway with aggressive driving 11.5 km per liter Fuel economy, highway with typical driving est 15 to 17 km per liter bigbigcar.com attended a manufacturer-sponsored test drive event for this evaluation.

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