Just like with people, the biggest reason why car strategies needed to change so much is the simple need to keep existing, which means keep dealing with one’s environment. So even though the car market’s rules became very twisted, every automaker which intends to expand its sales (or at least prevent them from decreasing) needs to do whatever it takes to follow this new path. This is why maintaining complete car families such as those ones is simply impossible today. There are categories with better and worse sales, new ones and possible new niches to exploit. The old order was the public adapting to the automakers’s lineups, but now it’s the opposite. With only a few very particular exceptions, like Rolls-Royce.
Such topic was brought up because adapting to public preferences is what Honda has done with its compact line since the last decade. Instead of focusing at lower costs and pretense sportiness typical of small hatchbacks, the Japanese opted for Fit, a complete minivan. That way, it costs a little much but offers real attractions, like great internal space, seat-arrangement versatility and efficient propulsion, everything without stopping to look nimble and modern. And when it comes to the newly-launched Vezel, why would Honda invest on typical station wagons if everyone at this price range became crazy about compact crossovers? But if you’re wondering how the public is reacting to such “family subversions”, Fit has already become Japan’s best-selling car month after month.
The only member that needed to stick to its roots was City, despite said roots are somewhat questionable: some publishings say this is the fourth generation, but only as a sedan. There were two hatchbacks with this nameplate earlier, around the 1980s, but this car became truly famous with three volumes. However, just like most small sedans, City has a very strong image as a family car, with Fit’s internal space combined to a big trunk and more traditional design. That’s why its new generation was unveiled in New Delhi, actually. Like Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand, India is an emergent market and has a solid demand for these cars just like they are: with the adequate level of sophistication and free of emotional values such as fake sportiness.
Honda’s Exciting H Design was followed once again, but City looks much more like Fit than Vezel. The overall styling looks classier, with smoother lines than the previous generation and a personality related to its own line, rather than mimicking the contemporary Civic. The automaker claims it’s still based on a moving arrow, but this time it turned a much more elegant arrow. The moderate-cost origins are expressed with the fake third windows and few chrome accents, but the pictures show this is the right amount of sophistication a car should have at this price range. City looks good for its well-designed elements, such as the gorgeous three-leveled tail lights. Not for using many accessories which would leave it actually tacky.
Borrowing Fit’s platform means the new City repeats Honda’s concept of “man maximum, machine minimum” for the cabin. In other words, the occupants’s space was maximized through reducing the portion dedicated to mechanical components, such as engine and suspension. This is what enabled reaching 2.60-m wheelbase (extra 50 mm) with the same 4.44-m length. Besides, the 1.7-m width remained untouched and the 1.5-m height added 10 mm compared to the outgoing car – according to Honda, City offers the widest front and rear seat spaces of its category. And the dashboard features the Layered Floating Concept, whose controls are focused on the driver and use a very intuitive, smartphone-like interface.
When it comes to powertrain, Honda made the great decision of taking some of its fuel-efficiency technologies to City’s options, despite being cheaper than the other cars which use them. This means the diesel i-DTEC 1.5L arrives with the famous Earth Dreams technologies, but it isn’t known yet if it’ll be taken outside India too. The other option is a gasoline-user i-VTEC 1.5L unit, but none of them had their performance numbers revealed yet. Receiving a whole new generation in about each five years, City became one of Honda’s most successful model of the latest years, and has been offered in 55 countries. One of them is Brazil, which is about to confirm it’ll produce the sedan’s units dedicated to Latin America.