The New Honda City

The offcial launch of the all new Honda City is just a day away here in Malaysia. Excitement of this model has been phenomenally high - almost as high as when Honda gave us the Civic I'd say. This is particularly suprising in these difficult economic times.

Harsh realities aside, I have had the privilidge of having a look at the actual Malaysian offering of this car in both it's S (presumably for Standard) and E (elegance?) guises. And my initial reactions are postive.

I like the way it looks. The lower roofline makes the car much sleaker than the outgoing model. The front grill and rear views are also real lookers and I'm certain based on this sentiment alone Honda will be the best performing B-segment non-national car in 2009 and for several years to follow.

If you don't already know, I am big on how a car looks and feels on the inside. Since I'll be planting my ass inside the car most of the time, I want it to be as perfect as humanly possible. The City's interior actually looked better live than it did in any of the pictures. The rather cheapish looking silver dash didn't look as cheap and the stereo looked mid-market.

I'm sure you'll hear many more acolades from fan boys and neutrals alike in the coming days, weeks and months. To spin things a little, I'll tell you what I didn't like.

Sticking to the interior, I didn't enjoy the way the plastics felt. They were hard - harder than the outgoing version and they weren't nice to touch. I also noted that the doors are now covered with more bare plastic than ever! There's only a strip of fabric alongside the power window switches and the fabric didn't feel nice to touch again.

The stereo system while looking very good, wasn't particularly practical for CD lovers. In order to pop in your favorite CD, you'll have to flip open the display panel of the stereo to reveal the disc loading area. Cool yes. But I dread to think of what'd happen if my wrist twitched when loading said CD. Bye bye display.

Also, all the speakers are housed on the doors and the rear shelf is left emtpy. That's actually a good thing - except for the fact that the rear shelf is also in bland plastic.

The air conditioning switches didn't suit my fancy either. They look like an after thought and the knobs while tactile didn't spell quality. They reminded me of the Vios' air cond knobs which I think is abysmal.

The orange-ish meter cluster could have also done with some white illumination.

The one thing I could absolutly not stand was the way the dashboard curves outwards at the edge closest to the drivers door. This design cue has been prevalent in the Accord and Civic and I dread to say that it has reappeared in the new City. I seem to knock my knee every now and again when I get into the car. I could change the way I get in but I don't want to. Oh the pain!

Seating room looks and feels adequet. There's more width for the horizontal ones but the lowered roofline given an illusion of less space. I love the fact that Honda got smart and made both variants available in dark colured interior.

I don't have any gripes from the outside. I think this car is a real looker.

Prices are slated to be at just about 85,000 and 90,000 for the S and E variants respectivly. The waiting list is already 3 months long (who said there's a financial crisis?) so those of us hoping for a new car ahead of the Christmas/CNY season better look elsewhere.

As for me, I can't say if I'd get one. I wouldn't judge until I've driven this one. But given that the Vios drives like a dugong, and if I was still in the market for a B-segment auto I'd give the City a long hard look.