5 things I liked about the new Honda City 2009

When I was invited to join the trip to Bohol by Honda Cars Philippines for a media test drive, I hesitated at first because I know very little about cars. They knew I’m mostly into tech and gadgets so my impressions of the new Honda City would come from that perspective.

So here are the 5 things that I thought made the Honda City 2009 stand out and caught  my attention:

• Masculine Design. Looks like Honda scratched the old design and did the re-work of the City from the ground up. The grill reminds me of the Autobots. Honda execs reveal that the inspiration to the new design was based from the “arrowshot” so you can see some sharp and arched corners. IMHO, the Honday City beats the look of all other City before it and even the newer Civic.
• Stereo Sound System. The sound system has a built-in iPod connector and USB so you can hook up your digital music player (iPod) and control it directly by the system, at the same time charging it thru the USB port. Most iPods are supported except the iPhone 3G.
• Digital Meters. The dashboard has a digital meter which indicates a number of valuable information such as gas consumption and estimated mileage based on the current trip.
• Paddle Shifters. On the 1.5 models, the paddle shifters give you more power and control. Good for drivers like me that’s more accustomed to manual transmission.
• More room. For a subcompact sedan, the new Honda City has more leg room and storage spaces both in front and in the back.

We drove around Bohol for the better part of the 2-day trip and I got to drive both the 1.3L and the 1.5L models. Based on our trip, the mileage is about 10.5 kilometers per liter (that’s what the digital meter indicated). 

And while the exterior looked stunning, I couldn’t say the same about the interior. The part where I got a little disappointed is that my iPhone 3G wasn’t able to hook up with the audio system (although the USB port was charging the phone). A double-check on the manuals verified it’s only compatible with older generation of iPods. That leaves the 3.5mm audio jack as the next best option.

Most of the features here can be found on most high-end cars but Honda claims they want to have it as standard for their entry-level sedans. That being said, it looks like they’ve also jacked up the price a bit compared to the previous generations.

Just in case anyone’s interested, here are the retail prices of the new Honda City 2009:

City 1.3 A MT : Php 676,000 (entry-level)
City 1.3 S MT : Php 716,000
City 1.3 S AT : Php 756,000
City 1.5 E AT : Php 806,000 (top-of-the-line)

This isn’t really a full review (I will leave that part to the real car experts) but I just want to show off some of the photos I took. :D