The Jazz passes its baton to the 2021 Honda City Hatchback
Honda wants to make a splash with the 2021 City Hatchback, starts at PHP 1.115M
A few months ago, we confirmed that the Honda City Hatchback was coming to the Philippines. Fast forward to April 13, and we said it was coming soon to a dealer near you. One week has passed since the latest announcement, and Honda makes it official today.
Ladies and gentlemen say hello to the 2021 Honda City Hatchback. With that, we are also the first country to get it in left-hand drive.
This is the first City Hatchback in over 20 years and carries the baton passed on by the Jazz. The new five-door brings the City back to its roots since the original model from the early '80s was a hatchback. A few would remember that it even had the option of a Motocompo scooter under the trunk floor. Unfortunately, this new one doesn't come with a free moped in the trunk. That said, it does have other features that might grab your attention.
But before we dive into that, let's take a look at the hatchback. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the headlights, grille, and front bumper resemble the City sedan. But once you go to the side and the back, it's a different car. The rear doors are unique to this body style, and there's a longer roof. You won't mistake it for the four-door from the rear, as it has slim, wraparound taillights, an integrated tailgate spoiler, and rounded-off bumpers.
For the Philippines, the City Hatchback only comes in one variant, the RS. That means it gets sporty-looking bumpers, gloss black highlights, and two-tone wheels. It also comes with LED headlights and LED daytime running lights, along with smatterings of RS badges on the body.
Inside, it is much like its four-door counterpart and that's a good thing. It has red interior lighting, along with red highlights on the seats, dashboard, and steering wheel. Plus, it has an eight-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Bluetooth with two USB ports. Since it is based on the RS sedan's equipment list, the Hatch's sound system is an eight-speaker system that consists of four tweeters and four main speakers. It also gets a comprehensive multi-information display, push-to-start button, tilt and telescopic steering wheel, and seat height adjusters.
As this is the spiritual successor of the Jazz, we are glad to report that the City Hatch has a feature from its predecessor. It's the ULTR seats, a feature that made the Jazz a very flexible vehicle. With those trick seats in the City Hatchback, you will be just as surprised with its carrying capacity. That means you can flip the seat bottoms up for tall items, or fold the backrests flat for longer cargo.
On to safety equipment, Honda didn't skimp on the City Hatch. After all, they are only offering one variant. Aside from the usual features such as Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS), and Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD), the City Hatchback also has Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with Agile Handling Assist (AHA), and Emergency Stop Signal (ESS). Meanwhile, Hill Start Assist (HSA) and Multi-view Rear Camera with dynamic guidelines take the stress out of uphill parallel parking. As for passive safety, the City Hatchback packs six airbags.
We expected the City Hatch to come with the 1.5-liter i-VTEC mill from the City sedan. That is exactly what the Philippine-spec City five-door has under the hood. Now with dual-overhead camshafts, the engine is good for 121 PS and 145 Nm of torque. The only transmission option is a CVT.
The Honda City Hatchback RS starts at PHP 1,115,000, exclusive of the PHP 13,000 safeguard bond. Yes, Honda won't make you pay for the full PHP 70,000 bond for all their cars, the all-new City Hatchback included.
