2014 Honda City Diesel could be unveiled by December

JJ

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This year's Tokyo Motor Show will see the official unveil of the 2014 Honda Jazz/Fit hatchback, a car based on an all new platform. The Honda Jazz/Fit platform will underpin two other cars, the City sedan and the Honda Urban compact SUV. All three cars will be latest generation models spawned out of the Jazz platform. Eventually, the Indian car market is expected to receive all three of the new cars based on the next-generation Jazz platform.

While the 2014 Jazz is poised to see an Indian launch in early 2014, word emerging on Twitter suggests that the 2014 Honda City could be unveiled as early as December 2013. However, the 2014 City's launch in India is expected to happen after that of the new Jazz. The 2014 City could share a lot of parts with the new Jazz as both cars are underpinned by the same platform. Given that the 2014 Jazz gets larger, both on the inside and outside, a similar story might pan out with the next generation City sedan.

Apart from a brand new design and more spacious interiors, the biggest change on the 2014 City will be the addition of turbo diesel power. The 1.5 Liter i-DTEC turbo diesel engine, first seen on the Honda Amaze compact sedan is expected to be used not just in the 2014 Jazz, but also in the City sedan. Currently, this engine is available with a 100 PS-200 Nm state of tune on the Amaze compact sedan. As the City is a much larger car than the Amaze, the 1.5 Liter i-DTEC engine could be tuned to output extra torque to cope with the additional weight.

Until the arrival of the Honda Amaze, the City sedan has been the mainstay of Honda Cars India for many years. The car has been a consistent top seller for the Japanese car brand, despite being available only with a petrol engine. The diesel-ization of the Indian car market meant that the City sedan, once a best seller in the C-Segment sedan space, ceded ground to cars such as the Hyundai Verna and Volkswagen Vento, both of which were available with petrol and diesel engine options.

Even so, the current-gen City sedan, considering that it is available only in petrol guise, still manages to deliver decent volumes for Honda. With the new i-DTEC turbo diesel engine under its hood, the 2014 Honda City sedan could be a force to reckon with. With the pricing of the Honda Amaze, the Japanese car maker has demonstrated willingness to bite the bullet when it comes to pricing cars competitively. If Honda manages to do an Amaze with the 2014 City Diesel's pricing, the competition will have plenty to worry about.[/img]
 
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