Background and Identification
The Honda City is a subcompact or compact car produced by Honda, a Japanese automaker, since 1981. Between 1981 and 1994, the City was a subcompact car, but beginning in 1996, it was considered a compact vehicle. Since 2011, the City has been sold in South Africa under the Honda Ballade name.
The Honda City was originally marketed for the Japanese, European, and Australian markets. The three-door City hatchback was retired in 1994 after its second generation. The Honda City nameplate was revived in 1996 for use on a series of subcompact four-door sedans designed primarily at developing markets. It was first mainly sold in Asia outside of Japan but was later sold in Latin America and Australia. Between 2002 and 2008, the Honda City was also sold as the Honda Fit Aria in Japan. Since 2008, the Honda City has been a subcompact sedan built on Honda’s Global Small Car platform, which is shared with the Honda Fit/Jazz, the Airwave/Partner, and Mobilio, and the Mobilio Spike, which all share the location of the fuel tank under the front seats rather than the rear seats. For the seventh-generation model, the City grew to the compact class.
Honda vehicles are identified by the Honda emblem, which portrays an ‘H’ inside a soft-cornered rectangle. City vehicles also include the Honda City emblem, which includes the name “City” in capital letters. The trim level is often included on the rear of the car, located opposite the City emblem.
