Honda identified the following characteristics as being the most important to achieve customer satisfaction in city cars market: vehicle should be compact in size but with a minimum wheelbase of 2,500 mm in length and 1690 mm in width, engine should have approx. 95 HP, the vehicle should possess excellent ergonomics, providing a spacious passenger cabin, good ride characteristics and a high level of standard equipment, not to mention both active and passive safety. And of course, the new city car should be affordable. That's how Honda City was born.

In April, 1996 the world launch of the Honda City took place in Bangkok. These first City sedans were manufactured at Honda's new Baht 4,000 million auto manufacturing facility in Ayutthaya. Working closely with local parts suppliers Honda's engineers achieved an unprecedented 70 per cent local content which contributed to the City's competitive pricing. With the City, Honda's engineers and product development team achieved, in fact, exceeded the performance targets established by the earlier market research. In terms of performance, safety, comfort, body size and "best value-for-money" the City excelled. Customer reaction was exceptional. Through February 1997 14,353 units have been sold in Thailand and the City achieved a dominant 66 per cent market share in the under Baht 450,000 price segment in 1996. In addition to its success in Thailand, the City has also taken other Asian auto markets by storm. It has been launched with local production in Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and, most recently, in January 1997, in Pakistan, supported by Honda's regional parts complementation programme. Total City units sold and delivered across Asia up until the end of February 1997 amount to 25,614, helping Honda to achieve record sales in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. And now comes the City 1500 with more power and enhanced safety and comfort features, offering even greater "value-for-money".

With the City, Honda has established a new world standard for compact, four-door, family sedans. With the City 1500 Honda aims to confirm the City's status as the car by which all others in its class are judged.

"Best-in-class" performance, "best-in-class" comfort and "best-in-class" safety. The Honda City 1500 delivers.