All new 2014 Honda City sedan to be unveiled next month. To come with a diesel engine. Hyundai Verna Beware!

We reported in detail when it first emerged that Honda is very close to unveiling its all new, fourth generation of the City sedan. It may be noted that the City was the first car from Honda Cars India and it played a vital role in enabling the carmaker to establish a strong foothold in the country. Until the recent years, the City brand used to be Honda Cars India’s most potent weapon in our car market and it won’t be too wrong to say that the car has been pretty much synonymous with the Honda badge in India. The Honda City has always been the obvious choice of many petrol powered mid size sedan buyers.

However, thanks to Indian car market’s fast growing affinity towards diesel engines, sales of Honda City have taken a quite a serious hit. The condition is so bad that already, the web world is swarmed by reports of Honda discontinuing many variants of its C segment performer.

It has now emerged that Honda will unveil the fourth-generation of the City sedan sometime next month!

The next gen City would be bigger than the current model and would come with a considerably longer features list.

Most importantly, it would also come with a diesel engine option. The diesel engine would be the same unit that powers the Amaze, albeit in a higher state of tune.

Visually, the car will be pretty similar to the recently unveiled Crider sedan (see above). The car would borrow plenty of design cues from the Concept C study and would carry all typical Honda sedan design cues, along with looking modern age and sharp. The front of the car would be characterized by a liberal sprinkling of chrome on the front grille and by the DRLs. The car is likely to have a swooping roofline, which would help in imparting a hint of sportiness to the design. At the rear, the car will come with wrap around tail lights.

Refraining from divulging the launch date, a Honda spokesperson said, “We are not in a position to respond to your queries at this time.” However, industry watchers feel that the next gen City could very well propel its manufacturer back to the top of its segment.  “The innovation and design theme that Honda generally puts in their products is phenomenal. Particularly, City, which has ruled in its segment for more than a decade,” says Amit Kaushik, principal analyst (auto)—IHS Automotive.

via ET