2014 Honda City revealed

Honda chose India to take the wraps of the new City sedan that will go on sale around the world in 2014, arriving in Australia towards the second half of the year. The debut location reflects that the Jazz-with-a-boot is far more popular in overseas markets than here, where it's failed so far to excite Australian buyers, luring only 588 of them so far this year against the Jazz hatch's 5147.

Following on from the new Jazz, the front-wheel drive City has grown in length and rides on a longer wheelbase, offering 510 litres of boot capacity and rear legroom has been increased by 60 mm, tandem distance between the front and rear occupant has been increased by 60 mm while knee room for rear occupants is now 70 mm longer.

Our colleagues at Livelifedrive in Malaysia who attended the launch say Honda is promising class-leading cabin space with rear legroom growing by 60mm and rear knee room by 70mm. Overseas markets will get the choice of the City's first diesel -- a 75kW/200Nm 1.5-litre -- but we're likely to see only the revised carryover 1.5-litre petrol unit, with unchanged 88kW/145Nm outputs.

Honda will confirm full specification and pricing closer to the City's Australian launch, but with the little sedan being a slow sales shifter it's unlikely the prices will move much from the current $16,490 entry for the five-speed manual VTi version, and $2000 and $4000 more for the auto Vti and top-spec auto VTi-L respectively.

This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott