City R (AA)

STORY

Honda announced the City on 29 October 1981 and sold it in Japan from 11 November, a tall-boy hatchback launched together with the 50 cc folding Motocompo scooter that fitted in its luggage area. Europe knew that first generation as the Jazz from 1982, since Opel held the City trademark. A lower second Japanese City followed in October 1986, and the nameplate left Japan in the mid-1990s. It returned in April 1996 in Bangkok as a four-door sedan built in Ayutthaya for emerging markets, a different car from the Japanese hatchbacks. Later Japan sold that sedan as the Fit Aria from 20 December 2002 and as the Grace from 2014, and South Africa sold it as the Ballade from 2011 to 2025.