Honda India : The Way Forward

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by mdsaab

Shall i still wait or take the plunge. was hoping for 20K more on cash instead of the Accesories, but the SR said that there is Honda policy and he can't go beyond 50K in cash.
The decision to buy is almost final here, with only booking formalities pending.

Just go and confirm the deal, this is the best deal IMO you can get now days. Remember Honda dealers are known for calling off discounts after mentioned dates. Like in my case when I bought the City, the offer was valid only till Diwali and after that there was no offer. You won’t regret your decision, I vouch for that.

Originally Posted by Equus

Total 70K - big WOW! Good job, dude!!!

Push harder showing him your cheque book and "anything else on this 50+20 and consider car booked".. Lets see how desperate they can get!!

Final questions to ask yourself:
- how critical is the ground clearance factor? This is a known issue with City.

We own Honda City for past 7-8 months and completed nearly 4700 Kms and we haven't scratched the bottom till date even with rear passengers and luggage. Correct technique is to be followed. I have driven on worst Haryana and Delhi roads.

This GC issue is spread in a hyper manner.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

Nevertheless, Honda seems to be on the same mind track as that of Federer these days. Knowledge of the fact that I am superior, but sheer laziness to try and outsmart the opposition with something more

Super analogy.

The other way to think about it of course is that both (Fed and Honda) have given up .

Originally Posted by avisidhu

Let me give you an example explaining how this could have been done, since we did the same.

Ah yes, I forgot about the exchange bonus. Of course I couldn't avail of anything like that.

Anyways, as Equus said, great job! @mdsaab: See if you can get cash instead of accessories. When I was going to get the refund of the extra road tax amount back, I took ~4.5k INR in cash and the ~1.5k in accessories. So it's possible if you push. In my case it could've been easier as I caught them red-handed. A "greenfield" discount could be a different matter.

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Remember Honda dealers are known for calling off discounts after mentioned dates. Like in my case when I bought the City, the offer was valid only till Diwali and after that there was no offer. You won’t regret your decision, I vouch for that.

Yeah, better safe than sorry. I rushed my purchase a bit since the dealer said the insurance at INR 1 was valid only for July (I bought the car on the 31st, having waited till the last minute to hear news of any extension). As it turns out, the offer is still on today, some 10 months later. But you never know.

Originally Posted by Equus

Spadix - are you listening, buddy?

Absolutely Sir! As I said, I went irrational and bought a Civic and I'm loving every minute of it. And this thread so far has mostly seen posts from people like me.

Apologies for digressing from the main topic at hand there for a bit.

Regards,
spadix

[RemingtonSteele]

Originally Posted by mdsaab

This City stuff is getting quite serious, and i feel one is soon going to be booked. Now the deal goes as this 50k cash and 20K worth of accessories.
Shall i still wait or take the plunge. was hoping for 20K more on cash instead of the Accesories, but the SR said that there is Honda policy and he can't go beyond 50K in cash.
The decision to buy is almost final here, with only booking formalities pending.

My dear friend Mdsaab are you TD'ing ANHC when you visit your Chicca at the dealer for getting the rear ending done ?? I am sure ANHC won't appeal you much (other than running economy & may be looks) when you already have CIVIC.

If you are really serious in booking ANHC then my 2 cents here; please do compare the offers at Crystal Honda. Crystal Honda is known for more better deals than Deccan Honda as far as I have seen. I have atleast 3 friends who got better deals at Crystal Honda than Deccan Honda - no harm in giving it a shot.

If you are interested then I have some connections there you can try and pull those strings to get the best deal out of them.

[mdsaab]

Originally Posted by RemingtonSteele

My dear friend Mdsaab are you TD'ing ANHC when you visit your Chicca at the dealer for getting the rear ending done ?? I am sure ANHC won't appeal you much (other than running economy & may be looks) when you already have CIVIC.

If you are really serious in booking ANHC then my 2 cents here; please do compare the offers at Crystal Honda. Crystal Honda is known for more better deals than Deccan Honda as far as I have seen. I have atleast 3 friends who got better deals at Crystal Honda than Deccan Honda - no harm in giving it a shot.

If you are interested then I have some connections there you can try and pull those strings to get the best deal out of them.

You bet! when we visited the workshop the showroom is just next door so we popped in to have a look. and now it looks like a casual visit is turning into a serious buy. see what a difference it makes if Honda reduces there price. Honda India are you listening.

I will call up Crystal Honda for a competitive quote from their end. Will post how it goes.

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Just go and confirm the deal, this is the best deal IMO you can get now days. Remember Honda dealers are known for calling off discounts after mentioned dates. Like in my case when I bought the City, the offer was valid only till Diwali and after that there was no offer. You won’t regret your decision, I vouch for that.

After a comparo with Crystal Honda rates, I think it's BOOKING TIME!


We own Honda City for past 7-8 months and completed nearly 4700 Kms and we haven't scratched the bottom till date even with rear passengers and luggage. Correct technique is to be followed. I have driven on worst Haryana and Delhi roads.

This GC issue is spread in a hyper manner.

Originally Posted by Equus

Total 70K - big WOW! Good job, dude!!!

Push harder showing him your cheque book and "anything else on this 50+20 and consider car booked".. Lets see how desperate they can get!!

Final questions to ask yourself:
- how critical is the ground clearance factor? This is a known issue with City.
- what else did you dislike about the car (assuming you did a TD OR have exposure to it elsewhere), and how do they weigh against its peers.

If you have answers to the above, and you heart says City, go for it!

Spadix - are you listening, buddy?

I think i do, and hence this may turn out into a comfirmed booking.

[Geo_Ipe]

Just posting here an ad which appeared in my local newspaper a couple of months ago. I can't quite believe Honda's having to stoop so low to sell their cars!

[pgsagar]

3-cylinder sedan? Which car are they referring to? As far as I know, after Accent CRDi's departure, there is none currently in the market.

[whysoserious]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

Just posting here an ad which appeared in my local newspaper a couple of months ago. I can't quite believe Honda's having to stoop so low to sell their cars!

I guess these stupid ads are composed by the dealers and not Honda!

[crazyro]

Originally Posted by whysoserious

I guess these stupid ads are composed by the dealers and not Honda!

I agree. These adverts are coming from the dealers. If it was from the company we would have seen it in newspapers everywhere. Havent seen it in Pune and Mumbai newspapers.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by whysoserious

I guess these stupid ads are composed by the dealers and not Honda!

You are right. But look at the standards of these dealers. This guy is a Honda dealer, a brand of repute. And being a Honda dealer, he must have been in this business for a long time and yet he speaks about a 3-cyl sedan which does not exist in India.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

3-cylinder sedan? Which car are they referring to? As far as I know, after Accent CRDi's departure, there is none currently in the market.

Probably the dealer who has put this ad (obviously not Honda) doesn't know that the Vento which is based on the 3 cylinder Polo (at least the 1.2) comes with 4 cylinder engine.

[vb-san]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

3-cylinder sedan? Which car are they referring to? As far as I know, after Accent CRDi's departure, there is none currently in the market.

Maybe they saw the news that Ford has launched a 1L 3 cylinder motor (internationally), and could have assumed that it is going to be the engine for the new Fiesta

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by Guna

Probably the dealer who has put this ad (obviously not Honda) doesn't know that the Vento which is based on the 3 cylinder Polo (at least the 1.2) comes with 4 cylinder engine.

Precisely. It's the Vento they are trying to target, under the impression that it's just a polo with a boot!
With dealers having such knowledge of competing products, god help Honda
OT: Would surely be interesting to know what Ads he has planned once the new Verna and Fiesta start flying off the shelf.

[ghostrider]

Originally Posted by nik_kapur

Im a Big Honda Fan.

We have an accord and a civic automatic. Both cars have absolutely trashy fuel efficiency- 6.5-7 for the Accord with a light foot and 8 for the Civic. Average taken out on a tank-tank basis.

What is so special about these Ivtec engines that we have been raving about for years? Even the Skoda, Hyundai engines offer better mileage (petrol engines) Is it possible that we often get taken in by auto pundits and there opinion about certain technologies and forget whats important in these times? I mean fuel efficiency has got to be the no.1 priority now.

Well said, but the relatively poor fuel efficiency applies to their smaller cars too. I have an Ikon 1.6, an NHC 1.5, and a Swift Diesel. The Ikon completely outshines the City in terms of performance and handling, and they both return the same fuel economy on a tank-to-tank method.

Honda's woes can be SOLELY put down to arrogance and complacency. Indians' infatuation with the brand managed to mask a whole bunch of shortcomings (ridiculous styling, poor trim levels, inflated price tags, dealer and service center arrogance, and inflated service costs.

Ive never been a fan of Honda cars in India (despite driving an Accord at one point) and I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying watching their pigeons come home to roost.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by ghostrider

Well said, but the relatively poor fuel efficiency applies to their smaller cars too. I have an Ikon 1.6, an NHC 1.5, and a Swift Diesel. The Ikon completely outshines the City in terms of performance and handling, and they both return the same fuel economy on a tank-to-tank method.

And what was the FE both these delivered? NHC is normally known to be very good when it comes to fuel efficiency and FE was not Ikon 1.6's strong point. But your experience seem to be different.

[bkbkr1212]

What if Honda decides to reduce the price of their best selling car, City by 1 lac, for say a month? That will be a mouth watering prospect.
They still can make huge profits on volumes.
Every other sedan, be it Vento, Verna, SX4,Fiesta etc etc will be jacked to death.
Honda being such a stupid Bonda will never ever do that