[M00M]

Just a thought, why doesnt Honda India look at introducing the Honda Pilot in India at a price of 40 - 50 lacs ?

I think the above price is obtainable with some aggressive localisation and offer the Pilot with the new 1.6 Diesel with 9 Speed AT.

It would do well.

Also where is the Diesel CRV update Honda ? or even the new 2017 CRV in Petrol, Hope someone from the company is reading this thread regularly.

Stop sleeping, Wake UP

[Aaron:)]

Now, Honda Cars eyes ‘premium’ positioning
http://m.timesofindia.com/business/i...w/58864334.cms

With a sluggish year now in the rear view mirror, Japanese auto giant Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL) has set its sights on strengthening its brand positioning as a 'premium' player and improving sales volumes this year, HCIL president and CEO Yoichiro Ueno said here on Friday.

While the current market volume and growth is good, we believe real motorisation or real expansion of the market will be seen in the middle of 2020-2030. We believe that it is more important to establish a foundation for that period rather than chasing volumes now.

There is enquiry for larger SUVs and maybe HR-V can be one of the options. It is above 4-metre and is more expensive... we are assessing if we can have a reasonable pricing for this model," he added.

[OSH]

They cannot call themselves "premuim players" only by pricing their cars above the competition. The reason they are still able to sell their cars in decent numbers is only because of the reputation that the City, Civic and Accord had made during their times. There was a time when Honda was considered premuim in the eyes of the public, without Honda's management even mentioning it once. Nowadays, Honda keeps on saying that it is premuim to others, but the public doesn't agree on this. Here the public is 101% correct, there is no reason for them to believe Honda. People are going to be ready to pay you more only when you are giving them something more. According to me, Honda should really go all out in terms of offering quality features if they want to remain in the game, their after-sales is sorted so they need not worry about that right now. Just focus on making your cars worthy of the extra price you charge, every 6 months you cannot keep saying "premuim" "premuim" and expect the public to believe you when your cars are no way "premuim" to others.

I would like to share something with everyone, just 10 years back my father and 4-5 friends of his walked into the Honda showroom, everyone booked and bought the City without a test drive or even considering any other car. This was the level of trust my father and his friends had in Honda, I know people who had done the same for the Civic also. Now if the chaps at Honda just revisit that period and study, they should be able to figure out that they themselves have stained Honda's reputation in India. It all started when they wanted to play the "volume game", this lead to quality being compromised, cost-cutting everywhere, skipping features etc.

There are still people like me who are going and buying your cars just based on the good experience we have had with previous offerings from you Honda. I followed my father's footsteps and decided to buy the 2017 City just because, since 1999 no City of ours has ever given us a chance to regret buying them. Honda's quality at the time was so good that I still cannot even think of selling my 10 year old car.

If Honda really wants to come back and take the stage which it enjoyed years back, they need to focus on proper segments first, why have 6 cars in your portfolio when majority are not doing good in their respective segments. Instead keep 3 cars but give full attention to them so that it becomes the go-to choice of people shopping in that segment.

I wish someone at Honda reads our various threads and understands what we need and what we are expecting from them. Sorry for this really long post but I put it down because Honda is loosing the plot in our market and I just cannot see that.

[volkman10]

Honda plans new City, Jazz and Amaze by 2020, reiterates focus on premium play. Honda Civic to return to India after its exit 5 years ago!

Mobilio is axed and Brio could follow soon.

Honda will continue to focus on the premium segment that includes executive sedans and premium hatchbacks as against its earlier plans of becoming a mass market manufacturer.

While Mobilio’s production is stopped and the company has no plans on continuing with the model, sources add that the Brio may also be on its way out owing to poor volumes and low popularity among buyers.

Link

[feluda86]

Originally Posted by OSH

They cannot call themselves "premuim players" only by pricing their cars above the competition.

Just focus on making your cars worthy of the extra price you charge, every 6 months you cannot keep saying "premuim" "premuim" and expect the public to believe you when your cars are no way "premuim" to others.

It all started when they wanted to play the "volume game", this lead to quality being compromised, cost-cutting everywhere, skipping features etc.

I cannot agree more with this. Honda cannot keep call themselves "premium" and become "premium".

The level of equipment that comes with a Honda car is below market average. At a time when rest of the country is providing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in their cars, their best selling Honda City comes with only a Mirror-Link option. Their premium hatchback Jazz comes with an ANV system meant for use before 2010 with an iPod connector that only supports iPhones more than 5 years old . That is the level of thought put into newer Honda products.

All this would have been justified, if they provided engines which were better than their market peers. The 1.2L petrol is under-powered for Jazz and the 1.5L diesel, though a capable engine, suffers from poor NVH. The only saving grace is the 1.5L petrol but it is not significantly ahead of the market. Honda needs to come out of this half-hearted approach for India.

[Aaron:)]

New City, Jazz, Amaze by 2020 - that seems just about right. These cars were all launched in 2013-15, and considering their usual product life cycle of 5-6 years we should have the next gen versions of these cars within the next 2 years.

Glad to see Honda realise their mistakes and make an attempt to go back to their previous ways.

The previous Civic is a tough act to follow. Hope Honda puts their heart and soul into the new one, and doesn't disappoint us.

Also interesting to note that the next gen Amaze will come to India, but not the Brio. Seems like they want to increase the entry price into the brand. Or have they decided that they can't compete with Maruti and Hyundai?

What about the HR-V and CR-V though? Honda is missing out on the SUV-craze big time.

[damager21]

With SUV fever on the rise, it seems Honda has missed a trick yet again. If anything, the success of WRV should have prompted it to be more nimble and agile in its decision making.

Renault Duster was the first true compact SUV to be have tasted success and this was followed by Ford Ecosport and the Hyundai Creta. While the market leader Maruti was a laggard with virtually no presence in this space, it launched Vitara Brezza which as we will know is a runaway success with months of waiting time.

And the buck does not stop here, every manufacturer in India is now sprinting to catch on this SUV craze. In the past couple of month we have already seen few launches and there are a few more launches due in the upcoming months of 2017
* Jeep Compass
* Tata Nexon
* Volkswagen Tiguan
* Renault Captur
* Skoda Kodiaq
* Maruti SCross (Facelift)
* Ford Ecosport (Facelift)

And there are many more which will see light of the day in 2018
* Hyundai Creta (Facelift)
* Tata Q501
* Suzuki Vitara
* Nissan Kicks
* Mahindra TUV300+
* and many more

With Honda revealing its new strategy to go premium, I would have assumed that they were also announcing the launch of HRV in India. Yet, Honda is still circumspect and wanting to gauge whether to launch or not.

Based on Jazz platform, Honda has a huge gap between WRV and CRV something which it can easily plug with HRV. If anything, Creta is great lesson for all marketers that if a well loaded car is offered to India consumers, they will open up their wallets. Its better late than never and I hope better sense prevails and Honda finally delivers on its premium strategy for India by offering its best in class products to Indian consumers

[Vid6639]

Instead of even thinking about launching the Civic back in India in a segment that is diminishing, the HR-V is seriously a no brainer. The Creta and now the Compass are proof of that.

The HR-V is exactly what is working in India and Hyundai understood that. For heaven's sake even FCA understood and are focussing on that.

Why Honda is even looking at getting the Civic back in a segment that barely sees 500 cars a month rolling out the plant is confounding.

[Simhi]

Originally Posted by damager21

With Honda revealing its new strategy to go premium, I would have assumed that they were also announcing the launch of HRV in India. Yet, Honda is still circumspect and wanting to gauge whether to launch or not.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Instead of even thinking about launching the Civic back in India in a segment that is diminishing, the HR-V is seriously a no brainer.

If you go through the HR-V thread, RavenAvi has already mentioned that as per his birdie, the launch of HR-V is expected in early 2018 and Honda is working seriously towards it. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post4165683

[adimicra]

I don't understand why Honda is delaying the launch of HRV in India.
This is their best chance to get back some attention towards the Honda brand.

You don't need deep analysis and market research to predict that HRV will be a big hit in the market unless they price it abnormally high. The market for 15-20L SUV/crossover is expanding and it's going to hit through the roof in the coming years.
It will be extremely foolish of Honda to NOT launch the HRV is such a market.

One caveat though - there are 2 types of SUVs (look wise mainly)
1> Butch, typical SUV looks - example, Compass
2> Crossover-ish looks - example, Tucson.

Clearly, India market favors the Butch looking SUVs and willing to pay a premium for those. Since HRV falls in the 2nd category, Honda won't be able to command a premium for it. So, they need to price it on par or slightly below the compass.

[geotracks]

Honda needs to turn around soon. They went very heavy with the BRIO platform models (BR-V, Mobilio, Amaze etc.) strategy, which was not the best move.

They should have balanced this with getting in the diesel CR-V, HR-V (CITY Platform) soon. When customers are willing to pay INR 30L+ for Fortuners, Tuscon, Tiguan and the entry level Germans; many of these would have gladly opted for the 7-seater diesel CR-V etc. which Honda has launched in SE Asia market. Honda is just delaying these 'wow' product launches and missing opportunities here. Toyota on the other hand has a solid strategy with Innova & Fortuners to get the 'big bucks' from private owners and Etios in the cab market. I compare Honda with Toyota, since Hondas & Toyotas are favorite (and comparable) cars / SUVs for many in US, Europe and Asia markets.

Honda really needs to act soon and have a better strategy to come with SUV & cross-overs, on City platform. Of course like Toyota (Innovas & Fortuners), local manufacturing of Honda vehicles on the CITY platform must happen to keep pricing competitive.

[budgam.boonyi]

An interesting article about what went wrong with Honda in the 2000's. Its more of a global outlook, nothing India specific.

“The upshot was, as we obsessed about Toyota and beating it in the marketplace, we started to look like Toyota. We started to forget why we existed as a company to begin with,” says Honda R&D President and CEO Yoshiyuki Matsumoto.

"How Honda Lost It's Mojo..."

[Durango Dude]

I have a feeling that if Honda is going to persist with this lethargy and mis-directed product mix it will last another max 10 years and will just fade away. When Skoda can bring in so many cars and SUV's why is Honda not risking it. You can't price a CBU Accord at close to 45 L and get away with it. When the Germans selling fewer cars can do a CKD why not Honda. Interior feel of a Honda or a Toyota can never match the premiumness of a German, period. My feeling is though Germans came in late they have taken the Indian market more seriously and have gone forward from strength to strength; in a way they spelt doom for all the Jap and Korean D segment sedans bringing in the A3 and X1 and GLA. Their onslaught with the monocoque SUV's meant no other could hold a candle to them save the Fortuner. Indians have taken to Germans like fish takes to water and the Japs are feeling the heat. Even after seeing the newfound Indian buying power, neither Honda nor Toyota want to bring their premium brands as CKD. The Germans are very well escounced with Skoda at the premium lower end going all the way up.

[Sebring]

Honda's fest ad isn't well thought out I feel. Why is Honda saying "H for best. H for all things good", when even Hyundai can lay claim to 'H'? Is 'H' a differentiator?

[volkman10]

With the recent policy shift and the flip-flop on GST cess Honda hits back. Might have to change focus to other countries ?

Honda Car India has indicated that in a long run, such policies will make the Indian car market very unattractive. The government has applied more cess on the bigger cars, which means smaller vehicles will get more incentives and will get a push in sales. Such policies will make global manufacturers like Honda to change focus from India to some other countries

Honda, who has been a ‘large car’ manufacturer says that the shift to focus on small cars is not easy. Honda Chief in India also says that the government’s push is making Honda global to shift focus from India to other countries. Ueno adds that if the government keeps the focus strong on sub 4-meter vehicles, where Honda is not very strong, the focus will shift to some other country from India.

link