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Originally Posted by GTO Strengths 1) Brand Honda has a huge following in India. Just like one can't go wrong with a Maruti for 5 lakhs, the perception is the same for the 9 lakh rupee Honda City. A fuss-free ownership experience is guaranteed.
2) All-rounded products. Honda's are usually fast & fun to drive, supremely reliable and require little maintenance. Weaknesses 3) NO DIESEL! Petrol is priced stratospherically high today, and even those cars owners with deep pockets feel the pinch on every full tank bill. I reiterate that Honda is the only manufacturer without a diesel engine in its lineup, and that is the biggest disadvantage today. Honda has merely 1 diesel engine worldwide. That's the outcome of being overtly dependent on the USA market, I guess.
Honda was once a technological tour de force. The first to bring variable valve tech, excellent automatic transmissions and more with the original Honda City. But where is the technological innovation today? Where are the direct-injection petrols, dual-clutch transmissions and turbocharged small capacity petrol motors that your competitors have already introduced in the market? Opportunities
4) Jazz : This girl's never going to move at the current pricing, Honda. Swallow a bitter bill, cut the price by 1.0 lakh and watch her fly out of showrooms. No one has a problem with the product; each ownership review speaks highly of the car's quality & capability. Unfortunate that a nearly flawless product is made to fail due to flawed business strategy.
5) Diesels. When Maruti - a onetime strong opponent to diesel cars - can say " If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and tied up with Fiat for diesels, why can't Honda outsource oil burners? Plus, the Civic & Accord can make use of Honda's own 2.2L CTDi diesel that it sells in the UK.. - Dual fuel variants. There's no better time to introduce factory-installed, precision-engineered, CNG & LPG variants. Build them and then, market them hard.
Threats 6) Volkswagen & Hyundai, both make for exceedingly formidable competition. When I drove the Vento, I commented that this is the first sedan capable of going against the Honda City. And I was right. VW has the brand power to compete with Honda, mega financial muscle and diesel engines. Hyundai has already overtaken Honda at the global level. Quite honestly, there is no difference in overall quality & reliability between Honda & Hyundai now. Hyundai's cars also have a premium attached to them, but they have diesels and are far better equipped. |
1) That following has taken a hit IMO. Else things wont go this wrong specially the City.
2) I beg to differ. Jazz is not exactly fun to drive. Neither is City, yes city is quite good, but not fun to drive. The only car I would say in Honda's current range which is fun to drive is Civic.
3) I would add different words. They were too focused on a) North American Market and b) Petrols.
About technological innovations, well Honda itself once admittted that its a mistake that they ignored turbocharged small petrols. Honda cited this and lack of diesel as main reason why others managed better in Europe, including Nissan.
4) Are you sure that even after Rs. 1 lakh cut Jazz will fly ? i20 is there with diesel, VW is also there with diesel and below that we have Swift and new Swift is not that far.
5) Honda must source diesel from others, mainly from europe. But from whom ? All of them want to enter India which is a good diesel market. Why would anyone give them diesel tech ?
Fiat clearly stated that they will not give Multiair to anybody as now they are not in cash crunch. For whatsoever reason, link with GM or anything, Suzuki would not have got license to produce the Fiat engine if Fiat was in a very sound financial condition at that time.
Now, nobody would like to sell diesel tech.
The only resort is to invest in its own R&D with external agency help and this could be a positive long term step.
Immediate action should be coming up with diesel CRV and Accord.
One resort is Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi is not in good health. They recently came up with diesel engines of their own which are good. Buy tech from them and sell cars with those two diesel engines. Life will be good for Honda and Mitsubishi (also known for good engineering ) motors will find reputation just has Fiat has got through Maruti. Honda can replicate the Maruti + Fiat engine saga on international level.
6) Hyundai. This is one damn lucky manufacturer. They advertised Getz as car of the year Europe 2006 in India. They got away with it. All its design earlier and even now are shameless copy. They have built themselves on copy. This is one manufacturer I dont respect. Neither are the newer products that better. The new Verna is not that good a handler I suppose. They are surviving on a) copycats and b) diesel. This is purley IMO.
Honda cars atleast have originality. Hyundai cars lack that too.
They invested in diesel engines R&D at right time. Something even Toyota missed.