[dkaile]

The Honda brand has always been synonymous with quality and class

Well, Honda may make quality vehicles but they are not the best. I have owned a Honda City, the old model one, which were supposed to be much rugged and better built than the present lot, and I must say I was not very impressed by their quality and my vehicle became quite rattly within 3 years of ownership. After that I sceptically chose Toyota and have since owned 2 Toyota's (2002 Qualis and 2004 Corolla) and I can vouch for the fact that Toyota's quality and built is much better than the Honda's (no shake, rattle and roll)

Honda's make fine automobiles, maybe better 2 wheelers than the 4 wheel kind, and I do not want this to turn into a Honda vs the rest debate, but I feel that Honda's quality is highly over-rated and their cars are highly over priced compared to the quality they are offering. I think it is preposterous for them to be able to price a vehicle like CRV at 25 lacs when its correct price should be at least 10 lacs lesser...

Maybe they were cashing on Indian's blind preference to the Honda brand name (aka our preference to Sony vs other better brands like Samsung in the digital world), but the consumer's are waking up now...

[bluevolt]

I don't say that it’s a brilliant move. What I say that we cannot get everything what we expect. As GTO as clarified that whether this is brilliant move or not, I guess I need not mention any further point.

We should consider this thing that discounts are not mass attractors whereas huge price cuts (low road tax + low insurance) are. The discounts are sometimes only dealers specific so everyone may not get the benefit. Earlier people feared that ANHC is an expensive and over priced car and we can’t afford it and they went for better alternatives, but since now the company has slashed the price by over 50K this actually creates a VFM proportion in people's mind, especially for EMT variant.

The timing is right, can’t comment whether price reduction move is brilliant or not as this will differ from person to person so don’t want to take this further.

PS - I guess that we could draw a better picture of Honda's price reduction move in coming month's sales figures.

[rameshnanda]

I am surprised to see there's a lot of response for the Honda's move to slash the price of City. Even before this, Honda offered hefty discounts on City and again failed to push up the sales. Now, they have made the discounts official by slashing the prices. They may see a short term small surge in City sales but again that may not sustain. Honda urgently needs a diesel mill to turn the things around.

[coolmel]

finally they wake up! But the price of the Jazz exceeds the City's base variant!! Hope they know if this, else they will still keep trumpeting the Jazz is a better build car blah blah blah!!

[Bh.P]

There has been a lot of argument on weather this is a genuine reduction, or an offical announcement of the discounts that were being given over the past couple of months. What ever the case, I think the reduction is good. If nothing else, it will set a base for further discounts during the upcoming festive season, when car sales usually zoom, and Honda will not want to loose out during that time.

[recshenoy]

phew. . yesterday my friend says "dude time to buy ANHC, price have come down by 44 to 60K. i was like "okay, i guess you are high on something or you are day dreaming. I will talk to you later". After 2 busy days i visit team bhp and news is so TRUE i just cant imagine this. anyways i read from first post till latest one. one of best thread i must say.

but like every one feel JAZZ aka HONDA FIT (one of the largest selling car in Japan) defiantly needs a huge price cut like 1L to sell like hot cake. Spacious, cute, good mileage, smooth drive. Jazz is a nice car if priced reasonably.

[mdsaab]

I think along with dwindling sales of the City, Honda is preparing themselves to become mass market players with the upcoming Brio. Hence this official price reduction.
So to set the ball rolling they have given us an unofficial indication, that the Brio will indeed be priced competitively.
After all it's the small hatchback segment which has the maximum volumes in India, and i am sure Honda don't want to make a mistake in this space.

[bama]

I think its a welcome move but a price cut on the Jazz would have been better. City is already and established brand and the price cut was to maintain the brand leadership. That was rightly done by Honda.

However Jazz which is a relatively new ( non performer in terms of sales) should have seen a price cut before the City. this would have motivated a lot of buyers in the sub 7 lac segment to opt for the Jazz. City could have been priced the same and would have attracted buyers looking for "exclusivity".
Not reducing the price of the Jazz could signal the brio will be priced above 5 lacs and will touch the lower end Jazz ( i am not aware of the variants in Jazz) for the higher trims

All in all the price cut is welcomed and mostly due to competition and the fact that Honda trying to protect its turf.

[SPARKled]

Ok so a lot including me are calling this a 'brilliant' move but can some upfront discount or a price reduction, still move people away from a diesel sedan, that at todays price parity between a petrol and diesel is still a sensible buy to most.

[cityvic]

Guys any idea if the civic prices are also being cut down?
Its because I'm planning to buy a civic and the dealer is just giving me 30% disc on Insurance.No Loyalty Bonus also.

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by cityvic

Guys any idea if the civic prices are also being cut down?
Its because I'm planning to buy a civic and the dealer is just giving me 30% disc on Insurance.No Loyalty Bonus also.

We don't have any consolidated news. But who knows what Honda is upto! If I were in your place, I would wait for the discount till the new model arrives, at least I would get the stock clearance discount in the end. But taking a look at the next model, I suppose the last lot of the current Civic will be sold with a premium

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

PS - I will post comparisons of prices between all C segment sedans (petrol) tomorrow.

Below are the on-road prices* (DELHI) of the best selling petrol C segment cars.

Honda city EMT - On Road Price 8,29,969
Honda city SMT - On Road Price 9,07,545
Honda city VMT- On Road Price 9,57,211
Honda city V-AT- On Road Price 10,36,545


VW Vento Trend line Petrol - On Road Price 7,84,393
VW Vento Highline Petrol - On Road Price 9,21,647
VW Vento Highline Petrol-AT - On Road Price 10,30,420


Maruti SX4 VXi - On Road Price 7,78,400
Maruti SX4 ZXi - On Road Price 8,61,048
Maruti SX4 ZXi-AT - On Road Price 9,33,724


Hyundai Verna 1.6 - On Road Price 8,53,964
Hyundai Verna 1.6 SX - On Road Price 9,19,934
Hyundai Verna 1.6 SX-AT - On Road Price 10,73,862

* Please excuse if there is any error.

[radiokidb]

The EMT looks mighty tempting at that price! The Vento Trendline and SX4 Vxi better run for cover! The Verna 1.6 SX is still cheaper than the VMT and beats it hollow on features!

[sriramv.iyer]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Below are the on-road prices* (DELHI) of the best selling petrol C segment cars.

Honda city EMT - On Road Price 8,29,969
Honda city SMT - On Road Price 9,07,545
Honda city VMT- On Road Price 9,57,211
Honda city V-AT- On Road Price 10,36,545


Hyundai Verna 1.6 - On Road Price 8,53,964
Hyundai Verna 1.6 SX - On Road Price 9,19,934
Hyundai Verna 1.6 SX-AT - On Road Price 10,73,862

* Please excuse if there is any error.

Honda cheaper than Hyundai in all versions! That's a FIRST for me!

SX4 and Vento (P) with their ~100 BHP engines are never in competition in the first place - Neither powerful nor fuel efficient nor refined

Honda, you deserve to sell this time

[filcord]

Originally Posted by Bh.P

There has been a lot of argument on weather this is a genuine reduction, or an offical announcement of the discounts that were being given over the past couple of months...

Originally Posted by bluevolt

Below are the on-road prices* (DELHI) of the best selling petrol C segment cars.

....Honda city VMT- On Road Price 9,57,211

Maruti SX4 ZXi - On Road Price 8,61,048 .....

When I was looking to replace my Baleno this March, I got similar effective pricing from Honda and Maruti. In other words, Honda dealer was already offering, through free insurance and other freebies, a similar reduction to what is now made official by Honda.
The price difference between the SX4 zxi and the City VMT at that time came to around 1 lakh. I thought it silly to spend that much more money for essentially the same product (image notwithstanding) so went in for the SX4.