[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

In addition to the cosmetic changes, what is required are all round discs (old vTec had it), and things like Climate Control, rear parking sensors/ camera. The first time I was scared reversing a car (after 35+ years) was the City in 2008! With modern high waistlines this is now becoming endemic.

Yes, and it is not something new for the City. I was just checking the specifications/feature list of 1.5 City LX in Singapore, and it has all those features you mentioned, and also with 185/55 R16 tyres.

The challenge will be that, all these updates could cancel the current price correction; or maybe that’s a plan

[rajneeesh]

Originally Posted by vishnurp99

The question for me would be how honda will deal with the loss of goodwill with the existing customers. I wouldn't be too happy to see my neighbour driving the same car/model paying around 70K less than me.

Frankly speaking i am surprised there is no criticism of Honda or empathy for the existing customers. Most of the posts are about how brilliant a move the price cut is.

The biggest plus of honda city was favourable word of mouth from it's current customers. I guess that will dissipate soon once these customers see their friends and neighbours with the same cars at drastically lower prices

Well the person who makes a decision in a free market should also be ready to accept the fact that the manufacturer can change the price as per their business requirements.

Over the last few months City has seen its sales go down with Maruti, Volkswagen and Hyundai launching new models /diesel variants. The frequent petrol price increases have further made things difficult for Honda.

Honda was getting marginalised in the Indian market and the management realised that they will have to wake up and smell the coffee.

The City is a great product but overpriced. People have been questioning the premium Honda was charging and getting away with. Unfortunately for Honda, the market is no longer willing to pay this premium.

The goodwill of the existing customers was not good enough to keep City at the top of the sales chart. With competitive options available in the marketplace, a lot of these owners who were satisfied with the car's performance were questioning the price tag. After all IT IS A HONDA CITY AND NOT AN ACURA

[rangarx]

by buying up used cars from the market, etc.

Is Honda buying the used cars from the market? Is that the reason for their sky high prices in the used car market?

Throw some light here

[spadix]

Originally Posted by Equus

Its important to find out if the discounts offered prior to the price cuts, were from the dealers or from Honda themselves. If it were from dealers AND this price cut is from Honda, then the "baseline" has changed, and we could expect discounts.

It was both the company and its dealers.

When Honda started insurance at INR 1, the dealers lost so much in the bargain that they refused to honour meeting Honda's corporate discount, quoting the amount they were losing on insurance.

I'll give you some numbers.

The Civic V M/T in Hyderabad in July 2010 had a quoted insurance premium of 51265 from Honda Assure. The actual new car insurance charged by the underwriter (Bajaj Allianz in my case) was 31xxx. So the dealer was making some 20k earlier.

Because of this, the dealer absolutely refused to meet Honda's corporate discount of 7500.

Honda's loss was the free extended warranty and roadside assistance they were providing at the time. Perhaps the dealers were losing some on this count too. But the dealers weren't doing all of this out of their own choice. Honda forced their hands probably on the insurance at INR 1 thing.

That's why I was also surprised to hear that some dealers were giving away accessories for free. I was even more surprised to hear that cash discounts were also being given. From my experience as well as a friend's (with both Sundaram and Pride Honda) the only way this could've happened is if the dealers tried to push older stock through. If you wanted to buy a car manufactured in the current month, there was no way you could get freebies and cash discounts.

So even now, when it's actually Honda losing money courtesy of the price cuts, the dealers are refusing to pass on further discounts. Perhaps they're trying to make up what they had "lost" this last one year . In fact I've heard from some on the forums that even loyalty and exchange bonuses are not being offered now. That's the pits, really. Transparent pricing goes only so far, IMHO.

Regards,
spadix

[wilful]

As a long time Honda City user (my 2nd one), I think it's great news. Now if only they bite the bullet and cut the Jazz price by a lakh or so...
And offer more variants like AT/CVT.

[Gear_Shift]

That is a wonderful move by Honda. With slashed prices, we could end up with a situation of bumper-to-bumper Honda crowd on the roads. Having said that, there are too many Honda cars on the road and has become a common site.

I have been owning a ANHC since the last 9 months and clocked 15K as on date and the only complaint I have on the car is the low ground clearance . With only 3 average built passengers in the car, it tends to scrape all the speed breakers. My friends have started depreciating the car based on the number of speed breakers I mange to scrape. Time Honda also consider increasing the height as it is becoming more of a concern. Mileage was a concern initially, but over a period of time, I have managed to get a 12 kmpl in Chennai peak traffic and 17 kmpl on highway driving.

Overall, the price cut by Honda is a very good move. Hope the government makes a similar cut on Petrol prices soon!

[rr_zen]

There was an interesting advertisement in the newspaper today to highlight the price cut which shows a ORVM through which a Honda City is seen and the words written - "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear". Quite thoughtful of the person who came up with the idea.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by Gear_Shift

the only complaint I have on the car is the low ground clearance . With only 3 average built passengers in the car, it tends to scrape all the speed breakers. My friends have started depreciating the car based on the number of speed breakers I mange to scrape. Time Honda also consider increasing the height as it is becoming more of a concern.

I'm going to digress a little bit here.

While I have a Civic and it scrapes pretty liberally too, I wonder if you've already tried things like taking the bumps at an angle and dropping speed (to 3-4 kmph, sometimes) over them.

The problem isn't the ground clearance, but the soft suspension.

When you go over bumps at speed, the suspension sags pretty heavily and results in a hit/scrape. This can be avoided especially if load isn't too high. When load is high (read 4-5 people and luggage) the soft suspension results in even more scrapes.

If the hit happens even at crawling speeds, then it's bad speed-breaker design and *any* other car with the same wheelbase and ground clearance will also scrape.

So the real solution is to harden up the suspension.

I've scraped tons of times when it's only me or at the most one other person in the car (some careless driving). I've also gotten by comfortably with nary a scrape under full load conditions (6 people + boot full of luggage) on some monstrous speed-breakers. Most of the scraping depends on how one drives, IMHO.

Regards,
spadix

[manij]

Frankly they had to react to market conditions - else what is the marketing team for?
Already naysayers are indicating that in these high (and rising) interest times, coupled with lower industry growth, people are spending lesser and lesser money on items they can put off purchases on, and spending more on food/clothing. I know quite a few of my friends who ended up comparing City to Vento and ended up buying the Vento (Petrol). The market leader (even though only for this segment) cannot afford to allow their market share to slip away, they will never get it back in this competitive scenario.

[Bh.P]

Originally Posted by spadix

I'm going to digress a little bit here.

When you go over bumps at speed, the suspension sags pretty heavily and results in a hit/scrape. This can be avoided especially if load isn't too high. When load is high (read 4-5 people and luggage) the soft suspension results in even more scrapes.

I have seen quite a few City drivers do this angle thing, and it is irritating. They bring the traffic across lanes to a stand still. Also, I have seen some City's running the risk of being scraped by 2-wheelers when they do this, because the 2 wheeler guy would not have expected the city to suddenly angle out from his lane.

There was another thread (by GTO I guess) where a suspension dmpner ( a rubber padding) was suggested for the coil suspensions. Not sure if that can be done in the city though. That thread was mainly for the Civic.
This is the thread I am referring to:
Coil Spring Adjusters : VFM Fix for the Honda Civic's (lousy) soft rear suspension?

[spadix]

Originally Posted by Bh.P

I have seen quite a few City drivers do this angle thing, and it is irritating. They bring the traffic across lanes to a stand still. Also, I have seen some City's running the risk of being scraped by 2-wheelers when they do this, because the 2 wheeler guy would not have expected the city to suddenly angle out from his lane.

There definitely is that risk.

There have been many occasions where I (or rather, my car) did end up getting scrapes because it would've been too risky to angle out.

Another variant of this is when you have vehicles tailgating you and you suddenly come across a sharp bump which needs to be taken at < 7-8 kmph. If you brake suddenly you risk getting rear-ended and an underbody hit/scrape is better. I've had a few such instances too.

Needless to say, this work-around doesn't preclude you from keeping others' safety in mind.

Originally Posted by Bh.P

There was another thread (by GTO I guess) where a suspension dmpner ( a rubber padding) was suggested for the coil suspensions. Not sure if that can be done in the city though. That thread was mainly for the Civic.

Yeah that's a popular thread and quite a few people have taken that mod up as an interim measure until they save up enough to get a pair of Koni FSDs .

Regards,
spadix

[psp62in]

The next thing I would like Honda to do is to increase the service interval. The current service interval of 3 month or 5000 km whichever is earlier) is ridiculously low. Apart from the inconvenience this causes, IMHO it is designed only to help the dealers make some more money.

The competition has the service intervals from 6 months to 1 year) or 10-15K km), far better an HONDA.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by psp62in

The next thing I would like Honda to do is to increase the service interval. The current service interval of 3 month or 5000 km whichever is earlier) is ridiculously low. Apart from the inconvenience this causes, IMHO it is designed only to help the dealers make some more money.

The competition has the service intervals from 6 months to 1 year) or 10-15K km), far better an HONDA.

While Honda is unreasonable with their service intervals, a few owners have reported some success in talking to their SAs/dealerships and getting them to agree to a 6-month interval if usage is not as heavy as 5k kms in 3 months.

In case of the Civic at least, the manual explicitly points out 5k kms or *6* months whichever is earlier, even though dealers would have you come once in 3 months. I wonder what the ANHC manual says.

But overall, I agree with you and Honda should really think of a 10 or 15k kms or one year (whichever is earlier) service interval.

For all you know that could result in some of the difference getting folded back into the price of the car or dealers offering even fewer discounts. I wouldn't put it past the dealers to do something like that.

Regards,
spadix

[Gear_Shift]

Originally Posted by spadix

There definitely is that risk.

There have been many occasions where I (or rather, my car) did end up getting scrapes because it would've been too risky to angle out.

Another variant of this is when you have vehicles tailgating you and you suddenly come across a sharp bump which needs to be taken at < 7-8 kmph. If you brake suddenly you risk getting rear-ended and an underbody hit/scrape is better. I've had a few such instances too.


Regards,
spadix

I have been doing the same and have stopped the car completely, rolled over the speed breakers many times but still have managed to touch them. Fortunately, there are only a few of them in Chennai, but if you are getting into any nearby towns or especially Andhra Pradesh highways, watch out. This weekend, I ended up getting a heavy blow on my way to Kone falls. On my way back, I used stones to negate it. People on the road thought I am crazy, but only I could feel the pain.

I have mastered the art of angling the car, after the first few time when I scraped my fender on to a wall/pillar next to a speed breaker. After that incident, it’s been only cross roller over on any speed breaker. I am getting my car serviced next week, will take a picture of the under chassis to see the damage done in 15K kms.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff: Do not copy paste from other application. Remove font/colour before posting.

[vina]

Originally Posted by spadix

There definitely is that risk.

There have been many occasions where I (or rather, my car) did end up getting scrapes because it would've been too risky to angle out.

Another variant of this is when you have vehicles tailgating you and you suddenly come across a sharp bump which needs to be taken at < 7-8 kmph. If you brake suddenly you risk getting rear-ended and an underbody hit/scrape is better. I've had a few such instances too.

...

we are going but:


I almost always reduce my speed slowly slightly while giving way to overtake whenever I detect a vehicle tailgating too close and there is no way I can increase the distance by accelerating a little (or if I'm already going fast for the road conditions)

this gives the guy behind me an incentive (and I believe great pleasure of shortening his journey by 5 seconds) and reduces my risk of getting rear ended significantly.