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-   -   Honda starts testing Accord Hybrid in India. EDIT: Launched at 37 lakhs (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/177565-honda-starts-testing-accord-hybrid-india-edit-launched-37-lakhs-7.html)

Car manufacturers have gone mad in pricing. S-Cross, Creta, Crysta, Accord... I have lost count!

I know someone who got the chance to check the car out. He literally said that his time was wasted once he heard the price :deadhorse

I think they are targeting the hotel segment who get the duty benefits stupid:

Don't worry guys. If history has taught us something about Honda, particularly about their hybrids, it is that there will be a massive price cut.

Accord stock will pile up. Then there will be a knee-jerk reaction to clear stocks in the way of price cuts.

Proof: Go back to 2008. Civic Hybrid (with those funky wheels) did not sell because of ridiculous pricing. They dropped the price by 8,00,000 (almost 40% of the price of the car) to clear stock. (http://www.rediff.com/money/report/p...y/20081115.htm)

I believe they did something similar on the Jazz, drop the price.

So Honda decided to have a Prius of their own?lol:

The mistake Toyota did years ago launching an over priced "eco friendly" hatchback and the laughing stock it became, and now Honda is doing the same launching another "eco friendly" sedan.
The humongous price at which it is launched one would rather buy any of the Germans.
For the eco sensitive folks one can always buy a smaller engine lower displacement executive sedans like the Corolla.
I would be surprised to ever see a hybrid Accord on the road other than the Test Drive ones!

Honda doesn't seem to have much interest in the premium market in India it seems. They are happy selling the City, Amaze, Brio and BRV which are mass market cars without any frills. Once an aspirational brand for the middle class, it has now been replaced by Hyundai which is coming up with much better and modern products. The new Civic or CRV, if they get launched will again be at the higher end of the spectrum where better alternatives will easily be available. This Accord is for the Honda loyals.

Read that they will be bringing in cars based on confirmed booking only. They could have brought some initially which I think they should be able to sell.

Well this is definitely not overpriced. It is daylight robbery infact lol: . Its like saying "If you come to our showroom to buy an Accord, we will rob you for sure". I quite like the open challenge put up by Honda and people who accept the challenge deserve a standing ovation.

I hate this launch for a specific reason. That it is a failure in itself is a given. But the Camry Hybrid, despite being a tad overpriced was still a wonderful option to have in the 37/38 lakh price band. Priced a shade under the big germans and an alternate options to the unreliable skoda.

What launches like Passat GTE and Honda Accord do is give room / food for thought to the Toyota Camry's product managers to consider gradually moving up the price band. And that's not good for the customer. :-(

Separately, I don't see any reason to pick this over the Camry unless you're a super blind Honda fan.

Is it much better looking inside or outside than the Camry? - NO
Is it much roomier than the Camry? - NO
Is it technologically superior? - NO
Is it more fun to drive - i.e. exciting Honda vs boring Toyota? - NO
Is it more reliable or cheaper to maintain than a Toyota? - Certainly NO. The opposite if anything based on my experience of Honda vs Toyota maintenance
Is there any distinct significant advantage it holds over the Camry? - NO

Does Honda want a lot more money for the Accord over the Camry for no good reason? - YESSSSS

Why is that Honda? - Bhai we are like this only now!! What to say. Maybe its just a clever move to sell the adjacent CRV which will look VFM now.

Their Attitude will change once they see downfall in sales, like how Chevrolet & Fiat are facing now. Amaze numbers have come down significantly in recent months. Its major negative was Plain Interiors, Now that's been rectified, but it is most expensive in its class. Indians always look at Fuel Efficiency & Price, the Amaze does well in FE but looses out on Price.

Brio's Honeymoon Period is over. Its a 5 year Old Model & you can't expect much from it. Having said that, it is truly the last of the Well Built Car's from Honda after their Segment Leaders (City/Civic/Accord/CR-V).

BR-V is doing ok especially the CVT version, but I don't see much of them on Road, again despite being good product, the pricing puts it out of contention for many buyers. 2 of my friends who had almost finalized it went ahead with an Brezza & Ecosport each.

City is doing well, but sales has gone down bit due to Cheaper Price Tag of Ciaz. I expect sales to pick up once Facelift is launched.


As many have said, Hyundai is the New Honda. I will agree with it to an extent. But I wont say Hyundai is making Flawless Cars. There is an Elite i20 with us, I am not happy with it. I will mention the flaws in the related thread.

They make good cars, but Hyundai's are more about Design & Features IMO. If I want Good Dynamics, I will definitely recommend European & American Cars. :D

New Civic & CR-V are very good, Honda can price them at a small premium over rivals here. But more then that, they need to offer something new for both these cars. A 1.6 Twin Turbo Diesel & 9 Speed Gearbox for CRV, and a 1.5 Turbo iVTEC & Dual Clutch Gearbox for Civic would be nice.

Also, being Global Cars, Honda needs to make sure they won't compromise on Quality like they did on their volume cars especially Mobilio & Amaze.

Coming back to topic, Apart from Design, I find the Camry to be a much better product after the Accord's Pricing Fiasco. Honda have themselves to blame here. Hope the Petrol won't be the same


Mods, Please Delete if the Quoted part & reply is found irrelevant to this thread. Thanks

This idiocity reminds of what happened with the civic hybrid in India.
They launched it at 20+ Lakh and when they ended up loads of dead stock they ended up making a loss and selling the cars for as low as 10-12 lakh rupees if i remember correctly.
What they're trying to do with the accord priced so high i cannot understand. Maybe they are trying to position it high and then bring in the locally assembled petrol car.

It is precisely posts like this that perpetuate myths about Mango men. The average Joe that I know is quite discerning and if companies think that they can take them for a ride, they are sadly mistaken.
The big T as you may well remember, were severely penalized for quality of Etios, till material changes were introduced.
Jazz and Civic hybrid are also examples where they were optimistically priced, but look what happened later ...
Honda sadly may end up with the Tata syndrome where folks wait for V2 to launch so that niggles are eliminated by V1 ... look at what it did to them. No disrespect to Tata or its car-owners ... they have invested quite a lot of time and efforts to get their act together though they still have a long way to go.
In honda's case, I can only term it as arrogance that will be given a befitting response by the market.
Apple is another example that comes to mind ... but they are consistent across geos in their pricing unlike Honda.
Dont get me wrong here ... I love the honda cars ... it is just their attitude that sucks!!!

As someone who loved Honda, it is extremely saddening to see them going in the suicidal mode. My hopes of owning a Honda car in India has diminished to an extent that I start to feel it is never going to happen.

First, it was Jazz - but this was way before I was planning to buy a car. Honda priced a barebone Jazz above the superbly equipped i20. A limping i20 was pushed to an extent that it not only won that sprint, but is leading the marathon by a huge margin.

Honda corrected that to an extent with the new City by pricing it very close to the Verna and giving it mouth-watering feature list - something they were not known for till that point. New City was a runaway success thanks to the iDTEC, its FE and not so bad VFM introductory pricing.

In between, they also came up with Amaze that made a car from the aspirational Honda brand affordable for the middle class first car buyer. Even though the feature list was slim the quality was good for its time and class and it was not a bad VFM proposition. It was a reasonable success.

These successes probably went to Honda's head and permanently impaired them. The overpriced Mobilio was next which royally bombed - well deserved.

The Jazz followed and was overpriced for the second time - Yes, once again, when i20 had feature list from a class above, Jazz could not match the i20 in any perceivable way and was still priced higher. Still Jazz is selling decent amounts for whatever it offers. IMO, BR-V is also slightly over priced for what it offers.

This is why, I feel, Accord pricing is part of the trend the Hondas are following. If not for the history, I would any day give it to Honda saying - its a CBU - it does not get the FAME benefits, etc. Not this time. Yes it is a CBU. Yes it does not get FAME benefits. But given Honda's recent history - I am pretty sure they are greedy. Very Very greedy!

At this price point it would be more sensible of Honda to have offered the Accord's big brother, i.e. the Legend Hybrid instead.

Looks like Honda are looking at ways to locally assemble the accord in India. If they decided to go ahead with said strategy soon, they might be able to salvage something and compete with the Camry at a more or less similar price point.

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/honda-accor...ts-year-701987


From what i hear, i believe that since the accord is a CBU, Honda are planning to import vehicles only after conformation of booking. So, I'm not expecting them to import a bunch of vehicles and hope that it'll sell (especially at that price point :Frustrati )

I do agree that Honda has overpriced this by at least 3-4 lakhs. But undoubtedly this is a quality car and the best vehicle Honda has brought to Indian shores. Unfortunately though, being a CBU, most of that money is going to the Govt.

Should they have decided launch as CKD? Probably yes, but they're supposedly testing the response before they prepare their infrastructure for CKD production.

Should they have waited long enough to prepare for and launch as CKD? Probably yes ... Hope they don't goof up the Turbo-Civic in 2017 :)

I don't agree that the car doesn't look good on the outside. It looks absolutely awesome. I can vouch for that having seen the car in person at the Crystal Honda stockyard in Pune (dusty and still in part-wraps for a delivery, yet looked absolutely gorgeous!)

Those jewel headlights look stunning, as do those BMW'ish LED tail lamps. The 18" wheels and the alloy design also looked great! In ways more than one it looks as good if not better than your 520d / E 250... at least my take on it ...

These units are being directly imported from Thailand. They’re are equipped with the honda blind spot monitoring system (could see that small camera mounted on the left turn indicator). Every time you signal your left indicator, a live feed of the left side will show up on your upper screen (They have a 2 level infotainment system standard in the Accord)


Ok, now for some hard facts and comparison:
Some have mentioned that for a few bucks more one can get the 520D. And I can definitely say that you’ll get the 220 CDI in Pune for the same value (45 L OTR). Of course you undeniably get badge / snob value with the German brands, but what more??


Let’s look at it objectively:

Performance:

0-100 in 7.X seconds for both the 220 CDI and the 520D.
Guess what: The Accord will give you thereabouts. You don’t have to believe what I say. Here’s a ‘Redline Review’ on the Accord Hybrid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLBQXoO340. Watch from 16.25 – 16.35 to hear an unofficial specification. Yes, I know that one is the 2017 accord with a slight bump in motor power while we get the 2016 equivalent. But that shouldn’t make that much of a difference …

Safety:

Honda Accord has consistently been awarded the IIHS ‘Top Safety Pick +’ rating for many years now. In fact virtually every Honda in its category is a ‘Top Safety Pick +’.
On the other hand the BMW 5 Series (AND the 3 Series) STILL HASN’T MANAGED to clear the ‘Small Overlap Frontal Crash Test’, because of which they haven’t been able to get the Top Safety Pick rating. So much for ‘German Engineering’. They love to look down upon ‘Japanese cars’, but here’s a classic case where a Japanese manufacturer doesn’t brag about ‘Japanese Engineering’ but simply delivers on the promise!!
Again you DON’T have to believe what I say. Just go to http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings. Fill in the make and model and see for yourself.
While we’re on the topic of safety, note that the small overlap crash test was introduced by the IIHS in 2012, and nearly ALL luxury manufacturers fared badly in that test. JUST 2 manufacturers secured a ‘Good’ score in that test: Acura (the luxury division of Honda) and (it should come as no surprise) Volvo. Honda has re-engineered their cars to clear that test for every mainstream model every model year since then. But look at BMW. Despite facelifts since 2012, they SIMPLY HAVEN’T bothered to secure a ‘Good’ rating in this test for their bread and butter 3 series and 5 series. Again don’t take my word for this. Check out the above IIHS link and also this link: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...ome-out-on-top
If Honda can secure a ‘Good’ rating in the Small Overlap Crash test, why not BMW?? Would you call this a company that takes safety seriously especially given the bragging, the premium and their ‘luxury’ status??


Space:

Length: BMW 5 Series: 4899 mm, Accord: 4933 mm, not much here but if anything the Accord gains an around inch over the BMW in length, that should translate to (say) 15 mm of legroom?

Reliability:

Do I even have to say anything here? :) :)

Maintenance costs:

Pure ‘maintenance’ per se I don’t have the figures as yet, but in the long run, I think it would be safe to say that it would definitely be cheaper to own the Accord.


Yes, I DO agree that the Accord Hybrid appears overpriced, but I do believe there’s undeniable value, that’s not JUST skin deep. Let’s just hope they see enough demand to go CKD soon …

I am planning to take a test drive and will post more information here …

Mod Note: Team-BHP's Honda Accord Hybrid Report has been taken live at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!