[VKumar]

Well, since there is so much hoopla surrounding the petrol engine of WR-V. I just want to ask, if anyone has any kind of data to share, which shows the consumer preference for the segment this car is gonna hit?

1.2l petrol; well, even i20 Active also has one. Anyone who has to buy it, will buy it.

1.5l diesel, that is any ways going to be the mainstream engine. Why not talk about that?

Honda is any ways not going to price the WR-V at par with BR-V. If priced slightly overpriced, coupled with right looks and a decent feature list (Jazz has a decent list any ways), this car may sell. As we say "Bitiya ko janm to lene do yaar, byah bhi ho jayega (Let the girl child at least take the birth, wedding will be taken care of)".

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Well, since there is so much hoopla surrounding the petrol engine of WR-V. I just want to ask, if anyone has any kind of data to share, which shows the consumer preference for the segment this car is gonna hit?

1.2l petrol; well, even i20 Active also has one. Anyone who has to buy it, will buy it.

1.5l diesel, that is any ways going to be the mainstream engine. Why not talk about that?

Diesel demand is slowly coming down and there's a shift back towards petrol, especially at the lower end of the spectrum. Reason? Well manufacturers are now charging 1.2 lakhs for the diesel variant vs the Petrol and the difference in fuel cost means it's difficult to make up the delta in the normal ownership period of a car. Unless you do very high kms and mainly highway usage, diesel is not required.

Which is why you see so many Baleno's and i20's in petrol avatar being sold.

Secondly, look at the numbers of the Jazz vs the Baleno and i20. The Jazz is nowhere close. Now the Baleno is stated to come with the 1.0L boosterjet engine. Honda is charging a premium for the Jazz vs the Hyundai and Maruti on top of that they are offering lesser features.

With the WR-V they are going up against the Ecosport and Brezza. Tall order when you look at the engines and features of both and compare it with Honda's. The pics of the WR-V clearly show the missing features.

Yes we should wait till launch but with the pictures and information available so far it's not looking too good so far.

[Sebzgeo89]

It's very nice to say an engine loves to rev and hit the redline. But on a day to day basis how many of us actually rev our cars beyond a particular rpm? We need low end torque in the city, period! This is where the 1.2 Vtec fails miserably. Only saving grace is the automatic, but that doesn't come with Jazz's USP, magic seats. Go figure!

[nik_kapur]

No HRV & Civic for India is just shocking and hard to believe IMHO. I just returned from Thailand and every second car is either the new Civic or the HRV. I cannot believe that these cars would not sell in large numbers here. I believe they will be market leaders ! The BRV, BRIO & MOBILIO will not sell in India, its time honda realises that.

[landcruiser123]

The WR-V could have been offered with the 1.5 P to position itself as a sporty crossover. Honda seem to be slipping in the market.

Honda should go the Toyota way and make products for only particular segments and focus on making best-in-class products. It is clear that they have failed in their quest for volume. Only the Amaze has redeemed itself after a facelift.

If not for the weak powertrain options, the Ciaz is a clear winner in the segment. Much better build quality and not too many niggles reported. Not all buyers care too much for power- at least the sales figures of the Ciaz shows that. Note: Ciaz isn't underpowered for Indian roads.

[createrkid]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

I'm not sure which audience Honda is targeting with the WRV...

Honda is targeting the typical average Indian uncle that is concerned about the mileage his car gives.

1.5 was a sure shot success, I don't know what these guys are smoking to continue offering the 1.2 on a heavier car like the WRV.

[Pacific]

Question to the Gurus – Is there a difference between WR-V and HR-V available elsewhere?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Pacific

Question to the Gurus – Is there a difference between WR-V and HR-V available elsewhere?

Similar to the difference between an i20 Active and Creta.

WRV is a Jazz with more ground clearance, modified front and rear end and side claddings, wheras the HRV is a fresh crossover built on the Jazz platform, that shares no design elements with the Jazz.

Internationally, HRV gets a 1.8L petrol engine as the most common option, has dimensions similar to Creta and is loaded with features

[PrideRed]

1.2L mill is definitely going to be insufficient for the WRV. But lets compare with the competition, the i20 Active comes with worst petrol engine, the Brezza does not have one yet and only the Ecosport offers much more powerful options. There is the Avventura, but anyway no one is buying them so its already out of competition. Head on with i20 active which would be WRV's primary competition, the 1.2L mill of Honda is any day better than that lousy 1.2L in Hyundai. Honda has to launch 1.5L engine only to counter the Ecosport, don't see big enough market here.

[StarScream]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

The WR-V could have been offered with the 1.5 P to position itself as a sporty crossover. Honda seem to be slipping in the market.

Honda should go the Toyota way and make products for only particular segments and focus on making best-in-class products. It is clear that they have failed in their quest for volume. Only the Amaze has redeemed itself after a facelift.

If not for the weak powertrain options, the Ciaz is a clear winner in the segment. Much better build quality and not too many niggles reported. Not all buyers care too much for power- at least the sales figures of the Ciaz shows that. Note: Ciaz isn't underpowered for Indian roads.

They can't go the Toyota way. They are a much smaller company than Toyota (6.3 tln yen market cap vs 21,858 tln yen for Toyota) and therefore has a very sharp focus on profitability. They aim for a 20% profit margin on the cars they sell. The reason we've seen Honda dumb down their product range in India is because they can't sell products like the Civic or HRV while maintaining their profit margin and being competitive at the same time. Not to mention, if you want to build cars of a certain standard then there in no way you can compete with Suzuki and Hyundai in this country.

[Nilesh5417]

HMIL needs a proper SUV / MUV or what ever the Ecosport / Duster / Brezza / Creta segment is called.

IMO the crossover craze is over! People dont seem to want the in betweens anymore. I seriously have seen like about 3 i20 actives in all of last month. Cross polo - none at all! It seems to offers no tangible value over its hatch sibling since its mostly an upgrade with some additional features. Some of which the hatch deserves and would result in higher sales of the hatch itself. And seriously, who ever in the normal customer base is going to take these cars even remotely offroading?

If HMIL wants to use the same platform to spawn different cars, they dont need to look anywhere else but right here at how MSIL does it. Its no secret that they cant copy!!

And with shelf life of cars reducing due to changing customer preferences (young money, more disposable incomes etc) , the only real Honda promise of reliability doesnt seem sufficient to get customers. Every other manufacturer has improved in terms of quality and reliability with most cars living through their 5yr life without much heart ache. So about time Honda offers excitement, luxury, fun or something more besides reliability. And i say this cause nothing from Honda stable has excited me after the Civic.

[avdhesh15]

Sad car, but even sadder company, i.e. Honda.

I think with Honda it's more like India has become a market in which they don't want to focus. Perhaps 5-7 years back they thought it to be a critical one but didn't live up to the boardroom numbers. That's why we are seeing such unjustifiable strategies.

As a Honda owner, 10 years back, the Honda City was an aspiration. Now it's almost no longer the case. Maruti and Hyundai have upped the game, and how!

With the expected launches of competition (especially of Maruti), I see a very bleak future for Honda in the country. This year is critical and the only savior seems to be the City which itself will face tremendous competition from the new Verna and facelifted Ciaz.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by StarScream

....
The reason we've seen Honda dumb down their product range in India is because they can't sell products like the Civic or HRV while maintaining their profit margin and being competitive at the same time. Not to mention, if you want to build cars of a certain standard then there in no way you can compete with Suzuki and Hyundai in this country.

While I can see the merit in your point, I would still point a finger at Honda for not trying hard enough. Yes they struggled few years back when the petrol-diesel gap widened so had to go to the drawing board and come up with India specific products. But they also had global products and brand recognition to quickly capture the premium segment once things got better.

Frankly, what Hyundai has managed to do with the Creta and i20, Honda was better placed to do so, if they had been a bit aggressive.

As a company they are just having too much 'rubber band effect'; they were late to the diesel engine party, and are now unable to regain the spot which was theirs to begin with.

What makes it more infuriating is that they have the engines and products to do that, but wont

[Chetan_Rao]

A 1.5 VTEC Jazz with MT/CVT option and magic seats will probably be the ideal 'practical' hot hatch in the ~10L range.

Honda has all necessary components in-house, but the chance of seeing that car is probably in the same bracket as me waking up a multi-millionaire tomorrow. No cure for shoot-your-own-foot syndrome

[Surya-TJet]

Originally Posted by VKumar

1.2l petrol; well, even i20 Active also has one. Anyone who has to buy it, will buy it.

I own an Active SX Petrol and I will confidently say that it is a very well accomplished car with excellent all round performance.

Originally Posted by PrideRed

1.2L mill is definitely going to be insufficient for the WRV. But lets compare with the competition, the i20 Active comes with worst petrol engine, the Brezza does not have one yet and only the Ecosport offers much more powerful options. There is the Avventura, but anyway no one is buying them so its already out of competition. Head on with i20 active which would be WRV's primary competition, the 1.2L mill of Honda is any day better than that lousy 1.2L in Hyundai. Honda has to launch 1.5L engine only to counter the Ecosport, don't see big enough market here.

The 1.2 Petrol in the i20 Active is mechanically the same as all other models (Elite, Grand etc.). But, the difference is in the way they have tuned that engine. Honestly, unless one drives both the Elite i20 Petrol and i20 Active Petrol back to back for 20-30 kms in a mix of different conditions, they cannot perceive the difference between the two. I chose the Active after a long 50km drive of both Elite & Active back to back.

As an owner of the i20 Active Petrol and having covered over 15,000 kms in just over a year, I can clearly say that the Active’s drivability is stellar compared to the Elite Petrol. Not once have I felt the need to downshift unless I’m near 1200rpm or below. At all other speeds, a gentle prod on the acc pedal will see the car gain speed linearly without any fuss.

Sure, the engine rpm is marginally higher at cruising speeds (3000 rpm at 100 kmph for Active Petrol vs. 2750 for Elite Petrol). Another major improvement area is the ride quality improvement over Elite. A cherry on top is the fantastic NVH levels (negligible wind noise and near zero tire noise even with my OE Apollo Alnac 4G) at 5750rpm in 5th gear.

So, please note that I as a customer, and many more like myself are happy with this so called “Lousy” engine.

P.S - Just hope Honda retunes the drivability of the WR-V like Hyundai did for the Active. Or else, its just going to be another variant with no discernible difference.

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

IMO the crossover craze is over! People dont seem to want the in betweens anymore. I seriously have seen like about 3 i20 actives in all of last month.

I'm not sure if your current place of residence is Pune, but here in Tamilnadu, I am seeing a lot of i20 Active vehicles on road. And, so many people can’t be wrong with their choices.