[RavenAvi]

Apparently, Honda Cars India has decided against continuing with the Honda Jazz in India. Going forward, the Jap major will instead concentrate on the all-new Amaze and the WR-V crossover.

Also, production of the next-gen Honda City will commence from 2020 at Honda's Greater Noida plant, instead of Tapukara where it is being produced now.

Honda relaunched the new version of the Jazz in India in 2015 but, after an enthusiastic start, sales started to decline steadily in light of tough competition from Hyundai Motor India Pvt. Ltd’s Elite i20 and, later, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s Baleno. In April to February of FY18, Jazz sales declined 13.8% to 24,995 units following increased competition. In the beginning of the fiscal, the firm made some recovery on back of renewed customer interest in the car.

“Honda has internally decided not to bring the new version or variant of Jazz in India since the product never managed to do well in the market. The company, though, will focus on WR-V going forward since compact SUVs have been well accepted in the market and the product also did decently well, compared with any other new product from Honda in recent years,” said the first person mentioned above.

Apart from that, Honda Cars India has also devised a strategy to manufacture its smaller offerings like Jazz, WR-V, BR-V and the coming Amaze at Tapukara plant. The bigger cars, such as the City or the upcoming Civic sedan or CR-V SUV will be manufactured or assembled at the Greater Noida facility.

According to the two persons mentioned above, the company had to cut down the production target for FY18 by about 5,000-6,000 units as City and WR-V sales declined. Honda though has decided on a target of manufacturing around 195,000 cars this year more than that decided in 2017-18, on the back of the new Amaze, a compact hatchback, scheduled to hit the market in the next two-three months.

Live Mint

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Makes full business sense.

WRV is essentially a Jazz with slightly different sheet metal and claddings - priced at a nice premium over the Jazz. But selling in numbers multiple times that of the Jazz. Profitability must be way more.

Honda would want to remove the Jazz reference altogether and migrate more buyers towards the RV version.

Sad, but a global premium hatchback bites the dust - in front of the compact sedan / compact SUV craze in India.

[SmartCat]

From the same Livemint article:

we wish to clarify that each model in our line-up has a specific role to play in our business. Jazz is one of the key products in the HCIL portfolio and India is currently the largest selling country for Jazz in the Asia Oceania region. WR-V and Jazz cater to different sets of customer profile, hence our focus will be on both models,” the company said in an email.

Company's clarification actually gives out a positive vibe. Perhaps Honda won't launch the new Jazz immediately, but introduce it later. Or perhaps we will only see "SUVised" versions of Jazz in the future.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Company's clarification actually gives out a positive vibe.

Similar to the positive vibes they provided for the Mobilio when the BRV came out? But eventually resulted in a withdrawal right?

Similar case there too - the SUVish version is more profitable and much better selling than the practical cheaper sibling it's based on. The new Amaze is again another big improvement compared to the earlier version and is sure to eat into Jazz sales from the other end of the price / profitability spectrum.

Company is expected to provide positive vibes till stocks are cleared. Else the dealers come under pressure to start providing discounts.

[SJM1214]

We were confused between Amaze and Jazz as a replacement for our 2009 Swift Dzirre VXI. Just four days back, we booked a W-RV Edge Edition. Jazz(MID variant without ABS and EBD) is 1.40 Lac(OTR) cheaper than W-RV's mid version.

Related thread :http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/hatchb...edit-wr-v.html

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

WRV is essentially a Jazz with slightly different sheet metal and claddings -

+1.
WRV is just a jacked up and cladded Jazz with slightly longer wheelbase. IMHO, current Jazz looks outdated compared to W-RV.

[pannags]

Whoa!!! I wonder what it will take for Honda to have their ears to the ground and eyes on competition. The Ignis and Baleno for instance have almost all possible combination of Diesel and Petrol in manual and auto variants.

A Jazz CVT in VX with magic seats, navigation and cruise control would have spelled magic for Honda.

I presume they are prudent enough to introduce a CVT version of the WR-V with the 1.5 L iVtec, or is this too much to expect of Honda?!

[libranof1987]

What's the harm in having both models, in their latest iterations, being sold concurrently?!

Even if it sells in low numbers in India, Jazz is an established global brand. What do you lose by not having it in your showroom. That it sells poorly is a result of Honda's own flawed product strategy.

That WR-V sells well can be attributed to this recent trend of bulky compact SUVs being the flavor of the season; one that can change at short notice, either due to Govt. policies or changing market preferences. Having a premiumish Jazz is a good product to have in your portfolio; just give it a worthy chance.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

WRV is essentially a Jazz with slightly different sheet metal and claddings - priced at a nice premium over the Jazz

And that damn sunroof!

[Nonstop-driver]

This is strange. Last week we attended an event in Delhi which was sponsored by Honda and specifically marketed only Jazz. It was named Hangout with Honda Jazz and they invited 150 people to screen a movie with snacks and meals on the house. The spend would be close 5 lakhs. If they have to discontinue Jazz anyway, why build a brand around it?

[Aaron:)]

Another opportunity lost.

The premium hatchback space may be hotly contested, and dominated by two players, but there is scope for a new player. Heck, even Tata plans to enter this space.

That said, I don't know what to make out of this article. On one hand, they are saying that the new Jazz will not come to India. On the other hand, they say that the Jazz will continue to be sold. Confusing.

I think that a facelifted Jazz still has potential to take its monthly tally from 2k to at least 3-4k. Why they choose not to is beyond me.

[GTO]

Fake news. The Jazz is very important to Honda & its no.3 selling car in India. It's important not just in terms of sales (20% of Honda's volumes), but also to the brand. The Jazz is an excellent hatchback. Honda will continue to support the Jazz and I refuse to believe that facelifts & next-generations aren't coming.

Due to the immense part sharing, it's not that expensive to build. Conversely, the volumes it brings helps control the costs of the other cars (economies of scale). Not like the Jazz is a made-for-India product either; it's merely a cut-copy-paste from their international operations.

The WR-V is there and it's doing well, but both can happily co-exist (consider the number of overlapping Marutis & Hyundais).

Honda has suffered way too many failures in the recent years (starting with the Brio). There is no way it's giving up on its no.3 product in India. And surely not when the B2 segment is the biggest, and growing!

[Yieldway17]

Jazz has fundamentals of a good car, not saying this just because I own one. Adding some bling and creative comfort features to it will certainly make it a worthy competitor to i20 and Baleno. It's never going to sell like i20/Baleno but it will keep selling respectable numbers. Not sure how much of this news is true. I can understand them not doing a facelift next year as expected but discontinuing the product? I doubt it will happen.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by GTO

Fake news. The Jazz is very important to Honda & its no.3 selling car in India. It's important not just in terms of sales (20% of Honda's volumes), but also to the brand. The Jazz is an excellent hatchback. Honda will continue to support the Jazz and I refuse to believe that facelifts & next-generations aren't coming.

When I interpreted the Mint, I got the impression that the facelift might not be coming. We will get future generations but perhaps not the facelift or revised engines for now.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by ajmat

I got the impression that the facelift might not be coming.

In relative terms, a facelift costs Honda how much it costs you & me a dinner at a good restaurant. A rounding error. It's a very cheap + effective way of maintaining the product's sales. The facelift will also most definitely come.

[Chetan_Rao]

The previous gen was a great car killed by overpricing in an immature premium hatch market. The current one is an overpriced, watered-down, under-powered (petrol) version lacking it's biggest USP (magic seats) in all variants except the top.

There's nothing wrong with the Jazz platform; it could arguably be a better value proposition than most big hatches and compact sedans in its price range with some corrections. It's Honda's idiotic product placement and greedy pretensions to 'premiumness' that's holding down the product.

Offer magic seats and good build as a common platform (like the previous gen), options like sunroof, larger petrol motor and assorted safety features on the top variant(s) and plenty of people, esp. disillusioned Honda loyalists will come back into the fold.

[V.Narayan]

As a loyal owner of a 2010 Jazz I cant think of a replacement other than another Jazz - maybe a Hybrid Plug-In variant? Other than its hard suspension it is the perfect city runabout. And it carries all the tall plants my wife is forever buying.