[sarthakgupta]

ET Auto reports that Honda India has stopped production of Honda Brio. There are no plans of launching the second generation Brio as of now.

The Indian subsidiary of the Japanese carmaker Honda Cars India has stopped production of its hatchback Brio, sources close to the development told ETAuto.

The company also reported very low production of Brio in the last two months. It produced 120 units in August and 102 units in September, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' data.

Sources also confirmed that as of now there no talk on bringing back a new generation of Brio.

Source: ET Auto and IAB

[Sebring]

Brio is one massive missed opportunity for HONDA. Its just fantastic! I myself was drooling at this design along with many people in our apartment. Honda just had to remove the rear glass hatch but ignored the feedback everyone gave, before launch and after. This is a pure negative attitude by the Company and so is paying the price! Also, ground clearance was low but not exactly a deal breaker.

[NaXal]

Honda now has no answer to the market favourite segments.

Entry level hatch = none
Sub 4m hatch (likes of Swift) = none (without their Brio)

Cheapest Honda offering is now Amaze and amazingly it's possibly the
worst looking car in compact sedan category.

Honda is from land of Japan like Suzuki and they both are champions of small cars due to that Japanese regulation on engine displacement and dimensions.

I am unable to understand the philosophy here. Can't Honda see how Suzuki is churning out numbers with their Alto/Wagon R/Swift and they are busy pretending to be like European brand with larger, bulkier and premium offerings?

Honda two wheeler division was much flexible with ground reality and concentrated on 100/125cc segment to beat Bajaj for the second spot. They adopted well towards the market demand of scooters and scored good numbers with Activa too.

With options like VW/Skoda (as brand) and comparable products like Hyundai Verna/Nexa Ciaz (against City) in the market, Honda is no longer the wealth or quality symbol.

Pulling the plug on Brio may be the right decision with the present number of sale but staying absent in two hottest segment of the market is going to hurt them.

[landcruiser123]

A missed opportunity for Honda again. What do they want to focus on? They want volumes but discontinue the Brio?

Honda's Indian strategy is the prime example of what not to do in a market like India.

1. Prior to the launch of the Brio, Amaze and Mobilio, they were pioneers in making high-quality cars (City, Civic, CR-V) with great petrol engines and reliability. They were a few levels ahead of Maruti and Hyundai.

2. They want to enter the volumes segment. Good move. But they provide you a Brio and Amaze with cheap interiors. That's a bad move. They top this off with the Mobilio. Terrible move. What went wrong: Many lower segment buyers are risk-averse. The Brio's tailgate was not liked by many. The small boot didn't help either. The Amaze was a reasonable success. The less said about the Mobilio, the better.

3. The redeem themselves with the City(barring the niggels,) BR-V and to some extent- the new Amaze.

4. They launch the CR-V at high prices with a meager 120 BHP diesel engine. In a segment which is more about 'want' than 'need,' the CR-V is a destined to fail product, more because of the price than the product itself.

5. Honda won't launch the second gen Brio now.

What is their strategy? If they want premium cars, they should just focus on those. Toyota burned their fingers with the Etios and Liva but parallelly stuck to their strengths of robust body-on-frame diesel engined UVs and great petrol/hybrid sedans.

If there's any company that can take the fight to Maruti Swift, it is the Honda. Their weapon is the Brio.

[kiku007]

Good riddance. Will go down in history as the car that defined the timeline when Honda's reputation started to erode in India.

[nikipedia87]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

3. The redeem themselves with the City(barring the niggels,) BR-V and to some extent- the new Amaze.

The new City and Amaze, yes. But the BR-V, though a good car, turned out to be a disappointment for Honda. They probably got the pricing and positioning all wrong with this one. Will the CR-V and Civic help in reviving their mojo in the premium segment? The next few months will tell.

[sharninder]

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[ram.iyer95]

The Brio, despite being a fun little car, flopped mainly due to the practicality issues it had.

For people shopping in this segment, practicality is as important as looks and performance. The biggest drawback of the Brio, in my opinion, was it's tiny boot space of just 175 litres, comparable to entry level A-segment hatchbacks. And to worsen things even further, the company fitted a miniscule glass hatch door that hindered easy access to the already tiny boot. And the interiors and the dashboard, well, that's another story. Cheap looking dashboard, fixed headrests all around. The 2016 facelift did bring in an all-new dashboard that looked far better, but still, it took them 5 years after launch to rectify this issue.

With these drawbacks, the Brio still made sense as a second city car to have at home, for its fun-to-drive nature.

If there's one thing that I'd appreciate Honda for, it's their decision to plonk-in a proper 5-speed automatic transmission in the Brio, when other cars in the segment were still stuck with 4-speed ones, before the AMT era.

[Thermodynamics]

Anticipated, given the pathetic sales numbers in last six months.



With barely 27 units a month, very expensive for a company spending to just hang on to an item in its portfolio. All brio based models were failures. They never synced with signature of Honda, be it quality or design, not even the grill. Eventually Honda replaced mobilio with BRV. Old Amaze was upgraded. Also the new WRV. All of them inherit styling cues from City and Accord. Only sore thumb left was the aging Brio.

[sumeethaldankar]

They are probably freeing up production space for the upcoming launches like the Civic etc. The Brio was a good car, initially let down by poor interior which matched that of rental cars elsewhere in the world. Honda only priced it premium without giving it the premium feel. Though the interior design was corrected the damage was done. People perceived the Brio as a poor competitor to the mighty Maruti and the sales simply did not take off.

[Aaron:)]

Quoting from the Brio's official review back in '11

Originally Posted by .anshuman

What you’ll like:

•A thoroughly contemporary Honda at a sub-5 lakh rupee tag
• Entertaining performance, sweet i-VTEC engine & healthy power-to-weight ratio
• High quality interiors for the segment
• Light controls, slick gearshift and easy maneuverability for in-city commuting
• Honda reliability & fuss-free ownership experience

What you won’t:

• Equipment list lacks rear defogger, CD player & driver seat height adjustment
• Basic, unsettled ride quality on imperfect roads. Gets choppy on uneven highways
• Small 175 liter boot
• Ordinary space for back seat passengers. Rear seat-back too short
• Quirky rear-end styling is a hit or miss

The problem with the Brio wasn't the quality. In fact, I feel it was better built than the previous gen Amaze and Mobilio. Back in 2011 when the Brio was launched undercutting the Swift by a few thousands, it was arguably the best car for the price.

What killed it was a combination of various factors -

1. The 2011 Thailand floods - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ect-india.html (Floods in Thailand - Honda factories submerged - Will it affect India?)
Just as the Brio was about to gain sales momentum, tragedy hit Honda and supplies were severely affected.

2. Honda's step-motherly treatment - Honda clearly prioritised the Amaze and Mobilio over the Brio.

3. Competition - The Brio was a worthy rival to the i10, but the Grand i10 took the game forward and Honda was left way behind.

4. The ever-increasing price tag - The Brio is a low cost car elsewhere in the world. It has no business being sold at 8 lakh rupees on road.

The Brio was a nice little hatch, and one of my favourites at the time. However it's too dated by 2018 standards. Maybe it's time to discontinue the BR-V too. It's better for Honda to focus on what they're best at - cars like the upcoming Civic.

https://youtu.be/R8SNgiJtLEk

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by Aaron:)

...The problem with the Brio wasn't the quality. In fact, I feel it was better built than the previous gen Amaze and Mobilio. Back in 2011 when the Brio was launched undercutting the Swift by a few thousands, it was arguably the best car for the price...

The Brio, while engineered to be a fun car, had lots of bits which screamed 'budget'. I don't think a Honda customer will ever appreciate such a thing. The dash, integrated front head rests etc were quite an eye sore. This was addressed in the facelift, but a little too late. Otherwise, spacious and a cute car with a good element of fun.

Honda could have done much better for it - they are lousier than Toyota in this regard.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by sarthakgupta

ET Auto reports that Honda India has stopped production of Honda Brio. There are no plans of launching the second generation Brio as of now.

It's not second generation, but an extensive facelift.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/inter...eneration.html (Indonesia: New Honda Brio unveiled. Facelift or a new generation?)

Doesn't make sense for India, as the Amaze is a different product now - and the lack of numbers and no platform sharing means that Brio will neither be cost efficient, nor competent (as the second generation Amaze).

Not a surprise that Honda has skipped it to concentrate on the Amaze instead.

[Lalvaz]

Great car to maneuver on congested city streets. I loved the refinement, and interior quality. Boot space was limited, but it was never meant to be a luggage mover as such. Shame it didn't do well. Would love to see this car relaunched sometime in the future, although in a safer avatar. Currently Honda really seems to be competing with Suzuki on reducing sheet metal thickness.

[for_cars1]

Its a good strategy by Honda to stop the production of Brio.

The Brio was intended as a mass market car to be sold in high volumes. Honda had no reason to believe that it wouldn't do well in India given its decent sales in the south east Asian markets.

India is a complicted market with it unique needs and perceptions with great emphasis on looks, efficiency, practicality and value. Unfortunately the Brio platform did not work out well in Indian market which includes Brio, first gen Amaze, Mobilio, BRV which all share the same platform.

Whatever be the market research intelligence capability of a company, the real success will be known only after the litmus test ie., after the real launch in the market.

Kudos to Honda for having atleast tried and failed, they have definitely applied the learnings positively in their latest launch ie., the second generation new Amaze which is based on a different platform and truly a masterpiece of good design, practicality and space, efficiency and value.

It makes good business sense to continue with the current lineup of 2nd gen Amaze, City and WRV which are very good and robust products.