[charanreddy]

Personally, In the last 10 years, i feel Honda was always late to the game and were disinterested and lazy to say the least barring a couple of examples like the 3rd gen city, latest Amaze etc.


They were late in playing the diesel game when there was enough incentive for customers to go diesel even for average usage. Maruti jumped onto this opportunity with the Swift and Dzire diesels.

They were early in the premium hatch game with the Jazz, but i am sure we all remember the pricing blunder.. The I20 used this opportunity brilliantly.

They were late in playing the CSUV game.. and when they did make an attempt with the WRV, the choice of engines and transmission was bad. The only thing going for it was a sunroof and still we Indians lapped it up in decent numbers. They can take a leaf put of Tata and Mahindra 's book with Nexon and XUV 300 doing good numbers.


Honda had no-one to blame but themselves. Regarding calling Indian junta as Maruti/Hyundai lovers, i believe this is uncalled for. People may choose to spend their hard earned money on whatever they like it's not for us or for so called premium brands to comment or criticize. If they are upto it, they must compete on value. The success of City, Creta, Innova, is a lesson in itself that value and reputation sells regardless of price. It's for the car companies to prove themselves worthy of it.

[arunrajk81]

Originally Posted by Vians

In 2015, when I asked the dealer if there are any discounts for City, the dealer said "Sir, we are Honda. We never give discounts. Honda policy!"

That is true in US market also to some extend except for some failure models of Honda. It’s tough to do Price negotiation with Honda showrooms when other manufacturers were pouring with offers for Year end sales. I have experienced it more than once and now happy for my experience with Honda showrooms. I am a proud owner of two Toyotas.

[xsrahul]

Somewhere I see Honda stuck between appearing premium in India, making enough sales and most importantly retaining their fat margins.

This made them compromise on the quality of their 2020 Honda City and from there it has been a downhill journey. Honestly having owned and then sold a new City amongst my other cars that include(d) Hyundai and Maruti, their service was nothing to write home about (I used the service center in Kurla). The best part of the car was the engine which made you redline it but the chassis, steering and tires did not at all inspire confidence. Let me say that I feel more confident at high speeds in a Maruti MUV than my new '20 Honda City.

My best friend who owns a CRV in UAE constantly complains about the rubberband effect of the AT which is a pity given the Honda engines were amongst the best petrol then.

Steps for Honda to correct itself here
1. Interiors and gadgetry (not the cheap ones), learn from Hyundai
2. NVH. The city customer for me is a 50% occasional driver and is chauffer driven rest of the time. Space is not a problem and the rear seat is uber comfortable even for long drives save for the road noise penetrating inside the cabin.
3. TIRES, 15 Inches in C2 segment time when many B segment cars come with those. Good rubber = great and confident ride = more sales. Period
4. Get back the great features they had on select cars such as Magic seats on the Jazz
5. Don't try and be a Maruti and just push volumes with cheap and shared parts bin. They can pull it off due to ages of brand trust, a large volume and as they build for the average Joe.

And last but not the least - Redefine Customer service at your service centers. There have been so many days when I went at the appointed time only to fine no one (yes no service advisor. I usually would take the first appointment in the morning and drop off the car before work) The Maruti experience is soo soo much superior (maybe since they are used to more volumes). I had some clutch issues with my city and it became as hard as a rock and despite so many service visits including telling them to replace the entire unit, they used to just fiddle with it enough to make it a little bearable for a few months and then go hard again. This made me think they don't have either the training to understand the problem or the parts to fix it properly, and after a year of such pains, I finally threw in the towel and sold off the car. They should learn from Hyundai and Maruti on how to service the car for the masses.

Cheers
Rahul

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[Sebring]

Honda has stopped being relevant because they stopped listening to their customers. The Brio was great, they just had to give us steel hatch. BRV is so compact, yet offers great room inside, but pricing was off. Amaze is the best designed among the sub-4 metre, but lost out due to ineffective marketing. Honda City had the best quality, not any more. Jazz is still the best hatch out there, but one hardly hears about it. So if they introspect, and move away from those spartan interiors, they can still trump everybody. It's ironic but they need to do a Hyundai!

[Vid6639]

Other than the new City, what does Honda have planned for India? There's supposed to be a compact SUV again build on the Amaze platform coming next but I'm sure that is only 2021.

With the Jazz being unveiled at Tokyo last week, it looks very unlikely that Honda will get that to India. Design, price and overall market shift to SUV's make the Jazz infeasible for India.

Having 2 plants for essentially manufacturing 2 cars City and a SUV is financial suicide. Makes sense to cut your losses and consolidate.

But I must say Honda have brought this upon themselves. They have very good products but Honda is not realising that they cannot charge the premium they once were doing. The market no longer looks at brand history and is lot more open to new entrants like MG, Kia.

The CR-V was a very well sorted product and would have done well in our SUV crazy market but selling the CR-V for 40L against the mighty Fortuner and Endeavour was outright stupidity. It needed to be on par with Tucson. They shot themselves on the foot with pricing after working hard on a nice product.

Then the Civic. A car that would sell due to it's fan following and cult status. The Civic buyer was young and enthusiast and many would modify the cars. Instead Honda decided to put the boring age old 1.8L engine and mate it to an even more boring CVT. To top it off they did away with the manual, the main reason people bought the first Civic was the manual and high revving engine. When every manufacture is coming with modern turbo petrol engines, Honda was lazy and decided to get the old NA engine over the 1.5L turbo engine found internationally in the Civic. This is when Skoda has been selling a 1.8L TSI since 2013.

It's the same thing with Toyota with their lack of interesting products. However Toyota did a smart move with their partnership with Maruti by getting the Glanza and next the compact SUV based on Brezza.

[gauravanekar]

Closing a automotive plant in India is easier said than done. Its a much bigger task than simply idling the plant and allow attrition to reduce staff count. This is especially the case when the company is not closing their operations altogether in the country like GM.
I feel that there is a middle ground to be had and ultimately a less painful route will be taken.
There is definitely excessive automobile production capacity in India. That's why conservative Indian players are much better in handling over capacity issues during slowdowns.
Many tbhpians are prescribing bringing additional models in their line up as a solution. It just doesn't work that way. Although multinationals do have deep pockets, when it comes to financial management each company is on its own managing their own profitability.

Honda Thailand (or honda japan for that matter) which would be managing honda India would not reduce R&D costs even by a paise to improve Honda India profitability while introducing new products. Nor would the mother company allow Indian division to reduce Japanese/Thai expat head count to reduce cost (for the sake of maintaining global quality, production processes etc. etc. APPARENTLY)

[sdp1975]

I was contemplating buying the next generation City due for launch next year, but this news and the overall declining sales for Honda does look worrying.

Will Honda go the GM or Ford way and exit India ? I keep my cars for long, usually more than 10 years, and don't want to spend my money on a product if the manufacturer is likely to shut shop.

[coolkurt]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Will Honda go the GM or Ford way and exit India ? I keep my cars for long, usually more than 10 years, and don't want to spend my money on a product if the manufacturer is likely to shut shop.

I don't think that will happen anytime soon. The Amaze is doing good numbers and the City - the bread and butter model of Honda is soon going to be outed in a new avatar.
They might not go on to be a bigger player but they'll certainly get enough numbers to keep the mill running.

[volkman10]

Honda Cars pulls the plug on Noida production unit.

The company has stopped production at the Greater Noida plant and is shifting the entire production line to the Tapukara plant.

The company produced Honda City, CR-V, and Civic there last month. In December there is no production at this unit. The entire production is being shifted to Tapukara plant, having a total capacity of 180,000.

This move comes after having floated a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its permanent employees (for manufacturing) at the Greater Noida plant, effective from January 28, 2020.

Link

[saisree]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Honda Cars pulls the plug on Noida production unit.

Honda swallowed the first bitter pill. Hope this pill gives them some sense on their future position in one of the fast growing markets. Its the easiest option for Honda closing the manufacturing due to lack of volumes. I'm more concerned for the job opportunities that are lost forever.

Hope they bring more models, bring back sustainable volumes and get back the lost jobs.

[Mafia]

Originally Posted by saisree

Honda swallowed the first bitter pill. Hope this pill gives them some sense on their future position in one of the fast growing markets. Its the easiest option for Honda closing the manufacturing due to lack of volumes. I'm more concerned for the job opportunities that are lost forever.

Hope they bring more models, bring back sustainable volumes and get back the lost jobs.

I don't think the 4-wheeler segment of Honda has a good sense of pricing in India. Surprising to think the 2-wheeler segment of Honda is top-dog in the scooter business and by proxy of Hero the motorcycle business.

It may help them if they swap some managers!

[landcruiser123]

Can’t help but wonder which is the next Chinese car company looking to buy an established factory in India.

[aniketi]

I think it has more reasons other than technical reasons. As I heard from some people, there are lots of issues with labor and lots of politics involved which damages India's image at global level as production hub. Can anyone confirm this?

[RSR]

This is sad news, especially for all the blue-collar workers who've been asked to retire. It's not easy to find an alternate job during these bad economic times caused by the pandemic.

I wonder if stagnant sales of Honda cars in India forced the management to take such a drastic step? In such a case, they could have at least used the plant for exports from India.

[crazyro]

The Noida Plant had a capacity of 1 lakh units per year
The Tapukara plant has a capacity of 1.8 lakh units per year

Looking at the current Honda monthly sales they were never going to utilise the full capacity of both the plants

The Tapukara plant capacity looks sufficient and this also means Honda doesnt see themselves doing more than 10000 units a month anytime in future