[Kosfactor]

After this we have Elantra, Camry, Superb - all should stop pretty soon I guess by the looks of how the SUVs are taking over. In a year or two the Verna/Ciaz/City segment will also be history along with it the brand honda itself unless they release a few SUVs in all sizes.

[sam264_2000]

Very sad and shocking news :( I loved both these cars.
Honda lost the plot when they didn't bring a Creta rival. Instead brought in Mobilio with Brio interiors to differentiate itself from Creta. Market punished them. Then got BR-V with Amaze'isque interiors. Market punished them again. Priced Brio (a brilliant small city hatch), Mobilio, BR-V and CR-V as if people will open their wallets from the word go for these cars! Result is none of these cars are on sale now. They should just go all out with all engine-transmission combo the way Koreans have approached the Indian market and I am sure they will see their fate changing here.

[saabasheer]

It was Unbelievable and unwarranted that the Civic was getting axed. With a simple swap of transmission options like Petrol MT and Diesel CVT Honda should have tried to gain some momentum on the monthly figures. I can accept the axing of CRV but I could not digest mighty Civic.

[Vid6639]

Both Civic and CR-V were half hearted attempts by Honda in the first place so losing them is not a big deal.

Dealers never kept petrol CR-V for test drive even though it was 5 seater vs the 7 seater which had lesser rear seat space and lower headroom.

When you sit in the 7 seater diesel you would be put off if you were actually looking at the 5 seater petrol.

The Civic was half hearted with same 1.8L NA when they themselves had moved to Turbo internationally.

2020 saw the demise of 3 D1 sedans Toyota Corolla, Skoda Octavia and Honda Civic. Sad. Though the Skoda will come back next year.

Originally Posted by charanreddy

No wonder our Junta flocks to unsafe Maruti and Koreans. Honda like small volumes companies aren't dependable at all. After my poor experience with Chevrolet and my Beat Diesel loosing value like anything, I would be afraid to touch Ford, Nissan, VW, Skoda products in addition to Honda. You never know when they will discontinue products or wind up operations all together.

Tata as well. They discontinued Hexa, Aria, Manza, Zest, Bolt and Nano.

If you keep adding to the list then there is no brand you can buy in India.

[vinya_jag]

October 2019, Palace grounds Bangalore, some car show, took my wife, kid and her cousin to the show. Kids were basically the excuse. It was me, the most excited. Amongst the slew on not so not so new un-exciting cars, was this Civic, squatting low. No takers, and I went in, sat in the drivers seat, and that moment, I was floored to bits. I started lowering the seat height, and it was magic. My wife sat in the passenger seat, and she was excited too. It reminded me of our Old Figo that we had sold a while back.
It was just an emotion back then, and as the year grew, and Covid eased, the emotion grew stronger, we started seeing Civic everywhere, I started seeing sales numbers, and was impressed still. No manual? I was still forcing myself to like it. Next were the plans to get our garage height increased, then convicing my father to sell his old Alto to make up space. And then, the showroom visit, and the indifferent attitude of the sales person towards the Civic, which still didnt deter me from thinking of going back there again, was ready to beg for it as well.
Then the money part was getting close, thoughts on what to do on a test drive, which model, should I carry my own pen drive; amidst all these thoughts, I get the alert on my phone that Civic has been stopped.


Now, I am confused what to do next, is it good they announced it now, before we would have taken the plunge, or, can we still go ahead and grab a last piece if they can make one, knowing all the limitations? For now, am thinking of staying put, until we find an equally exciting car.

Civic is an emotion. Octavia isnt the same emotion, elantra does even qualify as an emotion. Then the 3 series is an Inclination. ( A second hand 3 now? )

[Ritkon]

Such a shocking news!
As if 2020 was already not bad enough!
CR-V and Civic were two cars (along with City), which earned Honda the respect and brand value it enjoys in the Indian market today. When they were introduced, they had the "wow" factor and truly stood out in their respective classes.
Sad to see them now, still very good cars in their own right, but just not selling enough. I also blame Honda for not expanding their dealerships and ASC's as much they should have, given the time they had in our market.
I hope this is not the beginning of the end for Honda in India.
I am dying to see those Civic vs. Corolla reviews once again like the good old days.

[NarediAni7518]

I was really disheartened at this news. Being an ex-owner of a 2015 city diesel which got replaced by a 2019 May Zx Cvt Civic, I never expected Honda to do such a thing. No surprise if the brand exits India in a decade or two. I’m really disappointed with such a good brand. In fact, I had called my sales advisor to cross verify if this is true and he told me that “Sir I just delivered a Civic 10 minutes ago”
Now that brings up a question whether Honda will launch the 11th gen in India or not ! I really hope they do it !
The current civic was a gem of a handling machine. Though mine is a CVT, in everyday use, I love the way the CVT works when driving sedately. Butter-smooth transmission, silent engine ( and sporty sounding when revving the nuts ) only when you want spirited driving is when you are lead down by the CVT’s nature.

[Cessna182]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag;4961702l

Now, I am confused what to do next, is it good they announced it now, before we would have taken the plunge, or, can we still go ahead and grab a last piece if they can make one, knowing all the limitations? For now, am thinking of staying put, until we find an equally exciting car.

Civic is an emotion. Octavia isnt the same emotion, elantra does even qualify as an emotion. Then the 3 series is an Inclination. ( A second hand 3 now? )

There are way better cars than the new Civic in the market. If you want driving pleasure a used Octavia or 3 series or a Merc C Class is a far better deal and there are recent used car threads about the same. Honda does not support its older models well. I know 2 folks who own the older City. One guy (2007+) has to do his service outside all the time because the Honda folks just loot for older cars. The other guy is selling off a 2016 car because his average bill is 15 to 20k and infotainment went kaput.

The Hondas sold in India are not worth associating emotions with. I realized it long back while driving a city diesel that sounded as bad as an Indigo inside. They are selling compromised overpriced models. The days of the older civic and innovative cars like the civic hybrid are far gone.

It is hard to imagine that a company that sold the legendary VTEC City in the 2000s is now in its present form.

[Carpainter]

There was a time when we used to call Ford a one horse company with first Figo and then EcoSport which it still is. But today if we look at all these companies, barring Hyundai and may be Suzuki (although they sale basically same cars on same platform and even multiple generation of same model), most of the companies are relying on one or two models only. Amaze and City for Honda, Innova and Fortuner for Toyota, Polo and Vento for VW, Rapid for Skoda, Nexon and Tiago siblings for Tata, Kwid and Triber for Renault, Compass for Jeep, Hector for MG and Seltos+Sonet for Kia (although last two are new entrants and done well for their cause). The less we talk about Nissan or Isuzu the better.

Honda is saying that their Tapukara plant can't produce cars above a certain size without further investment. But if Honda was really serious about India operations, they would have gone on to invest that to keep Civic and CRV alive. With just two average selling models in their portfolio, I don't know what is their way forward now. Atleast they don't have any immediate plan to launch any new cars for the time being.

We had a thread going on about cars that are difficult to upgrade from. I think you can add all C2 segment sedans in that list now. Nothing to upgrade to if you're using City or Verna now. I doubt how much Octavia will benefit from this.

P.S. Mods can merge my two different posts if needed.

[Ik.Singh]

I think that CRV and CIVIC being discontinued might have it's relation with Honda closing the Greater Noida factory and shifting all production to Tapukara. A quick google search also confirms this.

But in reality, it is sad to see the CRV and the Civic being discontinued. Only having 4 models in the current line-up is surely a big gamble. I wonder how the owners of the dealerships would have reacted seeing just 4 cars in the lineup when the competitors are having vehicles for customers in all the price ranges!

[Breathe2drive]

Well, Honda has been an aspirational brand since its very launch in India in 1998.
City became a runaway success and the market leader in the segment immediately, surpassing cars like Opel Astra, Lancer, and Cielo.

I always found Honda to be a fine balance between our staple Maruti and luxury German brands.
Their engines, looks, interiors were something I always admired. They have the peace of mind ownership experience like Maruti, and at the same time, they are fun to drive.

City has been continuing its legacy of being the market leader in its segment for more than 20 years. But did that make Honda complacent and not understand the pulse of Indian consumers? Certainly yes, which is why many of its models bombed.

This is very disappointing for a Honda lover like me that the iconic Civic is discontinued.

Honda's existence may be at stake if it continues in this fashion and doesn't take any proactive stance in the next couple of years.

[TheCatalyst]

I own the CRV 2019 model, and it has been a fuss free ownership so far (touchwood) and my family really likes the ride. Even the major yearly service came to just Rs.4100 including changing the fluids. Sad to see two iconic models being stopped in India. Hope they re-introduce them later with updated generations.

Resale value was never a strong point of the CRV anyway, however this news might mean a slightly larger hair-cut to the value. Fortunately, I hold my cars for 10+ years.

It's interesting to see that the models that do good (or even great) globally, fail miserably in India. This is across other brands and not just Honda.

The silver lining I see in the news, is that the services and spares will be continued to be supported for these models for next 15 years. Now what the future holds for Honda as a company, that remains to be seen.

Link

"The Tapukara plant is designed to be adequate to manufacture the mid-size cars, and therefore the Civic and CR-V size cannot be accommodated. And, if we invest in the existing models, then the pricing dynamics may not match the expectations of the customers, especially since the market has de-grown over the last one year," Rajesh Goel, Senior Vice President and Director, Marketing & Sales, HCIL told BusinessLine. He said the company is committed to its customers, and those who own a Civic or CR-V can avail all services and spare parts for the next 15 years.

[landcruiser123]

The management are playing Russian Roulette each quarter and deciding which car to remove. I'm glad their engineering team is still working well.

Honda has incredible potential as they have a history of making extremely dependable & fun small cars. Too bad the company has been taking decisions like a blind chicken roaming in an empty field.

I guess India is too small for Toyota & Honda to care about.

[charanreddy]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Tata as well. They discontinued Hexa, Aria, Manza, Zest, Bolt and Nano.

If you keep adding to the list then there is no brand you can buy in India.

Agree on the models form Tata.
A fair rule of thumb : manufacturers unlikely to quit the country due to high volumes like Maruti or Hyundai or high profits like Toyota or locals like Tata, M&M

+ a product that does atleast 3 k units per month in c segment and below.

[ChoosetoCruze]

Well, that’s an early Christmas present for all new CR-V & Civic owners.

Thanks Honda for your never ending generosity towards your CKD customers. NOT.

Just when you thought, they couldn’t come up with any more absurd decisions, they give us this.

It now gets extremely difficult for all the potential owners in India, who want a worldwide bestselling, boringly reliable sedan/crossover.

Toyota doesn’t have the Corolla/RAV4 to absorb the burden of this penny wise, pound foolish decision from Honda.

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

The management are playing Russian Roulette each quarter and deciding which car to remove. I'm glad their engineering team is still working well.

Honda has incredible potential as they have a history of making extremely dependable & fun small cars. Too bad the company has been taking decisions like a blind chicken roaming in an empty field.

I guess India is too small for Toyota & Honda to care about.

Couldn’t agree more! The Indian market is just not matured enough for the big two Japanese OEMs. The real loser is the potential Indian customer. They are now deprived of the safe & reliable choice in the segment.

Now, for somebody looking to climb the ladder from the Yaris/City, they have no choice but to consider the Innova/Fortuner.

No matter which way you look at it, this is going to make other OEMs reconsider their plans to launch more sedans (effectively killing the segment or charge an obscene premium).