[outswinger]

Ford has virtually billed its new baby as the City chalenger. And from what I hear, they've made the Fiesta keeping the City as a benchmark. But trust the japs to smell competition from a distance.

They've gone and re-jigged the City, Improved its looks and put a VTEC under its hood and voila! - A Fiesta challenger is born before the Fiesta is born.

Fiesta's only hope is its 1.4 diesel. The 1.6 is clearly going to be swamped by the ZX Vtec. Honda technology and brand name is something Ford can't challenge in India. At least for many years to come. Grapevine tells me that there's a 1.4 petrol as well that's being planned... The success of that would depend on how they price it. Otherwise it could meet with stiff opposition from the City again.

The yankee boys have many things to learn from teh japs. Talk about quick turnaround times - in two years, Honda has revised its product, and rightly so, probably taken consumer feedback into consideration

But look at the yankees from the capital of liberalisation - their feet are leaden in clay. How much have they pushed that Ikon. Footpath selling.... October blast and March masti and what not - but they never bothered to do a single thing to their product. Only fancy badging (josh 100 and all that) and lots of money spend on advertising.

In distinct contrast, Honda hardly advertises. They believe in their product. C'mon yankees, you can't do your hustling act out here. This is not Cuba or Nicaragua....

[muni]

well said mate...thats so true. The Japs and the Koreans are here to stay in India

[jkdas]

nice one.
but they are not reading it.

and yes i would get a zxi if i am for petrol.

and i read somewher that a 1.6 diesel would join by late 2006. hope honda wont bring their gr8 diesel engine to india. then its bye yankee and Annyeong Hyundai ( atleast for me)

[Mpower]

When it comes to FE of petrol versions, Ford cannot touch the Honda CIty.

[sridhar24]

Ford cannot come close to Honda in terms of reliability too.

[carfreak]

personally i feel the yanks dont know how to make great cars(hey its personal,so i dont want to start off any arguments!)i have really liked only 2 of their cars-the mustang and the corvette.i have never liked their muscle cars one bit.
look at the japs.their sports cars can smoke the yankee sports cars any day!!they said the japanese could not make luxury cars and then they launched the lexus.so that theory also disproved.any thing the yankees do,the japs can do it better.why should they advertise anyway?their engines are what efficient engines are all about!!fuel efficiency,reliability and great performance!!

[sbasak]

It's not hard to see why Japanese cars are success in India rather than American ones.

In USA, people spend a good amount of time inside their cars because of huge distances they have to cover. So, their cars, are large and luxury and power are priorities than fuel economy. Also, American cars are invariably automatics.

Where as in India/Europe/Japan, distances are comperatively short. Roads are narrow/twisty. Fuel is pricy. So, they tend to prefer small practical, fuel efficient cars.

Japanese cars beat anyone in realiability (German cars are equally reliable but at a much higher cost).

Most surveys show that Japanese cars continually holding reliability awards in all over Europe. Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda are most reliable manufacturers in UK. Only American is Ford to come within top 10.

[devarshi84]

thats not true.

American cars have not seen innovation since years. While GM,FORD and chrysler have just seen the warning in the markets due to NIssan,honda and toyota their cars still dont give that quality feel.


AUdi,BMW and wolksaawagon are miles ahead in this department.

[amit]

Forget comparing the Yanks to the Japanese, I would buy a Hundai Sonata over a Chevy Impala or Pontiac G6 anyday. Hyundai cars are better built, have better paint quality, better designed and better quality interiors and exteriors and even better engines. After coming to Canada and looking at GM, Ford products, I really don't know how these companies grew so big. Many people think Honda and Toyota pulled off a miracle by out-sellling GM, ford in their own backyard but I really don't think it was that difficult considering the quality of yankie cars! GM still needs to learn about assembling their cars correctly. Let them first get their panel gaps uniform all over the body and then they can dream about competing with the Japs. The Pontiac G6 has a 3.5Ltr V6 engine that develops just 200 HP! Honda's 3.0 V6 has 244hp, sure Honda has VTec but then who is stopping GM from developing a engine with that technology of it's own. Even Hyundai builds VVT engines now.
Of course, if I was in Europe, then I would really look at Ford with a lot of respect. But here, apart from the Mustang, even Ford is giving crap.

[turbo_lover]

there really is no comparsion between two ...

japs and koreans are flooding the world market with their reliable and economical vehicles ...whereas GM etc keep seeling the same models for years and years with minor modifications over the years ...
and who says only the koreans copy ? american car are totally copying the euro style ..like the G6

[nitroxx]

For one thing you need to see the Fiesta on road and you'll know how close it comes to the Honda............................................. .................(count the number of dots and add "feet" that'll give you the real picture.