[Dippy]

Hero Honda has retained the coveted title of being the world's largest two wheeler manufacturer for the 9th consecutive year. They had sales of over a million units and a PAT of over Rs. 500 crores in each of the quarters. Hero Honda concludes the year with record sales of over 4.4 million units, a growth of 22 per cent over the calendar year 2008 when the company had sold 3.6 million units.

Some highlights of the 3rd Quarter of the financial year 2009-10

• Total turnover (Net sales & Other Operating income) 3827.03 crores, growth of 32.82 per cent
• Net profit after tax at Rs. 535.77 crores, growth of 78.34 per cent
• EBIDTA margin for the quarter 17.27 per cent
• Total sales for Q3 stands at 11,11,372 units, growth of 29.56 per cent
• Third consecutive quarter with more than a million units in sales
  

Hero Honda also won the following awards this year:

• "Company of the Year” 2009 by Economic Times corporate excellence award
• “Bike Manufacturer of the Year” 2009 by Zigwheels
• “Bike Manufacturer Award”. at the NDTV Profit Car India Bike India 2009 Awards

More details and figures in the attached sheet

[GTO]

All I can say is, Hero Honda sure as hell extracted the shelf life out of that 100cc engine. I bet even the guy who designed that 100cc Hero Honda unit had absolutely no clue

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by GTO

.... I bet even the guy who designed that 100cc Hero Honda unit had absolutely no clue

Ha ha ha! Good one GTO! I for one feel that they have detuned that engine to such hopeless levels that for people stepping up from mopeds/ungeared scoots it would be more like a downgrade!!

We too got a splendor plus for the family. I found it downright powerless to say the least. My wife's Dio can do better speeds and overtake with ease during the in city runs.

They should have kept that engine at the 9 BHP mark which came with the original CD100/splendor series. Detuning it to 7.4 BHP now just to extract more mileage has its fair share of downfalls.

[RX135]

I probably am going to be flamed for saying this, but I sincerely hope that, Hero Honda goes down the hill in next 5 years.

There is hardly any new thing coming from Hero Honda since they snapped ties with Honda. They seem to be more happy dishing out "all new" Splendor-A/B/C..Z models every year with "brand new" graphics. Same goes with Passion xyz.

Yamaha has already upped the ante in 125/150cc segment. Bajaj has been trying so hard to keep Pulsar updated and innovating with multiple engine options and features. TVS, too, has been busy with Apache RTR 160/180. All this while, HH seems to be content fielding that aging warhorse of Karizma with "New Sporty Racing Graphics". Boy, I felt so fast just after reading that!

Bajaj seems to have stepped back into 100cc segment. Last time, though Boxer was great hit with the masses, it was financially not viable. Unfortunately, Bajaj has very poor reputation with build quality in sub-150cc segment, Pulsar being notable exception. Let's see how future unfolds!

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by RX135

I probably am going to be flamed for saying this, but I sincerely hope that, Hero Honda goes down the hill in next 5 years.

There is hardly any new thing coming from Hero Honda since they snapped ties with Honda. They seem to be more happy dishing out "all new" Splendor-A/B/C..Z models every year with "brand new" graphics. Same goes with Passion xyz.

Yamaha has already upped the ante in 125/150cc segment. Bajaj has been trying so hard to keep Pulsar updated and innovating with multiple engine options and features. TVS, too, has been busy with Apache RTR 160/180. All this while, HH seems to be content fielding that aging warhorse of Karizma with "New Sporty Racing Graphics". Boy, I felt so fast just after reading that!

Bajaj seems to have stepped back into 100cc segment. Last time, though Boxer was great hit with the masses, it was financially not viable. Unfortunately, Bajaj has very poor reputation with build quality in sub-150cc segment, Pulsar being notable exception. Let's see how future unfolds!

You seem to be a man after my own heart!

+1zillion to your words!

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by Dippy

Hero Honda also won the following awards this year:

• "Company of the Year” 2009 by Economic Times corporate excellence award
• “Bike Manufacturer of the Year” 2009 by Zigwheels
• “Bike Manufacturer Award”. at the NDTV Profit Car India Bike India 2009 Awards

Company of the year ? I think Maruti Suzuki deserves that.
Bike manufacturer of the year ? Actually, except Bajaj, nobody deserved this for 2009.
Bike Manufacturer ? Bajaj again. They were down to sales lower than Honda India, but came up hard.

I have doubts about all these awards being honest. They are biased IMHO.

Atleast technology wise, Bajaj has tried to give us some technology in lower price point and is a success as we all know. Goes on to show that 100cc is core market for India. Bajaj did try to give 125cc segment a boost through various products and that effort must be appreciated.

Originally Posted by GTO

All I can say is, Hero Honda sure as hell extracted the shelf life out of that 100cc engine. I bet even the guy who designed that 100cc Hero Honda unit had absolutely no clue

The unit is straight from 80's IIRC and still is selling so well. This is a dream for any manufacturer.

Originally Posted by RX135

I probably am going to be flamed for saying this, but I sincerely hope that, Hero Honda goes down the hill in next 5 years.

There is hardly any new thing coming from Hero Honda since they snapped ties with Honda. They seem to be more happy dishing out "all new" Splendor-A/B/C..Z models every year with "brand new" graphics. Same goes with Passion xyz.

Yamaha has already upped the ante in 125/150cc segment. Bajaj has been trying so hard to keep Pulsar updated and innovating with multiple engine options and features. TVS, too, has been busy with Apache RTR 160/180. All this while, HH seems to be content fielding that aging warhorse of Karizma with "New Sporty Racing Graphics". Boy, I felt so fast just after reading that!

Bajaj seems to have stepped back into 100cc segment. Last time, though Boxer was great hit with the masses, it was financially not viable. Unfortunately, Bajaj has very poor reputation with build quality in sub-150cc segment, Pulsar being notable exception. Let's see how future unfolds!

Bajaj did try earlier since Wind 125 to make 125cc the next 100 segment, but market wont agree with that. So they are coming back again to 100cc. I believe that is CT100 was not discontinued, then Bajaj would still be very near to No.1 it earlier was. Bajaj was bold enough to come up with XCD125, but again market acceptance has to be there.

As far as HH goes, I too want it to go down the drain. They are selling that old technology for long. No new good technology is made available to HH by Honda. Honda's long term plans is to come above HH and they are partially successful. If Uni had not failed, then I am sure that the 150cc motor would have never made to HH.

Honda has plans to stop tech transfer to HH and beat down HH. But even Honda is surprised by HH's strong grip over 100cc segment. It goes down to reputation here.
HH has not given us anything new except rebadging, etc.

But for a moment, think of those whose only single vehicle is a bike. The bike as to reliable, low maintenance, wide After sales and service network with reasonably priced spares, and reasonable FE.
Splendor has built on this reputation, and Passion followed. Most of the buyers want a bike that has proved itself, is not heavy on maintenance, has one of the best A.S & S. of all two wheeler manufactuerers, so what will the customer ask for ?
The 100cc offerings from HH meet all the requirements for a typical 100cc buyer and is the best overall buy in 100cc segment.

Bajaj suffers from one of the worst A.S & S. TVS has engine life and maintenance issues, Yamaha has lower reach for servicing and spares are slightly on expensive side, so what options are left for a 100cc bike customer ?

Before Alto overtook M800, we all were demanding M800 be stopped, but the customers needed that, and some still need it. Its basic but the Indian market wants it and not all can go in for better and bigger options.
Similar is case with 100cc bikes from HH on which HH is flying this high. The common man still needs the 100c bikes, so let it be like this.

And this thing is proved by Bajaj Pulsar dominating in 150cc plus segment.

So I wish HH lives on and on with those 100cc bikes.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

The 100cc offerings from HH meet all the requirements for a typical 100cc buyer and is the best overall buy in 100cc segment.

I agree to your entire post except this statement. HH is not THE best buy in this segment IMHO, it's just that people are not ready to try anything other than HH in this segment. I have a Yamaha Libero G5 (106 cc). It has clocked 46k KMs in last 4 years and is still going really strong. It still feels as if bought some months ago, has never let me down yet in 4 years (touch wood). I get it serviced every 3-4K KMs and it doesn't cost me more than 700 bucks .

[fz_rider]

See HH had the biggest advantage, as they entered the mass market at the very first. Adding reliability to it, HH became household name. That's why they are No.1 .But I sincerely hope that HH develops indigenous engines so that it can have a better product portfolio.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

I agree to your entire post except this statement. HH is not THE best buy in this segment IMHO, it's just that people are not ready to try anything other than HH in this segment. I have a Yamaha Libero G5 (106 cc). It has clocked 46k KMs in last 4 years and is still going really strong. It still feels as if bought some months ago, has never let me down yet in 4 years (touch wood). I get it serviced every 3-4K KMs and it doesn't cost me more than 700 bucks .

Yamaha is reliable, and has sound engineering. Almost all parts show quality higher than Splendor/Passion. No doubt on this.

But when I stated HH as the best buy, I had after sales and service centers included in this. HH has wider reach than any other, even higher than Bajaj. This often helps, as was the case with my friend who bought splendor for his brother and Passion for himself.

Also overall cost of spares is less in case with HH, may be due to economies of scale and depreciation, etc. But HH wins hands down as the best buy for common man, who is not as much aware as us.

Its not that I haven't used any other product, I am still using Zeus ( though rarely now a day ) and have a look at this too : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...-fav-bike.html

Showing that Caliber is much better than 100cc HH offerings, but at the end of the day, as an overall package, HH wins.

[Raccoon]

Quality and other issues aside, I have found current HH manner in handling consumer complaints woefully lacking. In fact emails don't even generate a reply! On the other hand TVS is way more responsive and effective in addressing customer complaints/concerns.

After my experience with HH's attitude in the past 2 years, I would not be very keen to buy another Hero Honda again.

Even in the quality department, I expected better from them. For eg. the black coating on my cylinder head started peeling off just a few months after purchase.... and replacing it in warranty and the subsequent goof ups by their horrible mechanics caused me a lot of trouble.

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

I get it serviced every 3-4K KMs and it doesn't cost me more than 700 bucks .

700 bucks every service. that is expensive. I used to have a caliber and 4s which were regularly serviced. service was 350-400. Both did around 70-75K when they started going downhill.

I was told that Hero Honda has even lower maintenance than Bajaj bikes.

man India is one country where u can sell a successful product for ages without any major changes , Hero Honda, Bullet (changes only because of regulations), Scooter until market died, Amabsaador and well King of all Maruti 800

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by indian21r

700 bucks every service. that is expensive.

This is including oil change which is around 300/-.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

The 100cc offerings from HH meet all the requirements for a typical 100cc buyer and is the best overall buy in 100cc segment.
So I wish HH lives on and on with those 100cc bikes.

Wait till Honda and Bajaj pitch in with their 100cc bikes!

They can really kill HH. Boxer was a runaway success but Bajaj made losses on Boxers (Having said that, quality was pathetic, or should I say "What you get is what you pay for") 100cc market looks for low initial cost, HIGH FE aka average. Bajaj is good at both, though quality is dubious, while Honda is good at quality and FE though initial cost would be higher.

Yamaha is fairly useless to cater to this market. They normally have high cost, low FE bikes. And, when they try to do a Bajaj, they end up with outrageous contraptions like Crux series. They better stay away from 100cc and focus only on premium bikes, which they are good at.

@indian21r, Indian market accepts a successful product for years, like Amby or Scooters. But, this market also throws away the same product, the moment it gets a better alternative.

[sameern.85]

Hi Guys...
I think Bajaj is more concentrating on 125/ 135 cc category as it gives a perfect blend of power and mileage... Discover and Pulsar 135 are such examples... I agree with fellow bhpian - RX 135 on this the HH are not doing anything 'radical'... look @ Bajaj, the have got the Kawasaki Ninja and looking to get KTM as well.
However, HH main market which is rural India still swears by the brand as opposed to like of Bajaj/ Yamaha et al and I think this contributes to its sales of 100cc bikes.
The perception has already changed in the metros where young collegians and even working professionals are opting for Yamaha touring and snazzier looking 2 wheelers.
HH may survive the battle, but if they dont change soon, they may end up losing the war...

Cheers...

[~~h]

If you look at a 10 year old CD-100/Splendor and any similarly aged Bajaj bike (any make), the HH holds it's build quality and sturdiness.. that's the success mantra.