[anu21v]

Originally Posted by CRtorquefan

If sensibly priced, This car seems to have the potential to Prove its Diesel competitiors expensive with its Super-efficient yet frugal Petrol engine & Ultra-low ownership costs, as Alto proved itself few years back with respect to Indica V2.

I don't Quite think so, Traditionally due to higher Calorific Value and Higher Efficiency of Diesel Cycle over Otto Cycle, Diesel Engines will always be more fuel efficient (more in the range of 20%-25% ) as compared to similar sized Gasoline Engines.

Alto is a super light weight design with 800 CC ultra frugal engine, It should not be compared unless Honda themselves are hell bent to compare Brio with Alto.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by wolf_lone

I don't see a remote boot opener... Is it missing due to cost cutting.....

Good point.
@anshuman, did you get a chance to test this? In one of the videos, the reviewer seemed to turn something (did not look like 'turning a inserted key by half turn', it was more then that)

[sureshkishore]

I10 and Swift sell in scores and is a no brainer buying decison for many. Both being very good cars you just cannot go wrong buying either of them.
But those who think differently would consider the Ritz/Brio.

Both look quirky and would be priced alike (hopefully).
Honda Brio & Maruti Ritz! With totally different charachter in comparison to their counterparts.

I feel that these two should be tested against each other. Had the liberty to rip my cousins Ritz Zxi and was truly impressed.
k12 engine is a gem and it drives & rides well too. Ritz is an understated car, unfortunately overshadowed by its hugely popular brother, the swift.
Since big brother has put on weight ($) nowadays may be its time we take a closer look at the Ritz.

Hope Mods can arrange a shoot-out.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by sureshkishore

Ritz is an understated car, unfortunately overshadowed by its hugely popular brother, the swift.
Since big brother has put on weight ($) nowadays may be its time we take a closer look at the Ritz.

Actually Swift's popularity is helping Ritz immensely. Many of those who cannot wait for 6 months for Swift, change their booking to Ritz when they learn that the heart of both cars are the same. That has helped Ritz sales to improve to 7000 units per month, which isn't a small number for a B-seg car.

[shashank.nk]

When honda mentions a sub-5lakh ruppe pricing for the Brio it means the base model would be priced below 5 lakh ex-showroom right ?
The top-end would be around 5.2 ex-showroom, and here in bangalore it would come to 6.3 or 6.4 OTR the difference between the base Jazz and top-end Brio being 30 to 40k. Am i right with my assumptions ?

[hell_rider]

Thank you once again for the team working hard at Team-bhp to bring us the first detailed review of a much awaited car.

However, purely based on photos here and my experience of the Jazz, I need to disagree emphatically with some of the points made.

The Jazz is most certainly *not* the best hatchback your money can buy. VFM is absolute no-brainer even with the price cut. The interiors are decidedly downmarket visually and feel-wise. But it could still be acceptable if the refinement were there. Having had a longish drive of sorts in an acquaintance's upper trim Jazz (which was atrociously priced since he got it before the price cut), there were rattles and squeaks galore, faults for which we routinely pull down Indian manufacturers. Power was nothing to write home about inspite of the much vaunted ivtec engine. The Hyundai i20 feels much more plush, luxurious and upmarket compared to the Jazz, and on the move, it feels far more sprightly, given the same 1.2 displacement engine.

Similar to the the Jazz, the dash of the Brio also feels very decidedly built to a price. I'm sure the actual quality will not cause complaints. But then the feel (purely based on the review photos) is just not there.

The Chevrolet Beat feels far better visually, considering its more or less in the same ball park price wise. And the refinement levels are outstanding. I do not know if the Beat also has cost cutting like lack of rear wheel cladding but it offers an almost tomb like insulation, which is pretty impressive for a volume hatchback.

On a similar comparison, the hyundai i10's interiors up front look significantly better to what we see here of the Brio.

Going by the Etios, the Liva and now the Brio, I think its clear that the Japanese haven't yet mastered the art of building cheaper cars without making them look cheap or making some cheap decisions with respect to cost cutting - for eg. rear defogger and wiper, wheel cladding etc. Either that, or they know that they can get away with sub-par design or elements because Indians will still want to enter into the brand ownership. Which means they can get away with stuff that we would hang other manufacturers for.

I think their philosophy is - okay, you can buy into the 'T' or the 'H' badge, but we are going to make you know every time you get into the car that you've bought our lowest end product.

[xingamazon]

Originally Posted by shashank.nk

When honda mentions a sub-5lakh ruppe pricing for the Brio it means the base model would be priced below 5 lakh ex-showroom right ?
The top-end would be around 5.2 ex-showroom, and here in bangalore it would come to 6.3 or 6.4 OTR the difference between the base Jazz and top-end Brio being 30 to 40k. Am i right with my assumptions ?

Nope, you might have to change your assumptions there. Frankly it would depend on how much stripped the lowest version is. If you consider the Figo as a standard in this case, then there are four versions, and the highest version is almost 60K more than base version.
As a practise the automakers have been charging 40K just for ABS+Airbag which are normally available in the highest version.
If you include other bells and whistles then it will take 20K more than Base.

[shashank.nk]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Nope, you might have to change your assumptions there. Frankly it would depend on how much stripped the lowest version is. If you consider the Figo as a standard in this case, then there are four versions, and the highest version is almost 60K more than base version.
As a practise the automakers have been charging 40K just for ABS+Airbag which are normally available in the highest version.
If you include other bells and whistles then it will take 20K more than Base.

As per the review the base version doesn't have ABS or Airbags so add 50k for that, plus about 20k(the least i guess) for fogs and alloys on the top-end and it should be about 70k more than the base version right ?

[tejus.s]

Originally Posted by sureshkishore

Hope Mods can arrange a shoot-out.

I second that. Team-BHP is already an authentic source for unbiased test drives. It'd be great if you can arrange for shootouts as well.

Just a thought

[SilkDrive]

The base version of the Jazz has got :

Most of the bells n whistles one really needs
+ all of the safety features
+ its way higher on space and practicality (magic seats et all)
+ better looking interiors
+ above all its an ample sized hatch (and in our country bigger is better) with no quirkiness in the design.

Thus, from what i can guess, the top end Brio to sell, it needs to be priced a notch below even the base variant of the Jazz. I would guess (or rather hope) 5.2 - 5.3 ex Delhi.

[anu21v]

Originally Posted by hell_rider

The Hyundai i20 feels much more plush, luxurious and upmarket compared to the Jazz, and on the move, it feels far more sprightly, given the same 1.2 displacement engine.

The Chevrolet Beat feels far better visually, considering its more or less in the same ball park price wise. And the refinement levels are outstanding. I do not know if the Beat also has cost cutting like lack of rear wheel cladding but it offers an almost tomb like insulation, which is pretty impressive for a volume hatchback.

Hell_rider, I couldnt have put in better words, Absolutely spot on.

Since Not only the Exterior design but also on Size and exterior Dimensions are closest to Beat, I find it surprising as to why this car is compared to swift, polo, micra etc, whereas it should have been just compared with i10, beat and Ritz. (I pointed it in my previous posts on this thread pg-7). I would love to see how it stacks up with these three cars than any other cars.

Going by the Etios, the Liva and now the Brio, I think its clear that the Japanese haven't yet mastered the art of building cheaper cars without making them look cheap or making some cheap decisions with respect to cost cutting.

I think their philosophy is - okay, you can buy into the 'T' or the 'H' badge, but we are going to make you know every time you get into the car that you've bought our lowest end product.

I don't quite agree on the above two points. Isn't Suzuki who is a Japanese company the king of small cars and Lowest cost engineering and design at acceptable quality.

On point 2 Honda has definitely not put up a low cost low quality product. IMO Brio decidedly brings an upmarket feel to the upholstery in segment of i10,Beat, Ritz and A-star

[Tommie]

Is Honda planning to bring in an automatic version ? I have been hearing that the major share of the i10 sales in Bangalore is the automatic version which is popular among the women.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

The CVT Automatic transmission is not going to be offered in India. Period.

Originally Posted by Tommie

Is Honda planning to bring in an automatic version ? I have been hearing that the major share of the i10 sales in Bangalore is the automatic version which is popular among the women.

Nopes - doesn't seem so.
Even I was looking forward to the CVT being offered in the Brio.

[animus_me]

Looking at the specs and the reviw, this looks just a better alternative to the I10. Doesn't match up to specs, features and space of the better hatches like i20, micra, figo , swift and ritz.

[Bh.P]

Originally Posted by Tommie

Is Honda planning to bring in an automatic version ? I have been hearing that the major share of the i10 sales in Bangalore is the automatic version which is popular among the women.

By not offering the CVT, Honda is losing a sizeable market who look for compact Auto cars. Their only options now are i10 and A-Star. Atleast in Bangalore, I see the number of i10 Autos growing exponentially. So it would be in Honda's interest to bring in the CVT sometime in future. Going by recent happenings, Honda is not proactive in meeting market requirements, they are reactive. They are proactive only on engineering and manufacturing I guess.

On a separate note, autos are not "popular among the women" only. I don't think gender has anything to do with this. Atleast in Bangalore I see a lot of guys driving auto i10s while at the same time I see women driving non-auto cars. Disclaimer: I am not an woman, nor a feminist. But yes, I am a happy, pains-free owner of an AT.