[loki]

Visited Silicon Honda, Jayanagar today - hoping to get a few details. Spoke to a sales advisor there (Mr. Chandrashekar). Below is what he revealed (some of which has already been mentioned by Nithesh)

- Launch date is around July 27th. Bike to be launched first in Bangalore followed by other cities.
- 12 dealers have been identified across India - One dealer per state at max
- A few months ago when Honda made their heroic claim that they will manufacture the bike in India, the price which they were discussing was 5.3 ex-showroom :( Guess, YS Guleria (or whoever else) will be eating his words now after making such bold claims.
- Only the Saree guard is being sourced locally now
- Honda are still dilly-dallying with the price. But he reckons OTR (blore) price to be around 7.85L
- Single color initially - the Red/White/Blue HRC scheme which was spotted at Buddh.
- Coincidentally, another CBR650 prospect walked in when I was quizzing the SA. He seemed put off by the fact that Black color wasnt going to be launched. Personally, I too prefer black :(
- Within the showroom, they are allocating a specific display area for the bike. Apparently, the Delhi dealer already has this display area setup! We went down to the service bay where they were building a CBR650 specific service area.

Goes without saying that we shouldn't take these details at face value - expecially the pricing details until the actual launch.

[Nithesh_M]

I really hope the pricing of the Benelli would consider Honda to slot it in the 7 lakh area at the very least. I know Benelli 600s aren't technically their rival tech for tech, the former being a decade old but it would help if they weren't looking at the underpowered STriple pricing to match it there either :/ Decisions Decisions for Honda to meet their 200 units/year target.

[mail4ajo]

Is the floating price for the ABS model? 7.5L onroad will be a good price at least for me. Reading that ABS certainly helps.

Discounting the Benelli which is not inspiring confidence due to the support though the product may be good, what other options does one have? Triple is 9.10L onroad and the Z800 is too much for me.

[Nithesh_M]

ABS and HISS should be standard. I don't think they will offer the Non-ABS version here even if its like 30 grand cheap. Then you could ask them to provide us a non HISS and non ABS equipped 650F for 70k cheap.
Those two components cost a bomb, much like the 250R's ignition lockset(12k!)

[mail4ajo]

Update from Chennai. SVM Honda, Aynavaram to handle 650F as of now. July end release, deliveries from August end. As per sources, the Triumph debacle has bothered Honda and they are planning to be play safe.

SVM is not known for good service. Hope they will have some trained staff.

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Visited the Wings Honda New Delhi on Saturday. Was hoping for something positive after hearing the rumors of a 4th July launch or acceptance of booking amount. This is a company owned showroom, so I will take them more seriously in terms of information.
1) No bookings have started. Expected launch in first week of august.
2) Test Drives and Booking will open in first week of August only.
3) No Pre-bookings yet. If they open it, he will let me know.
4) Price, as he told me earlier is around 8 Lakhs on road.
5) Only 1 color scheme will be available initially and with ABS. The one displayed in Auto Expo. Also seen in the Picture of the supposedly Indore showroom.

He does have a few 2014 fireblades in stock for which he is ready to offer some discount. He has 1 Fireblade SP also on the display. After this update, I forgot the 650F.

I wanted to check with him if he would be the sole dealer in NCR, but forgot and kept drooling on the fireblade.

Regards
Rachit

[pratap.pratu]

any idea of on road price of fireblade (regular one) ?

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by pratap.pratu

any idea of on road price of fireblade (regular one) ?

The on road price for the Fireblade is 17.5 Lakhs Delhi. I think currently in India, it gets sold from 2 Wings Dealers only. One in Mumbai and one in Delhi.
If you want to know the discount, you can PM me and I will give you the contact of the person from the dealer.

Regards
Rachit

[Aditya]

The details of the CBR 650F have been leaked.

Link to Team-BHP News Article



Source: Bike Advice

[Turbo Head]

Still no word about the pricing ?

I have already booked a Benelli 600i long time back and awaiting for Honda to reveal the exact pricing before taking the final plunge.

[mail4ajo]

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

Still no word about the pricing ?

I have already booked a Benelli 600i long time back and awaiting for Honda to reveal the exact pricing before taking the final plunge.

Wonder why they are not benchmarking the Benelli 600i. The Monster and Triple are way higher on pricing, isn't it?

[Turbo Head]

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

Wonder why they are not benchmarking the Benelli 600i. The Monster and Triple are way higher on pricing, isn't it?

Exactly my thoughts, infact not only here, I was trying to find out comparison on world wide web, it has never been compared with 600i. Though they have compared it with Ninja 650, Street Triple, even Hyosung and Benelli 600GT.

I personally believe it should be a head on comparison with the direct competitor, both are 600-650cc, similar on power, similar size, both are cheapest inline 4s available in India, they are only separated by brand value and price difference, ofcourse fairing and naked being personal choices.

[Sojogator]

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

Wonder why they are not benchmarking the Benelli 600i. The Monster and Triple are way higher on pricing, isn't it?

Aren't all brand comparos like this ? Quote only those which seem a worse product than yours.

Yup the Striple is around 9.5 on road in Bangalore. The 796 is 8 around ex showroom I believe.

[loki]

Originally Posted by Sojogator

Aren't all brand comparos like this ? Quote only those which seem a worse product than yours.

Haha. The Striple wouldn't have been on this list if Triumph had launched the de-restricted version with 106+ BHP (guess thats why the Z800 isn't there in the first place).

Whether Honda considers the Benelli 600s as competitors or not, they are definitely priced very well!

[Nithesh_M]

Originally Posted by Turbo Head

I personally believe it should be a head on comparison with the direct competitor, both are 600-650cc, similar on power, similar size, both are cheapest inline 4s available in India, they are only separated by brand value and price difference, ofcourse fairing and naked being personal choices.

That would be so from a general perspective. But from an engineering perspective, it is a new investment into an all new product that they must now recover with profit vs another company that is basically fusing existing components from 2 other manufacturers who have tried and tested it and moved on from that architecture. (Aprilia Shiver 750 frame and Yamaha R6 based engine).

The former has to recover its R&D investment while the latter has had its major work done and tested by other brands so they only have to look after manufacturing costs, overheads and profit margin and they can afford to price it low since manufacturing and importing from China is far more cost efficient than say Japan or Thailand owing to labor costs and manufacturing costs being night and day.

Its all about statistics from this point onwards.