[Rachit.K.Dogra]

My 2 cents from some of the discussions I have had with Honda service engineers:
1) This is purely my hunch, but Honda is not selling big bikes in India to make money. This is more of a presence, marketing, PR thing. I am not saying they don't want to make money on them but in the larger scheme of things the revenues expected is way too small in terms of their overall India operations. This can be a reason for their lack of price competitiveness.

2) From a senior service engineer at Wings, I got that they don't have any revenue targets from servicing the vehicles. They have targets on servicing number of customers. This is why Honda is generous in giving some discounts on Labour charges and their overall cost of service is low. Also prevents service centers from trying to fleece customers unnecessarily for revenue targets.

Overall, I think its more of case of they doing things their own way irrespective of what people want from them. They know people want Honda, and they expect people to I guess live with some of the nuances especially in cities where they don't have dedicated Wings World. I feel whatever they do, they do it in a classy way, its just that because if this they are not doing a lot of things. For ex. They do sponsored breakfast rides in Delhi. Their service engineers are truly educated guys and they seem expensive.

Rachit

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Looks like the website is updated with the pictures of the new bike.

https://www.honda2wheelersindia.com/cbr650f/

Don't see any mention of the price though! Good news is that we finally get some good colour options!

[ethanhunt123]

Eagerly waiting for the launch - hopefully they retain the discounted pricing.

[udainxs]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

Eagerly waiting for the launch - hopefully they retain the discounted pricing.

Rishaad Mody from Autocar just tweeted that the bike has been launched at a price of 7.3 lakhs. It features shorter gearing, a louder exhaust, LED headlamp and better brakes and suspension according to him

[dkaile]

At 7.3L, can it really compete with the Z 900 @7.68?

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by udainxs

Rishaad Mody from Autocar just tweeted that the bike has been launched at a price of 7.3 lakhs. It features shorter gearing, a louder exhaust, LED headlamp and better brakes and suspension according to him

Senseless pricing by Honda - 2L more than N650 & only 50k lesser than Z900 - that too for a bike which is built domestically. Doesnt look like it want to sell the bike in India in any numbers.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by dkaile

At 7.3L, can it really compete with the Z 900 @7.68?

Which is a CBU!

Can't really understand why Honda had to price it so close to the 900. It had already lost a battle once with the Z800, and now the CBR650 is much more improved in the facelift, but the Z900 is another generation itself.

[shan_ned]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Which is a CBU!

Can't really understand why Honda had to price it so close to the 900. It had already lost a battle once with the Z800, and now the CBR650 is much more improved in the facelift, but the Z900 is another generation itself.

Earlier, I used to think why Honda had a bad pricing strategy for CBR650F. In the current scenario, I feel Honda does not want to mess up things like what Kawasaki is doing and prefer to be happy with the limited sales in order to provide a decent customer experience. This is my opinion.

[Vik0728]

My brother owns the 2017 Pre-facelift CBR 650F, and he informed me that there is some sort of launch event scheduled for the coming weekend.

He is invited to this, along with nearly 250 more superbike owners & clubs!!

Also, he believes that the price of the facelift CBR 650F will be ~8.2 Lks OTR Bangalore, which is still an awesome deal IMO, since he paid pretty much the same amount back in May.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

My brother owns the 2017 Pre-facelift CBR 650F, and he informed me that there is some sort of launch event scheduled for the coming weekend.

He is invited to this, along with nearly 250 more superbike owners & clubs!!

Also, he believes that the price of the facelift CBR 650F will be ~8.2 Lks OTR Bangalore, which is still an awesome deal IMO, since he paid pretty much the same amount back in May.

How is that possible with Ex-Showroom 7.3L ? That would make the OTR more than 9L considering 19% tax in KA

[loki]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Which is a CBU!

Can't really understand why Honda had to price it so close to the 900. It had already lost a battle once with the Z800, and now the CBR650 is much more improved in the facelift, but the Z900 is another generation itself.

Pricing in the US:

CBR650F: $8,749 ($9,249 with ABS)
Z900: $8,399 ($8,799 with ABS)
Ninja 650: $7,399 ($7,799 with ABS)

The Z900 is actually cheaper than the 650F in the US! Its a volumes vs. margin scenario which these guys (especially Honda) are playing.

[udainxs]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Also, he believes that the price of the facelift CBR 650F will be ~8.2 Lks OTR Bangalore, which is still an awesome deal IMO, since he paid pretty much the same amount back in May.

Your brother appears to have bought the bike during the time that it had been discounted, hence 8.2 OTR.

OTR with the new launch price will be closer to 9.1L

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by shan_ned

Earlier, I used to think why Honda had a bad pricing strategy for CBR650F. In the current scenario, I feel Honda does not want to mess up things like what Kawasaki is doing and prefer to be happy with the limited sales in order to provide a decent customer experience. This is my opinion.

Explain the brilliant pricing of the Africa Twin and the new Fireblade then?

Kawasaki issues are not due to more sales, but due to the recent move to an independent setup. I personally feel it's stabilizing now, but yes - Honda without an independent setup will have the costs advantage.

They're selling lakhs of two wheelers per month. A couple of dozen more CBR650s more couldn't really bother them!

Originally Posted by loki

Pricing in the US:

CBR650F: $8,749 ($9,249 with ABS)
Z900: $8,399 ($8,799 with ABS)
Ninja 650: $7,399 ($7,799 with ABS)

The Z900 is actually cheaper than the 650F in the US! Its a volumes vs. margin scenario which these guys (especially Honda) are playing.

Hey, thanks for pointing this out. That's news for me. Infact, I went and cross checked it and you're right indeed!

Any idea of the sales of the 650F in the USA?

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

How is that possible with Ex-Showroom 7.3L ? That would make the OTR more than 9L considering 19% tax in KA

Originally Posted by udainxs

OTR with the new launch price will be closer to 9.1L

Agree with both you ethanhunt123 and udainxs

My bad I missed that the bike was probably launched at 7.3lks ex showroom. In fact, my bro bought the bike when it was very much in production, but probably on its last leg of stock.

Having ridden this bike now and seen my bro's ownership, IMO CBR 650F is arguably the best inline-4 in its segment. Except for the weight and its obvious heating issue within B2B traffic, I could not really find any other major flaw.

But then again its me, and I'm more of a Car enthusiast than a biker.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Agree with both you ethanhunt123 and udainxs

My bad I missed that the bike was probably launched at 7.3lks ex showroom. In fact, my bro bought the bike when it was very much in production, but probably on its last leg of stock.

Having ridden this bike now and seen my bro's ownership, IMO CBR 650F is arguably the best inline-4 in its segment. Except for the weight and its obvious heating issue within B2B traffic, I could not really find any other major flaw.

But then again its me, and I'm more of a Car enthusiast than a biker.

Well - at ~8L it was a decent buy considering the only other inline 4 in that price range - Benelli 600i (7.2L OTR) is an inferior bike except for the exhaust.

But at ~9.1L OTR - it cannot hold a candle to new Kawasaki Z900 which is only 50k or so more.