Honda to launch new Honda City variant at lower price

August 31, 2007

Honda Siel Cars is all set to launch an all-new variant of its flagship City model.

The new Honda City variant, which is expected to come with a host of safety features, will debut in the first half of September 2007. As per statistics, Honda City had lost its top position in the Indian market for the past two consecutive months.

While it lost out to Maruti in June 2007, being toppled by Maruti Suzuki’s new entrant SX4, the month of July 2007 saw it being pushed down by Mahindra and Mahindra’s Logan. Reports said that M&M sold 2,890 units of Logan while Maruti Suzuki sold 2,840 units of SX4 in July 2007. This resulted in the Honda City finishing third with sales of 2,465 cars.

The need to regain its top position is now a priority for Honda. Honda Siel’s research wing has lined up new air bags and anti-lock brake system in the
new City to face the challenge posed by the feature-rich SX4 and the aggressively priced Logan. Pricing is an important factor, and Honda Siel’s new City will sport a price tag lower than the City ZX VTEC, which comes at an ex-showroom price of Rs 8 lakh in Delhi.

The Maruti SX4 range is available at Rs 6.3-7.2 lakh while M&M's Logan is priced between Rs 4.7-6.5 lakh. The new Honda City is expected to be the
last variant from the current platform, as the entire product is likely to be replaced by the next-generation model later in 2007.

Honda Siel, which has been grappling with cancellations of City bookings by customers who have opted for Logan and SX4, is banking on the new improved City to bail it out.