August 31, 2007
Update: New Honda City 2008
launched! Click here for latest update
and photo gallery
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.
