It’s official. The Honda Brio-based sedan that will come in as an entry-level sedan to the Indian market in April 2013 will be called the Honda Amaze. The car is likely to be launched within a month in Thailand first and then given to other Asian markets.
What is even more interesting is that the Honda Amaze will be the first Honda car in India to come with a diesel engine. While in Thailand the car will sport a 1.2 litre petrol engine only, in India it will be launched with both a 1.2 litre petrol engine developing 89 bhp of power and a 1.5 litre i-Dtec diesel engine whose exact power output isn’t known right now, although most peg it at about 75 bhp. This engine is currently undergoing validation in India in Honda Brio hatchbacks.
Spy shots of this engine in a Brio hatchback led us to believe that a Brio diesel hatchback would be the first car out with a diesel engine from Honda, although a Brio diesel hatchback will logically follow the Honda Amaze. Also read: Honda plans to launch compact MPV based on Brio
The Honda Amaze has very compact dimensions, yet frees up plenty of interior space. The car will be under 4 metres in length at 3990 mm to be precise, but does not look disproportionate like the Maruti Dzire or Tata Indigo CS. The boot of the Honda Amaze, in fact, will be the most spacious in its class, offering 420 litres of boot space. It also has a longer wheelbase by 62 mm at 2407 mm than the Brio hatchback, while height at 1485 mm and width at 1680 mm are the same as the hatchback. This sticks with the Honda design philosophy of man maximum, machine minimum. Also read: Honda Brio Sedan photo out: First official image!
Honda plans to competitively price the Honda Amaze and to achieve that it is trying to maximize localization levels for parts. We expect the Honda Amaze to be priced between Rs. 5.5 lakh and Rs. 8 lakh, and it’s likely to come in at least seven variants – four petrol (including an automatic) and three diesel variants, with only the top two to three trim variants offering safety features such as ABS and airbags.
The current leader in the compact sedan segment is the Maruti Dzire selling over 10,000 vehicles a month. Can the Honda Amaze challenge it? We think Honda finally has a very capable competitor in their garage, and with a diesel engine also finally coming into the line up, Honda should be back in the game with a bang. Also read: Upcoming Honda cars in India
