At Rs7 lakh, Honda City can now be all yours

You can now buy a Honda City for just a little over Rs7 lakh. Honda Siel Cars India on Wednesday unveiled the new City where the entry-level variant now comes for Rs699,000 instead of the earlier price tag of Rs749,999.

In fact, the entry variant of the City has become cheaper by more than Rs1 lakh in the last one year since Honda had earlier slashed City prices by about Rs60,000. In the new scheme of things, the entry variant is called ‘Corporate’ and it does not come with a stereo, keyless entry or cruise control. But the Corporate variant doesn’t lack any safety features present in other variants since it comes with dual airbags, ABS etc.

“Our target is to offer a product as affordable as possible to customers. So, we have launched a new Corporate edition of the City that does not have some features and we have cut the prices from the earlier entry-level version,” Honda Siel’s director (marketing) Seki Inaba said.

Apart from launching a cheaper version, Honda has also added some new features to the car such as providing an electronic sunroof option, cruise control system and turn indicators on the outside mirrors. Also, the City is now longer by 20 mm, and both ground clearance and height have been increased by 5 mm.
But will the launch of the new City at lower prices actually change anything in the ‘C’ segment? Inaba said there was no price reduction and the company had in fact launched a new entry-level variant while raising prices for all other variants. He also declined to comment on whether Honda will get a diesel powertrain anytime soon for its products in India.

In the ‘C’ segment, Hyundai’s Fluidic Verna comes in 10 variants with two engine displacements of 1.4 and 1.6 litres. Though with new pricing the City will compete with the base version of the Verna, absence of a diesel option could continue to hamper the car’s sales. Industry veterans points towards spiralling sales of diesel cars – 8 of 10 Vernas sold are diesel — to assert that merely slashing prices of the entry-level City is unlikely to improve sales of this car in any significant way.

Maruti SX4, , though a bit more expensive at the entry level than the new City,also may not be impacted much.