Comments on: Honda Taking Indians For A Ride With Jazz

By: Monthly U-Turn - What You Missed In June

Monthly U-Turn - What You Missed In June — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:30:35 +0000

[...] Spark LPG A Guy Goes Around The World On A Pulsar Toyota Launches Land Cruiser Diesel In India Honda Launches Overpriced Jazz TVS Launches Apache RTR 180 We Get Behind The Wheel Of The Fiat Grande Punto Multijet GM India Uses [...]

By: fas

fas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:37:05 +0000

Bhoot, the A-Class and B-Class are not available in India yet. Mercedes India has no plans to launch it either due to high pricing and lack of demand for such kind of vehicles. However the VW Beetle is coming soon.

By: bhoot

bhoot — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:21:26 +0000

I’m starting to think that Honda is positioning this hatch in the luxury segment, where there is a lack of small cars… targetted to rich ladies who want to drive themselves instead of having a driver? If that’s their niche market target, then a premium price is needed to deliberately discourage the middle-class from buying that… Bring on an Acura hatchback in that case instead of Honda… Are the Mercedes Benz Class A and Class B sold in India?

In other countries, the Jazz is priced similar to the City, Toyota Vitz/Belta/Vios or the Nissan March.

By: coldgold

coldgold — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:12:57 +0000

A first big mistake from Honda. Once they set a price, they cannot reduce it if they find that the customer response is bad.

By: Casper

Casper — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:48:08 +0000

Honda has placed the engine to 1.2 L to take advantage of excise norms.
But they dont seem to pass on the benifits to the customers.
So then, the 1.2 L engine is not at all justified. Its underpowered. If they are seling the Jazz over 7.5 lacs, they should have atleast put a 1.6 liter engine….!

By: Rajan

Rajan — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:53:10 +0000

Dear Fellow Countrymen,

Show the doors to Honda out of India. In C&B Show review Siddharth praised a lot about the design. To be frank i really dont like the looks of Jazz. The look doesnt really go with the name of the car. Car design is not proportionate. Ugly headlamp, awkward grills and still you call this a design marvel? I think it is time to teach Honda a lesson, dump the Jazz.

Fiat Punto will be a great hit in India. There is nothing much to praise about the looks but nothing to complain either.

Ritz will be real value for money. Its looks, features, K12M engine.. Just awesome.

I guess when it comes to design the Maruti and Hyundai engineers are scoring high. Examples are Swift/i20/i30/Kizashi.

By: Harshad

Harshad — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:06:25 +0000

**** the jazz, I’ve started hating Honda and the jazz!

Seems deepak really hates mahindra for their hybrid initiative!

By: bhoot

bhoot — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:24:49 +0000

True that it’s over-priced. Must be a Honda India problem. We have Toyota problem in Mauritius (they’re not bringing the right models for the market). Jazz’s selling good elsewhere, and is No.1 in sales in Japan.

But hey, don’t compare i20 and Punto to the Jazz/Fit. Those two are not worth comparing to the Jazz. Don’t just look at what features they offer. The Jazz is larger, more practical with the huge boot you get when the rear seats are folded up, better engine (it’s a Honda) and it’s rock solid. It’s have good resale value (as opposed to the comparingly unreliable Punto).

But you’re all right about the price. A hatchback with that kind of price… simply not for India. They shoud consider briging smaller hatches to go head on head with Maruti and others. Honda does sell them in Japan.

By: sumit

sumit — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:57:28 +0000

Honda might be trying to fool Indians but I think in the long run they will end up fooling themselves. A negative image comes to haunt you down for many many decades to come. Good will and image is hard to build and Honda is screwing it up royally even before they begin. I would have hard time shelling out that type of money even for a Merc let alone a HOOOONDA.

By: Sushil

Sushil — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:35:41 +0000

@Deepak – a question Honda should have been clear about before launching the Hybrid – will people buy the car at 25L on road when the accord can be had for that much. It is a novelty as of now – some people still went and bought it. The value of the car is definitely obvious when people saw it as worthy of buying at 15L on road.
Same goes for the Jazz. It has nice packaging – but does it make sense to buy a hatchback for 8L + ? Absolutely not. Neither does a 8L Skoda Fabia. Anything over 6.5L for a hatchback is questionable.

BTW I used to be a Honda owner a couple of years ago. But in India looking at the spec sheet given by Honda – I have a much wider choice which is more VFM than the Jazz. People can go buy the Jazz if they have the money and want to – no one is stopping them. The person who has to balance VFM will go to other options for sure. I love the looks of the Civic and the City but will I ever buy them new ? 100% no !
People who know that the same cars are specced better in every other country – will be frustrated by Honda Indias approach. If they are committed to the Indian market they shoudl localize production like crazy and also bring out models that really justify the price. People will then have no reason to post cribby comments like mine :-).