Honda India strikes back; launches new City & cuts prices of sedan

New Delhi: Desperate times call for desperate measures. After losing the Volkswagen Vento, Japanese automaker Honda is striking back by lowering prices and improving features of its flagship sedan City.

City automaker has cut prices for the second time within six months and launched a new version at Rs6.99 lakh (exshowroom, Delhi).

This pit sedan, which was the market leader for years in direct competition with Hyundai Verna and the Volkswagen Vento, which is priced Rs 6.99 lakh to.

"We have been cutting prices and adding features to make our cars more real competition in the market," Seki Inaba, who took over the director (marketing), Honda's Indian subsidiary in March this year, told ET.

Inaba has been widely blamed price cuts for various models. Before Wednesday's reduction in the base model was available in the City of Rs7.49 lakh Honda cut prices of Rs 66000 in June. "Price changes are made to the City in accordance with the recently-launched version, based on customer feedback," Inaba added. Honda is struggling with the sale and production downtime caused by the tsunami in Japan in March, and posted sales of 31,699 units a 20% decline in the first eight months of the budget. By comparison, Volkswagen rose 107%, and Toyota sold 52,037 cars and 91,981 units increased by 86%.

Honda's forte is small as the premium segment in India, where he sells the City, Civic and Accord sedans and the CR-V SUV. But the amazing growth of the late entrants, such as Volkswagen, Nissan and Honda are forced to focus on volumes.

Article Source:- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/auto/automobiles/honda-india-strikes-back-launches-new-city-cuts-prices-of-sedan/articleshow/11112932.cms