New Honda City 2012

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) today launched a refreshed version of the new 2012 Honda City in India at price ranging from Rs 6.99 lakh to Rs 10.22 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The old City was priced between Rs 7.49 lakh and Rs 9.89 lakh. "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 do not have some features, and we have cut the prices from the earlier entry-level version," HSCI Director (Marketing) Seki Inaba told reporters here. The company's R&D; division is also working on to increase the localisation of components and implement cost reduction activities, he added. HSCI will start taking booking orders for the new City immediately and delivery will start from January. The company had introduced the current third generation City in 2008 and has sold 1.36 lakh units so far. The City sales have been facing stiff resistance from other models in the segment such as Hyundai Verna, Maruti SX4 and Volkswagen Vento. While Verna, SX4 and Vento offer both diesel and petrol options, City comes only in petrol variant. In August, HSCI had launched a new version of its premium hatchback Jazz, cutting the price by over Rs 1.5 lakh from the existing model as it looked to increase sales in a fiercely competitive compact car market. Talking about the impact on sourcing of components from Thailand due the flood, Inaba said: "Our production was curtailed due to component shortage. However, we have been successful in ensuring components for the new City."