After a long, stretchy and rather grueling period, the Indian automobile market is finally showing some signs of positive comeback and upcoming healthy growth. Most of the car makers are recently posting quite impressive sales rates as compared to the dull period. Even during the dark slowdown, some car manufacturers really had a gala time riding on some really successful models. The greatest example is the Japanese car maker Honda.
Honda Black Edition Civic
Honda Cars India made a massive growth in India while almost all other car makers were struggling to get sustainable sales. This was possible because of the two new massive success from Honda India, namely the Amaze and the all new City. Both these cars however, come with their diesel counterparts which ensured their success. In fact Honda India’s fortune turned with the launch of its first diesel car, Amaze compact sedan. Before the diesel cars, Honda had a gloomy period and suffered a lot of declining sales. Slow sales made the Japanese car major withdraw two cars from the Indian market namely the Jazz premium hatchback and the company’s bread and butter model Civic.
However, when potential is concerned the entry-level D segment of India still needs to be tapped a great deal. And considering the growing taste of the Indian consumers for quality luxury vehicles, the Honda Civic really has high chances of returning back to India in a new avatar and along with a diesel counterpart this time around.
The entry-level D segment in India is quite happening with a lot of successful cars which are led by the segment ruler Hyundai Elantra followed by Volkswagen Jetta. The segment also has the good selling Skoda Octavia, the Chevrolet Cruze, Renault Fluence and of course the newly launched new-gen Toyota Corolla Altis.
Except the Renault Fluence, all the cars in the entry level D segment is quite happening, and the very capable Honda Civic is missing this action. Honda withdrew the Civic from India in August, 2012, as the company’s refusal to launch a diesel counterpart of the sedan really cost it in terms of massive sales drop.
The Honda Civic is offered in 1.6 liter i-DTEC and the 2.2 liter i-CTDi diesel engine options in the European market. Now, it seems that the best thing that the Japanese car maker can to is to either bring the Civic back to India equipped with the more compact 1.6 liter diesel mill or a scaled down version of the 2.2 liter diesel mill, as the Indian car customers would really appreciate the all new Civic sedan along with its diesel avatar.
Honda itself knows what amount of popularity and sales growth after it finally accepted the dire need of a diesel vehicle in its range. Though it is already rumored that Honda is planning to re-launch the Civic in the Indian car market, it still remains to be seen whether the staple Honda sedan actually returns to India or not.
This post was written by
I have been writing content for auto blogs for quite a long time now. My passion lies in this field and I love to picture cars as well.
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