Honda Motor India has announced the official launch date of its Brio Amaze on 11th of April, 2013. The highly awaited compact sedan that is based on the Brio hatchback is finally going to see the Indian daylight in a matter of days now. The Brio Amaze is also the first diesel car in India from Honda and the company has already started registering bookings for the car all over the country.

Honda has also confirmed the engine specifications of the Amaze on its official website. The car is going to be the most competent and fuel efficient among its own class with an astounding 25.8 km per liter of mileage and 100PS (98-99bhp) return.

Under the hood, the Brio Amaze is powered by a powerful 1.5 liter i-DTEC diesel motor that has the capacity to churn out a maximum power output of 100PS. With its mileage of 25.8kmpl, the Amaze will not only be the most fuel efficient car in its segment but also most fuel efficient car in the country.

The brand new Honda Brio Amaze shares a lot of parts and features with its sibling the popular Brio hatchback, but the new compact sedan will off course come with more functions and an additional boot size. Apart from the powerful diesel version, Amaze will also come in a petrol avatar with a very fuel efficient 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine borrowed again from the Brio hatchback.

As most of the other things, the Amaze’s interior is also similar to its Brio hatchback sibling. Along with a similar dashboard, the car also comes with fabric seats with head-rests and upholstery. It comes with several contemporary features like manual air-conditioning, center armrest with cup-holders in the rear seats, driver’s seat height adjustment and rear demister and a feature rich infotainment system among many others.

The Brio Amaze takes care of the safety measures with world class features like dual airbags, ABS & EBD, etc. Other features include 8-spoke 14 inches alloy wheels, 175/65 R14 tyres, blinkers integrated ORVMs, front chrome grill and rear chrome garnish and many more. The car is also expected to have an automatic variant with a five-speed transmission. The Amaze sedan will be available in five body colour options namely Black, White, Azure Grey, Blue and Silver.

The feature rich Honda Amaze is also likely to come with a 2 years maintenance package along with extended warranty scheme as well as road side assistance program to make the customer’s life easier.

As the compact sedan falls under sub-4 meter category, it will enjoy government excise duty benefits, and the usage of the common platform and parts of the Brio hatchback should also help in getting it an attractive price tag. If all goes well, then Honda’s first diesel car will also have a very competent price tag which is expected to be around Rs 5.5 lakh, while its petrol variant is expected to be around Rs 4.5 lakh. With all the advantages, the Amaze seems to be braced to enthrall the Indian car consumers.

Majority of the car manufacturers in India have already launched the diesel version of their cars. However many others have decided to launch the diesel version of their cars in the coming years by transforming their make of the petrol engine. The latest entry to the bandwagon is Honda, which is now focusing on manufacturing diesel version of their cars for the Indian market by understanding its popularity. Honda has also decided to launch its Brio in diesel version after much delay.

Honda’s first ever diesel engine will be fitted in its sedan version of Brio and is expected to be launched in the Indian market next year. Since 2011, a lot of speculations have been made about the sedan which would be made on the Honda Brio platform.

Honda Brio sedan rear yellow

As for the engine specifications are concerned, it might have four pot featuring Honda’s i- DTec technology. It is going to be derived from the 1.6 litre ‘Earth Dreams’ diesel engine which we had seen presence in the Honda Civic from Europe, the output for which ranges from 70 to 110 Bhp. Honda has ensured a wide power range as it has plans to soon launch the diesel versions for Jazz and the City. The vehicle would be priced low as there are no plans to match the engines to an automatic transmission that is usually higher in cost.
The sedan which would be based on Brio has a codename of Honda – 2TP. The length of the diesel version of the sedan is kept four metre for tax benefits. To make sure that the sedan covers both sides of the market spectrum, it will also be equipped with a 1.2L i-VTEC petrol engine. The petrol version engine of Honda Brio carries the 1.2 litre, 4 cylinder, 16 valves SOHC, i-VTEC petrol engine that gives  maximum power of 88PS at 6,000 rpm and a maximum torque of 109Nm at 4,600 rpm.

Honda Brio diesel would be facing tough competition from already success diesel cars including Maruti Suzuki DZire, Tata Indica CS and yet to be launched Mahindra Verito compact sedan. This sub 4 metre category has witnessed tremendous response in the recent years. Mahindra Quanto is the best model sedan that shows the skills of its manufacturer with a sub 4 – metre long vehicle. The new Maruti DZire is another car in the same category. Brio is Honda’s hatchback model with attractive and stylish exterior and comfortable interior. The Japanese car maker is well known in the industry for designing all of its cars in a unique way. Therefore, the manufacturer wanted to make sure that when Brio shall be launched as a sedan, it should retain all its features like before.

Honda is all set to launch the Brio Automatic by mid October 2012. After its launch, Honda is also expected to launch the CNG version of the City, by the time the diesel engine for new Brio gets ready.