It has recently emerged that Honda Cars India, the Indian subsidiary of Japanese car maker, has axed the production of the Jazz B segment hatchback.
Honda Cars India has been struggling to sell the premium hatchback in decent numbers and the discontinuation doesn’t come across as a huge surprise. Honda offered huge discounts and several price cuts on its large hatchback but the car still couldn’t manage to attract many buyers.
It may be noted that while Honda can be easily credited with making really refined petrol motors, lack of a diesel engine for the Indian line up of cars proved to be an Achilles heel for the car maker. With no plans for introducing a diesel engine variant of the Jazz hatchback, the future of the car never seemed to be too bright in our country.
However, it has also emerged that the Honda Jazz will make a comeback of sorts in 2014, when the diesel variant of its next generation model will be launched in Indian car market. Honda Cars India will price the new Jazz very competitively by making use of heavy localization in the manufacturing of the car. Powering the next gen Jazz in Indian car market will be the new 1.5 Liter i-DTEC diesel motor that will make its debut with the Brio Amaze compact sedan. The 2014 Honda Jazz will make its international debut before the next generation of City sedan is introduced to the world.
The 2014 Honda City sedan too will get the 1.5 Litre i-DTEC turbo diesel engine and should make life tougher for the diesel variants of European C segment sedans.
Will the 1.5 litre diesel engine turn the fortunes of Honda Cars India? What do you say?
via AutoCarIndia