[Vahanam]

This move by Honda is not at all good for City customers. You cant irk further the already frustrated customers. With poor planning, they made the V and VX customers wait for a very long time. With nearly 60% booking numbers for higher variants, is it so difficult to coordinate vendor supply schedule and deliver earlier?

Now comes the next jolt. Hey, City Lovers - We know our car is great and why dont you also agree too? So then wait for some more months for this premium car , since we are trying to sell a cheaper car, which might not sell if it has longer waiting periods..

What next? Jazz launch (since Jazz will be built in Tapukara plant). Hey City Lovers - Previously Jazz did not do well and we want to make sure it sells well. So wait please. Oh! god, sales of mobilio and jazz did not go as per our expectation. Inky, Pinky, what do i do? Ah! City lovers, while you waited patiently, our input costs have gone up and here is the new revised city prices.. Our gift for your waiting... Premium car comes at a premium!!

--On behalf of frustrated City Lovers (Even though i am getting mine delivered this month)

[arnabchak]

The production constraint and the strategy(or the lack of it) in prioritizing Mobilio over City is bound to have disastrous effects on Honda.

Expect a City sales monthly figure of close to 4-4.5K, that too if being optimistic.
Mobilio is a uncooked product and will leave a lot to be desired of.

Additionally, to push sales of a new yet criticized product over the bread and butter will impact badly.

Sad part is the Ciaz is still some time away. Else, there was a high chance for MS to go for the kill.

Nevertheless, Verna may be grinning ear to ear!!

[vsk2009]

I wonder whether the move is to get some time to fix niggles reported by the customers. There were reports about panel gaps and small niggles which shouldn't have happened to a Honda car. Otherwise why one should kill today's prosperity for tomorrow's dream

[john doe]

How many of the frustrated City aspirants will opt for the new Tata car when it will be launched in 15 days? I hope that Tata can make the most of this situation and sell a lot of high end Revotrons:-)

[commonman]

Originally Posted by john doe

How many of the frustrated City aspirants will opt for the new Tata car when it will be launched in 15 days? I hope that Tata can make the most of this situation and sell a lot of high end Revotrons:-)

Mobilio! !

More waiting for City means you are losing the bird in your hand and the one in the bush! Honda is taking Indians for a ride !

Tata zest may not be able to replace City but the booking may go somewhere else. Zest can never be as refined as City and segment is different too.

[Contrapunto]

Its a logical move to optimize limited (and therefore constrained) capacity. Its a free market, and the customers always have a choice to move to other brands. And surely Honda management has considered all these factors before making a decision. If the wait bothers you, move on to a Vento or a Verna. If you so desperately want the City, you are the ideal customer. What's a small wait of 3-4 months......?

[scopriobharath]

Honda makes much more profit by selling a mobilio compared to selling a city, since part sharing and bare-bones help in increasing profit. This is the reason they are stopping City's production.

They would have done the math and even if a city aspirant moves to another competitor, they still make profit.

But - my take is Honda is overconfident on its bare-bones mobilio. I think Mobilio will turn out to be another Etios in the making. Let us wait for 6 months and am pretty sure, they Ertiga and Xylo numbers will be more than Mobilio's numbers

[vsk2009]

Originally Posted by Contrapunto

Its a logical move to optimize limited (and therefore constrained) capacity. Its a free market, and the customers always have a choice to move to other brands. And surely Honda management has considered all these factors before making a decision. If the wait bothers you, move on to a Vento or a Verna. If you so desperately want the City, you are the ideal customer. What's a small wait of 3-4 months......?

The mistake that Honda has done(assuming that the news is correct) is that the customers were not aware of the issue well in advance. Already people lost good 1-2 months by waiting. I agree that if it were announced in advance it is a choice for the customer but stopping all of a sudden is not correct. Yesterday I asked the Honda customer care and they told that they haven't informed about any such news. Honda dealership didn't even confirmed it yet. If I were not member of a forum like most of the customers, I will not even know about such delay. As an ideal company they would have done it.

[RSR]

It beats me that Honda, despite being Japanese (who are masters in the art & science of mass-manufacturing), are not able to get their production planning correct, although they have two manufacturing plants in operation now.

Those who have booked the City should not have to agonisingly wait for longer, just because Honda have launched the Mobilio. Honda should have waited for City production to meet the backlog of orders, and then launched the Mobilio. Or they should have ramped up production capacity, before launching their MPV.

Gone are the days of people waiting for long periods for a car they've booked and manufacturers capitalising on it by building up artificial demand. Today, if a company creates artificial bottlenecks in the supply in order to push up demand, they stand to lose a sizable chunk of customers to the competition, as they should! Let's see if the competition can utilise this opportunity provided by Honda themselves to dethrone the City.

[pdma]

Originally Posted by RSR

It beats me that Honda, despite being Japanese (who are masters in the art & science of mass-manufacturing), are not able to get their production planning correct, although they have two manufacturing plants in operation now.

You are spot on mate. In the past few months Honda was applauded for not going the Eco sport way in dispatching the City. But looks like they decided to test the patience of the customers with this move. Honda should atleast open the eyes now as there is enough feedback on Mobilo already and the City which is bringing in the numbers for them should not be put in the back seat for any reason.With the launch of some new cars for the festive season the heat is definitely on and if the same attitude continues from Honda then Maruthi can cash in well with the Ciaz (provided it doesn't turn out to be a disappointment after all the hype and wait , similar to what happened in case of the Mobilo ).
Also I have read that the production might not be halting completely but will be delayed because they are moving the same to the Tapukara plant from Noida , I have posted some more details on the Honda City thread.

cheers,
pdma.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by vsk2009

What about those customers who had exchanged their cars in 'Auto Terrace' and booked City? Will Honda give them back their cars?

The customers always make an informed decision and its very clearly mentioned that delivery status, price and features might vary from the actual shown at the time of booking. I understand the pain and frustration but then there is no point of rhetorical statements. At the most you can cancel your booking.

Originally Posted by john doe

How many of the frustrated City aspirants will opt for the new Tata car when it will be launched in 15 days? I hope that Tata can make the most of this situation and sell a lot of high end Revotrons:-)

Am afraid but the answer is "not many". Honda very well knows that the City is leading the segment right now and there are hardly any alternatives right now in the market other than the Verna. I do not really see the Vento in its current form and the VW after sales to really pose a tough challenge to the city with its diesel heart.

[amit]

I doubt the Mobilo is going to do well here. The pricing is premium but the car isn't. Like someone said, it's going to be Honda's Etios & i hope it flops because for the price the car deserves to flop. Sure there will be a 3-6 months honeymoon period for the Mobilo and it may outsell the Ertiga initially but I doubt it can sustain it's run for long.

[avira_tk]

I think this is a problem that dealers are hyping, look at it another way as there is a mention of Honda getting the City's variant mix wrong. Honda can reduce production and deliver the variants which have more demand, so reduced production needn't necessarily mean longer waiting periods.

The City does not have a competitor- meaning equivalent Japanese product, and people who want a City will not jump ship and get a Vento/Rapid/Verna at the drop of a hat. Honda is king of the hill in terms of brand equity, people like them for quality and reliability as well as looks, top that off with low maintenance cost and I'd bet that the majority of those who booked the City will wait it out. Think of it as Honda's Ecosport moment.

[RYP]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

Honda makes much more profit by selling a mobilio compared to selling a city, since part sharing and bare-bones help in increasing profit. This is the reason they are stopping City's production.

They would have done the math and even if a city aspirant moves to another competitor, they still make profit.

But - my take is Honda is overconfident on its bare-bones mobilio. I think Mobilio will turn out to be another Etios in the making. Let us wait for 6 months and am pretty sure, they Ertiga and Xylo numbers will be more than Mobilio's numbers

+1 to this. Ertiga i guess wont take 6 months to beat Mobilio, 3 months at max. Mobilio is en route to be India's next taxi-segment favorite. Logan, Etios, Tavera all took Indians for granted with their formula of Badge+Max Space in a sub-par vehicle and they burnt their hands big time. Its time for Honda to do so.

[Alive2Drive]

Hi Friends,

I think Honda missed a trick here. They should have officially stopped taking bookings of the city if they had to stall the production for 2 months. They already have a backlog to clear and am sure adding more bookings is not going to help. Ford went through a similar situation where they were not able to meet the demand and they stopped taking bookings from customers. They were okay customers opting for other cars but did not encourage any kind of agony for the customers.

I think this also encourages selling the cars available at a premium over and above the price of the car. I will not be surprised to see sales reps asking if the customer is willing to pay a premium and may offer a car.

Thoughts ?