[BUSA]

finneyp - I guess you forgot to add Civic, Swift Diesel, Verna Diesel to the list.

Only cars which are usually sanely priced are the Fiats & Tatas.

Oops who can forget Renault Mahinda & Mahindra Logoff

[diabloo]

Why do you feel Honda City (NHC here) is overpriced? Comfort factor is unmatched for its price. Why do you feel more money should buy more BHP? Why can't more money buy more comfort? Thats why NHC scores & sells. When you pay 8L, you expect something pleasant. NHC offers that. 8L car shouldn't be like getting into a dungeon.

Originally Posted by BUSA

Overpricing due to tax is common to all Indian cars, but overpricing by manufacturers is another, case in point is Honda and all their offereing except the Accord.

Originally Posted by finneyp

Some Overpriced cars according to me:
5. Honda City

[raul]

The result of this artificial inflated pricing is going to become clear in one instance when VW launches Passat. According to the latest business world VW is in a fix because VW is sold at a higher price to Skoda in other markets where Skoda is not a premium brand. In India the situation as we all know is different and BW speculates they are going to sell the $22000 (9.2 lakh) Passat for $55000 (28lakh).

I am sure we will have a few rich customers who would be willing to pay this sum, that doesn't make it right. Needless to say there will be no volumes at this ridiculous price point if they do as speculated.

There is tremendous wealth disparity in India because of the way the economy has evolved, low labour costs is one byproduct - too low in my opinion which artificially transfers more wealth to businesses then to workers.

Take the instance of the real estate market, consumers which is us pay market prices for flats/apartments/houses, these prices are inline with international prices, yet the workers who build these are paid a pittance and have to depend on the governement for subsidies while the builders corner a huge share of profits, than they would in any other properly functioning economy, and can thus afford to pay Mercedes, BMW, Skoda and VW artificially inflated prices for their products. Now this is just an example but you can see just how wrong things are here.

But with more people making reasonable professional wages because of IT and telecom and the related growth car makers should look at the future, more volumes and growing the market rather than taking the easy and very dubious strategy of overpricing their products to cater to a niche, and creating a artificial disparity in their pricing in different markets, which will qualify as illegal business practices liable to prosecution in the regulated markets of EU and US.

[MaserQ]

From the top of my head...

1. Honda City/CRV - gotten away with the brand image, so far.
2. Skoda Laura (c'mon its supposed to be the Octavia II)
3. Ford Fusion. What do they do? Exploit the 'small' car rules at the expense of customers.
4. Reva electric car. Ok, so the goverment has not laid out tax sops for 'alternative' fuels, but for that money I would gladly go in for a regular small car.

[sathya_nars]

Originally Posted by diabloo

Why do you feel Honda City (NHC here) is overpriced? Comfort factor is unmatched for its price. Why do you feel more money should buy more BHP? Why can't more money buy more comfort? Thats why NHC scores & sells. When you pay 8L, you expect something pleasant. NHC offers that. 8L car shouldn't be like getting into a dungeon.

Have you driven SX4, Verna, Fiesta, etc? NHC is NOT significantly higher in comfort compared to these. NHC sells because of brand image, people think that owning a Honda car is a good status symbol than other cars.

NHC is overpriced, period.

[diabloo]

Hey buddy, I have sat in rear seat of Aveo, Verna & Fiesta. Nothing special in those cars. But when I sat in NHC, I was like 'Wow, this looks luxurious !'. Once I peeped into SX4. Looked good. A friend of mine bought Indica Xeta. Its beige interior looked good too.

When you pay 8L for all these cars, how can one car score over another in status symbol?

If I pay 10 bucks and buy Diary Milk, Perk, Kitkat, 5Star, according to people, eating which has a good status symbol than others?

Note: For the price, Kitkat is VFM. But I don't like the taste of Kitkat. I like Diary Milk. But I get least quantity among these. So Diary Milk is not VFM & hence overpriced.

Originally Posted by sathya_nars

Have you driven SX4, Verna, Fiesta, etc? NHC is NOT significantly higher in comfort compared to these. NHC sells because of brand image, people think that owning a Honda car is a good status symbol than other cars.

NHC is overpriced, period.

[GTO]

Mod Note : New Thread merged with Ajmats previous one on the same topic.

[sathya_nars]

Originally Posted by diabloo

Hey buddy, I have sat in rear seat of Aveo, Verna & Fiesta. Nothing special in those cars. But when I sat in NHC, I was like 'Wow, this looks luxurious !'. Once I peeped into SX4. Looked good. A friend of mine bought Indica Xeta. Its beige interior looked good too.

When you pay 8L for all these cars, how can one car score over another in status symbol?

If I pay 10 bucks and buy Diary Milk, Perk, Kitkat, 5Star, according to people, eating which has a good status symbol than others?

Note: For the price, Kitkat is VFM. But I don't like the taste of Kitkat. I like Diary Milk. But I get least quantity among these. So Diary Milk is not VFM & hence overpriced.

I am sure, in many threads you'll find TBHPians say that NHC is overpriced (in fact, all Honda cars). Search in various threads and you'll find it.

Read my post again, I said "NHC is NOT significantly higher in comfort compared to these". With this, I meant,other cars are comparable in comfort with NHC, but NHC is not way ahead significantly over rest which convinces customers for premium.

Look at your comments in 2 posts "Why can't more money buy more comfort? Thats why NHC scores & sells." and later "Wow, this looks luxurious !" - comfort and luxury are different, IMHO.

Also, in India, car manufacturers (and customers, even) need to think of safety as important as comfort, luxury, etc.

While paying 8L to 9.5L for NHC, with almost no safety feature - not sure we need comfort/luxury and no safety at all (not even optional).

Anyway, everyone's choice of factors for a car is different, but since this thread discusses how car manufacturers rip off Indians, this is right place to discuss about mentality of those manufacturers who think safety is not important for Indians.

[BUSA]

Originally Posted by diabloo

Why do you feel Honda City (NHC here) is overpriced? Comfort factor is unmatched for its price. Why do you feel more money should buy more BHP? Why can't more money buy more comfort? Thats why NHC scores & sells. When you pay 8L, you expect something pleasant. NHC offers that. 8L car shouldn't be like getting into a dungeon.

I had a NHC before, the rear bench is good but Aveo is almost as good if not better and for the price of a NHC you get a Optra which is much better in comfort, and a car is not all about comfort but also about handling, ride, looks, brakes, performance and this is where the SX4 has a edge on the NHC.

[reignofchaos]

NHC and Civic are easily the most overpriced cars in the Indian market bar all Skodas. The Skodas are priced at a level which makes me laugh. The next in line is the Verna CRDi, Getz Prime and the Corolla. I'm not including CBUs as almost all CBUs are overpriced.

The only Honda that is good value for money in India is the Accord.

[diabloo]

There seems to be universal agreement that NHC and Civic are overpriced. Could anybody list down the reasons how they came that conclusion (don't say somebody else said so )? And it is overpriced compared to what? Any specific instance or just a gut feeling?

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

NHC and Civic are easily the most overpriced cars in the Indian market bar all Skodas. The Skodas are priced at a level which makes me laugh. The next in line is the Verna CRDi, Getz Prime and the Corolla. I'm not including CBUs as almost all CBUs are overpriced.

The only Honda that is good value for money in India is the Accord.

[BUSA]

Originally Posted by diabloo

There seems to be universal agreement that NHC and Civic are overpriced. Could anybody list down the reasons how they came that conclusion (don't say somebody else said so )? And it is overpriced compared to what? Any specific instance or just a gut feeling?

You work for Honda Kya?

Honda City vs SX4

The SX4 has Leather seats, ABS, Airbags(2), EBD, Climate Control, 16 inch 205 tyres(the NHC has very puny tyres), Audio Controls on steering to name a few over even the Vtec City, now isint the Honda overpriced.

The Civic doesnot have adjustable Lumbar Support, Audio Controls on the Steering Wheel, Fog Lamps, Leather Seats in the S variant, wheras cars like WagonR also come with fogs as standard equipment now isint it that Civic and NHC are overpriced. The Cedia is a better car then the Civic in terms of handling, ride, stability, low end driveability and pricing, how can Honda price the V marinat at 14.5L OTR in banglore You can get a Sonata Embera CRDi

[msharma_79]

you are right boss, we are paying too much for the cars. the new logan which considered cheap in India actually sells at a lot cheaper price with ABS, AIR BAG and standard europeon feature.

would you believe the price they are selling it in europe...5000 EUROS in INR which is 2 lacs 50 odd thousand

Govt. is minting money like anything over here.

[coolspeed]

We can add UV-A also. The price of the LS version continues to be much higher than Swift Vxi and Getz GLS (post offers) with less fetaures compared to the other two.
Also, this is inspite of having about Rs.35,000 cost advantage in excise due to small car norms

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by diabloo

There seems to be universal agreement that NHC and Civic are overpriced. Could anybody list down the reasons how they came that conclusion (don't say somebody else said so )? And it is overpriced compared to what? Any specific instance or just a gut feeling?

Since you are convinced they are fairly priced, it may be a better idea if you could list down a factual argument proving that the City ZX GXi, as a car, offers more than - say, the SX4 ZXi, Fiesta 1.6SXi, Verna 1.6 XXi, Aveo 1.6. Note that the GXi costs as much and in some cases more than these cars. Such a comparo would really help those of us who 'feel' that the NHC is overpriced.

Alternately for a comparo of the VTec you can always look up the VTec vs Cedia thread.