Honda Amaze automatics register strong interest

The arrival of the new Amaze has given Honda a shot in the arm. The carmaker sold 9,789 units of the Amaze in May 2018, which is the highest monthly sales figure for a Honda in India yet. The early success of the compact sedan also helped boost Honda’s monthly overall sales by 41 percent, compared to May 2017. The carmaker has disclosed it has received over 15,000 bookings for the new Amaze until now and has prioritised production of the compact sedan to meet the demand.

With four engine-gearbox options on offer, including a new diesel-CVT, it is interesting to see the early booking trends. The petrol-diesel sales split is 64-36, but the big news is the increase in the uptake of the automatic transmission versions of the Amaze. As per the initial bookings, the manual-automatic split is 74-26. Remarking on the development, Rajesh Goel, senior vice president, and director, Honda Cars India told Autocar India, “The automatic share in Amaze bookings has gone up significantly. In the petrol volumes, the current booking trend for the petrol-CVT is 24 percent in comparison to the outgoing Amaze which was at 7 percent for the petrol variants.” Also noteworthy is that the new diesel-CVT combo has also found a fair number of buyers with nearly one in three Amaze diesel customers opting for the convenience of an automatic. The diesel-CVT makes up 11 percent of total Amaze bookings.

According to dealers we spoke to, customers are attracted to the compact sedan for its looks and the flat face, which is now common on all new Honda cars. While the petrol-manual in mid-spec S trim is the version in most demand (19 percent of all bookings), in general, customers are opting for higher V and VX versions. The trend is sure to have Honda officials consider the top-spec VX trim for introduction on the automatic versions as well. So far, the automatics can only be had in mid-spec S and second-from-top V trim. The manual versions, on the other hand, are available in four trims – E, S, V, and VX.  

Though Honda has said it will utilise its full capacity to meet customer demand at the earliest, the waiting period for the Amaze is well above 40 days even in key markets.