Honda City, the premium sedan, once again grabbed the position as the top seller of the segment in the Indian car market after a gap of one year. During February 2012, the company sold around 6,052 units of its Honda City, which were comparatively more that of Hyundai Verna as it registered 4500 units for the same period. Last year, this title was acquired by Volkswagen Vento and Hyundai Verna Fluidic, which are counted among the toughest rivals of Honda City.
The company was able to regain the top spot after resuming regular production of Honda City in February 2012. It had to stop manufacturing the model in March 2011 due to floods and earthquakes that affected its plants. As per Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Honda Siel Cars India, Honda City is counted among the most inspirational cars in the Indian market. Mentioning the prospects of attaining large sales volumes, he further stated that the sales of the company were not stagnant in February 2011 because the production unit of Honda Motor was affected by unwanted situations.
Honda City also grabbed headlines with the launch of the new Corporate Edition model in December 2011, which received an awesome response from the buyers. Despite a host of high end features and a new look, the price of the latest edition of City was slashed from Rs. 7.49 lacs to Rs. 6.99 lacs. In 2011, the main competitor of City was Volkswagen Vento, which emerged as a top seller in the country with sales of 3,973 units in March 2011. However, auto analysts speculate that the new model of 2012 Honda City will also be offered in diesel variant by the end of 2013.
