Amaze bookings cross 11,000; waiting period over four months

With bookings for Honda?s first diesel model, the Amaze compact sedan, crossing 11,000 just six days after launch and waiting periods going up to four months, rivals Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirloskar, Nissan and Mahindra have started responding with a bevy of schemes and offers to push their products.

Maruti launched a limited edition ?Regal? variant of the Dzire at R5.60 lakh just two days after the Amaze was launched. Dzire sells about 15,000 units a month and is the biggest competitor for the Amaze in the compact sedan segment.

Available only in petrol, the Regal aims to give a premium look to the Dzire with design elements like a new paint shade, body graphics, a silver-finish treatment to the upper and lower grille, and comes with parking sensors, wood inserts on armrests, stainless-steel door sills, and faux leather seats. Separately, dealers are also offering discounts of R10,000-15,000 on the Dzire.

?While Dzire is the primary target of the Amaze with a pricing that matches exactly, we don?t expect a major dent on Dzire?s volumes since Maruti has 1,200 dealers compared with Honda?s 150. However, since a majority of Maruti?s Dzire sales comes from the metros, a real impact could be visible after a month or two,? a sector analyst said.

The Amaze pricing starts at R4.99 lakh (petrol) and R5.99 lakh (diesel) in Delhi, both of which are exactly the same as Dzire. However, rivals that are more likely to see a bigger hit are the Toyota Etios, Nissan Sunny, Mahindra Verito and Tata Indigo Manza, sources said.

Toyota Kirloskar, which has unveiled an upgraded version of the Etios compact sedan in March just ahead of the Amaze launch, is offering the older version at its dealers with schemes that give R50,000-60,000 worth of savings to buyers. To push sales further, the new version (features a new colour and interior upgrade) is also available with savings of about R10,000. The Etios sells about 3,300 units a month.

Mahindra is also expanding the Verito range with a new hatchback version called ?Vibe? next month, which will promise new features and a cheaper entry price for the Verito range, which sells about 1,200 units a month. Tata Motors, which has seen sales plummet 15% in FY13, slashed prices by R50,000 last month and is also running multiple schemes for the Indigo and Manza sedans like a buyback offer.

?Not only compact sedans, but some premium hatchbacks and some mid-size sedans will also feel the heat from the Amaze given Honda?s strong brand value and the fact that it?s the first diesel model from the company. With market conditions already sluggish, we expect more discounts coming in,? an analyst said.

Honda currently faces a capacity constraint with a strong order flow of Amaze coming in. With a monthly output of 10,000 units at its Greater Noida plant, it can make about 5,000-6,000 units of the Amaze at most, the rest of the capacity being dedicated to the Brio, City, CR-V and Accord models. A new factory at Tapukara, Rajasthan will only come up by early-2014, doubling monthly output to 20,000 units at the start, with a potential to triple to 30,000 units if needed.

?The first month is usually strong, but we need to see where the demand settles down after that. After so many years, we have a reason to feel very happy. But meeting the market demand is crucial with the limited capacity that we have and for future success of the brand. While it is important to establish the Amaze as a new product right now, we need to support our other popular models like Brio and City as well,? said Raman Sharma, senior VP and director at Honda Cars India.

Bevy of schemes

* Maruti launched a limited edition ?Regal? variant of the Dzire at R5.60 lakh. Dealers are also offering discounts of R10,000-15,000 on the Dzire

* Toyota Kirloskar unveiled an upgraded Etios compact sedan. With old model buyers can expect to save R50,000-60,000. The new version is available with savings of about R10,000

* M&M is also expanding the Verito range with a new hatchback version called ?Vibe? next month, which will promise new features and a cheaper entry price for the Verito range

* Tata Motors slashed prices by R50,000 last month and is also running multiple schemes for the Indigo and Manza sedans like a buyback offer