Sedans were once a driving force in the Indian passenger vehicle market which slowly faded away in the last decade with the advent of more and more compact and subcompact SUVs or pseudo SUVs with a taller stance. Buyers started favouring a high-riding stance of crossovers over the sedans, although the latter offers better dynamics.
The sub-4 metre space has a handful of sedans but only the Dzire sells in large volume. The other two models in this segment are Honda Amaze and Tata Tigor. All three models are popular choices in the fleet and cab aggregator industries. While Tigor isn’t due for an upgrade anytime soon, both Dzire and Amaze will soon receive major updates.
New-gen Honda Amaze spied
Test mules of the Dzire have already been spied on multiple occasions, and now a test mule of the new-gen Amaze has been spied for the first time. Wrapped in camouflage, the prototype of Amaze spotted can be seen carrying an emission testing kit attached to the car’s exhaust. Further, the mule partially revealed the tail-lamps which received a smoked treatment.
The images confirm the presence of a reverse camera, a shark fin antenna and three fixed headrests for the rear passengers, similar to the City. Registered in Uttar Pradesh, the Amaze test mule was spotted in the outskirts of Delhi. Speaking of City, the third-gen Amaze will shift to the City’s platform which also underpins the Elevate.
Being fully covered under a camouflage, the latest spy shots only reveal the rear end of the car which is hard to tell, as of now, if the design is familiar to the current model or not. In its second generation now, the Amaze was first launched in India in April 2013, as a platform sibling to the erstwhile Jazz and got a generation upgrade in 2018. The Amaze was an India-centric product and also exported to foreign markets.
The new Honda Amaze is expected to undergo cosmetic and feature enhancements although mechanicals are likely to remain unchanged. The compact sedan in its updated avatar is expected to be powered by a 1.2-litre i-Vtec naturally aspirated petrol engine which puts out 89 bhp and 110 Nm of peak torque. This unit will be paired with either a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 7-step CVT.
