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New Honda Model This
Year?
By Luk4all.com.my Editor
Posted
26th February 2007
It
is good to be back after a long week of Chinese New Year
holiday ... and a good news for the new year for our
readers. We have an inside source that Honda Malaysia
will be launching a new model sometime this year. Yeah,
you read this right, it’s a totally new model. By the
way, this is not the new CRV which will also be launched
middle of this year.
Well, when we say it is a new model, it
is not a new
facelift (Civic might be getting new facelift this year
too) or a new replacement model (CRV in this case). It
will be a total new model that has yet to be seen in Malaysia. We have taken the liberty during
the holiday in compiling the likely list of models and
the one that we believe will make it locally.
Accord Coupe
We will start off with a more
familiar model. In this case, the 2 door coupe version of
Accord. This is a no-brainer, pretty much the same
as the 4-door Accord. With this version, it will only look more
sporty (not the uncle type anymore) and will have more
connection
to the younger generations.
To
think about it, any car that exceeds RM100K mark, the
younger folks wouldn't be able to afford it anyway, why
risk the potential bad sales? Unless they are sons of
Datuk/Datin. With this in mind, we don't think this is
the one. Next...
Element
This is a 4-door and 4 wheel drive
sport utility vehicle (SUV). The square shape of the
design, makes it looks like our own Proton Juara.
However, it does come with a slight stylish and elegant
look. For the information, the
sales of Proton Juara was so bad that in 2006, Proton
discontinued the model due to slow sales.
Considering our local
trend and taste that dislike outdoor adventures, we
think this will not make it to our shore.
HRV
Unfortunately, we can’t find much
of the information on this model in the internet. It
might only be available in Japan, as most the site that
return our search results were from the US (they showed
old model of HRV). The reason why we have this in our
list is because the model looks kind of cool.
Our
verdict ... if you can't find it in the States, high
chances that neither you will find it in Malaysia.
Life
Moving to our next list, which is
our favorite model, Life. It is a small car with 660 cc
engine, mated to 4-speed automatic transmission and
optional 4 wheel drive. We believe the compatible size
(and it does look similar to Myvi in some way though,
doesn’t it?) will sure make it a hit locally, since
nowadays Malaysians are more keen into buying smaller
car size (can’t blame them looking at our car park and
traffic conditions).
Life
stands a 50-50 chance of debuting in Malaysia and
we're definitely keeping our fingers crossed for this
model.
MDX
This is actually a mid size SUV
from Acura model. In a nutshell, Acura manufactures a
higher end model of Honda, just like Lexus of Toyota or
Infinity of Nissan. Check this out, the vehicle is
designed to hold 7 passengers, and here comes the great
part, it also features an automatic 4 wheel drive system
that engages only when wheel slippage is detected.
Well,
do expect the price of this “heavy weight” to exceed RM200K
range if it were to make it to Malaysia. Our say, it is
very unlikely since we never had any Acura model
locally. Moving on ...
Mobilio
Just one word to sum up this model,
“boring”. This just doesn’t feel like Honda, with
another square-ish design concept. Again, it looks
similar to our own Perodua Kenari. We think in some way,
it does look worst than Kenari.
We’re taking in the
behalf of all Malaysian to vote out this model,
definitely not our choice to have this model on the
road.
Spike
Rightly named. Really give us a
“spike” to our eyes for even looking at this model. Call
us conservative, but we’re a 110% non-supported of
“boxish” design concept of a vehicle. We believe a
vehicle should be sporty, stylish and has an at least
some aerodynamic design consideration.
This is
definitely out.
StepWGN
This model does strike a
resemblance to Stream, a sure hit to those Stream
enthusiasts. It features 4 wheel drive capability (don’t
think we have this on Stream, do we?). Great car for
family of 5.
Yeah,
it does look nice, and we're don't mind taking this as
the new Honda model.
That’s
Well, we’re sure after you have
read the few lists above; you would have known that we’re not
going to elaborate more on the square-ish model. It’s a
no-no choice from us. If it’s not the Honda logo on the
car, we are sure most of us would have taken it as the design
from our own Proton :)
It is a
definitely "NO".
Edix
It is a 5 seater MPV (or FR-V which stands for Flexible Recreation
Vehicle in Europe). This is our best bet, looking at the
current local car market that prefer lower fuel
consumption vehicle and a
smaller Malaysian family size nowadays (usually at 4).
The
short and wide profile, like sports cars, actually
improve handling, limiting body roll (usually a problem
for people carriers) while maintaining agility in
cornering.
This is
a good bet.
Our
final verdict, we believe it would be Honda Edix.
There is no definite reason to why we pick this model,
as we feel that if we were to be in Honda management
team, this is the right model to introduce in Malaysia.
Putting it at an affordable price with some marketing
gimmicks, it would surely be a hit.
Well,
we would like to hear from you as well, what is your
choice? Share it with us.
"Gong Xi Fa Cai to all our Chinese readers"
Comments:
Man, you guys are fast in getting all this information. You are right, i do have a friend who work as Honda salesman that share the same information. And their best bet is Edix as well. As for me, i'm not really into Edix, as i think we have too many type of this small MPV on the road nowadays.
My vote would to get Honda Life. I think it's time to get Kancil out of the equation :)
2/25/2007 1:53:39 PM | daerty
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