2,50,274 Honda City Sold In Just Under 42 Months!

January 7, 2014, was a very exciting day for many car buyers in India. A new generation of the City was to be launched; while that would have been news in itself, this time the bigger headline was that it was being launched with a diesel powertrain initially. This was the first time the City would be powered by a diesel motor in over 16 years that the brand had been on sale in India.

And what did the addition of a diesel motor do? It helped Honda sell over 2.5 lakh units of the new City in just a shade over three years! Considering only 1.92 lakh (ha!) units of the 3rd generation Honda City were sold over its 5-year life cycle, the milestone achieved by the new City is certainly commendable.

The sale of the petrol-powered versions of the 4th generation City started over a month after the launch of the diesel variants - Honda needed to prove that the (then) new 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged diesel motor was reliable. By March 2014, the Honda City was the king of the C-sedan segment.

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The Honda City is no longer the king of the C-segment, it has been fighting a losing battle against the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and the Hyundai Creta. The rise of the popularity of SUVs and crossovers have also dented its appeal, but it still manages to achieve an average monthly sales figure of about 5000 units. The only other sedan in the segment that manages to match its prowess? The Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.

So what do the buyers of the City want? According to Honda, most of the buyers (61 per cent) of the City go for the petrol variants, with almost half of the customers (49.18 per cent) opting for the more convenient and efficient CVT transmission-equipped variants (claimed mileage: CVT - 18kmpl, petrol MT - 17.4kmpl). While it is true that more customers are buying the petrol variants of the 4th generation City - 97,607 people chose the diesel, a number not be sniffed at.