2009 Honda City Chalks Up 4,500 Sales in 2 Weeks

Honda Thailand should be very satisfied with how well received the new 2009 Honda City has been. With over 4,500 units sold in the first 2 weeks on the market, this City is proving to be very popular.

Predictably, the V and SV models are the bigger sellers, with 80% of sales distributed between these higher spec models, and the S taking up the other 20%. So, some people can still do without airbags, ABS, EBD and BA.

Honda had prepared around 4,000 units in time for the launch, but don't see any difficulty in delivering the additional 500 sales on time.

Honda has a target of 35,000 sales a year for the City in Thailand, and there is no reason to doubt that they will easily meet this target.

With the fluctuations in oil prices and uncertainty in the local and global economy, more and more people are turning to smaller cars. And since there aren't very many small cars to choose from, Honda is in an excellent position. With the Jazz and City both representing the freshest and best in their respective classes, Honda deserves to dominate.

While Toyota elected to equip the Vios with at unchanged 109 hp engine mated to the same 4-speed automatic transmission of the outgoing model when they updated the model last year, Honda has pushed ahead with an up-rated engine producing 120 hp, and a 5-speed automatic transmission.

Although the Vios could compete reasonably well with the previous generation City, Honda are now the clear leader in this segment.

The compact car market is expected to see 50% growth this year.