Honda's Amaze set to debut next week

With the Indian car market veering towards diesel, Honda has had its share of trouble in India over the past couple of years. But the company is finally ready to jump on the diesel bandwagon, with its first compact sedan. The Amaze will debut next week, reports CNBC-TV18’s Bertrand D'souza.

Based on the brio hatchback, the Amaze sports familiar styling cues. However, unlike other compact sedans in the market, Honda has integrated the boot cohesively. Despite a longer wheel base, the Amaze also manages to squeeze under 4 metre in length, thus benefiting from excise duty breaks. Talking of size, there isn't a single sedan in this segment that offers this amount of space inside. The rest of the cabin is almost identical to the Brio, which means there's nothing to complain about, even if it doesn't feel quite as up market as the current class benchmark - the Maruti D'zire. Honda's new Amaze will come with both a petrol & diesel engine. The game-changer for Honda is its 1.5-litre, common-rail, turbo-charged direct injection diesel, it makes 100ps & 200nm of max torque. This engine chugs along very comfortably.  Arai certifies fuel efficiency at about 25 kmpl & that's the best you can get in this segment. The Amaze will be launched on the April 11 and is expected to be priced on par with the Maruti Dzire or slightly cheaper. With competitive pricing, spacious interiors and best in class performance; Amaze seems to have all the right ingredients to become a winner for Honda in India.