Honda has high hopes for new City

MANILA, Philippines - Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) aims to sell more than 800 units of the City per month following the launch of a new variant equipped with audio visual navigation (AVN).

“We are now selling the entire City model and our sales are more or less around 750 units a month, so maybe we can aim for more than 800 units per month (with the additional variant),”  HCPI president and general manager Toshio Kuwahara told reporters during the launch of the Honda City E Navi variants.

The new variants are equipped with the AVN system or a seven-inch wide sliding touch panel furnished with built-in Garmin navigation.

The AVN system offers smart yet user-friendly features while in navigation mode such as Expressway Exit Guide, route information view, and the helpful Lane Assist with Photoreal Junction View which shows when a vehicle arrives at a complex intersection.

The AVN system comes with free map updates for three years.

Honda Dealers Point of Interest has also been embedded in the AVN system to allow users to quickly search for all Honda sales and service locations nationwide.

Kuwahara said HCPI decided to introduce the AVN to the City first since it is the firm’s top selling vehicle model here.

“The City is a little more than 50 percent of our total sales,” he said.

Depending on market reception for the AVN system, he said the firm may consider introducing the same to other Honda vehicle models.

The firm aims to sell a total of 15,000 units for the year owing to new vehicle launches and a growing economy.

Earlier, the firm introduced the following vehicle models: Brio, Brio Amaze, Jazz, City, Civic and Accord.

Other vehicle models being sold by HCPI are the CR-V, CR-Z, Odyssey and Pilot.

Last year, HCPI sold a total of 13,356 units.