No, there is no plans for this. To be honest I don't see a point for a station wagon here in Malaysia. Station-wagons have never been exactly popular in Asia in general anyway. I'd say be patient because there is expectation of a Fit-based MPV for later this year. That will probably make it here, to offer a more affordable priced alternative to Stream, and to compete on more level (price basis) against the Innova, etc.
Personally I see two important models for Honda Malaysia and in general Honda of Asia to focus their attention on for the near term. Launch either the Honda Life or an equivalent. The K-car market is tremendous. Perodua's K-car sales alone was almost 100,000 for last year. Take a 10% market share and Honda Malaysia gets almost half their total sales quota for this year !! But to be truly successful, I feel they need to introduce the turbo variant in addition to the regular variant. This is what I have been telling them anyway though I don't think it will be too effective.
Then there's a need for a relatively affordable MPV, somewhere around the RM100k range. The rumours Fit-MPV should do that.
These two models should do very well in the rest of Asia as well.
That was what I thought. The Fit-MPV probably will be a variant of the Airwave with additional row of seats. It is actually amazing to actually see one platform can be transformed int so many variants.
Well, HOnda is a genius at manipulating chassis. Did you know the Stream is on the elongated chassis of a Civic and the Edix is a widened version of the Civic!
You mean whether the Airwave can be fitted with a 3rd row of seats to qualify it as an MPV for Malaysian customs ? No, that is most certainly out of the question. Honda Malaysia is a 'country office', i.e. they assemble and markets Honda vehicles but they do not have any R&D facilities. This means that if there is no Airwave in Japan or Thailand (the nearest 2 countries with an R&D facility) with 3 rows of seats, then Honda Malaysia cannot conjure up a 7 seater Airwave out of thin air. They are not 'allowed' to actually. Most people have this mistaken notion that they can simply put 'this' into 'this' together to make 'that' but unfortunately it can't happen. If not, there will most certainly would have been a manual Civic 2.0l a long time ago.
They have not brought it outside Japan, and they may have their reasons, but I seriously doubt that they are going to design a new one for other countries when they have it in Japan already.
Now, will the Mobilio replacement make it outside Japan ?? See you in late 2006-2007 to find out. But well, if the Mobilio has to be redesigned, that will be a few months after the Fit/Jazz, and Wong says that won't happen before 2007 or later. So if he's right, you are really going to wait for the new Mobilio.
Actually I have been saying that my personal belief is that the next gen Jazz will be launched towards the end of next year, to be a '2007 model'. Latest news I have gotten actually supports that suggestion. :)
The other thing is like I have been saying, there was a scoop mag recently that says that a Fit-based MPV will be launched by Honda within the next few months. And since the Fit/Jazz is a global model, that do suggest this new MPV might be a global model as well.
As for the Mobilio, unfortunately Honda has remained the conservative company it has always been. I do not really see a big possibility for the Mobilio to make it outside of Japan. There are too many wonderful cars that just don't make it outside of Japan and the Mobilio is actually not the top on the list, my list anyway. To me, the model which Honda really should make an effort to bring outside of Japan would be the Honda Life. Honda really needs a good low-end model to serve as the 'entry level' model for new Honda owners. There is a huge market for K-cars in Asia and a good design like the Life is needed in order to turn as many of the new owners into Honda fans for life. Unfortunately, even the Life is unlikely to happen in the near future.
Agree with WongKN on the small cars segment. Look at Myvi. What a good sales. But then again that’s for Malaysia. If Honda need to get better, need to go for rebadge just like P2 did with daihatsu/toyota. Well, don’t tell me is P1, impossible. The best would be Naza. Imagine a V6 2.5 MPV can be around RM100K only. What would happen to a small Life.
There is many Honda fans around. But that doesn’t mean we have enough market for Honda to bring in some model. But I'm very surprise when HM bring in Odyssey.
By next year, I'll finish with my Honda City Loan. I'm planning to get a bigger car and I'm looking for an MPV. I look around the Stream. Rear space is adequate but maybe not as good as WISH. But from the look Stream is really an old platform already. Most honda has the water nozzle hidden, only Stream left with it. So feel like kinda old car already.
So WongKN, if you can give me some kinda indicator, I will plan for my Next Honda. As of now, my City is a great car. Even after my Start Clutch change which I think is due to local produce uses ATF oil instead of CVT oil. Now it seems like every one asking for the CVT oil change. Kinda curios why I don’t see the same complaint from Jazz? Come back to the topic, I hope to see a better 7 seater MPV at RM100K range from Honda. Well, if the 1.5 can do its job, why not? But I really hope is bigger than that. I'll get a bigger one for my wife to drive. By next year, I just hope and see.
Innova didn’t stir my interest at all due to these reason:-
1. The MPV sound like a step down from a real MPV. It came from a 4x4 platform of Hilux anyway. You can see how much effort being put in Advertisement to change consumer mind set. Anyway, it didn’t change mine. No matter which sexy girl they put in their add, is still a downgrade.
2. Safety feature setup is so stupid. 1 air bag?
3. Big Huge engine and rear wheel drive design sound like a 3rd world country vehicle where the bumpy road require a rear wheel drive for lesser maintenance.
I would probably just get a used Stream instead of an Innova. Well, but then again, it depends on the condition. Hope Honda didn’t follow what toyota did with Innova and I don’t think they will. Is like again Not Honda if they do so.
As an infor for your consideration, the Stream is due for a generation change at the end of this year, i.e. expect to see a brand new Stream at the Tokyo Motor Show end of this year (a few months away only). After that, I expect the new Stream to appear in ASEAN around middle of next year. So timing wise, that should be just nice for you I think. For Honda's sake, I really hope they do a good job again with the new Stream.
There is a possibility of HM selling a 'lower' Stream, most probably with the same (new) 1.8l SOHC i-VTEC engine that will be used in the new Civic. So there would be a two cars line-up, the 140ps 1.8l SOHC i-VTEC and the 156ps 2.0l DOHC i-VTEC. The 1.8l might go for around 120-130k price range I think. So if this line-up makes its way to Malaysia, it might fit nicely into your plans very well.
This time, I'll wait and see and do not want to jump into the clear water first. After the 1st City, this is a bigger car, so I better be more carefull and choosy.
Same here, hopefully they do a better Job with the new Stream. If that is the price range for the 1.8 model, it is something to really consider. Currently, thats my plan.
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