Honda Amaze reaches the ARAI facility in Pune

The Honda Amaze compact sedan has reached the ARAI facility in Pune for homologation process according to the team at Indianautosblog. The Amaze sedan is based on the Brio hatchback and is Honda’s first diesel car for the Indian market. It is expected to be launched in March of this year.

The Honda Amaze petrol will be powered by the i-VTEC 1.2-litre mill that currently powers the Brio hatchback and the Jazz. The diesel version gets a 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged i-DTEC engine that produces around 90bhp. It is based on the Japanese automakers 1.6-litre diesel engine that was launched with the Civic diesel in Europe. Both mills will be mated to a five-speed manual or a five-speed automatic.

Most of the interiors are the same save for different coloured upholstery and a bench seat in the back to make optimum use of the space. Despite popular belief, the Amaze has been designed to be a completely new car and not just a boot-on-hatch job. It gets a new front and rear fasica, the latter obviously due to the boot.

The Honda Amaze is expected to take on the likes of the Mahindra Verito CS, Chevrolet Sail sedan, Tata Indigo eCS and current segment leader the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire. It is likely the company is banking on the model to help revive its sales which fell rapidly after the deregulation of petrol prices.   

Source: IAB