Honda has halted the production of the Jazz Hatchback in India and Honda dealers have stopped taking orders for this model as most of the stock has already run out. To the relief to Jazz lovers, Honda has confirmed that it will be delivering car to those who have booked it earlier.
The halting of the production has come as a surprise for many as in recent years Jazz has been able to attract a lot of buyers. Honda also slashed the price of its premium hatchback by over a lakh back in August 2011 that also increased its popularity in the market.
One of the main reasons behind the stopping of the production can be need for increasing the capacity for the coming Amaze saloon, which is one of the most aspiring products from Honda in India. Company currently wants to focus all its energy on the Honda Brio and its derivatives which is seeing a lot of sales in the Indian market in small car segment. India is also becoming one of the biggest small car markets for Honda. Further there are also rumors about Honda losing money on the reduced price of the Jazz and to make up for this loss Honda has already dropped the production.
For the last few months Jazz has been sold at an average of about 400 cars per month but the demand is much more than that. This created a long waiting list of customers hoping to get their hands on Jazz. The long waiting queue has also started to irritate the customers. This can also be one of the reasons that forced Honda to stop production of Jazz.
However, Honda has also revealed that unlike Civic that was discontinued completely, Jazz will again reborn in the Indian market with its next generation model that is still under the development phase and probably will hit the market in 2014. The new generation of Jazz will be built locally and will be fitted with more local content that will also help company to bring down costs. It will feature same 1.5 litre i-DTEC diesel engine that will also power Amaze and there may be a petrol version also with 1.2 litre engine. Honda is also thinking about 1.5 litre hot-hatch version.
