Japanese car manufacturer, Honda Motor Company created quite a stir in 2011, when it came up with Brio and now it has launched the much anticipated automatic variant of the car. Honda Brio ruled the chart for quite sometime owing to its cute aesthetics, especially the unique rear end and a brilliant fuel efficiency. The cute and compact form factor of the Brio made it a convenient vehicle to drive in urban condition.However, in the wake of the fact that all other car manufacturers in the competition were coming up with an automatic variant of their popular models, it was surprising that Honda delayed this step till now.
However, all is well that ends well and the Japanese automotive giant has launched the Brio on October 18, 2012 with the same 1.2 litre iVTEC powertrain, serving on the manual variant with a 5-speed automatic transmission. This move will make this popular model even more fun and convenient to drive in the congested Indian traffic. The automatic Honda Brio is being offered in two variants namely Brio S (O) AT and V AT. While, the former has been priced at Rs. 5.74 lac, the top of the line Brio V AT comes with a tag of Rs. 5.99 lac. The automotive giant has priced the latest launch with a premium of over Rs. 75,000 as compared to the outgoing manual variant.
Honda has opted for the torque converter system in the new model, unlike other manufactures that are relying on a CVT transmission. This means that the all new 5-speed unit on Honda Brio comes with three mores shifts besides the regular P,R,N and D. The D3 position keeps the transmission restricted to the first three gears, making it good for overtaking quickly on road. Moreover, the new transmission utilizes the Drive-By-Wire system of the powertrain to select the best gear according to the driving conditions. The optimum gear shifting means that the Brio AT offers an excellent mileage of 16.5 kmpl, which has been tested by ARAI.
The car maker has not changed anything else from the existing Brio in the automatic variant. Everything remains the same except the new transmission and digital readouts for the automatic transmission in the console. Besides the automatic variant, Honda also introduced a new manual model with a tag of Rs. 4.26 lac and added features like body colored Outside Rear View Mirrors (ORVM) and door handles. It also comes loaded with a 1 DIN MP3 audio system with support for USB and Aux-in support. The Japanese car maker will be pitching the recently launched Brio AT against popular automatic hatchbacks like Hyundai i10 AT and Maruti Suzuki A-Star AT.
With Diwali and Dusshera just around the corner, the timing of the new launch could get any better as this is one time in the year when Indian customers like to spend. It would be interesting to watch which of the automatic hatchbacks brings the better volumes or if Brio AT will repeat the success of its manual counterpart.
