Guys, the new City is actually open for booking. A friend of mine booked one after reading my 'preview'. The price she told me was RM8x,xxx
In terms of comparison between Vios and City, it's without doubt the City's a better choice in terms of WYPIWYG. The main reason the previous City lost out to Vios is mainly because of the brand and the sub-par marketing, branding efforts of Honda in Malaysia.
Make no mistake, the Vios on itself is not a bad car at all, in fact its pretty much faultless, but the clever-er interior of the city shows the engineer's detailness and of course the slightly better interior quality. However, do try visit any Honda showrooms in Malaysia, then compare those to the 3S centers of Toyota, huge, futuristic, clean, roomy, free coffee, wifi, biscuits, and those very japan looking waiting bays for service. All these just adds up to the buying experience and return customers after a satisfied purchase. Then the ad campaigns, throughout the year you can see, hear Toyota, above the line, mainstream newspaper, tv, cinema, even trolley ads in hypermarkets! Honda? during pre launch they've already exhausted their marketing funds. And anyone visited their HQ in PJ before? Yes, the Oldtown next to it catches more attention than itself.
Branding of the brand, positioning it as the 'dai ko' in the market has alot to do with consumer's perception on buying, at times more so than the product's capabilities itself.
These 2nd grade citizens of Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru, Mitsubishi would need something amazing to pull buyers from Toyota, (and if you notice, Mazda and Subaru's cars are extremely well made, especially Mazda.) and the 1 and a half grade citizen Honda.
