Why Honda Pledge To Destroy 1,055 New Cars?

Quality first always - the Honda way. In a bid to reassure its customers worldwide that no vehicle damaged in Thailand’s recent flood crisis will ever be sold, Honda has started the process of scrapping and destroying a total of 1055 cars. The cars include 217 units of Honda Brio, 213 Jazz, 353 City, 150 Civic, 91 Accord, 30 CR-V and one imported Freed. In order to ensure transparency, the vehicle identification numbers of all the cars will be made public on Honda's (Thailand) website www.honda.co.th .

In a statement, executive vice president of Honda Automobile Thailand Pitak Pruittisarikorn said, “We will not sell any of the damaged cars to customers, or sell or reuse any of the parts. This is to create confidence amongst our Honda customers that Honda will abide to its credibility of the automobile's quality control".

The decision to scrap the cars has caused many to question why Honda did not attempt to at least salvage some of the parts, or possibly donate the cars. The simple answer is that Honda realized that an influx of flood-damaged cars into the market could potentially cause more harm than it would be worth to the brand’s reputation down the road – especially if people choose to re-sell the car and fail to disclose the car’s past. Furthermore, if the automaker attempted to salvage certain parts of the car they would likely forfeit major write-offs as well.

On-site demonstrations outside Honda’s Thailand plant showed the step by step process of how the flood damaged cars will be made completely unusable. The specialist workers hired by Honda to scrap the cars first drained the remaining liquids from the engine and then dissembled the car by delicate steps. Finally, the skeleton of the car was lifted by a crane into a gigantic mobile pressing machine which turned it into a compressed cube for recycling.

The process of decommissioning and scrapping all the flood damaged vehicles is said to be done in an environmentally-responsible way and is expected to be completed within one month.

Flashback: The Honda automobile plant in Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya Province, Thailand was under heavy flooding in early October that brought production to a halt and aerial pictures showed hundreds of new cars submerged in muddy water. The waters have since receded significantly but many areas still face a major clean-up operation. Production is yet to resume at the factory.

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Video: Honda Demonstrates The Process Of Scrapping It's Car

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Launch: 2009 Honda City Hits Thailand: Photos-Details

Honda has made the official debut of its new updated economy car, the next gen Honda City. To begin with, 2009 City will only be available in Thailand. But within a few months time it will be released in India, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan and other Asian markets. The Thai version of Honda's latest City will sell for 524,000 to 694,000 baht, which is about 15,000 US dollars. It comes with a 1.5-liter i-VTEC engine that makes 120 hp of horsepower. It is available in five speed manual and automatic transmissions.

See 09 Model Honda City Picture Gallery Below.

Visually, Honda City is much better looking than the previous generation City and thus will have a much wider appeal. The front end has a strong resemblance to the Honda FCX Clarity. It has a huge front grille that merge seamlessly with the new stylized headlights which incidently look like they were taken from the Altis. At the rear the short bootlid with an integrated spoiler gives the car a stout BMW'ish look. Rear-lamps have a nice design but not everyone would say the same about it.

The exterior dimensions of the new Honda City are - 4,395mm long, 1,695mm wide and 1,470mm tall. This makes it 5mm longer and wider but 25mm shorter in height. Thus unlike the tall boy looks of the previous model, the new City gives an impression of being a much more proportional sedan with a sportier stance.

On the inside is a simple but elegantly designed dash, well laid out instrument cluster and an aluminium finish center console. There are loads of storage spaces that include 7 cup/bottle holders. The steering wheel is now adjustable for reach as well as height. It features paddle shift controls and integrated audio controls. Cars audio system now comes with an iPod compatible USB connector. The rear seats are placed higher than the ones at the front and can be folded in a 60/40 split. Everything is very well put together, as you would expect from Honda.

The fifth-gen Honda City comes in three models variants- S, V, SV. The City S and City V have dual-tone beige interiors while the top-end City SV gets the exclusive dark trims. For customers in Thailand the car will be available in six colours: Habanero Red Pearl, Deep Lapis Blue Metallic, Alabaster Metallic, Polished Metal Metallic, Bold Beige Metallic and Crystal Black Pearl.

Source: Pakwheels
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Photo Gallery: Latest Thai Version Honda City Official Pictures. Click Pics To Enlarge.


2009 Honda City Photo Gallery: Pictures Taken From Brochure. Click Pics To Enlarge.


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