Honda Introduces New City as Rival for Toyota Soluna in Thailand

04/03/97

Kyodo reports that Honda Cars Thailand launched a 1500 cc version of its Honda City on Monday. The City is Honda's "Asia car," which it designed to challenge the Soluna which Toyota launched in January.

The new car joins a 1300 cc model of the City, which Honda introduced last April. The new version sports a larger engine, air bags, and anti-lock brakes. The car sells in Thailand for about 16,115 dollars.

Toyota's Soluna--launched at the end of January--also comes with a 1500 cc engine. It has has fuel injection, air bags, and price tag that starts at about 13,384 dollars.

Both Honda and Toyota have said they will export their Asia cars from Thailand to Singapore and Brunei. Toyota says it will ship 50-100 units of the Soluna in April, while Honda has yet to decide how many units it will ship.

In the eleven months since its launch at the end of February, Honda sold 25,614 of its 1300 cc City in Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysian, Indonesia and Pakistan. Toyota has not published a sales record for the Soluna.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel