Rio Gets Some Brio

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
by Marcelo de Vasconcellos

On March 17, Honda revealed its new low-cost, emerging-market, sales-busting (they hope) Brio. Well, at least in name Honda is looking for a fight as the car’s name, in Italian, means something along the lines of “fighting spirit”. Will it have a fighting chance to make it in Brazil?

According to Brazilian magazine Quatro-Rodas, Honda finally showed its market-ready Brio at Thailand’s Auto Show. Honda do Brasil has confirmed that it intends to build it at its facility in Sumaré, São Paulo state. No word though on pricing for Brazil. The deadline is also quite flexible. Honda will only confirm that it’ll be built in Brazil “until 2013” (whatever that means, let’s hope something was rost in tlansration). Honda hasn’t said yet how many of these little fighting spirit buggers they intend to move here. In the Thai market, the target has been set at 40,000. I’m no expert in that market, but at US$13,800 I expect it to have a difficult time. In Brazil, that would mean R$22,000, but I’m sure Honda has other plans.

Just one more thing on that deadline for Brazil. The compact or subcompact (take your pick) field is very crowded in Brazil. By 2013, Hyundai will have started producing and selling its i15 or 120. Toyota will have launched its Etios, too (read Bertel’s excellent article here). Not to mention that market leader Fiat’s new Palio is just a few months from launch. If Honda waits until 2013, the market will be that much more crowded (and difficult). Wonder why Honda is being so slow?

In Thailand, the baby Honda will come with a 1.2L i-Vtec mill (good for 90 ponies). Though a low-cost project, all Brios will be produced with air-bags, ABS and EBD. You can get it either with a 5-speed stick or a CVT. Honda has already confirmed that this package will suffer variations. The ones that’ll go to India will be different (read less standard equipment).

For Brazil, I’m sure we’ll get an India special if Honda intends to go mass-market. If it chooses to remain in its lofty special-pricing niche (20 percent above what everybody else charges), the market for this car will be rarified.

Finally, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but did Honda have to hit its little puppy so hard with such a big ugly stick?

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
Marcelo de Vasconcellos

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  • CJinSD CJinSD on Mar 25, 2011

    I saw a new Renault Clio with Mexican plates the other day. It was MUCH uglier than this Honda. I'd like to see this one in a color other than this hideous metal flake lizard hue. A Jaguar E-type would be Juke awful with this paint job. I don't like the ghetto taillights or the Korean side treatment much either. The roof looks pretty flat though, and that puts it ahead of every new hatchback released in the past two years as far as I'm concerned.

    • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Mar 25, 2011

      The Clio is on to its 3rd or 4th re-skin. Difficult to keep much beauty after so many nips and tucks. But naw, I respectfully disagree. The front of the Honda borders on lame. Boring it surely is. Sleep inducing. The back? The pic says it all. Why pile on?

  • Tparkit Tparkit on Mar 25, 2011

    Tiny cars for permanently poorer societies: they are coming our way.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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