Mini-Me Crosstour: The New Honda Gienia
The unloved Honda Crosstour was last sold in 2015 and heavily criticized for its awkward, ungainly styling. After only 2 years, Honda has brought back a car with nearly identical styling in the 2017 Honda Gienia.
Available only in the Chinese market, the Honda Gienia is based on the Honda City, a sedan version of the Honda Fit. Dimension wise, the compact crossover Gienia is significantly smaller than the defunct Crosstour.
The Gienia is equipped with the same engine as the Honda Fit — a 1.5-liter four cylinder putting out 132 horsepower. Pricing starts at around $11,000 (75,000 yuan) with top versions topping out at $16,000 (110,000 yuan).
Honda’s marketing strategy in China takes a page out of GM’s marketing strategy in the mid-’60s: there is a vehicle for every segment, no matter how small the segment might be. Competing with the Gienia within Honda, there’s the aforementioned Honda City sedan; the Greiz, a restyled City; the Fit hatchback; the XR-V and Vezel Fit-based crossovers; and the Crider, an enlarged version of the City.
Clearly, Honda wants to make sure it covers all its bases, even if some models compete with each other.
Then again, with a population of 1.4 billion people and a rapidly growing middle class in China, the “niche” market for the Gienia will probably make it profitable to sell, even if it only takes a tiny percentage of the Chinese market.
When he's not writing about cars, Henry is driving his GTI to construction sites and transporting his kids to preschool. Henry is a professional engineer, road biker, marathon runner, and lives in Vancouver, Canada.
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It doesn't look good, and I expect little since I was well aware what a Fit looked like before ordering mine. It's probably the color though. Genitalia never look that great in blue.
The Crosstour is awkward-looking to the point where I consider it ugly, but it has substance. It doesn't look cheap and pathetic like this thing.
"it's pronounced Gina"
"based on the Honda City, a sedan version of the Honda Fit." So, it's the hatchback version of the sedan version of a hatchback?