Honda deals up MY12 specials

HONDA Australia is looking for an end-of-year sales boost with its ‘Annual Clearance’ promotion now underway, with enticing deals on a range of key models including the Jazz, Civic sedan and hatch, Accord and Accord Euro.

Applicable only to 2012 compliance-plated models, the campaign runs until December 31 and should provide a boost to Honda sales, which have recovered from last year’s supply-interrupted natural disasters in Japan and Thailand to be 8.9 per cent ahead at the end of October.

However, Honda’s 28,188-unit year-to-date total is still well behind its running rate of almost 35,000 at the same point two years ago.

Providing hoped-for stimulus will be the MY12 Honda Jazz GLi starting from $15,990 driveaway and the MY12 Civic Series II VTi sedan from $21,490 driveaway, both of which are priced $1000 above their respective recommended retail price but represent a considerable saving when on-road costs are factored in.

As well as being restricted to the 2012 model year, the offer on Jazz and Civic sedan applies only to vehicles with non-metallic paint and a manual gearbox.

The redesigned Civic hatchback launched in June has also come in for ‘clearance’ status, with MY12 versions now starting from $21,490 driveaway, a significant $1160 reduction from the $22,650 (plus on-road costs) entry point set for the regular VTi-S model variant.

Honda Australia director and general manager of sales and marketing Stephen Collins said the move with Civic hatch was in response to its position “in a highly competitive segment”.

“As such, we have aggressively repositioned its pricing and are confident customers will agree that it is an outstanding package representing outstanding value,” he said.

For the Accord twins, Honda has repriced the entry-level MY12 Accord Euro to $29,990 driveaway – again with manual gearbox and a solid paint colour – which is $350 down on its current $30,340 list price (that also requires on-road costs), while the bigger Thai-built Accord is now available in Limited Edition guise, priced from $34,190 driveaway.

This bridges the gap between the baseline $28,190 Accord VTi and $37,190 VTi-L (both requiring on-roads), with the LE adding a host of equipment over the VTi to justify the $6000 raw-number increase.

Extra items include rear parking sensors, foglights, a sunroof, dusk-sensing headlights, rain-sensing windscreen wipers, 17 inch alloy wheels, leather upholstery, heated front seats, eight-way power adjustment (including lumbar) for the driver’s seat and leather cladding for the steering wheel.