We bring you the first images of Honda's nimble hatch, the Brio that now has become even more convenient with an automatic gearbox. While, speculations turn into confirmations about the Brio diesel to grace the Indian market soon, Honda has decided to slip in the automatic version of its bread and butter hatchback.
Now, it wouldn't be wrong to ponder over why Honda is anxious to roll out a petrol powered Brio automatic instead of just giving the Indian customers what they need - a economical, efficient and reliable Brio diesel hatch.
Well, the company believes that the Brio AT could bring in above average sale numbers for the company in the budget automatics segment, which is currently not very crowded.
- The Honda Brio AT hasn't recieved any external deisgn changes. Not that we were anticipating any major design changes, but the new variant deserves an 'AT' badge, atleast.
The Brio Automatic will take on cars like the Hyundai i10 Automatic and the Maruti Suzuki A-Star Automatic once it goes on sale in the country on October 18.
Slated to go on sale across the country on 18 October, the Brio AT hatchback is expected to cost Rs 60,000-Rs 70,000 more than the regular manual version.
Honda instead of using the CVT gearbox that is currently used in the Brio sold in the Thai market, the company has opted to use a conventional five-speed automatic transmission that is driven by a torque converter - similar to the one found in the Honda City.
Other than the regular D mode, the transmission offered three more driving modes - the 'D3', '2' and '1'. In the 'D3' mode the gearbox shifts between 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear, while in '2' mode the gearbox stays in 2nd gear only and in '1' mode the gearbox doesn't go beyond 1st gear.
The new clock that features in the instrumentation panel now shows the selected mode for the auto-tranny.
The AT version of the Brio to be offered in S(O) and V variants.
Powering the nimble hatch is the same 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine that churns out 88PS of max power and 109Nm of max torque. However, the engine in the new variant has been tweaked to return a fuel effeciency of 16.5 kmpl.
The engine is mated to a first-in-class five-speed gearbox that is specifically tuned for the 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine.
-Rohit (Rash) Paradkar
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