Visited that 3S dealer today; i happened to know the sales manager there..its newly launched 3S dealer; very calm environment as its almost out of main city...He confirmed that on 23rd March new Altis is launching...GLIs / XLIs bookings are being queued with 1Million..GLI/XLI will be having existing engine (he was not cent percent sure)..Altis engine is changing and it will be dual VVTI..price will be 17.50 - 17.75 for fully loaded version (Cruisetronic with Sunroof I guess). Lets hope Japan's tsunami doesnt delay the launch...
Noted that Toyota guys seems defeated and dont feel shy in acknowledging Civic's dominance in 1.8 class. Also visited Honda 3S dealer to check whats Atlas plan; their sales guy (with whom I had been dealing) was confident when I informed him that I am replacing my City with Altis that I will soon replace my Altis with Civic Honda Atlas has no plans to do anything special; they will enjoy 1.8 class for some time; especially in the absence of any competition now. They are now offering Navigation for 50,000 and leather interior for 45,000 on all variants of Civic. New shaped Civic is expected in last quarter of next year!