Dont like the new Honda Civic? Buy the old one, under Dongfeng-Honda’s new sub brand – CIIMO

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A while ago I commented on the rise of the sub brand from joint venture companies in China, the article was so well trafficked that China Daily picked it up and so did a few other China focused business media outlets. It seems my premonition has come true, practically every joint venture company is rushing to develop their own sub brand. Honda’s first sub brand with Guangzhou-Honda seemed to be a harsh rebadging of their last generation Honda City under the Everus brand. Honda’s other partner, Dongfeng, must have felt slightly left out as they have started a new brand with Honda called ‘CIIMO’, how one actually pronounces this is still unknown ‘See mo‘? ‘See eye eye mo’?. As with the Everus’ Honda City rebadging, the CIIMO will be getting the last generation of Honda Civic under the CIIMO badge. The results are not entirely exciting from a branding point of view, but the CIIMO will be able to provide a top class Japanese car at an affordable price, throw in the marketing machine that can target consumers in second and third tier cities and you could have a potential winner from a shoestring budget.

Power will come from the last generation Civic’s 1.8L engine and 5speed manual or automatic gearboxes, prices are expected to be from 100,000rmb and rising but we could see it topping out at 140,000rmb. The new Civic was launched at the Chengdu Auto Show several weeks ago.