Test Drive : Honda Brio, from Japan
Visakhapatnam, often shortened to Vizag is a port city in Andhra Pradesh, and also the second largest city in the State. One could say Vizag is the meat in the sandwich that has the Bay of Bengal on one side and the Eastern Ghats on the other. It is a city of great significance, being the home of the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy today.
Historically speaking, the city got it's name from the God of valour, Vishakha. Part of Kalinga during the benevolent Ashton’s rule in 260 B.C., it later went to the Andhra kings of Vengi before being in turn part of the Pallava, the Chola and the Ganga dynasties ruled the city.In the 15th century, Vishakhapatnam became a part of the Vijayanagar Empire. That is what the tourist guides say.
I remember passing through Vishakhapatnam on a train often during my college days, except that the station was named Waltair at the time. After many years, I visited Vizag for a day recently but the historical aspects of the city was not uppermost in my mind. Rather, it was the road to the Rama Naidu Studios that was of interest to me – a series of tight hairpin bends all the way up to the top of the hill where the Studios are located, a drive that would in my mind be somewhat akin to some of the most famous mountain roads in the world like for example the Los Caracoles Pass in the Andes between Chile and Argentina, or Alpine roads in Switzerland like the Oberalp Pass and the San Bernardino Pass and then of course there is the famous Stelvio Pass in Italy. The reason? Honda had invited and taken me to Vizag to drive the new Brio on the fabulous Beach Road which led to and passed (amongst other places) the Rama Naidu film studio.
As Honda SIEL's Director Mr Seki Inaba has already mentioned in his interview, the Brio is a very important car for the the Japanese car maker, being Honda’s first small car offering for the India market which has specifically been designed for the customers in the country.
According to Honda Siel Cars India the word Brio is Italian and is pronounced Br-ee-o. This translates to mean “energetic” and “cheerful”. The Brio has been launched at a competitive price thanks to concerted efforts to control costs, maximize production efficiencies and minimize impact of currency fluctuations. The path lowering and controlling costs was localisation - localisation of critical components, using localised drawings, local suppliers, local materials, local machines and dies.
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