HMC will provide support for these soon to be phased out products..no need to worry about that..

All who have bought those models must feel real bad now

my friend is going to book ignitor today !! i think i've to stop him right now.

He has already set a date to put his Impulse on sale.

Why?can you please explain ??

Why launch a product with such a short lifespan at all? Just to let the Hero name ring a bell among the masses?

Impulse was a slow mover, agreed but mastero
And a blink and miss show by the Ignitor was not necessary but nice to hear new models being readied and being in the pipeline

This somehow reminds me of the curious case of Kawasaki Bajaj Boxer and Caliber , the bikes which helped BAL earn its 'Fast Discontinuer' tag.

Somehow OT question, but relevant to the topic I guess: How come TVS got to keep all their TVS Suzuki products even after their divorce? eg. Fiero, which came as Fiero F2 and was later updated to Apache -> RTR

am already irritated with hero because of lack of availability of spares. now this is the penultimate nail in the coffin .

Hopefully a new product will replace my awesome trailblazer

BAL had let the boxer grow, to cut it off and launch discover on the market it creates. TVS had paid a huge royalty for suzuki patents man, if you remember even in 2001 some showrooms were selling showgun and shaolin which was almostly after one year of their divorce.

Impulse was actually catching the market, people were realising it and were starting to like it but before that hero is calling its closure.


Same here i also told my office colleague to go for mahindra rodeo, atleast they dont discontinue their products so fast.

Hero has loads of money man it can buy back all the 3 models back from customers at discounted rate, or sell spares to other dealers who will sell it for premium.

It can sit just on selling splendors and passions for more 20 years, and still their shares will be up.

@nikhil - i think after market spares will be there.

Very unlike Hero.. even with dismal sales Hero usually has the record of persisting with the slow movers. It will certainly put Hero in a bad light among customers who blindly trust that Hero does not discontinue models.

But I guess in this case it is more due to the lack of consent from its partner (till 2014).. Honda obviously does not want an Activa competitor (the Maestro is nothing but the Activa with the CBS and all).. the poor Impluse (& Ignitor) has happened to be in harms way.

The way Splendor/Passion is ultra important for Hero, Activa is similarly significant for Honda. Both partners might have agreed to keeping their cash cows. Honda must have charged an Atomic Bomb for allowing Hero to keep the pre Impulse models post 2014 that too without the royalty payment.

But what I am surprised is why did Hero launch the Impulse and Maestro and then spend such a huge amount promoting (Transroader & Boy thing TV Ads) it if they had to discontinue it? Something tells me that they proabably did NOT see it coming (i.e having to discontinue the models).

The Ignitor might have been just launched, but now I don't see it being promoted heavily (like the Impulse & Maestro).. and also the Passion X Pro (remember..??) might not get launched.

karizma 250 ?

if there is no passion xpro(twister engine) then what about the speculated Karizma with CBR 250 engine in 2014?

This isn't much for Hero, sales wise. It might alter perception about Hero, but I think it's better they discontinue any models using Honda tech and comeup with their own. Hero was either lazy in following/defining market or was restricted by Honda not to do that. Forming all these partnerships is good, but looking at their tone, looks like they haven't yet figured out what exactly comes out of these partnerships. Hope it's not too late by the time they come out with something, at the moment they seem pretty vulnerable to Honda's onsalught with new models. IMO, the more Honda comes out with models below 125cc, the more it hurts Hero.

Well I wouldn't exactly like to own a new bike that has been phased out...

This is very surprising move by Hero. Impulse was another bold move by hero after CBZ and Karizma and pretty good product as well.
The only looser will be bike owners.
as they say customer = कष्ट+ मर

AVL Specializes in Diesel Engines..
so maybe we may see hero branded 2 wheelers running on diesel mills in the near/distant future.

Also with everyone complaining as to why Hero has taken so long to set up its own R&D, either of the following reasons may be applicable.

Reason1 :HH was largest 2 wheeler mfg in india in terms on volumes. Being at the top and the competition far behind its natural to get complacent!
Reason2 : In their JV inked initially there must have been a clause where if either 1 of the companies were to go their separate ways before their JV ends they would have to pay an X amount to the other.
Reason3 : Based on reason 2 it would not have been possible for Hero to go for its R&D as it would send down wrong signals w.r.t to its JV and also invite a Legal Notice from Honda.

Looking at the current scenario,it is clear the models launched post their split were only to resassure its investors that it is working on something in a positive direction. In the long run it may not discontinue its models but increase the price of spares. Considering the price segment these bikes are in the 'aam janta' will automatically move on the value added cheaper options.