It's amazing, the kind of respect and adulation the Honda wing commands. Immediately after the launch of the Unicorn in Delhi my dad’s driver came to me to talk about the machine. I’d just returned from one of my travels and hadn’t even seen pictures of the bike, let alone ride it, so I had practically nothing to say. Well, turns out he wasn’t interested in my views on the bike; he’d just come back from the dealer after putting down a deposit on the Unicorn and all he needed was for me to pull some strings in HMSI and get his delivery expedited.
Amazing! Like scores of customers across the country he’d spent his hard earned money on a bike he’d not so much as seen, let alone touched or ridden. It’s this kind of brand loyalty, carefully nurtured over the years, that is the Unicorn’s trump card and is something other manufacturers would give an arm and a leg for.
So it the Unicorn deserving of all the hype and hoopla? Depends on which way you look at it. Like the Activa and the Eterno scooters before it, the Unicorn doesn’t break any new ground nor does it mark a radical shift either on the technology or styling front. What Honda Motorcycles and Scooter India (HMSI) has done is to identify the needs of majority of the Indian customers, looked at the existing players in that segment and then delivered a product that’s incrementally better though pegged at the same price point. A strategy that’s guaranteed to sell tons of bikes (what with the added charm of the Honda wing on the tank), but will it enthuse us enthusiasts in the process?