Well, so much for the hoolabaloo… It seems that today is just the day Honda Indonesia sent out a press release about going to sell the Freed in Indonesia. At least we have a timeframe, it’s June and it’s confirmed the car would be available with i-VTEC engine and 5 speed automatic transmission. No further information is available regarding the car, on whether it will be offered with the 8 seat variant or the 7 seat variant nor would it be avaible in manual transmission.

For the time being, I’m going to write about Freed specification in comparison with its competitors, namely Xenia/Avanza, Grand Livina, APV and Gran Max Luxio.

Oh my… What a delightful turn of event this is… It seems that I mistakenly translate trimester with semester. Last night in a closed session, Honda Indonesia finally unveils its intention to sell Honda Freed in Indonesia and the official launching of the car will be held on 11th of March, next week! Wow! This is actually happening, Indonesia will be the first ASEAN country to sell the Freed… Wait… Actually, if you want to put more emphasis on that, Indonesia will be the first country in the world to produce and sell Freed outside of Japan.

Honda Indonesia is very bold, very very bold if I might add… The Freed target market in Indonesia is already saturated with Daihatsu Xenia and its clone, Toyota Avanza. Then the venerable challenger Nissan Grand Livina. Not counting Suzuki APV and the soon to be released Daihatsu Luxio. But should Honda be afraid? Not really… We are talking Honda here! Where engineers are part magician and voodoo doctors.

The Freed first of all, is a front wheel driven, front engine minivan where its competitors are more or less a crossover between two cars sans the Grand Livina. The Xenia/Avanza is a crossover between MPV and SUV, high ground clearance with front engine, rear wheel driven setup. The Suzuki APV and Daihatsu Luxio origins are semi pick up truck with engine underneath driver seat driving the rear wheel. This doesn’t mean a thing, but when you start to add up the fact that FF cars like the Freed and Grand Livina have ample interior room thanks to the lack of driveshaft running from the front of the car to the back… Then it start to makes sense.

The Freed main competitor will be Nissan Grand Livina with its similar FF drivetrain setup. Size wise, although the Freed is shorter compared to Grand Livina, it has longer wheelbase and is taller, these facts should lead to the Freed having more ample interior room than the Grand Livina… Although it remain to be seen.

The last sentence leaves a lot to be desired, and I smell a comparison is coming! Comeback soon, I’ll prepare a paper comparison between Freed competitors in Indonesia… And to some extent, the ASEAN.