Honda NSX pricing by July

Between global financial crises and catastrophic natural disasters, Honda has had a tough run, but with a brand-new Civic set to steal the show in 2016, followed by the NSX in October and then the Civic hatch and Type-R in 2017, it looks to be on the comeback trail.

The return of the hard-core NSX supercar, powered by mid-mounted turbo V6 hybrid powertrain that's good for a 3.5-second 0-100km/h sprint, will provide a much-needed halo car for the brand, focussing attention on what it used do very well – innovate.

There's already demand for the NSX in Australia despite an expected price of around $350,000, with one Brisbane dealer already taking pre-orders.

"I know that dealer, and I know he has a couple of pre-orders," grinned Stephen Collins, the Director of Honda Australia, who cautioned that pricing for the NSX supercar is still to be locked in.

"[The pre-orders] are subject to price. I sat next to him at our dealer conference recently and he told me he had two on the go."

Asked if the NSX would be priced in the mid- to low-$300,000 bracket as advertised by the Queensland car dealership, Collins joked that "he knows a lot more than I know!"

"I think they are genuinely taking pre-interest orders, but we've told them not to take anything firm obviously until we confirm price."

Clearly there's a lot of interest for the NSX and it could prove very popular for Honda Australia but Collins reiterated that the price of the exotic two-seater is still not set and depends very much on the US dollar.

"The exchange rate is not helping," he said.

The new NSX has been well received in the USA, where it's built, and Collins said that if everything goes according to plan, it'll be on sale in Australia "around October or November".

And when can we expect the price to be locked in, once negotiations with the US factory are complete?

"The plan is by July, but I'm hoping June we'll have something very firm and then we can go out with pre-order type situations."

US and UK pricing has been announced for the fire-breathing all-wheel drive supercar and when it arrives here later in the year it'll be sold at just five Honda dealerships, one in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

"We've got a lot of interest in it," explained Collins. "We showed the dealers two weeks ago, it's a great car."

But the NSX could be in short supply, especially once sales begin in Japan, where demand is expected to soar.

"I think it'll be pretty limited -- very limited. It's going very well in the USA, and Japan hasn't started pre-sales yet."