New Delhi, Sept. 11 :    New Delhi, Sept. 11:  Honda Siel Cars India Ltd today launched Accord VTi-L, the luxury D segment car with all-leather interior, priced at Rs 15,78,675 (ex-showroom Calcutta) for the manual transmission model and Rs 16,54,675 for the automatic transmission version. 'Indian customers, especially the C and D segment buyers, buy cars as a statement about their status. They need a choice between Honda Accord launched two months back and something more fashionable. So the VTi-L was a natural choice, Teruo Fujisaki, president and CEO of HSCIL said at the launch. The first buyers of the vehicle were south Indian filmmaker D. Raman Naidu, music director Iliya Raja, Dilip Chabbria, CEO of DC Designs, and Indipop signer Daler Mehandi. Mercury Car Rentals, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Oberoi Group, has bought 22 cars for corporate rentals. Although the introduction of the new model is supposed to increase the sales, HSCIL is not revising its target of selling 2,500 cars this fiscal. 'The car market is not so active at present. Though we have sold above 300 cars in two months after launching the first model of Accord and is confident of reaching our target looking at the market conditions. The mood is shifting from small car buying to the larger cars but it will take a longer time before the mood catches on,' Anand Mohan Gupta, general manager marketing said. 'With some of the D segment car launches scheduled for the end of the year, the competition will heat up and as a segment get more exposure. We have no other cars planned to bring in this year but is looking forward for performance in competition,' Gupta added. Although Hyundai's Sonata has been launched, Ford's Mondeo is yet to happen. The other manufacturers who are in line to launch their D segment cars include Toyota's Camry, Skoda's Octavia, General Motor's Vectra and Mitsubishi Motor's Galant. Mercedes is also gearing up to launch its C-180 petrol and C-220 Diesel models in both Classic and Elegance trims.