Jazzing up the small Honda
18/08/09 09:00 Filed in: Road
tests
The previous Honda Jazz built up a
loyal following among those who wanted a practical small family
hatchback which came with the promise of reliability and customer
satisfaction that is expected from the Honda badge. That combined
with good space and low running costs made the Jazz the darling of
people trading down from a bigger car.
With the new Jazz, launched in the autumn of last year, building the appeal to the trading down brigade was high on the agenda. Notable among the specific areas for attention is refinement. The new car is notably quiet, apart from when you open the door. Instantaneously it starts its nagging “beep... beep... beep”, without even giving you time to sit in the seat, let alone fasten your seat belt.
If I owned a Jazz, I would have to sneak out in the dead of night to find the pesky fuse that controls that infernal beep and silence it for ever.
Reliability is not just promised and expected if the JD Power Survey is to be believed. The Jazz was rated top of its class in June, for the fifth successive year. It also came third overall in the model rankings, helping Honda overall to reclaim second place overall as a manufacturer.
The driving position actually worked out just OK for me. The legroom was marginal for me, but taller drivers might find themselves a little cramped. The dashboard seems to work quite well, but I cannot say it was a thing of beauty. It looks a little like it was styled by a Japanese boom box designer on his day off. It makes a bit of a contrast to other Honda interiors, like the restrained good taste of the Legend, or the rather chic modern style of the Civic.
The Jazz has something of an MPV-style view out the front with a big sloping windscreen, swept by big “clap hands” wipers. Also like an MPV there are little quarterlights ahead of the door pillars. Honda say that they have worked hard to reduce the intrusion of those pillars into the drivers view. Without the previous model sitting alongside it is hard to say, but you still need to be mindful that the pillars do create a bit of a blind spot.
Space in the back is excellent. I left the driver’s seat in its fully back position and hopped in, to find myself well pleased by the amount of knee room and head room. Here it definitely seems that Honda have achieved their aim of improving space and headroom over the old model. The rear seats have also been well engineered to allow for a quick transformation between passenger-carrying and load-carrying duties.
Lift the tailgate and you are rewarded with the view of an excellent load area for a Supermini. There is a load sill, but it is reasonably low and, once you have hefted anything over that there’s 399 litres of space in there with the rear seats up. Fold the rear seats down and it extends to 883 litres. There is also additional space under the load floor, but this does come at the cost of a spare wheel. Just pray that any punctures can be sealed by the repair kit supplied.
My test car was the Honda Jazz 1.4 ES. It is refined and willing, but not particularly quick as the 0-62 mph time of 11.5 seconds will attest. The combined fuel economy is quoted as 52.3 mpg. In real driving conditions, I found myself averaging 37 or 38 mpg in a mixture of town and country driving. Carbon dioxide emissions are 128 g/km. Unusually, the automatic version (which costs £800 more) is fractionally more economical and has slightly lower emissions – however it is slower at 13.5 seconds to 62 mph.
Clearly, Honda know their market with the Jazz. As well as offering a supermini that will appeal on merit alongside others, the Jazz has a particular appeal for those who are trading down to a smaller car. Many of these are older, savvy drivers and few are too bothered about niceties like handling balance, or steering feedback.
Of much more interest to them are features like reliability and customer service, for proof of which Honda need only point out the JD Power results. They will also want low ownership costs, which means economy and, arguably more important, good residual value when it comes to selling. Here, Honda say they tick the box again with a claim of class leading residual values for the Jazz.
The price of the Honda Jazz 1.4i ES is £12,235 which makes it a keenly priced alternative to cars like the 1.4-litre petrol Ford Fiesta.
With the new Jazz, launched in the autumn of last year, building the appeal to the trading down brigade was high on the agenda. Notable among the specific areas for attention is refinement. The new car is notably quiet, apart from when you open the door. Instantaneously it starts its nagging “beep... beep... beep”, without even giving you time to sit in the seat, let alone fasten your seat belt.
If I owned a Jazz, I would have to sneak out in the dead of night to find the pesky fuse that controls that infernal beep and silence it for ever.
Reliability is not just promised and expected if the JD Power Survey is to be believed. The Jazz was rated top of its class in June, for the fifth successive year. It also came third overall in the model rankings, helping Honda overall to reclaim second place overall as a manufacturer.
The driving position actually worked out just OK for me. The legroom was marginal for me, but taller drivers might find themselves a little cramped. The dashboard seems to work quite well, but I cannot say it was a thing of beauty. It looks a little like it was styled by a Japanese boom box designer on his day off. It makes a bit of a contrast to other Honda interiors, like the restrained good taste of the Legend, or the rather chic modern style of the Civic.
The Jazz has something of an MPV-style view out the front with a big sloping windscreen, swept by big “clap hands” wipers. Also like an MPV there are little quarterlights ahead of the door pillars. Honda say that they have worked hard to reduce the intrusion of those pillars into the drivers view. Without the previous model sitting alongside it is hard to say, but you still need to be mindful that the pillars do create a bit of a blind spot.
Space in the back is excellent. I left the driver’s seat in its fully back position and hopped in, to find myself well pleased by the amount of knee room and head room. Here it definitely seems that Honda have achieved their aim of improving space and headroom over the old model. The rear seats have also been well engineered to allow for a quick transformation between passenger-carrying and load-carrying duties.
Lift the tailgate and you are rewarded with the view of an excellent load area for a Supermini. There is a load sill, but it is reasonably low and, once you have hefted anything over that there’s 399 litres of space in there with the rear seats up. Fold the rear seats down and it extends to 883 litres. There is also additional space under the load floor, but this does come at the cost of a spare wheel. Just pray that any punctures can be sealed by the repair kit supplied.
My test car was the Honda Jazz 1.4 ES. It is refined and willing, but not particularly quick as the 0-62 mph time of 11.5 seconds will attest. The combined fuel economy is quoted as 52.3 mpg. In real driving conditions, I found myself averaging 37 or 38 mpg in a mixture of town and country driving. Carbon dioxide emissions are 128 g/km. Unusually, the automatic version (which costs £800 more) is fractionally more economical and has slightly lower emissions – however it is slower at 13.5 seconds to 62 mph.
Clearly, Honda know their market with the Jazz. As well as offering a supermini that will appeal on merit alongside others, the Jazz has a particular appeal for those who are trading down to a smaller car. Many of these are older, savvy drivers and few are too bothered about niceties like handling balance, or steering feedback.
Of much more interest to them are features like reliability and customer service, for proof of which Honda need only point out the JD Power results. They will also want low ownership costs, which means economy and, arguably more important, good residual value when it comes to selling. Here, Honda say they tick the box again with a claim of class leading residual values for the Jazz.
The price of the Honda Jazz 1.4i ES is £12,235 which makes it a keenly priced alternative to cars like the 1.4-litre petrol Ford Fiesta.