Jazz with Honda. Review on Honda Jazz

New Honda Jazz 1.2.

The first generation Honda Jazz was a huge success for Honda, combining a small car with large car practicality. It was also fun to drive.So has Honda made any improvements to what was a fantastic little car.

Style.The new Jazz looks like an MPV from a distance, but up close it's surprising how small it is. You especially notice it when it's parked next to modern family sized cars.I think the new Jazz is slightly better looking than the old one with more curves at the front. Actually, view it from the side and squint a bit, and it starts to look a little like a Merc A/B class.

Interior.The interior has been brought up to date, with nice chunky sporty feeling steering wheel which fitted perfectly in my hands. The instruments are easy to read and are attractively back lit. The Jazz also gets Honda's multi information display in the centre of the speedo. This shows information like MPG, average MPG, average speed etc.It starts to go wrong a bit when you start to look around the interior. The centre console feels very cheap and flimsy, with big chunky switches for heating and ventilation controls which also feel rather cheap.Although cheap looking, everything is very well put together. The model I tested is the base 1.2 model, which came with air con, but only had front electric windows.

The rears are manual.The other thing I noticed is the huge expanse of dashboard. Does it need to be there? Or could they increase space inside the car by taking a lot of it away and pushing the front seats and controls forward?In the back, rear passengers do have a good amount of space and the boot is a very practical size for this class. The seats also fold flat like in the first gen' Jazz to give van like carrying capabilities.

On the road.The first few minutes behind the wheel were not that great for the Jazz. I found that when I fully depressed the clutch pedal, my foot also pressed against the foot rest which was not very comfortable and a little annoying, and I only have size 8 feet. Also I couldn't get a very good driving position. I adjusted the seat so my legs and feet were perfect, and reclined the seat to a nice relaxed driving position, and lowered the seat to it's lowest position as I like to feel in the car rather than on top of it.I now found that the steering wheel was slightly too far away and the gear stick was far to far away! When in 1st, 3rd and 5th gears I had to lean forward to reach it! I'm 5'10 so it's not like I'm an abnormal size.

The steering wheel only adjusts for rack so I could pull it closer to me. So I tried moving the seat forward so I could reach the wheel and gear stick comfortably, but now my knees where up my nose! So I went back to the original position and just had to lean forward to change gear.Also another annoying thing was that the massive ventilation control is located right above the gear stick and comes out of the centre consol quite a way, which ment that I kept banging my knuckles on it every time I changed into 3rd gear and moved my hand back to the steering wheel.

So after this start to my experience in the Jazz I was very disappointed.Once on the move in town traffic though, the Jazz starts to show what it's good at.Visibility is very good all round and it's very easy to park, it's very quite at town speeds and easy to drive. The brakes are good and responsive and the gear change is smooth and precise. The steering however is a little too light in the first 45 deg of turn and then it weights up quite a lot the more you turn it, then goes really light again as you move the wheel back towards the centre. This wasn't really a problem in town, but out on faster B roads it felt very artificial and strange, and wasn't good going through a bend with weighted steering and easing the wheel back as the road starts to straighten for the steering wheel to then go all light and floppy in your hand! First time it happened I though the steering had broke mid bend, and for that split second my heart jumped into my mouth! I never really got used to this peculiar steering feel and it's probably down to the fact that the Jazz is fitted with electronic power steering which has a rather basic program.

However going round bends the Jazz feels quite firmly planted on the road and is not upset by bumps while cornering either.The 1.2 litre engine has to be worked hard to get any kind of performance from it, but once you get used to using the gears, using all the revs available and have confidence in it's handling, it's actually quite good fun over fast twisting roads. It's just a shame that the steering is such a let down.

Probably the most surprising part of the test was that at the end, having just done town driving and fast B road driving, I'd averaged 54mpg over nearly 50 miles. This is nearly 1mpg more than the official claimed combined mpg from Honda, and I achieved it without any constant speed motorway driving. The Jazz also has change up/down indicators to help you drive more economically, but I had just ignored these during the test and still got 54mpg. I do have a rather economical driving style which I developed while I owned powerful sports cars for a few years that would do no more than 20mpg! And having driven quite a few Honda's now, I find it quite easy to achieve or better Honda's claimed mpg figures which is hard to do in other makes of car.

To sum up the new Jazz, I have to say I was a little disappointed with it.It's fantastically practical, the engine is strong when worked hard, it handles well, and is quite well equipped, costs less than the equivalent new Ford Fiesta, but it has a few annoying niggles that on their own aren't too bad, but all together make the Jazz quite frustrating. The previous Jazz was much better to drive as I could get a near perfect driving position and the steering was better.Honda are trying to shake off its OAP image with it's new generation of cars, just look at the civic and the edgy looking new accord. The new Jazz does look more funky than the old one but you get the impression that it must have been designed around an old lady who likes to sit bolt upright with the seat as high as it will go and sat so far forward her nose is touching the windscreen!If you want to appeal to younger people then design the car around younger people.