A few months ago I published the road test
of the Honda Jazz from our Down-under correspondent John
Weinthal. John was enthusiastic about the Jazz (also known as
the Fit in Japan, and there are a couple of these Japanese
imports floating around, though the only obvious difference is
just the name badge on the rear).
Honda
Jazz rear
After some research I found that the
Australian Jazz is not exactly the same as the Thai Jazz, with
different engines being the major difference. The Australian
versions have 1.3 and 1.5 litre VtiS engines, while the local
counterpart has the i-DSI designated 1.5 litre engines. The
Aussies get around 105 BHP from their top engine, while we get
88 BHP from ours (currently - there is a more powerful one
coming, I believe). So it was with interest that I took a
Honda Jazz, complete with the 7 speed CVT (constantly variable
transmission) with sequential manual over-ride, for a two day
test.
There
is a tendency for all testers to look at any test vehicle and
give it the critical analysis from all points of view. Did it
go fast? Does it have acceleration like an FA 18 Tomcat? Does
it stick to the road like dog poo to your sandals? Will it
carry 13 golf bags and a baby grand piano? Can you drive it
across the Sahara Desert and will it look good in the
executive car park? For my money this is the wrong way of
looking at any car. A Honda Jazz will never win a Grand Prix,
nor will it win the Paris-Dakar rally! And forget the baby
grand. What this vehicle really represents is an inexpensive
family shopping trolley, with the asking price ranging from
542,000 baht up to 679,000 baht for the fully loaded version
with all the bells and whistles. So that is how I looked at
testing this car. Is it a good shopping trolley?
There is no getting away from the fact that
this funky little car has eye appeal. Everyone seems to like
the chunky ‘verticality’ of it, and its ‘cheeky’ look
reminds me, in some silly way, of the response we all had to
the first Morris Mini’s 40 years ago.
It
is a true five door, with decent sized openings to even get
farang-sized folk in and out of the front or rear seats
easily. For Thais it is a breeze! The rear hatch is also large
and gives good access to the loading space in the rear, and it
lifts high enough up that you are not continually giving
yourself concussion every time you go to the supermarket.
Outside it looks small with its droopy
snoot, but inside it is amazingly roomy. Even three up across
the rear is not too squeezy, and the front chairs are large,
adjustable and comfy. You can also get a sensible seating
position for the driver where you are aligned well with the
pedals and the steering wheel is within reach. At the bargain
basement prices, don’t expect seats with electronic memory
built in, but the seat position can be changed manually with
little hassle.
So far so good, but very quickly some
dislikes became apparent. First off, the A pillar is enormous.
Undoubtedly you can probably bounce down the road on your lid
and be perfectly safe, but I really did find that too much
on-coming traffic could hide behind the very thick pillar. If
nothing else it makes you look twice, I suppose.
The next gripe came from the co-pilot. No
vanity mirror! Here we were in one of the top of the line
models and the passenger could not attend to her lipstick
without attacking the driver’s rear view mirror. And yet the
driver’s sun visor had one!
After a few kays in the CVT auto I found
another omission. A driver’s left foot rest. Another small
thing, but definitely one for creature comforts. Remember that
this is no stripped race car; this is a family shopping
trolley.
The compulsory visit to the supermarket
showed that the little Honda Jazz has a good tight turning
circle, and it was possible to wriggle into even the smallest
parking spots. Shopping trolley definitely got a tick there.
However, when it came to loading the rear, there is no flat
floor access, but a lip for everything to be lifted over
first. A black mark for that one, but minimal. Otherwise
loading was a breeze, and if needed, the split rear seats
could be folded down to increase the load capacity. There are
also lots of small cubby holes in the front to put items such
as mobile phones and other paraphernalia.
Mention must be made of the simple
user-friendly controls. How sick I am of electronic finger
stabbing at some piece of plastic fascia to get volumes up and
down, change ‘modes’ and air-conditioning temperatures and
the like. The Jazz has simple rotary dials that are easier,
quicker and less likely to malfunction. Another tick in the
report card for the shopping trolley.
John Weinthal, in his report on the Aussie
CVT auto version Jazz, had felt that the power was marginal
and had written “I’d try the five-speed manual gearbox
before buying. The manual gear change would deliver more
useful performance and possibly even better than the auto’s
outstanding fuel economy.” By comparison, my Thai test
vehicle also had the 7 speed CVT auto, and (on paper) smaller
horses than the Australian variant. To be honest, from the
shopping trolley point of view, the power was perfectly
adequate, and the auto delightfully smooth. I did have a play
with the 7 speed sequential over-ride and quickly gave it up.
Interestingly, so did tester John Weinthal, who wrote, “The
sequential mode is entered by pressing a button on the right
side of the steering wheel. From there on virtually instant
and ultra-smooth up and down changes are made by pressing plus
and minus buttons on the left or right hand side of the
steering wheel. It is effective and occasionally it might be
more useful than just novel, although after a few practice
plays I rarely bothered to exercise the sequential
function.” Agreed. The fully automatic mode was much better.
In fact I would go so far as to say that I wouldn’t even
contemplate the manual gearbox. In our traffic, why would you
want to?
I did give the Jazz a quick blast to
Bangkok and it would sit happily at 130 kph on the motorways
and even a quick sprint to 160 clicks was easy (sorry Mr.
Policeman, that’s a misprint, I meant to write 120 kph!).
Brakes and road-holding were fine and the fuel economy was
good and the Jazz drinks the cheaper 91 octane only.
Jazz was the top selling car in Japan last
year, and I believe it is probably now doing the same here. It
is a very good shopping trolley cum family runabout. I could
own one, but it would be the auto version, and in fact Mr.
Honda can keep the 7 speed sequential mode and give me back
the difference in price!
As I mentioned at the top, this is no race
car, but it was never designed to be one. In the horses for
courses stakes, however, the Honda Jazz is a definite winner!
Jenson
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