Our family's Honda Jazz completes 7 years of faithful trouble free service. Over the last 2 years she has got relegated to the utility maid of all work in our garage. She gets driven by 5 adults and 2 employee drivers so is constantly subjected to different driving styles and associated pulls and pressures on the machinery. Our 4 plus 3 year warranty period is over. It came in handy when parts of the clutch needed changing at the end of year 6 due to excessive wear and tear due to so many different drivers. Twice in her life she has been mauled by one of our young adults, as they learnt how to drive and underwent serious body work. A couple of months ago the air bags were changed under a recall scheme that Honda ran. Beyond this the Jazz is a real fill it shut it forget it kind of car especially for city driving.
City Driving: This is your city run about car - sharp on the turn (4.9 metres radius), light on the steering, the huge glass area makes tight parking easier, has a silent cabin for a small car, nice useful ORVMs and IRVM, a short bonnet and a nice strong air conditioning. If you need a car to get around your town and are not necessarily looking for jet engine acceleration and engine growl then the Jazz is your horse.
Service Centre Quality: I believe, within limits, service centre quality is influenced by your approach and attitude towards those young maintenance engineers who are themselves struggling to build a career. I adopt an avuncular attitude towards them and it works effectively. I use Ring Road Honda at Gurgaon for my service. I never stand and wait ut I do take the trouble of chatting up the engineer before and after and dropping a word of appreciation to the centre manager. So far it is my assumption that they are doing the servicing correctly as the car has run smoothly for 7 years.
Maintenance: Expenditure other than accident repair and changing 4 tyres is around Rs 80,000 over 7 years and 54,000 kms. That is about Rs 1.48 paisa per kms or Rs ~11,500 a year. I believe this is very reasonable. In this calculation I have not included the money spent on waxing/cleaning at 3M as that is a spit and polish luxury. The first time ever we dealt with rattling was 3 months ago which was fixed by replacing rubber bushings in the rear left door and rear gate.
What you’ll like:
- A mini- multi purpose vehicle. Great for carrying out sized luggage as well as people.
- Built around Honda's philosophy of maximum man and minimum machine
- Easily the roomiest hatchback in India in its size/price range
- Magic seats are useful to transport tall items. We have moved plants, a bycycle and even a small 2 seat sofa!
- Light controls and easy maneuverability. Effortless to drive in the city
- AC for the Indian summer
- Driver's view all around that aids safe driving and parking
- 385 litre dickey; fuel tank under the front seats frees up space in the dickey
- The ABS + EBD assisted brakes are effective and strong
- Rear window wiper and de-fogger
- Music system decent - 2 woofers and 2 tweeters
- Fuel efficiency meter for the enthusiasts
- Remote entry key
- Tall boy design and wide opening doors makes ingress and egress easier for folks who are older or fatter.
What you won't like:
- Hard ride. Well relative to my other bigger cars the ride being hard is expected. But it is hard even in comparison to the Amaze we have.
- The gearing has a weak lower end that leads to driving in traffic in 1st & 2nd almost all through.
- Relative to later hatchbacks like the i20 the interiors are more basic. It is effectively a 10 to 12 year old design.
- Steering does not have reach adjustment for those who need it.
- No dead pedal, arm rest or rear air con vents.
For the record key technical details of the Honda Jazz 1.2 i-vtec are given below:
Power train:
Displacement:1198 cc
Power: 89bhp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 110 NM @ 4800 rpm
5-speed manual, 5F+1R, all forward speeds synchromesh with overdrive on 5th gear (may also be on 4th but I am not sure)
Fuel Tank: 42 litres
Fuel tank & piping actually take in about 44 litres. Practical driving range about 500 kms in the city Safety:
Dual SRS airbags - front
ABS
Fog Lamps
Rear wiper
Dimensions:
Length: 3900 mm
Width: 1695 mm
Height: 1525 mm
Wheelbase: 2500 mm
Ground clearence: 160 mm
Ground clearance has served us well though some may say 160mm is on the margin Steering:
Electric power assisted, rack and pinion
Steering is light (glass is half full) or lifeless (glass is half empty) Suspension:
Front: McPherson strut with stabilizer bar
Rear: H shaped torsion beam with stabilizer bar
Suspension needs a cushier ride Brakes:
Front: ventilated disc
Rear: self adjusting drum, leading and trailing shoe type
Brakes are effective
With seven years up the question is what next. Ideally I would replace the car with a Jazz plug-in Hybrid as and when that comes. It seems likely this bugs bunny car will be with me for another 3 years. Maybe I should keep her for another 30 years and have a classic on my hands in 2047
Who knows some future grandchild may bless my departed soul for the foresight of preserving the Jazz!