[vinair]

Confused as to which manufacturer is doing the favour here?? Is it Honda by giving a product with just the basic stuff (in this age, mind you!) and lots (and lots!) of space with a 'H' badge at a price that's affordable this time around or is it Hyundai with a product that screams quality everywhere with all bells and whistles again at a price that most find not just affordable but also value for money!

Apart from the space it offers, I really do not find anything interesting in the new Jazz!

[prkiran]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that if you absolutely need the additional space and the flexibility of the Jazz, it does make sense. But if you are ok with the space in the ELite i20 which is already quite good, it is very difficult to justify the additional premium of the Jazz.

I totally agree with you on the diesel. What I would like to know is how the Jazz petrol fares against the i20 petrol. I have driven the previous gen i20 and it was incredibly slow. With the specs that it has, Jazz can't be that bad right?

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Vigkey

- Rear AC vents - good to have, but I don't really think it will be a game changer until there are dedicated cooling coils. Otherwise, it is more of a gimmick and less of a utility, IMO.

They work! Most useful feature. Even if the AC is powerful the rear AC vents are extremely useful. It helps in bringing overall cabin temp down quicker when parked in sun.

When the rear passengers complain that they are feeling warm, you have to increase the AC and that sometimes results in front passenger feeling too cold. Has happened to me multiple times in my Altis and Ecosport that doesn't get rear AC vents.

- Parking Sensors - not sure how much difference that will make if the car has a good reverse camera unit. Never used a car with reverse camera - so I am not sure. In our Dzire without the camera - we have it and feel it is very important. Probably Honda could have given them in the SV variant alone.

Camera is good to have but the sensors are better in telling accurate distance. Many times the camera being wide angle it becomes difficult to judge the distance. And remember in pitch dark roads the camera is not of much use. If the camera is dirty with mud during rains then it's again useless. This is where the sensors come in. Ideal would be combination of both.

- Telescopic steering - never used this feature in any of the cars I drove and never missed the absence. Can live without it.

You realise how useful it is only after you experience it. Both my cars have it and as I mentioned at 6 feet tall I found the steering too far away for my liking. This gives the perfect position else you need to adjust to this.

- Auto headlamps and wipers - I have the controls so easily accessible in my hands and I do not wish to depend on the technology to calculate the amount of light and switch on / off the headlight with a lag of 3 seconds. I can do it in half a second myself. As a driver, I know the how and when to use the wipers and I do not need technology to assist me with this.

Again this works like a charm. HEadlights turn on when entering a tunnel or a basement parking. They go off when you exit the tunnel/basement. Keep the lights on Auto and you don't even need to turn the lights off when getting out.

It's like saying why do you need central locking or power steering. You can put in additional effort and drive without them as well. You lose only convenience.

- Auto folding ORVMs and MID indicating steering position - I mean, if I need technology to help me understand that the steering is not straight, I better not drive a car.

So the BMW and Merc that offer self parking are driven by people who don't know how to drive cause they have a parking assist system which turns the steering for them. In the i20 it's basic in which it tells you if the steering is straight or turned.

- i20 is missing a lot of useful features like instantaneous and average FE, speed sensing auto-locking doors

YEs auto locking doors should have been there in i20 but how does instantaneous and average FE indicator help you? Is it a feature that you cannot live with it, if the car doesn't show you the FE. Why rely on technology. Calculate average FE when tanking up.

If you can live without parking sensors and auto headlamps then the average Fe indicator is even more useless.

- i20 offers R14 tires in all variants up to Sportz (same with Polo, except HL), but Jazz offers R15 in all variants except E. I think Honda deserves some appreciation here.

R15 or R14 doesn't matter that much. It's the width that matters. Honda offers 175 across the board which is not bad but Maruti give 185 in the Swift Z variant, Hyundai give 195/55-16 in the 2 top versions and VW gives 185 in the Polo.

In the top end Honda is not as well equipped. Lower variants are evenly matched.

[Hayek]

Great review of a wonderful car. Presume the diesel will sell well. Have my doubts about the 1.2 petrol though - I had tried out the old Jazz, and the lack of drivability was a real deal breaker. If it came with the 1.5 l CVT package, this car would be a no brainier as a second car for the urban family.

[libranof1987]

Wonderful review, the both of you!

On the looks department, I like this version of the Jazz a tad more than the previous one; as you pointed out, it looks sharper.

Bottomline, is this Jazz convincingly better than the i20? Most likely not. I get the feeling Honda could have, should have done much better. Especially since they've already burnt their fingers with the earlier Jazz.

[SchumiFan]

6-footer Vid6639 has a relaxed driving position and still, two Vid6639s can sit one behind the other.

I laughed out loud at this statement Good to see a bit of humor in Team-BHP reviews.

I particularly like the time of release of the review. Exactly after the announcement of prices. Locking the General thread and releasing the review. I think this has been followed for almost all the car released in the recent times. Great work on that co-ordination and gives us members some info as to when to expect the review.

As such the car doesn't have anything unique going for it. Yes, it has the magic seats but it is restricted only to the top version of the model. And all other variants suffer from poor seating arrangements apparently.

50K premium over Elite i20 Asta in diesel version is ambitious pricing. Not sure why a person would go for that noisy motor when he can sit in this refined cabin.

Petrol model has a higher chance of success IMO even though Honda may woo customers with the 27kmpl figure; ironic how times have changed that Honda uses the 'Kitna deti hai' line and Maruti is trying to go all 'Premium' on its upcoming crossover.

Lack of safety features in the lower variants is a disappointment as is the lack of magic seats in the CVT.

A great review by mod Suhaas307 and mod Vid6639. Rated the thread as well since mod Rehaan had corrected the issue with a few not being able to rate the thread for the past few weeks.

[Vigkey]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Camera is good to have but the sensors are better in telling accurate distance. Many times the camera being wide angle it becomes difficult to judge the distance. And remember in pitch dark roads the camera is not of much use. If the camera is dirty with mud during rains then it's again useless. This is where the sensors come in. Ideal would be combination of both.

I agree, combination of both would definitely be good. But many a times, I find the sensors beeping even when there is thick a strand of grass (found this in our Dzire - might be different in other cars with a different set of sensors). That is why I came to the conclusion that camera is better than sensors. In dark roads, etc the reversing light will be of great use to provide necessary illumination. The i20 gets only one, since it is not pointed out in the review, I hope the Jazz gets two.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

You realise how useful it is only after you experience it. Both my cars have it and as I mentioned at 6 feet tall I found the steering too far away for my liking. This gives the perfect position else you need to adjust to this.

Probably, I never realized the usefulness. But, inn our Dzire, even with the driver seat pushed all the way back, I wish the steering was farther away - I find it too close to me Since I had the feeling that the telescopic adjustment will be to pull the steering further close, I assumed it will not be of much use, at least for tall guys.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Again this works like a charm. HEadlights turn on when entering a tunnel or a basement parking. They go off when you exit the tunnel/basement. Keep the lights on Auto and you don't even need to turn the lights off when getting out.

It's like saying why do you need central locking or power steering. You can put in additional effort and drive without them as well. You lose only convenience.

You nailed it with the word 'convenience' - Power steering and central locks are convenience features which assist the driver. Opinions might differ, but I feel the Auto-headlights and wipers are over-assisting. Just like how an over-assisting steering is not appreciated, I do not appreciate the over assisted feature especially in cars like i20, where the reviews clearly point out the amount of delay in it switching on and off.

Instead of this feature, I would have absolutely loved to have a feature when the beam automatically changes from high to low and otherwise based on the conditions and vehicle coming in the opposite direction. That is what I will call convenience. Here, it is just a twist of a button to turn on and off the lights at points I clearly know if it is required or not. My opinion this, you are free to disagree

Originally Posted by Vid6639

So the BMW and Merc that offer self parking are driven by people who don't know how to drive cause they have a parking assist system which turns the steering for them. In the i20 it's basic in which it tells you if the steering is straight or turned.

No Vidyut, I feel the comparison is not justified. Once again, a convenience feature is compared to a over-assisted indulgent feature. Parking assistance is to aid a driver to park in a tough parallel parking situation. This is convenience, a driving aid. How does telling me that the wheel is not straight so much of a convenience, I know that the moment I see the steering wheel (or even better before I enter the car).

Originally Posted by Vid6639

YEs auto locking doors should have been there in i20 but how does instantaneous and average FE indicator help you? Is it a feature that you cannot live with it, if the car doesn't show you the FE. Why rely on technology. Calculate average FE when tanking up.

Not a feature I cannot live without. But again a convenience feature that will help a FE conscious driver to tune his driving and a lazy driver who does not bother to calculate by tank-full method. It isn't a game-changer for me. But this is a nice to have feature for sure along with Distance to Empty (which again is absent in i20).

Originally Posted by Vid6639

R15 or R14 doesn't matter that much. It's the width that matters. Honda offers 175 across the board which is not bad but Maruti give 185 in the Swift Z variant, Hyundai give 195/55-16 in the 2 top versions and VW gives 185 in the Polo.

Totally agree. I mentioned this point just because many of our members seem to complain that Honda is offering only R15 and R14 when competition is offering R16. The higher tire radius is more of a cosmetic feature what will make the wheel well look more filled. I totally agree the width of tire is much more important.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

In the top end Honda is not as well equipped. Lower variants are evenly matched.

Once again, I totally agree. I never told that Jazz is well equipped. It is decently equipped and just enough so that I do not feel anything essential is missing. However, when we see the pricing, Honda should have equipped the car MUCH BETTER for the price or priced the car MUCH LOWER for what it offers. As simple as that.

[akhil994]

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

Lack of safety features in the lower variants is a disappointment as is the lack of magic seats in the CVT.

Agree with the magic seats part, but safety? i20 , supposedly the benchmark of the segment offers dual airbags on only one variant, while Jazz offers it in 3.
i20 does not have EBD on any of the models. So safety wise I would say Honda is offering the customer what he wants.

It would have been good to have airbags on all variants like the Polo, but then sadly people prefer gimmicky features over safety.

[latentpotential]

I heard the news of the prices released today, and had my mind set on a CVT VX only to see that there is NO CVT VX Model.

If a CVT buyer is expected to be a premium user, above the manual stick shift buyer, why is he not provided similar options in trim and equipment?

If a Honda guy reads our forum, Curses! Who decided to have so many variants, yet skip on teh CVT VX variant? Especially with this pricing stratagem.

I am back to my hunt for my next auto-box. The Germans will have my money yet.

[mrbaddy]

Thanks for the detailed review Suhaas and Vidyut. Rated 5 Stars.

Below is the variant wise comparison of Jazz as taken from the Features section of Honda website. All prices mentioned below are ex-showroom Delhi.









I had also attached the Excel file for Jazz enthusiasts in case they want to do a custom compare on their own.

As I have not explored i20/Jazz before and never sat in both of those, I cant really comment much about the 2015 Jazz. However after considering Mobilio last year for purchase and then dropping out after looking at what is being offered for the prices quoted, I lost respect for Honda.

Look at their pricing strategy (Diesel vs Petrol difference) from the image below.



Why are they are charging 130K for the V and VX Diesel variants over their petrol counterparts when they are charging 120K for the lower variants? Ideally they should charge more (relative to higher variants) for E and S Diesel variants compared to the Petrol variants, as they are offering ABS in the Diesel variants which is not offered in Petrol variants. I dont understand their logic.

[Simple_car]

Good review guys. Would appreciate if you can add one point: NVH levels at speeds, especially wind noise and tyre noise. I re read the review twice just to ensure I haven't missed it.

I have to agree with @vigkey and @Hayek. The car is pretty evenly matched to the elite i20, with the i20 'feeling' more premium.

Personally feel, that Honda shouldn't have priced the diesel the way it has.

If the jazz would have been launched with the cvt in the top variant, I would have picked it up immediately. I am one of the few people, who use the magic seats

That said, very good and competent product from Honda. Am very much interested to see the market's response to this car. Been long since I felt like buying a Honda product.

Thanks,
Simple_car

[anshul_UVA]

I think I am part of a very limited customer set.
I really like the petrol cars mainly because of their quiet nature etc. And because of driving conditions in the city, was looking for an automatic transmission. Smaller hatches are not an option because we need to seat 5 adults+ consistently. Also a big boot is a big plus. Currently we have the Aveo-UVA which fulfills my requirements of space. It has been with us for 6.5 years and the 7 year itch was popping up.

Jazz CVT looks like a good option for people like me who need a relatively big city people mover, convenience of a petrol automatic and priced <7L. Nevertheless I was looking forward to it's launch.

I think with a slightly better pricing on the V-CVT, Honda would have had my vote and my deposit. For now, the pricing has strengthened my resolve to keep my well-kept friend for another couple of years.

Lets see how this new avatar of the Jazz sells!! Will be interesting to follow.

[vdm]

A really well written review. I was expecting the jazz pricing would undercut their rivals but sad it's not the case. The ice & the a/c switches with the piano finish looks a little out of place. This I felt by just looking at the photographs may be it would be different view when directly seeing it. That's solely my opinion. As someone rightly pointed out there are not enough choice of colours. I hope Honda is listening to it & take action.

[thehighwayman]

Would be fair to say Honda has shot itself in the foot again.Clearly the top management at Honda have not learnt from previous mistakes.I am one of the frustrated and disappointed folks who in all probability will end up canceling and start looking elsewhere.

I see the Jazz perhaps competing with VW Polo at best.The i20 has nothing to worry about.

[coolmel]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Basically you've pretty much convinced yourself that all features in other cars like the i20 are useless and the ones in the Jazz are all that you need. What's not there in the Jazz is something which you don't need.

Even though you get all these features in an Elite i20 for a lesser price and the Jazz doesn't give anything extra other than the additional space.

Coming to the flat floor and the seats. My Ecosport has a flat floor, when seats are tumbled, reclining rear seats and a 60:40 split.

In nearly 2 years of ownership I have not tumbled the seats even once. The additional benefits of the seats will rarely be used.

On the other hand features such as the remote entry are used daily. Steering telescopic adjust was sorely missed in my case. I am 6 feet tall and when I adjusted the seats to my driving position, the steering was too far away.

Arm rest I need to pay for after I have paid more for the car in the first place sounds silly.

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that if you absolutely need the additional space and the flexibility of the Jazz, it does make sense. But if you are ok with the space in the ELite i20 which is already quite good, it is very difficult to justify the additional premium of the Jazz.

I am also 6 feet and matter of fact find the head room in my Liva so inadequate, but was at ease in the erstwhile Jazz. Should be a similar case in this one too.

The argument about the flat folding seats with respect to your Ecosport, well the seats don't completely fold down flat. They tumble over. For that matter I believe no other car in this segment does(Ecosport is another segment altogether). Am not saying not folding down fully flat is bad design. The argument is not many are realising the potential of this good design over the rivals. People are simply not leveraging this!

With regards to the i20 or all other cars which have features which the Jazz doesn't, well those aren't features(the ones you pointed) to solely buy a car on. Sensible buyers will still pick a good car even if these features aren't there. What should be really nitpicked on is the quality of parts esp the interiors and so on. Just not buying a car simply because it does not have telescopic steering, smart entry or auto headlamps doesn't make sense. In the end it all boils down to the maintenance, service, spares etc. Last but not the least the car itself has to have some character!

Again, purchase decisions differ from person to person. Everything apart, am stoked that one of the most versatile hatchbacks with one of the best interiors in the world is finally here. If Honda listen a little more, they will be on the upward slope to do the numbers as well.