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-   -   Review: 2nd-gen Honda Jazz (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/60146-review-2nd-gen-honda-jazz-75.html)

A friend of mine got tired of waiting for Jazz, and changed his booking to City when the clearance sale discounts came up. And, in his experience Magnum Honda (Kanakapura road) is much better than Dakshin Honda on Lavelle Road (Do not know about Dkshin on Hosur).
When we went for test drive to Dakshin - Lavelle, they wouldn't let us test drive for more than 500m! On the other hand, the Magnum Honda guy had taken my friend to an almost perfect test route!
The salesmen at Magnum also seemed to be more knowledgeable.

They have all become wise now. At least most of them are not charging any surcharge if you pay servicing charges by credit card. Almost all the terms say surcharge will be levied on all card payments.

In that respect at least Maruti has kept booking amount low - Rs. 10,000/- only, with an even longer period in case of Swift / Dsire. Honda dealers are simply asking anything that goes and are not uniform.

Went to Pearl Honda in Gurgaon yesterday for a TD of the Jazz. As someone else said, only the old Jazz is available for TD. I didn't like the TD at all - at every gear change the car was lurching a bit, no smooth take off even though I was releasing the clutch very carefully. Very disappointing I have to say. Is this normal for the Jazz? I pointed it out to the dealer who said it was due to the vehicle being a TD vehicle having clocked 30,000 km - but frankly, that doesn't speak well for the car's longevity, which is what you would expect from Honda. Can someone comment on this?

Also, there is no display model of the new Jazz in the showroom, but the dealer was kind enough to show us one which they had parked in the underground garage. He said currently Honda does not want the Jazz displayed so as not to eat into Brio sales. So this is clearly a Honda strategy, however weird it may be.

Waiting period is 3-4 months and like others have said, no discounts at all are being offered.

Am checking out the i20 and Etios today.

OS

When checked with Honda dealers in Mumbai. all dealers maintained about waiting period of 4-6 months. Also Honda is neither offering free insurence or discount (not even corporate discount) on any of the Jazz varient (as quoted by all the dealers).

:OT Yes, charging surcharge is common, even in electronics stores. But the banks say they are not supposed to. Not sure what the remedy is, or if the bank will take this up if reported.

What are the dealers quoting for booking and cancellation amounts ?

I didn't feel lurching during the test drive. You probably drove a much abused car. I test drove the new Jazz and quite liked it. Its certainly never gonna star at drag races but is driveable in bumper to bumper city traffic. If anything, the car reminded me slightly of my Honda City ZX.

The waiting period told to me when I booked yesterday was 5-6 months. However, they did indicate that Honda had communicated that supplies would increase in November.

N yes, the New Jazz is no longer on display and the earlier display car is now being used as a TD car.

There is a corporate discount on the Jazz (5k,4k,3k) depending on how your company is classified with Honda. I am sure they are not offering free insurance.

@Furman: can you please clarify your post on the free insurance on the Jazz. None of the members on the forum have got/heard of similar offer.

my experience with Magnum was on the contrary. They kept varying the price of Jazz, they said that i have to buy RSA and extended warranty and when i checked out the Brio, made some wrong statements. I finally booked the Jazz at Dakshin honda on Hosur road.

Confirmed. The Honda dealer first told me the booking amount was 50K, then when I protested and asked if they would pay interest on that amount - considering the wait could be anywhere from 3-6 months - he dropped the amount to 25K (without interest, of course). So it is completely arbitrary. His logic was that the higher the amount the more seriousness the buyer is demonstrating (to counter black market premiums??).

Still, I believe this is an unfair trade practice.

OS

I am an advocate of free market. Do not pay / book if you do not want to.

IMO an unfair trade practice would be allowing queue jumping.

Agreed that I have the choice to book or not to book. Otherwise it would not just be an unfair practice but criminal. But you are exploiting the customer's desire to purchase an item by imposing an unjust demand and not even guaranteeing a delivery date. Amounts to unfair in my book. OTOH, you have the case of Maruti. It shows that companies deal with such situations very differently.

BTW queue jumping would be corruption IMO.

And yes, the only way to counter such unfair practices is if people collectively refuse to submit to them.

OS

Unjust demand? Law of demand & supply and demand. Cannot shake it. In fact with the Maruti booking amount, I am tempted to just book it for the heck of it. This way the dealer at least knows who is serious and does not simply add to the queue.

Had been to Magnum honda to check out the Brio. In the process learnt about Jazz having a waiting period of 6 months. That's way too long IMO. This will definitely drive away many prospective buyers.

Whitefiled Honda told me that the demand for Brio is not at expected levels. The Jazz demand is good. The top end Brio is placed close to the Jazz and people instead are preferring the Jazz itself.

I have taken delivery of my Jazz. Just clocked 200kms with it. Overall feedback is good. The only issues are with the pickup at lower gears and no arm rest on the driver seat. The fuel efficiency is around 12kmpl currently.

Exactly. The Brio IMO is somewhat overpriced. It can be compared only to Ritz/i10/Santro/Beat, etc. Not Swift/Jazz/i20, etc. But price-wise it is. So obviously for slightly more cost, people will prefer Jazz/Swift/Polo to Brio.