[onelife]

Ok, guys. I am back again after a long break. Sorry things have been really busy and I was advised by moderators also to focus more on the car rather than the buying experience.

So I will now cut short the buying experience. But just to wrap-up from last time, I was very close to buying the i-20 when I read an advertisement in the TOI about Honda dealers offering upto 50K discount on Jazz with interesting interest rates. Some quick calculations and I felt that the price may get closer to i20. Also, it being a car purchase after a long time I did not want to rush into my purchase. So I called up the Honda guys to give me a test drive. And what followed just turned my entire research of 1 month into utter waste. I was surprised on why I had not considered this car earlier.

Here was a beautiful Honda in front of me with one of the most optimized size I have seen in cars. Size matters a lot in Mumbai. You want to travel in luxury and yet not bother yourselves with the parking hassles. So you need a compact spacious car and the Honda Jazz is ezzactly that. I spent a lot of time analyzing on how they could fit more space in the same dimensions as i20. It was a very smart distribution of space. The bonnet is smaller than i20 (who cares !!). The windshield is huge giving an impression of a big car from the front and the space saved from the bonnet is distributed in the rear and boot. Now that is a very practical way of distributing space. Full marks on that.

Next comes the magic seat. I had read about it earlier, but thought it would be no big deal. All cars have collapsible rear seats. But soon I was proven to be wrong. This was totally different. The i20 too has 40:60 collapsible seats, but they do not become flat. there is a 1-2" gap between boot height and the folded seats. For the jazz, it is almost ZERO. Full points on this. And guess what the seats also fold up the other way round. I dont know if I will be every carrying plants in this, but it surely makes cleaning the car a lot easier. My car cleaner is actually quite happy with this .

The rear seats - far more spacious than the i20 and lets not even discuss the Punto in this department. Very important criteria for me since I travel in the back seat 5 days a week - 2 hrs everyday. Couldnt' have compromised on this. I am among the few persons who actually sit in the backseats for a test drive . Full marks for this too. And inspite of all these space, the car is a few mm smaller than the i20 in length.

Of course, I did drive the car as well and the experience was mediocre, mainly in the lower gears. Not exactly a driver's car especially in the lower gears. The car does struggle a bit and has a long clutch in the 1st and 2nd gears. But once you have moved to the 3rd, you realise you are driving a Honda and things are smooth from here onwards.

Aesthetics, not really important, but the interiors were really top notch. A futuristic dashboard with dual glovebox and two bottle holders in front of the AC ducts. That was the answer to the i20's cooling chamber in the glovebox. The whole car is full of small storage space and very practical. There were few small limitations (and some very irritating like the lack of remote), but overall not much to complain about.

So I was back to the confused state. On one hand I had the i20 which earlier seemed to be expensive and now after seeing the Jazz sounded like Value for Money kind of cars. On the other hand, there was this car which met all my requirements with a

pricey tag. It was time to revisit team-bhp for the reviews on the car. The only issue I could read about the car was on the price front. Honda dealers were offering some deals especially on the 2009 models and that made the car come closer (even if by a small amount) to the i20 for pricing. My mind was made up. Now, all I had to do was use my bargaining skills and get the best pricing for this.

After 2 weeks of haggling, I finally zeroed in on the price and finalised on the delivery schedule and other nitty-gritties. Have driven the car for about 2 weeks now (actually more often it was been driven in the car) and except for a few hiccups, the experience has been great. One of the annoyances was the rattling sound in the back. Hope to get this fixed in my 1st
servicing. Have installed 3M Sun-films (SP50 and SP70) on all windows and windshield.

Now, a few questions to fellow-bhpians

- Apex Honda guys told me that there is no separate warranty card for the tyres and battery. But I had read in the PDi checklist that this needs to be checked. Can someone throw light on this?

- The Form 22 did not clearly show the manufacturing date. Not that it matters now, but I am wondering on what is the best way to establish the manufacturing date of the car. The Chassis code(VIN?) is cryptic and could not figure out much from that except the year. My RC book is yet to arrive.

- I had choice to go for Michelin XM1 v.s Goodyear GT3(pre-installed). One of my friends suggested Goodyear is a better one in terms of comfort, although they last a little less. Although, I cant do much now, just wondering if it was a good decision to go for the Goodyear GT3. Did not want to make them change the tyres and then get car realigned.

Will come back with pictures in the next thread. Sorry for delaying this, but I have been promised by a professional photographer and a fellow bhpian and he is quite busy (hope he is reading this

[onelife]

just spoke with the car dealer. The select edition is INR 10000 more than the base version only while you are buying the new car. If you have to upgrade your existing car which is NOT less than 2 months old, they charge you INR 18000. This sounds a bit shady to me and seems the dealers are trying to pocket this additional 8000.