Jazz 2015 – Test driven in just an hour of launch!. Review on Honda Jazz

After having owned Honda City ZX for past 7+ years, I was obsessed with the overall quality, refineness, stability, reliability and after sales service offered by Honda Motor India Ltd. While City had the flagship car of Honda in India, during the past 7 years Honda did enter the diesel market besides adding Brio, Amaze and MUV Mobilio to its portfolio while Civic, Accord and Jazz were discontinued. Jazz was first launched in 2008 and lasted till 2011. Unlike Honda’s other hatch Brio, Jazz had always belonged to the clan of premium hatchbacks.

I had been looking out for buying a new car (petrol only, I strongly dislike diesel cars for noise and vibration) since past 7-8 months and my earlier visit to Honda while getting City serviced gave me a chance to check out the interiors of Mobilio but only to muff at it.

It really lacked the premium feel that I was expecting. Brio and Amaze sharing the same platform and identical interiors also disappointed me. I was then all set to make a choice between VW Polo or Hyundai’s i20/Active. Then heard Honda is again launching Jazz on July 8th, so eagerly waited for the day when it was unveiled at 1:00 pm.

All New Jazz 2015 has been launched in 5 variants in petrol and diesel each while 2 variants in CVT (automatic). In about 30 mins of unveiling the beauty, ex-showroom prices in Delhi were revealed:

Petrol variants:

E-MT: 530900

S-MT: 594000

SV-MT: 644900

V-MT: 679900

VX-MT:729000

S-CVT: 699000

V-CVT: 785000

Diesel variants:

E-MT: 649900

S-MT: 714000

SV-MT: 764900

V-MT: 809900

VX-MT: 859000

Additional 6000/- for metallic paint.

Since Jazz shares its platform with City, my one and the only major concern was the ground clearance. It has been a decent 165 mm for us in India. The same Jazz in Philippines was launched with a ground of 150 mm. So I was all set book and just then was offered to take a test drive. It was 27 KM driven petrol VX-MT Jazz as I sat behind the wheel. My experience:

Pros:

• Overall ride quality and comfort: A true replica of Honda City.

  
  




• Sitting: Comfortable for 4. 5th will make it crumpled.

  
  




• Head room: I am 6 feet tall and still had few inches available above.

  
  




• Leg room: For both front and rear rows, really no problem.

  
  




• EPS: Just as good as the one in my City to make me feel confident.

  
  




• Air conditioning: Good cooling (as expected)

  
  




• Pickup, braking and handling: Stays planted, feels well controlled, no glitches observed. Speed breakers could be maneuvered better than my City due to better ground clearance and lesser wheel base.

  
  




• Gear shifting: Smooth and effortless (City replica)

  
  




• Honking: Sorry I forgot to test horn, not used to it.

  
  

Other pro features:

• Soothing bluish glowing well designed instrument panel

  
  




• Interior workmanship and material used is visibly high quality.

  
  




• Seat design and quality is far better than those fitted in Brio, Amaze or Mobilio.

  
  




• Attractive boot space: 354 Liters

  
  




• Dual SRS airbags

  
  




• ABS+EBD

  
  




• Central locking with keyless entry

  
  




• A/C touch panel

  
  




• State of the art 6.2” audio/video/navigation system with speakers didn’t disappoint me.

  
  




• Height adjustable driver seat

  
  




• LED tail lamps

  
  




• Well designed sporty 15” alloy wheels

  
  




• Multi-view rear parking camera

  
  




• Bluetooth hands-free cell phone connectivity on steering wheel

  
  




• Audio controls on the steering wheel

  
  




• Nice leather wrapped steering wheel and gear shift knob.

  
  




• Rear windscreen washer and wiper

  
  

The V-CVT variant comes with steering mounted paddle shifters, first in its class in premium hatchback segment.

It was hard to find any shortcomings but for below.

Cons:

• Seat belt felt somewhat narrow and low quality.

  
  




• Seat belt wasn’t height adjustable as I have in my Honda City.

  
  




• Steering offers only tilt adjust and not also telescopic adjustment.

  
  




• The top variant (VX) offers only black colored seats, a strong reason for me to drop down and book V variant (premium beige seats)

  
  

Post test drive, I booked my beauty: Albastor Silver (metallic paint) V-MT 1.2 liter iVTEC petrol.

I will write more about my experience once I own it for some time. Till then, drive safe, stick to your lane, do not honk, be a responsible and a sensible citizen on the roads. Thanks.