A Star Quality Car (Honda Jazz 1.4)

Member Name: upton66

Product:	Honda Jazz 1.4
Date:	06/08/09 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything

Disadvantages: Nothing

I love driving the Jazz, for me it feels so solid and sticks to the road like glue. Touch the accelerator and it may perhaps feel a bit heavy but it glides away effortlessly, rock solid on the road.

The 1.4 1-DSI SE with CVT-7 is basically an automatic. There is the option with the click of the steering wheel "7 speed mode" button to drive in semi-automatic mode, no clutch but using the paddles to the side of the steering wheel to change up and down. Not being a boy/girl racer and probably too old to appreciate such toys, these seem totally pointless, partly because you cannot exceed given revs or stall the car without the gearbox automatically choosing a more appropriate gear anyway. In automatic mode it drives and selects the appropriate gear seamlessly in all conditions.

There is very adequate acceleration, it's amazingly stable and provides a wonderfully comfortable smooth, quiet ride.

The other star attraction of this car for me is the clever way the rear seats fold down giving a completely flat loading area. The pull of just a single lever at the top of the rear seats and they just fold away to provide a completely flat solid loading bay. None of the raising the seat base and lowering the back to provide an awkward half raised cushioned slope that passes for a loading bay on most cars, this arrangement on the Jazz is exceptionally clever. Alternatively just raising the seat bases and you can slide in an average size bicycle or tall, wide boxes. The rear sill is also low and level, very easy to load anything in the back.

Rear seating space is very adequate, decent headroom and fair legroom provided the front seats are not pushed right back.

Driving and front passenger seating positions are quite high and in the comfortable seats you really feel in command of this car with it's all round visibility. The bonnet is very short so takes some getting used to and the rear wheels are set far back, so recommend the rear sensors for parking to avoid knocks. The large wing mirrors have additional indicator lights. The headlights are pretty good so reasonable night driving visibility.

The main dashboard is un-fussy, usual rev counter, speedometer and petrol gauge across three dials with the trip meter, mpg, outside temperature and current gear displayed within these gauges. Even in daylight they are exceptionally clear and bright, at night there is quite a feeling of being in command of an aircraft cockpit, very satisfying.

The main console is dominated by the radio/CD controls, which personally I think are pretty ugly and unnecessary. The oversize rotary button for on/off and volume is surrounded by audio input selection, traffic news etc. The display though is clear so you know what you are listening to together with the current time; preselect station buttons are below, and then below again button/levers for tuning and station seek buttons. The CD slot is above the display. Sound quality is excellent. There are steering wheel controls for the radio/CD

Below all this business are the heating controls and below again the circular current internal temperature display with button/levers either side to adjust fan and temperature.

List prices are now from £10.4365 to 14,335 for the full range of Jazz. The road tax is £120 going down to £110 from April 2010. Petrol consumption with careful driving on decent roads without excessive hold-ups on a hot day with just the driver you can achieve 50 mpg which tallies with the advertised combined mpg cycle, but you'd be hard-pressed to achieve the stated 55mpg on the urban cycle, 45mpg around town is probably the average you can expect.

Highly recommended car and with Honda reputation for build quality and reliability and reasonable servicing costs (esti £250 year) and low insurance costs you can't go far wrong.

Summary: Almost Perfect

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