We are very used to and comfortable with Honda delighting us with smooth spinning, high revving engines capable of prising considerable power from relative small capacities. However, with the Jazz, Honda has turned its talents in a different direction. And while it’s sad to see a car like the Jazz make really very little attempt to offer great performance, concentrating instead on keeping emissions and economy at the lowest possible levels, it’s an understandable and demonstrably sensible policy.
For while even this 82bhp, 1.4-litre Jazz needs a rather unprepossessing 13.3sec to hit 62mph from rest (it’s top speed is a hardly more convincing 106mph), and the engine is not quite the paragon of smoothness you might expect, it does at least mean that owners can expect fuel consumption to border 50mpg. This is an exceptional result for a petrol powered, 1.4-litre hatchback and comes backed by an equally impressive 137g/km CO2 output. By contrast, the car it replaced at the top of the class, the Skoda Fabia, emits 187g/km when fitted with a 1.4-litre engine.
But the Jazz’s chassis remains a source of disappointment. Much has been done to improve the almost unacceptably stiff ride the car had when it first appeared, but it’s still one of the poorer-riding cars in the class. Surprisingly perhaps, nor is it very much fun to drive. The steering lacks feel and that chuckable enthusiasm that’s been so much part of every Civic generation for years has been omitted from the Jazz’s dynamic repertoire.
At least it’s reasonably refined at a motorway cruise. The engine does become a little raucous if extended past its 5700rpm power peak but there is really very little to be gained from such behaviour and it’s best just to sit back and cruise to your destination. There is a CVT option but it blunts performance even further and should probably be avoided.
