History

The Jazz is Honda’s entry into the ’supermini’ or ’subcompact’ market and has been offered in various forms over the years.

Origins of the Honda Jazz

After the N360 and N500 models of the 1960’s, the Civic took over as Honda’s small car and became a key factor in building Honda’s reputation in export markets. But as the Civic grew in size a gap appeared for a smaller supermini-size model.

Honda Jazz/City (1982-1986)

The first Jazz was actually a re badged Honda City as Austin Rover and Opel owned the trademark to the City in the UK and Europe respectively. The Jazz offered a larger engine then normal for the time; a 1231cc 8-valve engine offering 56 bhp at 5000rpm and 69 Ib ft of torque at 3500rpm, combined with the low weight gave impressive performance and fuel economy. Priced at £4,315 in 1984, the Jazz appeared uncompetitive against larger but similar-priced rivals such as the Nissan Micra and Austin Metro - and the larger Civic at just £500 more. Little wonder then that Honda sold few cars before the Jazz was dropped in 1986. Overseas markets also had turbo-charged and cabriolet versions.

Honda City (1986-1994)

The second generation City appeared in 1986 but was never offered in the UK, although some have been privately imported into the UK. The styling is best described a mixture of contemporary Civic and the late ’80s Daihatsu Charade. Key interest was the option of a 100bhp 1.3-litre, 16-valve engine which is likely to be the most common engine option amongst grey imports to due it’s combination of impressive performance and low weight.

Honda Logo (1999-2001)

In 1996, the City reappeared as a small saloon for developing markets. A direct replacement for the previous hatchback City was the Logo, introduced the same year. History was clearly repeating itself as the Logo, like the original Jazz, never reached the UK until a few years into it’s production run and was significantly smaller then the key rivals it was priced against, such as the Toyota Yaris and Peugeot 206. Equipment was generous and in a What Car/JD Power survey of two-year old cars conducted in 2003, the Logo came top overall. But the Logo was never popular in the UK.

Honda Jazz/Fit ‘GD’ (2002-2008)

This generation of Jazz debuted the Global Small Car platform responsible for the Magic Seat system. Introduced as the ‘Fit’ in Japan in June 2001, the new car was a complete clean-sheet design, the only carry-over element being the Jazz name for various export markets as ‘Fit’ was considered inappropriate for some European countries.

Power came from a new generation of i-DSi 8-valve engines with two spark plugs per cylinder although VTEC 16-valve engines were available outside of Europe. Initially produced in Japan, European-market production moved to China in mid-2007.

Honda Jazz/Fit ‘GE’ (2009-)

Not surprisingly, the new Jazz builds on the success of the previous generation. The styling was an evolution of the previous model with influence from the 2006-on ‘Euro’ Civic. The longer wheelbase improves rear legroom and ended the need to remove the rear headrests or move the front seats forward to fold the rear seats.

New 16-valve i-VTEC engines improve performance and economy, while a new automated manual (I-SHIFT) was introduced to replace the previous CVT-7. The Jazz GE is sourced from Japan, but production at Swindon will commence in Autumn, 2009 with a hybrid to follow to 2010.

Related Models

Other Honda’s share the Global Small Car platform:

The 2002-2008 Honda City is essentially a Jazz saloon; the latest City (from 2008) is still Jazz-based but now has it’s own distinctive look. Both generations were designed for developing markets in Asia, although the 2008-on City is also sold in Australia.
The Japan-only Honda Airwave is an estate version of the City.
The Honda Civic ‘Euro’, introduced in early 2006, switched to the Jazz platform although the Japanese and American Civic, including the saloon and hybrid sold in Europe, are based on a separate platform retaining independent suspension.
The Honda Freed is a small MPV available with seating configurations from five to eight seats. The Honda Mobilio & Mobilio Spike were the Freed’s predecessors and were also based on the Jazz platform.
The new Insight is apparently based on an all-new platform using some Jazz parts. The Insight’s 1.3-litre engine is based on the Jazz’s engine block but with the 8-valve, twin-spark head used in the previous Jazz.