Author Topic: New Jazz Owner (Read 4430 times)

guest278 · « **on:** December 18, 2007, 05:12:12 PM »

I have just bought a 2003 SE CVT. I replaced my 2003 Mercedes A160 Avantgarde Auto. After covering only covering 29,000 miles it felt like an old used car and things started to go wrong and cost a lot of money! Why did I buy a Jazz? Well I am a regular reader of Auto Express and the Jazz always comes out in top 5 best cars you can own and has won the used car of the year for the last 2 years. I like the ‘Tardis’ factor of the Jazz with its clever use of space, it has all the toys and being Japanese should be reliable! I have only owned it for just over a week and am really enjoying it so far. I really wanted a Sport but can see very little difference between the early SE and Sport bar alloys and fog lights. I do intend to replace the 14â€ steel wheels with a set of alloys. I will replace them with standard fit 15â€ items. As much as I like the newer ones of the current Sport I will fit appropriate wheels for the year. So far I have 2 issues with the car, the first being the steering. It normal for the steering not to self centre? And be quite stiff? The second is with the stereo. Mine came with a funny item that plays things called cassettes? Any body knows what they do? On wanting to replace this with a CD player I realized you can not buy a Fascia adapter plate in the UK! (I have now found one on line from Japan for £45). So I purchased a 2nd hand CD player from EBay. After removing the old stereo (what a fun job that was!) I realized I know need an aerial adapter for the new CD player. Honda does not sell this item but will gladly take your £300 for a CD auto changer. I have now managed to order an adapter from a car stereo specialist and hope to have my dash board back together before Christmas.

guest102 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2007, 10:01:04 PM »

Welcome to the forum. Good move from an A class to a Honda - we get quite a number of A classes with serious (expensive) electrical problems, particularly the semi autos ….. Yet to see a Honda with anyting but minor niggles.
Power steering on the jazz is electronic, and feels a bit stiff and self centring is less than most, but you soon get used to it.
Easiest cure for the casette problem is to find a single CD player, they often appear on ebay for around Â£70-80. It is a straight plug in and play, and unless you are an audio enthusiast the quality is acceptable.

RichardA · « **Reply #2 on:** December 22, 2007, 07:22:12 PM »

[quote:1vnn6kog]Welcome to the forum. Good move from an A class to a Honda - we get quite a number of A classes with serious (expensive) electrical problems, particularly the semi autos[/quote]

Funny you should mention that, one of my work colleagues has (or had) a T-reg (1999) A-class with the semi-auto gearbox (manual-style stick but no ‘clutch’ I think) which packed up at 70k. The cost of repair was estimated at about £2k (the car is worth £3.5-4k).

ajay · « **Reply #3 on:** January 15, 2008, 12:46:12 PM »

The steering on a Jazz should be smooth and very light, get it checked.
How did you get hold of your fascia adaptor plate from Japan?

guest278 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 18, 2008, 08:30:12 PM »

Hi, Now I have finally manged to log in to the new site! Thanks I will get my steering checked. I have not yet ordered the facia adapter but will post a reply once I do.

guest374 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2008, 10:02:17 AM »

Hi, I’d be very interested to hear what the problem turns out to be with your steering. We have just bought a 53 Jazz and have a very similar sounding problem. I had it checked out at a Nationwide Autocentre and they could not find anything wrong with the steering components so I wonder if it could be tyre, or power steering pump related.
Look forward to hearing from you.