Interested in your comments about the CVT paired with this new engine. Without wanting to re-open an old and sometimes heated debate I still go back to the drive I had with a pal in his 1.4 Mk 2 CVT and how the engine screamed when he wanted to get a shift on with little immediate acceleration - this might mean a much more leisurely drive.
I'm not convinced about your description of it 'screaming'. Above 4,000 rpm it gets loud but it's more like a 'weak roar' than a 'scream' to my ears and not particularly out of keeping for what you're asking the car to do. If you insist on slamming the accelerator pedal to the floor you can hardly expect a quiet humming noise
But as I said last time you mentioned it it's also something that I don't often need to do. I occasionally let rip just for the fun of it but I rarely ever
need my Jazz to rev beyond 4,000 rpm. There's plenty of power below 4,000 to let me keep up with (and often get away from) those around me. Between 3,000 and 4,000 and the engine just sounds 'eager' with a nice throaty undertone. I particularly like the way it maintains a constant RPM - to me sounds like it's just 'getting the job done'.
As I think I mentioned the last time:It sounds like your friend hasn't yet worked out how to use the accelerator pedal. You do have to signal your intent to
move but there's no need to actually floor it. A rapid and positive down shift of a few degrees will suffice. I can now reliably jump the revs to 3,000 rpm when I want to get going. If you don't do that the engine may bog down in Atkinson mode which definitely isn't fun when you're trying to make progress.
However I did notice when I drove a courtesy car recently that the latest CVT
seems to have a bit more pep at low RPM anyway, along with a more 'traditional' way of handling foot-to-the-floor acceleration. It may be that Honda have tweaked the low-speed throttle/CVT response to address these concerns.