Author Topic: Honda Jazz awarded Most Reliable Small Car in What Car? 2017 Reliability Survey  (Read 26926 times)

peteo48

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I think, even with the most reliable makes, there will always be a car or two with problems. In my experience, however, both my Jazzes have been faultless mechanically and electrically. The first one did have a leak into the boot which turned out to be a dodgy rear light cluster seal but, that aside, nothing.

I've also had Nissans and they were faultless as well. The 2 most unreliable cars I've owned have been a Fiat 128 and a VW Golf. They were even more unreliable than some of the British Leyland cars I drove in the 70s and 80s.

culzean

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I think reliability in its most widespread meaning means 'has not left you stranded or suffered a failure that rendered the vehicle unusable.   Things like a  glitch in the infotainment don't figure on most peoples understanding of reliability. 
But to me, a "fault" is something that doesn't work properly or requires warranty attention even though it might not affect mobility, so the two things I mentioned are most definitely faults that I would report if participating in any such survey.

If I was compiling reliability figures I would definitely 'weight' faults according to how they affected the use of the car,  from 10. - complete breakdown that left me stranded  on the side of the motorway in the rain  and I lost the car for a week, right down to 1. - I could not get radio 5 on my infotainment system.

Warranty Direct rate the Honda Jazz second in their reliability figures.
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

guest5079

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I believe I read somewhere that car manufacturers find it cheaper to roll out cars with faults and sort them out when complained about. Unfortunately, the problem is exacerbated by poor dealer experience. Just reading the comments on this topic does in fact bear this out. Our little Jazz is now 7 yrs old and when doing odd jobs I am still finding bits and pieces that are broken or missing. Clearly the car has been involved in a couple of 'kibbles', there are not many cars these days that haven't. BUT whether or not the car was repaired by a Honda dealer or an independent I know not but there is evidence of mediocre workmanship. So it's the Jazz's fault when it is not the cars fault it's a case of some person not willing to do the job properly.
Going back to the good old days, I remember that Mr Henry's cars were absolute pigs to start in wet weather and when a rural copper I had a Ford 5cwt van which was OK just and then I was awarded a 1 ltr  Metro. That little car went anywhere literally. I do know it was put off the road when one of my 'locals' spotted the number plate was not reflective. I cannot honestly remember it breaking down except because the other copper that shared it used to do something with the ignition lock that caused it to fail. Then, I was upgraded to a 1.3 ltr Metro. Both BL products, it was not a Rover metro. The Hillman Avenger, Vauxhall Cavalier, BL Montego and the Ford Sierra all had their problems but then they were on the road 24hrs a day except for servicing driven by usually 6 different people a day. Now days cars are more reliable but are still dependent on the people that service them. I personally think the Jazz deserves it's accolade.

culzean

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Here are a comment and answer from recent auto Express 'most reliable car 2017' article - where no VW appears in top 20

question ----  Wow, where is the 5 star Golf?

reply ---  It gets 5 stars for "perceived quality" and generous PR/marketing budget  :-X
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

peteo48

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I think motoring journalists typically focus on driveability and the VW range is pretty good in the driveability stakes. My Golf was an excellent drivers car - shame about the ABS, the front suspension, the failing turbo.......................

guest7675

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Hi if you are having problems with mk3 starting in cold whether i did have some problems with a suzuki swift gti i remember back in the 90s and it seemed the battery was too small nor really meaty enough for cold whether and drained quite easy, as to the other problems it does seem bad but maybe only a few cars have some quality parts issues i wonder where them parts like the mirrors on the jazz are made because when japanese cars first came over to this country many of there parts were actually made in japan and were quality tested a lot and thrown out if not up to standered.Have the japanese got complacent due to overseas factories or cost cutting? i have had rover metro 1.4 with the k serious engine that did have some head gasket problems but mine was fine and also a 1999 classic mini sport fual injection that did keep geting a problem with accelerator pedel getting stuck but never broke down.Also had a fiat punto dual logic that had some electrical problems like engine light comming on and would nor shut off but went into the dealer twice to have it fixed but then went on to do over 17000 miles with no problems.But are you guys going to ask for a replacement if problems are still not rectified or replace the car?

culzean

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Also had a fiat punto dual logic that had some electrical problems like engine light coming on and would nor shut off but went into the dealer twice to have it fixed but then went on to do over 17000 miles with no problems.But are you guys going to ask for a replacement if problems are still not rectified or replace the car?

My wife had a Fiat Punto that was a money pit, the best thing we did was to dump it and get her first Jazz.   17,000 miles (was that supposed to be 170,000 miles ?) and a Jazz is hardly starting to get run in and you would expect 170K without too many problems.

Honda featured quite high up in USA recall figures for a few years,  but that was majority down to Takarta airbags (which were not made by Honda obviously) - in this era of global parts suppliers car makers have to be very careful which parts they fit,. The MK1 Honda manual gearbox problems were down to one single bearing from an outside supplier, the design of the gearbox was not the problem but the manufacturing of the bearing was,  and that was the only problem we had on MK1's that we had (it was not a problem on mine because my travel was majority main roads in higher gears and did not show in 120,000 miles,  but my wifes failed at around 60 to 70K mark because she did more urban travel in lower gears).
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

guest7675

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yes 17,000 miles sorry

dogbiscuit

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Regarding reliability, my MK3 has been a big disappointment. I’ve had my 2018 variant 4 months now and it’s been in the workshop 8 working days on 3 separate occasions to have an intermittent issue with the parking sensors looked at. This time the dealer may have traced the problem to a faulty fuse box as when it was swapped to another car the fault transferred with it. I collect my car on Tuesday so hopefully that’s that issue finally sorted. Whether this will solve my intermittent cold starting issues (where the car will turn over for several seconds before firing) remains to be seen. What has been a further disappointment was when I contacted Honda UK about these issues and they left me with the distinct impression that they weren’t interested and it was something the dealer had to address. This is my fourth Jazz (having had 2 MK1s and a faultless MK2 for 7 years) purchased on the strength of Honda reliability. When I come to change this Jazz I will be looking at alternatives.

Kenneve

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I can only speak as I find, but my 66 plate Mk3, at 16k miles has had no problems or issues whatsoever.
Currently showing 51.9mpg over that mileage, so very pleased, so far ;).
Just hope having said that,  dosen't put a jinx on it!

dogbiscuit

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I wouldn’t rely on the onboard display to give you an accurate MPG reading. Like the MK2 the MK3 is optimistic in the figures it supplies. I found the MK2 being about 10% over optimistic.

barcam

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Here are a comment and answer from recent auto Express 'most reliable car 2017' article - where no VW appears in top 20

question ----  Wow, where is the 5 star Golf?

reply ---  It gets 5 stars for "perceived quality" and generous PR/marketing budget  :-X

Had a VW Goif, steering column lock failed every 15 months, VW has this public perception of super reliable. I know road testers love them and hate the Honda Jazz. Mazda 2, no faults of any kind over five years. Ford Fiesta Ecoboost, repeated front disc run-out problems, noisy rear drum brakes that snatched, bits kept falling off the interior trim.

Honda Jazz Sport CVT Nav, faultless so far after two months. The car feels bullet proof, I love it, best car I have had for years.

culzean

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I wouldn’t rely on the onboard display to give you an accurate MPG reading. Like the MK2 the MK3 is optimistic in the figures it supplies. I found the MK2 being about 10% over optimistic.

As Jocko and myself have found, the more consistent your driving style the closer the on board display gets to the true figure (I think Jocko has got less than 2% error).  Due to the fact that onboard display takes a snapshot of fuel used by engine (gathered via injector open times) about every 10 seconds (reset trip A and then look at how often the display updates and how well it reflects present driving conditions ) and then averages it out over miles on the trip if you have a jerky driving style it may miss things like rapid acceleration during the 10 seconds when it is not looking.  You will maybe have noticed that during the first 50 miles after you have reset trip A the onboard mpg display is super sensitive to changes in mpg due to up or downhill etc,  but after that it does not really seem to notice changes anywhere near so well, that is because it averages its fuel used data over the mileage on the trip,  so any change at lower miles is more significant than when more miles on trip.  That is why I reset trip A every time I put fuel in the tank.
Some people will only consider you an expert if they agree with your point of view or advice,  when you give them advice they don't like they consider you an idiot

Jocko

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The Mk 1 only has the one Trip and I reset mine every time I fill my tank. The value beside my avatar is based on real figures, again calculated every time I top off my tank.

dogbiscuit

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Are we comparing apples and oranges here? My comments were specifically about the MK3 with reference to the MK2. I remember the reported figures of the MK1 being more realistic than my MK2 that definitely over egged its MPG figures. I don’t have enough data to make similar comments about the MK3 but current indications is this car too exaggerates its figures but not quite as bad. Having said all this I found the MK2 returned a slightly better average MPG than the MK1 over the life of the car  for my style of driving. I’m hoping for a further improvement however small with the MK3.

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