On Holiday with the Jazz

[Paulwhitt20]

My wife has had her MK3 Jazz for six months now but I have not had much chance to drive it. However we decided to go on a short holiday in it so here are my opinions so far. I will update as the week goes on.

The car is the EX Navi manual version.

Firstly, we got all the luggage into the boot with ease and there is plenty of room in the back for the kids so we set off up the M6. After about 20 minutes in heavy rain and spray on the motorway the Tyre pressure warning light came on. The car felt okay so I continued assuming it was a false alarm. Seen other posts on here about that.

On the motorway it felt quiet and refund. In sixth gear the engine noise was not noticeable. I nearly got 60 mpg until we hit a traffic jam. It cruises okay on the motorway in sixth gear but if you need to pull out and overtake a lorry there is no power in sixth and you need to change down. Sixth is fine on a straight flat motorway but no good to overtake. 

Had a quick play with the cruise control but I tend not to use that unless the motorways are really quiet. I also had a play with the lane departure warning which seems to work fine, but I have a tendency to move lane without indicating if there is no one to benefit and it goes off if you move lane and don't indicate. So that got turned off again.

The sat nav had some nice pictures of the motorway junctions but were a bit out of date in places. The sat nav voice sounds like a strict dinner lady and the traffic information did not pick up the jam we got stuck in. When we had nearly got to our destination it tried to send us the wrong way. Good job I knew where to go. As usual sat nav is fine if you know where to go.

Anyway we had now arrived at our destination in the south lakes.

More later on our trip to Grasmere.

[Paulwhitt20]

After Resetting the tyre pressure warning it's time to take the Jazz on some A roads.

I really don't know what to make of the car. It is actually quite fun to drive and feels good in the corners but is let down by the lack of power from the engine. It needs to be revved hard to get going and then the engine noise is quite noticeable. It does not have much power unless you change down a gear or two. It could do with a more powerful engine. It's okay round town but it struggles up the hills.

The auto wipers seem to work well. Only once did I have to adjust the sensitivity to stop them wiping all the time. It was a bit hard to tell how the  auto lights were working as I can't see the dash lights from the driving position, the steering wheel obscures the warning lights.

Mpg has dropped to around 55 but that is still pretty good. Have had a couple of occasions when the car has beeped for no reason. Probably from the collision warning. If you have to break quite sharply then it goes off. Random beeps is something you get used to.

The reversing cameras helps with parking but the sensors could do with being a bit louder. It is quite easy to park though. The other thing I have noticed is that there is a bit of a blind spot from the side pillars on the windscreen. Sometimes you can loose a car in there at roundabouts so take care.

[Downsizer]

It was a bit hard to tell how the  auto lights were working as I can't see the dash lights from the driving position, the steering wheel obscures the warning lights.

You could try adjusting the steering wheel up a bit, or the seat down, or a bit of both.  I can see the lighting warning lights very easily within the wheel.

[Paulwhitt20]

Good point, but as I am not the main driver I don't want to mess with the seat or steering wheel positions too much. If it was my car then I would.

[olduser1]

Useful report on the Mk3 -, if you want a good place for lunch > go to Arnside and the Albion pub, good choice of home made food and the beer is spot on. You can walk around the town and then drive 3 mins up to the Knott for the best vantage view of the coast, estuary &  mountains .
Hope the weather holds for you for the rest of the week.

[John Ratsey]

I really don't know what to make of the car. It is actually quite fun to drive and feels good in the corners but is let down by the lack of power from the engine. It needs to be revved hard to get going and then the engine noise is quite noticeable. It does not have much power unless you change down a gear or two. It could do with a more powerful engine. It's okay round town but it struggles up the hills.

Effectively the engine has two modes: Less than around 2500 rpm for economy or more than around 3500 prm for performance.

This is where the CVT makes life so much easier. Most of the time it does a good job in dropping gear / increasing revs in response to a kick with the right foot and there's the option of a pull of the left paddle if more revs are needed. The engine is much more responsive once it gets over about 3500 rpm.

[Paulwhitt20]

My main car is s hybrid CVT and there is instant torque at any time. Don't really know why people want a manual gearbox these days. Even a full auto with gears is not as smooth as a Hybrid CVT. I think the Jazz would work well as a Hybrid. Pity Honda have walked away from hybrid technology after pioneering it on the original Insight. 

[John Ratsey]

My main car is s hybrid CVT and there is instant torque at any time. Don't really know why people want a manual gearbox these days. Even a full auto with gears is not as smooth as a Hybrid CVT. I think the Jazz would work well as a Hybrid. Pity Honda have walked away from hybrid technology after pioneering it on the original Insight.

I don't think the Jazz hybrid sold very well and didn't offer much of an mpg improvement (I had hoped for 20% and got nearer 10% but most of my driving is out of town where the battery didn't give much assistance). Honda should have done some tweaking before the official tests and got the CO2 below 100 g/km. That would have probably doubled the sales even if the real mpg wasn't changed. If the EU would penalise the high NOX of diesels to make them less attractive then the Jazz hybid would probably reappear (it is still sold in Japan so the evolving technology is there).

I traded in my Jazz hybrid for the Mk 3 for several reasons including wanting to have somewhere to put the spare wheel but I've given my Mk 3 the target of matching the hybrid's overall mpg for my driving conditions.

[harry22673]

Aren't they on about changing tax to suit co2 and NOx emissions

[Nixtoo]

I thought they were bringing in a flat rate £140 rate next year, so no benefit in low emission cars! Only electric cars will qualify for 0 rate. There will be an initial carbon tax on first reg.

[guest4324]

After Resetting the tyre pressure warning it's time to take the Jazz on some A roads.

I really don't know what to make of the car. It is actually quite fun to drive and feels good in the corners but is let down by the lack of power from the engine. It needs to be revved hard to get going and then the engine noise is quite noticeable. It does not have much power unless you change down a gear or two. It could do with a more powerful engine. It's okay round town but it struggles up the hills.

The auto wipers seem to work well. Only once did I have to adjust the sensitivity to stop them wiping all the time. It was a bit hard to tell how the  auto lights were working as I can't see the dash lights from the driving position, the steering wheel obscures the warning lights.

Mpg has dropped to around 55 but that is still pretty good. Have had a couple of occasions when the car has beeped for no reason. Probably from the collision warning. If you have to break quite sharply then it goes off. Random beeps is something you get used to.

The reversing cameras helps with parking but the sensors could do with being a bit louder. It is quite easy to park though. The other thing I have noticed is that there is a bit of a blind spot from the side pillars on the windscreen. Sometimes you can loose a car in there at roundabouts so take care.

Thanks for the good report, I'm disappointed that the power issue is still there with the mk3. Your car looks really nice but I think it could be a sale killer for me as I would like a few more Ps again one time.

[John Ratsey]

Thanks for the good report, I'm disappointed that the power issue is still there with the mk3. Your car looks really nice but I think it could be a sale killer for me as I would like a few more Ps again one time.

You will have to wait and see whether Honda's 3 cylinder turbo motor appears in the Jazz. It's difficult to think of a good reason why it would not, given that it should be easy, in the official tests, to get better mpg and CO2 than the current engine while providing extra performance. An IMA hybrid version of the 3 cylinder motor should also run very sweetly with the motor helping at the low revs where the turbo is less effective. However, I doubt if that will show up here unless Honda change their marketing strategy and call it the Jazz type R.

[harry22673]

Possibly even just the RS or SI