Buying Advice - Jazz Advance

[embee]

For me it's not an anti-Honda issue per se, it's simply the way they have made a very clear strategic decision to treat their UK customers badly regarding what is documented (by Honda themselves) as a latent manufacturing defect of a major functional system assembly. They know that after 3 or 4 years a very significant number of the affected units will very probably fail and they expect the customer to pick up a very big bill to fix an otherwise useless car, undriveable unless repaired.
Sorry,  not my idea of good customer service. The solution is in their hands, their choice if they wish to maintain their UK market.
I like my mk.3 and intend to keep it,  I'll not be buying a new Honda while the status quo persists.

[ninanina]

That was my thinking embee

I’m actually quite annoyed also that my local dealer has still not been in contact with me after I had a test drive last week

I just wonder if Honda are going to pull out of the UK?  I certainly don’t see many new cars about

[nomis]

That was my thinking embee

I’m actually quite annoyed also that my local dealer has still not been in contact with me after I had a test drive last week

I just wonder if Honda are going to pull out of the UK?  I certainly don’t see many new cars about

I was in a similar position a year ago. The sales manager at my local Honda dealer was rather arrogant and not at all interested in cutting a deal even when I showed him I could get a better price elsewhere. In the end I used Carwow and took the best deal on offer.

I placed the order directly over the phone with the dealer who made the offer. He then emailed me a copy of the order form to check and sign. It really couldn't have been any easier, though it was a cash sale with no part-ex. The car was delivered to my home by trailer free of charge despite the dealer being 150 miles away.

I'd recommend using Carwow or another broker even if you go with Toyota or Renault. The discounts on those brands are crunchier than Honda and you can still use your local dealer for servicing and warranty repairs. Buying over the phone also places the purchase under the distance selling rules, so you could return the car within 14 days of receiving it for a full refund if you didn't like it. Just make sure to pay by bank transfer or a cheque in the post, and have the car delivered. If you visit the dealer to sign a contract, pay in person, or collect the car then the distance selling rules no longer apply.

I agree about the dearth of Mk4 Jazzes on the road. I've only seen 3 in my area since I started looking over a year ago. The price has to be a factor. I bought an Advance Sport and the list price with metallic paint now tops £30k. That's a lot of dough for a small car. Both the Yaris and Clio are significantly cheaper. A friend also noticed that the Jazz was pulled from the list of models available under the Motability scheme in April which won't help matters.

[ninanina]

I wonder why or how dealers can be so bad and still be in business?

Price wise there’s nothing in it between the Advance and a top spec Yaris

Apparently new car sales are not very good at the moment

If my local Toyota dealer shows the same disdain then I will not buy from them either.  However I am a customer of them already so I expect to be treated ok

[Lincolnshire Rambler]

Naturally people on here want to understand whats going wrong with a few cars . The failures are in the minority of owners . While unaffected by the brake simulator, as yet , its potential seems much bigger when you know you could happen yo u. All brands have failures and no doubt to some our issues are minor compared to other marques with engine and gearbox failures . Look at fords ecoboost wet timing belt failures that took ford many years to pay for outside warrantry.. VAG have many fragile DSG gearboxes in their group. And go to the bottom of the pile with jaguar landrover diesels consistently failing ..

[ninanina]

I wouldn’t touch a Ford, any of the VAG cars and certainly not a Land Rover of any kind simply because of their awful reliability record

It has to be Japanese or at a push Korean to get any form of reliability

[nomis]

My wife still has a Ford Fiesta which we're looking to replace as it's just celebrated its 16th birthday. In all that time it's been very reliable in the sense that it has always started and driven, but then it is a manual with minimal electronics. The electric boot release packed up about 18 months ago and the central locking hasn't unlocked the passenger door for about 6 months. Both are annoying but they don't interfere with getting from A to B.

I sold a Ford Mondeo auto estate when I bought the Jazz. It was 10 years old and had let me down once when a sensor on the high pressure fuel line failed. The reliability of the electronics was appalling though. First the rear view camera went on the blink and eventually failed altogether. Then the sat-nav packed up because it could no longer detect any satellites. Then my mobile would no longer connect for hands-free calling. After that I discovered by accident that the voice control had lost its dictionary, not that I ever used it. Finally the parking sensors died. All this happened outside of warranty of course and I never bothered having any of it fixed. At least the radio still worked when I sold it.

I wouldn't touch a modern Ford with a barge pole given how many electronic "safety" modules there are which can brick a car if they fail.

[olduser1]

Buy Japanese pre 2005 most models you'll be pleasantly surprised that are equipped to be repaired mostly no parts required.
Avoid expensive when new as their spares are limited and remain costly.

[Don21]

Something to note. If you get the latest version there is a change in the settings with the Road Departure Mitigation System. The options used to be, Narrow,  Normal, Wide and Warning Only. Road Departure Mitigation is a system that if you stray out of lane either left or right without indicating  etc the car will warn you and correct with steering input pulling the car back into lane. If the settings are set to Warning Only the car warns the driver but no steering input. The latest Jazz only has options,  Early, Normal or Delayed but no option for Warning Only. This means the option of Warning Only is not available. I have contacted Honda who have confirmed that the Warning Only option is not an option on the latest Jazz. I am very unimpressed and considerthistobeasafetyissue. One reason for not being happy is I had an incident last week. Driving on a " Normal " type of road a van veered onto my side of the road so I steered left to avoid contacted. As I did this the car tried to steer/pull back to the right. I avoided a collision but it was close. So anyone with the Latest version of the Jazz beware.

[ninanina]

Just another little update:

The dealer still hasn’t responded to me so I’m guessing they are not going to now

Shameful really

[shufty]

Just another little update:

The dealer still hasn’t responded to me so I’m guessing they are not going to now

Shameful really

...Why is it shameful? 

Maybe you didn't come across as a genuine purchaser? and they don't want to waste their time.
I would make it clear I was interested to initiate further response from a dealer.
The last thing I would want is to be pestered by them.

If I wanted a car that I'd test driven then I would be going back to them, not waiting for a phone call! 

[ninanina]

Just another little update:

The dealer still hasn’t responded to me so I’m guessing they are not going to now

Shameful really

...Why is it shameful? 

Maybe you didn't come across as a genuine purchaser? and they don't want to waste their time.
I would make it clear I was interested to initiate further response from a dealer.
The last thing I would want is to be pestered by them.

If I wanted a car that I'd test driven then I would be going back to them, not waiting for a phone call! 

It’s shameful because that was our agreement

The dealer was supposed to email me the same day with a price

If they can’t be bothered with a sale of a brand new car what are they going to be like with after sales

I phoned twice to remind them that I was still waiting for their email….what more could I have done

[olduser1]

It's all about weekly sales and meeting monthly targets set by Honda UK. Finance is the money earner plus the address ons paint protection /replacement value ins etc

[Bristol_Crosstar]

Just another little update:

The dealer still hasn’t responded to me so I’m guessing they are not going to now

Shameful really

...Why is it shameful? 

Maybe you didn't come across as a genuine purchaser? and they don't want to waste their time.
I would make it clear I was interested to initiate further response from a dealer.
The last thing I would want is to be pestered by them.

If I wanted a car that I'd test driven then I would be going back to them, not waiting for a phone call! 

It’s shameful because that was our agreement

The dealer was supposed to email me the same day with a price

If they can’t be bothered with a sale of a brand new car what are they going to be like with after sales

I phoned twice to remind them that I was still waiting for their email….what more could I have done

So what part of the country is this dealer in?

[shufty]

It’s shameful because that was our agreement

The dealer was supposed to email me the same day with a price

If they can’t be bothered with a sale of a brand new car what are they going to be like with after sales

I phoned twice to remind them that I was still waiting for their email….what more could I have done

...I didn't see the post about you phoning and waiting, although some dealers respond better to those sat in front of them as they would assume you are more serious than someone just gathering 'best prices' via email.