Author Topic: Hybrid Heaven or Hell? 30,000 mile Review of the Honda Jazz Crosstar!  (Read 35285 times)

Jayt43

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My take on the ownership experience to date ;-) I wonder if others on Clubjazz are largely the same?


ahavoja

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I agree about the headlight height adjustment. The highest setting 0 sometimes dazzles oncoming cars, so I also keep it at setting 1.

I've also noticed the windows rattling unless they are closed tightly, and sometimes something rattles in the area where the climate control knobs are. Those can be annoying.

Luckily my Crosstar has vanity mirror lights (the yellowish halogen type). I just wish it had glovebox lights and centre armrest storage box lights as well. When I open those in the dark, I have to reach for a flashlight to see what is inside.

I notice on the video, the windscreen shows a reflection of the dashboard, when under direct sunshine. I cured this annoyance with a matte black felt fabric dashboard cover. Some people aren't bothered by this, but once I noticed it in my car, I couldn't unsee it anymore.

Otherwise the car has worked well during the 13,000 miles so far.

Jayt43

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Luckily my Crosstar has vanity mirror lights (the yellowish halogen type).

Interesting that even within Europe certain features are left in / out. Though I'm further south in Europe, it would still have been good to have had them! Thanks for watching!

ahavoja

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Interesting that even within Europe certain features are left in / out.
It could be that the vanity mirror lights were added to the newer Crosstar models. On the other hand your older Crosstar model has some features that my newish Crosstar doesn't have. For example I don't have those buttons in the front headrests to adjust their tilting angle. And I don't have that extra speaker in the center of the dashboard.

Hicardo

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Hi there, thanks for the Crosstar review...brilliant! Watched it a couple of times. 

I would largely agree with your review.  We have owned our 2021 Crosstar for 3 years and done 30,000 miles.  There are few things in your dislikes that have not bothered me at all.  Those would be passenger seat non height adjustable, has never been mentioned to me in 3 years.  It's mostly my wife or me in the passenger seat, she's 5ft 6 and I'm 6ft 2 and it doesn't bother us.  We've had no rattles in 3 years, apart from, when the passenger sun visor is down there is a rattle from the mirror cover.  Nothing that a blob of blutak won't solve. 

We've had the same issues with blinding oncoming vehicles, and use -1.0 most of the time. 

Honda service from my local dealer is excellent, but their customer service is patchy to say the least.  So room for improvement versus Toyota dealers for sure. 

MyHonda+ gave up on it really early on.  Just a week ago, tried it again and now seems to be fine. 

From your positives list, some highlights are obviously reliability and economy.  No faults yet on ours, (fingers crossed)
Legroom in rear, and versatility, just fantastic.  Smoothness of drive and visibility too first class.  I too love the tech, my view on the adaptive cruise etc is that in my car it feels a bit crude, but works very reliably and predictably.  I'm sure later model years will feel a bit smoother, as software gets improved.

My main issue, and this was a dealer / Honda issue rather than about the car itself, was to do with Warranties, and offers made to customers at various times.  Highly confusing in hindsight.  I now have remedied my warranty shortfall by purchasing another 2 years of warranty, but until a month ago, I thought I had a 5 year warranty from new.  Again, not a bad mark against the car.   

So mostly - yep - agree with your findings, and thanks for putting that video out there.  Great job on the separate video on brake simulator issue too!

Cheers!  :)

Jayt43

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My main issue, and this was a dealer / Honda issue rather than about the car itself, was to do with Warranties, and offers made to customers at various times.  Highly confusing in hindsight.  I now have remedied my warranty shortfall by purchasing another 2 years of warranty, but until a month ago, I thought I had a 5 year warranty from new.  Again, not a bad mark against the car.   

Great comments! Thanks Hicardo! This warranty situation / service deal offer seems to have been really badly communicated at the time :-( I can imagine quite a few owners - who are not members of Club Jazz - likely think they have peace of mind, but will be in for a shock if things do go wrong.

Honda is already a niche player in the UK and they need to bring their A-game if they've any chance of surviving against the likes of BYD etc. Look what MG have already done in terms of market share.

Their mantra at Honda HQ is lower volumes, higher profit with Jean-Marc Streng saying "Yes, if we sold 10,000 more cars it would be better, but we believe that around 30,000 cars we’ve found our sweet spot in terms of profitability, customer base, and sustainability for the future".

Hmm, not so sure about that...

I would argue:
 
1) if they want to hold onto an ever-decreasing customer base, GREAT SERVICE, is key...
2) Honda's apps like My Honda+ and their online pages for stuff like Honda Connect are terrible. The Sony / Honda tie up (Afeela) is supposed to be centred on tech, but why can't Honda even do the basics?
3) They should have European customer clinics to ask what features Honda should be providing and even which cars they should be importing.

For example, the new Honda Freed looks quite nice ( https://www.honda.co.jp/FREED/new/?from=top_main_bnr ) Would be perfect for wheelchair users and I often have the need to seat 5 passengers. And a commercial van version could also do well. It looks quite VW ish, in a good way! Of course, things would have to be carefully analysed, but my point is a bit of lateral thinking would help!

Honda UK is just shuffling chairs on the Titanic. And the Chinese iceberg is fast approaching!! When comes the point of no return Mr Streng and Rebecca Adamson will be off to MG, BYD or Kia!
« Last Edit: June 01, 2024, 06:04:01 PM by Jayt43 »

Tox Laximus

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Two off side wing mirror failures, air con failure and now brake failure, no rattles but there is a wind noise at speed near the drivers side window.

Love the day to day driving, it's so easy to drive in traffic and the adaptive cruise and lane hold make it so easy for the motorway.

As James may would say it can take off like a stabbed rat putting a lot cars to shame...

Jayt43

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Ha ha, love how the dashcam speed is covered once you got to 70 ;-) The R32 even had a rolling head start! So good job :-)

The number of failed mirrors must be pretty large by now. And it's usually the offside one, even if it's LHD or RHD (which is strange in itself). What was the air con failure? I can imagine a leak that requires re-gassing, but compressor or evaporator failure is highly unusual on a Jazz!

Of course, fingers crossed on the brake failure fix. But that's what warranties are for! 

You should post some more Jazz "traffic light conquests" on your YT channel. It does go when it needs to!

Bristol_Crosstar

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Ha ha, love how the dashcam speed is covered once you got to 70 ;-) The R32 even had a rolling head start! So good job :-)

The number of failed mirrors must be pretty large by now. And it's usually the offside one, even if it's LHD or RHD (which is strange in itself). What was the air con failure? I can imagine a leak that requires re-gassing, but compressor or evaporator failure is highly unusual on a Jazz!

Of course, fingers crossed on the brake failure fix. But that's what warranties are for! 

You should post some more Jazz "traffic light conquests" on your YT channel. It does go when it needs to!
Tha a/c failure is generally the condenser (it went on my Crosstar)

pauly58

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We are still waiting for a condenser to arrive, ours has failed, parts availability here in Ireland seems poor.

MRCLICKCLICK

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Re: Hybrid Heaven or Hell? 30,000 mile Review of the Honda Jazz Crosstar!
« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2024, 12:33:18 PM »
I have a 3 year old - 22000 miles. Mostly urban / a road driving. GREAT motor. I dont worry so much about the 0 - 60 mph figure - but I find it one hell of a goer from 20 - 60 mph - when required around slow tractor's etc ( safety factor)  but having said that I can really Pxxs off the MANUAL German cars from standing to 50 - they dont like it up em!!!

Hicardo

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Re: Hybrid Heaven or Hell? 30,000 mile Review of the Honda Jazz Crosstar!
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2024, 10:47:43 PM »
JAYT43 totally agree that Honda need to retain market share by offering fantastic customer service.  In this area my experience is that they've slipped quite badly.  It's not rocket science.  Hopefully they WILL pull their socks up and get this right.  Fingers crossed.  :-X

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