Motors North

Honda Jazz 1.4 i-VTEC ES

THERE’S a discordant note in one of the supermini sector’s best models – the Honda Jazz.

This excellent little five-seater, with its impeccable design and outstanding 100bhp petrol heart, can’t escape criticism when its creators find it necessary to spoil the overall effect for a "ha’p’orth of tar".

It’s a small car I find difficult to fault – apart from its hard, shiny and uncharacteristically basic Honda dashboard. The more I look at it the more irritated I get.

Why compromise a top-drawer design that’s exceptionally well constructed by digging up dashboard plastics from the people who make Lucky Bags? It’s a solitary low-rent feature on a penthouse design.

Glad that’s off my chest – so what about the rest?

The 1.4 i-VTEC ES model I had on test is ranked third in a line-up of four five-door Jazz models. Below is a pair of 84bhp 1.2s in S and SE trim for £10,365 and £11,365 respectively, while the well-appointed EX 1.4 i9-VTEC flagship tops the line-out at £13,535.

All have the same solid integrity with lightweight skinning – and all share that dash. It’s a fine package with either petrol engine – the 1.2s are perfect for town and urban work while the more powerful and torquey 1.4 models like my £12,235 1.4 i-VTEC ES make great all-rounders with excellent open road performance.

The standard five-speed manual has a superbly slick change and is a far better choice than the automatic shift option at £800.

Curiously the 1.2s are not that much more economical than the 1.4s.

The smaller unit averages 53.3mpg according to Honda while the 1.4s should deliver 52mpg.

In fact, on a wide ranging test that took in the dreaded A86 and the much improved A830 to Mallaig, the 1.4 ES averaged an astonishing 54mpg – and although the car was lightly laden I certainly wasn’t sparing the horses.

Round town the picture changes. Honda says the 1.4 should give 43.5mpg, the same as the 1.2 – my experience after an afternoon running around Inverness was a less impressive, but still good, 35mpg.

When you take an intelligent approach to supermini design you end up with cars like the Jazz.

The Mark 1 version was a sales winner, despite some doubts about its jittery ride, and its replacement that appeared last year simply builds on a fine concept and makes this baby Honda the supermini you should aspire to own.

There is so much right with it.

Getting in and out is easy thanks to a low floor, tall roof and wide opening front and rear doors. Older occupants will love the ease of access.

The seating is firm and great over longer trips while the electric power steering makes piloting the Jazz around town a breeze, but it still has just enough weight to make open road driver feedback enjoyable.

Visibility is generally good, apart from the car’s heavy and obstructive C and D-pillars that make three-quarter rear views awkward. But the sharp front and rear cut-off and short overhangs of the 3.9 metre long body make it easy to judge parking distances.

Noise levels are good for such a small car. There’s none of the “boom” resonance noticeable in so many cars in this class, and tyre noise is well subdued – thanks to 15-inch alloys shod with 65 deep section Dunlop rubber.

Ride comfort is eons ahead of the bouncy early Mark1 Jazz models and well controlled in this new model. What’s more, the car handles well and feels smoother the more people that climb aboard – a tribute to a well-thought-out suspension system.

The boot is a useful 399 litres and tall rather than long – but it is clever. The ES and EX come with what Honda calls a two-tier parcel shelf – a misnomer that misses its best feature.

No other manufacturer makes as much use of the luggage space as Honda with the Jazz. With no spare and punctures covered by a "goo", there’s extra space to be utilised at the bottom of the boot area. The sectioned cantilever floor lifts up easily to hook into lugs. In the vertical position it divides off the deep boot while lifting it higher, and slotting in to the lugs horizontally provides a bigger deep boot storage area and a shelf with a net retainer to hold smaller items like shopping.

However the stowage solutions don’t stop there. Attached by fasteners to the rear of the seat backs and the standard high-level parcel shelf are pouches that are handy for securing more small items and stopping them falling into the boot.

The only drawback I spotted was the lack of a lifting "tag" to initially raise the boot floor – an omission that left me having to use a comb to prize it up.

If you need to carry something bigger, Honda’s "Magic" seat flexibility system kicks in. This allows the 60/40 split rear seats to fold perfectly flat in one smooth action – as the seat back falls forward the squab sinks into the rear floor leaving a completely level loading floor more than 1.4 metres long.

Despite the lightweight feel of the body panels, the 1.1 tonne Jazz weighs almost the same as the competition – a 1.4 Zetec five-door Fiesta, a 1.4 five-door Vauxhall Corsa Design or, the lightest of the rivals, a 1.04 tonne, five-door 1.4 Grande Punto Active.

The 1.4 ES is a perfect supermini hatch with an enviable reliability pedigree – meticulously assembled, exceptionally well appointed and easy to drive. It comes with pollen and dust filtration, front, side and curtain airbags that cover the rear passenger area, electronic stability programme, four electric windows, outside temperature gauge, excellent audio system with automatic speed/volume adjustment and steering wheel controls, air conditioning and a lot more you might associate with much larger cars. It is also immensely safe and strong.

Three years ago its immediate predecessor T-boned a near £40,000 Audi cabriolet test car I was driving.

The Audi suffered nearly £8000 worth of damage and was off the road for three months – the Jazz just £2000 of damage and was back on the road, with its driver, just two weeks later.

That’s a measure of Honda’s great strength and design integrity – what a pity it does not extend to dashboard plastics!

It’s not the cheapest supermini hatchback and its Group 5 insurance is higher than the equivalent Group 3 Grande Punto or Group 4 Fiesta and Corsa.

But good things rarely come cheap and the Jazz really is the best of the bunch.

Rating: 8.5/10

FINAL THOUGHT: Small cars don’t come much better. Pity about the low-rent hard plastic dash materials that do the Jazz no justice and Honda’s odd decision to make ESP standard only on the 1.4 models and a £210 option on 1.2s. But for reliability, construction, safety, practicality, economy and ease of driving the 1.4 ES is hard to fault.

Honda Jazz 1.4 i-VTEC ES

Price: £12,235
Capacity: 1339cc
Power: 100bhp
0-62mph: 11.5 seconds
Maximum speed: 113mph
Economy: Combined 52.3mpg; Urban 43.5mpg
CO2 emissions: 128g/km
ESP: Standard (Honda VSA)
Insurance: Group 5

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Honda Jazz 1.4 i-VTEC ES