Name: New Honda Jazz models and Specifications
Brand: Honda

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1.5 i-MMD Hybrid

Entry-level Elegance trim is our favourite as it comes absolutely packed with kit including front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, an alarm, adaptive cruise control, 15in alloy wheels and Honda’s Connect 9.0in touchscreen infotainment system, which adds Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring. 


Elegance

Mid-spec Advance introduces useful additions such as keyless entry and start, a heated leather steering wheel and sat-nav, but we're not convinced it's worth the extra outlay.

Advance

Advance Sport gets all the kit that comes with Advance models but also benefits from a sportier look. 

Advance Sport

If you fancy a Jazz that looks a little more rugged, Crosstar is the one for you. It costs around the same as the top-spec Sport trim and gets all the same kit, but adds water-resistant upholstery, roof rails and plastic wheel arches. 

Crosstar Advance

Hatchback

Honda is a company that doesn’t like to follow the crowd. So, while it competes in most of the traditional sectors of the car market, in each case it does something a little bit different.

The Jazz, for example, might look like just another rival to Britain’s best-selling car, the Ford Fiesta, but it’s actually much more practical than its rivals, with a flexible boot and Tardis-like interior.

The bigger Civic is also a practical choice, but it’s mainly distinguished by having eye-catching, love-it-or-hate-it styling, despite competing in a sector of the market that’s usually more conservative than a blue rosette.

And while it may not seem so radical now, Honda’s large SUV, the CR-V, was one of the first to forego any pretence of being an off-roader and instead focus on on-road driving dynamics.

HONDA

JAZZ

1.5 i-MMD Hybrid Advance Sport 5dr eCVT

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1.5 i-MMD Hybrid Elegance 5dr eCVT

1.5 i-MMD Hybrid Advance 5dr eCVT

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1.5 i-MMD Hybrid Crosstar Advance 5dr eCVT

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Honda Jazz

The Jazz has a very big boot by class standards, and its floor is not too high off the ground.&nbsp;There’s a lip to lift bags over, but it's much smaller than the one in the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/renault/clio/hatchback/review/n97">Renault Clio</a>.

The load bay&nbsp;is a useful square shape, helping you to make the most of the space. There’s enough room for a large pushchair or five carry-on suitcases below the parcel shelf, and folding down the rear seats turns the Jazz into what is effectively a mini van. When the seats are folded, there's a little hump in the extended floor, but a handy flap that runs the width of the boot&nbsp;ensures that long objects don’t get snagged as you slide them in.

We're talking fractions, but you'll fit slightly more in the boot of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/seat/ibiza/hatchback/review/n17359">Seat Ibiza</a>. The&nbsp;much larger&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/skoda/scala/hatchback/review/n19190">Skoda Scala</a> is available for similar money&nbsp;too.

"The Jazz’s interior is its pièce de résistance. There's plenty of adjustment in its somewhat lofty driving position, plenty of pleasingly soft materials on the dashboard, and it’s exceedingly practical and spacious," Darren Moss, Deputy Digital Editor&nbsp;

The Jazz's interior quality is mostly impressive. The centre section of the dashboard is trimmed with soft-touch materials that are a step up from the hard plastics in the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/seat/ibiza/hatchback/review/n17359">Seat Ibiza</a> and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/skoda/fabia/hatchback/review/n47">Skoda Fabia</a>. All the buttons and dials feel impressively well-damped too.

Once you start to poke around, you’ll find that the plastics lower down are a little scratchy and brittle-feeling, as they are in most small cars. Advance&nbsp;models get a leather-covered steering wheel and gear lever, both of which give the interior a welcome lift.

Overall, the Jazz isn't as classy inside as the&nbsp;Mini or Peugeot 208, but feels more upmarket than the&nbsp;Fiesta and the&nbsp;Toyota Yaris.

&nbsp;

Introduction

Performance & drive

Interior

Passenger & boot space

Costs & verdict

If you like a lofty driving position,&nbsp;the Honda Jazz has you covered. You sit high up, which gives you the impression that you’re driving a mini <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/best/mpvs-and-people-carriers/n17001">MPV</a> rather than a small hatchback. There’s a good range of adjustment to the steering wheel and the driver’s seat has height adjustment.

The steering wheel, seat&nbsp;and pedals line up well, so you’re not sitting skewed at an angle, and the seat is well padded and comfortable. Our only real complaint is that the lumbar support isn't adjustable,&nbsp;although most drivers will find&nbsp;that&nbsp;there’s enough lower back support.

Like most of Honda’s other models –&nbsp;including the new <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/honda/civic/hatchback/review/n82">Honda Civic</a>&nbsp;–&nbsp;all the dashboard buttons are positioned thoughtfully, and we love the chunky knobs that make it so simple to adjust the climate control. They’re far easier to use than the touch-sensitive buttons and sliders in the VW Polo.

Fuel 

Gearbox

0-62 MPH

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The Jazz is a very well-equipped car. In fact, we'd be reluctant to call our favourite Elegance spec car 'entry-level' because&nbsp;it comes with alloy wheels, automatic lights and wipers, climate control, adaptive cruise control, power-folding door mirrors, front and rear parking sensors, and a whole host of safety equipment.

Mid-spec Advance&nbsp;introduces useful additions such as keyless entry and start, a heated leather steering wheel and <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/best-sat-nav-apps/n24915">sat-nav</a>&nbsp;but we're not convinced it's worth the extra outlay. Nor is the range-topping Sport, which simply gets aesthetic changes to give the car a sportier look.

Those after a slightly more rugged-looking Jazz will appreciate the Crosstar trim. Costing around the same as the top-spec Sport model, this version is for ‘people with an active lifestyle’ and comes with plastic wheel arches, water-resistant upholstery and roof rails.

The&nbsp;Honda Jazz&nbsp;is one of those cars that – like contestants on Britain’s Got Talent –&nbsp;are gifted in various ways&nbsp;but have so far not had&nbsp;the universal adoration they perhaps deserve.

While the Jazz has&nbsp;always stood out for its practical interior and reputation for unimpeachable reliability, it has&nbsp;never really hit the heady sales heights of some of its more conventional <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/best/small-cars/n16997">small car</a> rivals.

This fourth-generation Jazz wants to grab a bit more of the limelight, though, and <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/new-car-deals/make/honda">Honda</a> has given it some clever new tricks to wow the crowds,&nbsp;including the ability to juggle. No, not balls or fire sticks –&nbsp;it juggles between petrol and electric power to improve efficiency, in much the same way as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/toyota/yaris/hatchback/review/n31">Toyota Yaris</a>&nbsp;does.

The petrol-electric&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/hybrid-cars/n17013">hybrid</a> system&nbsp;uses two electric motors, powered by a compact battery, working alongside a frugal 1.5-litre petrol engine.&nbsp;

So, does the Honda Jazz&nbsp;deserve to do well in&nbsp;a popularity contest against the very best&nbsp;small cars? That's the question&nbsp;we'll be answering&nbsp;in this review, as we compare it with the main rivals, including the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/skoda/fabia/hatchback/review/n47">Skoda Fabia</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/vauxhall/corsa/hatchback/review/n33">Vauxhall Corsa</a> and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/volkswagen/polo/hatchback/review/n83">VW Polo</a>. Read on to find out...

With its boxy, MPV like shape, the Honda Jazz&nbsp;is one of the most spacious small cars&nbsp;out there. Six-footers will have no trouble&nbsp;getting comfortable in the front, thanks to a huge amount of head room and surprisingly generous shoulder room. Unless you're really long in the leg, you'll find that the&nbsp;seats slide back far enough.

Each front door has&nbsp;a pocket big enough to accept a 250ml bottle of water. There's a cupholder just behind the gear selector, with a second and third on the outer reaches of the dashboard.

There are also two small gloveboxes (one below the other), plus a cubby under the centre armrest&nbsp;and a tray below the air-con controls.

The Jazz is not all that fun to drive, but it’s safe and predictable, and perfectly pleasant to steer around at moderate speeds.&nbsp;The <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/seat/ibiza/hatchback/review/n17359">Seat Ibiza</a>&nbsp;is a much better option&nbsp;for driver enjoyment.

It doesn't give you a huge amount of grip, and&nbsp;with a body that's unusually tall for a small car, it leans more than many rivals through corners – but never in an alarming way.

Blasting along a twisty road isn’t the model’s forte, but it's right at home in town and city centres, where the light steering makes&nbsp;it easy to navigate even really tight turns.

All models get a 9.0in touchscreen system that comes with <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/advice/owning/what-is-android-auto/n1194">Android Auto</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/advice/owning/what-is-apple-carplay/n1193">Apple CarPlay</a>. Honda's operating system is not particularly good, and the resolution of the screen could be better. Check out the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/mini/hatchback/hatchback/review/n17350">Mini 3-Door Hatch</a>&nbsp;if you want a small car with a really great infotainment system.

Upgrading to Advance&nbsp;or Sport&nbsp;trim adds built-in <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/best-sat-nav-apps/n24915">sat-nav</a> plus extra USB sockets in the front and rear. You get a four-speaker stereo across the range, with none of the&nbsp;sound system upgrade options you can get with some rivals.

You don't need to worry about choosing an engine for the Honda Jazz because there’s only one: a 1.5-litre petrol-electric hybrid. With a total of 96bhp, it can accelerate more quickly than our favourite VW Polo (the 1.0 TSI 95) or the Toyota Yaris GR Sport, getting from 0-60mph in a respectable 8.6sec in our tests.

The Jazz is a regular hybrid car so it can't go very far on electric power alone, and you don't need to plug it in for the best efficiency (as you do with a <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/plug-in-hybrid-cars/n22743">PHEV</a>).&nbsp;

In default Hybrid mode, it does a better job of working out when to deploy the electric motor and when to fire up the petrol engine than the Yaris does. That generally means it does more electric motoring in urban environments (especially if you drive with a light right foot) and a combination of both power sources on faster roads.

The Jazz small car is frugal, well built&nbsp;and as roomy&nbsp;as many family cars

The Jazz’s class-leading interior space extends to the rear. Two tall adults can sit in the outer seats with their heads well away from the roof and&nbsp;their knees clear of the&nbsp;seats&nbsp;in front. In fact, there’s enough leg room for occupants to sprawl out.

While it will become more of a squeeze if a third adult joins the party, the flat, unobstructed&nbsp;floor means&nbsp;the person in the middle won't struggle for foot space. In short, no other small car –&nbsp;not even the VW&nbsp;Polo&nbsp;–&nbsp;caters for its rear passengers as well as the Jazz.

Each front seatback has a&nbsp;map pocket and a pocket for your mobile phone, and each door has a small but useful bin large enough for a&nbsp;250ml bottle.

If you spend most of your time in town and drive with a delicate right foot, you’ll find that the Jazz is remarkably hushed. That’s because the electric motors have enough grunt to power it along without the assistance of the petrol engine in start-stop traffic, making progress virtually silent. Even when the engine does cut in, it's quiet enough at low revs not to disturb the peace.&nbsp;

The calm is interrupted if you put your foot down, because the revs are sent soaring to the stratosphere, and are held there until you back off. Sometimes it sounds as though you're stuck in first gear, which isn't a relaxing experience, but it’s still quieter than the CVT automatic in the Yaris. The Jazz’s 1.5-litre petrol engine is a bit coarse at high revs and sends some vibration through the controls.

There’s a bit of wind noise from around the door mirrors, and tyre and suspension noise aren't as well suppressed as they might be. The <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/what-is-regenerative-braking-and-how-does-it-work/n25212">regenerative brakes</a> are well-judged&nbsp;though, allowing you to stop gently without doing an impression of a learner driver.

"The Jazz handles in a safe and predictable manner; it isn’t as sharp and fun to drive as a Toyota Yaris, let alone the ace-handling Ford Fiesta, but most drivers will find it capable enough in corners," Neil Winn, Deputy Reviews Editor

Honda finished an impressive sixth place out of 32 manufacturers&nbsp;in the 2023 <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/reliability-survey-most-reliable-cars/n26137">What Car? Reliability Survey</a>.&nbsp;The Jazz did well in&nbsp;the small car category too, finishing in seventh place out of 19 models.

Every <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/new-car-deals/make/honda">Honda</a> comes with a three-year warranty as standard for most parts, but the hybrid&nbsp;system in the Jazz is covered for up to five years or 90,000 miles. Kia beats that with a seven-year warranty as standard, while Hyundai and Renault give you five years.

Overall, the Jazz is one of the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/best/small-cars/n16997">best small cars</a> for comfort, and wafts along smoothly, especially on a motorway.

The suspension is on the firm side, meaning that the Jazz manages to deliver that waft without becoming unsettled. It never suffers from the floaty effect you’ll feel over undulations in the soft-riding <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/citroen/c3/hatchback/review/n17364">Citroën C3</a>. 

It's not perfect, though. If you hit a pothole or an expansion joint,&nbsp;you get more of a shudder through the body of the car&nbsp;than you'd experience in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/peugeot/208/hatchback/review/n30">Peugeot 208</a> or the Polo.

The Honda Jazz is more expensive than its small car rivals&nbsp;but many of them – including the Ford Fiesta and the VW Polo – have increased in price recently, so the difference isn’t huge. It comes very well equipped as standard, and is predicted to hold on to its value much better than most rivals, excluding the Toyota Yaris.

The slow depreciation means that if you buy a Jazz using&nbsp;PCP finance, payments probably won't be much higher than for one of the rivals. The model's efficiency should help to keep bills down too.

It did very well in our real-world <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/truempg/mpg-calculator">True MPG test</a>&nbsp;but not quite as brilliantly as the Yaris. The Yaris emits less CO2, but the Jazz beats just about every other rival on that score and is a relatively cheap <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/best-company-cars/n22605">company car</a> because of it.

The latest Jazz received the full five stars when it was tested for safety&nbsp;by <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/the-safest-cars-on-sale-today/n19724">Euro NCAP</a>&nbsp;in 2020.&nbsp;It&nbsp;gets lots of safety systems as standard, including lane-keeping assistance, traffic-sign recognition, automatic emergency braking&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/news/what-is-aeb-and-how-does-it-work/n3283">AEB</a>) and Isofix child-seat mounts on the outer rear seats.&nbsp;

If you upgrade to the Advance trim, you also get blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic monitoring, which issues a warning if you’re about to reverse&nbsp;into the path of another car.&nbsp;

As for security, all versions get an engine immobiliser and an alarm.

"The Crosstar EX Jazz averages 58.9mpg. Barring the Yaris, most rivals can only dream of such fuel economy, although the Ford Fiesta in mild hybrid guise gets close," Steve Huntingford, Editor

For all the latest reviews, advice and new car deals, sign up to the What Car? newsletter <a href="https://pages.haymarket.com/whatcar/wcar-form.html">here</a>

As in most small cars, the&nbsp;rear seatbacks split and fold 60/40, but what makes the Jazz unique is that you can also flip up the seat&nbsp;bases, a bit like at a&nbsp;cinema. Doing so creates loads of vertical space for tall items – that plant you’ve just bought from the garden centre, for example. It’s a brilliant feature.

When you fold down the rear seats&nbsp;to increase boot capacity, they lie flat because the base drops down into the footwell. Many rivals have a simpler mechanism that only flops the seat back on to the seat base, leaving you with an inconvenient incline that makes it harder to load&nbsp;longer items.

OUR PICK

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The Honda Jazz is the small car to beat for passenger space, and its unique and incredibly flexible rear seats only add to its practicality. True, some rivals are more fun to drive and plenty are cheaper to buy, but with excellent visibility and impressive fuel economy, the Jazz is a fantastic all-rounder.

If you’re a nervous parker, the Jazz might&nbsp;well be the car for you. <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/new-car-deals/make/honda">Honda</a> has designed it specifically to have excellent visibility. Looking forwards, you’re greeted with an almost panoramic view of the road ahead. The tall windscreen, narrow front pillars and deep side windows&nbsp;give&nbsp;a much better view at junctions than you get in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/peugeot/208/hatchback/review/n30">Peugeot 208</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whatcar.com/vauxhall/corsa/hatchback/review/n33">Vauxhall Corsa</a>.

The rear window is deep, and makes it fairly easy to judge how much room there is directly behind you when you're reversing. Our only sticking point is that wide rear pillars hinder the view over your shoulder (something that's true in most rivals). Front and rear parking sensors come as standard from entry-level Elegance trim, while Advance and range-topping Sport models get a rear-view camera as well.

All trims get bright LED headlights as standard, as well as a system that automatically dips the headlights so you don't dazzle other drivers.

<h2>What we're looking for:</h2><ul><li>Spacious enough for four adults to sit comfortably</li> <li>Logically laid-out interior that doesn’t</li> <li>feel too cheap</li> <li>Mature driving manners </li> <li>Decent-sized boot</li> <li>Competitive buying and running costs</li></ul>

Small cars, or superminis as they’re also known, used to be bought almost exclusively as first cars or by people with no children – but the likes of the <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/ford/fiesta/hatchback/review/n106">Ford Fiesta</a>, <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/seat/ibiza/hatchback/review/n17359">Seat Ibiza</a> and <a href="https://www.whatcar.com/volkswagen/polo/hatchback/review/n83">Volkswagen Polo</a> have grown to the point where they can be considered all-round family transport, albeit with the odd compromise.

Small

<h2>What we're looking for:</h2><ul><li>Low running costs compared with solely petrol or diesel equivalents</li> <li>Very low official CO2 emissions to benefit company car drivers</li> <li>The same usability as a regular car</li> <li>Smooth transition between electric and engine power</li> <li>Small practicality compromise over conventional models</li></ul>

Not so long ago, hybrids were the preserve of Hollywood stars, environmentally conscious 'early adopters' and the odd&nbsp;minicab driver looking to save a bit of money on fuel.

Since the collapse in demand for diesel, however, they have become&nbsp;much more popular, and it's easy to see why, with&nbsp;low tax bills and&nbsp;impressive MPG figures&nbsp;just a couple of the perks they offer.

There are two types of hybrid: 'self-charging'&nbsp;models, which mix petrol&nbsp;and electric power in an effort to maximise&nbsp;efficiency, and&nbsp;plug-in hybrids that can travel many miles purely on electricity before their engines need to cut in. This category is for the former type of cars.

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