Honda Jazz (Fit) test drive since 2008 hatchback

All this jazz

All that work. All that Glitter. All that pain. All that love. All that Crazy Rhythm. All that jazz
This slogan for the 1979 Bob Foss Legendary film, in my opinion, is quite suitable for the smallest Honda model.
 
To some extent, Honda Jazz owes its appearance to competitors from Toyota. In 1999, they had Yaris, while the compact Honda Logo model by this time was morally and technically outdated. It was in 1999 that the development of Jazz began. More precisely, Fit is so small in Japan. The resulting hatchback, or compactwhen entered the Japanese market in 2001, and came to Europe as follows. Jazz has gained immense popularity among customers, the demand for it at first was just exciting. And to this day it remains quite stable, and the figure of 2 million copies sold eloquently speaks of this.
 
What causes such love (Love) to the small bug of class in? What is her charm? Perhaps the answer lies in the ideology of Jazz. This car is built around the salon and its inhabitants. You understand this immediately as soon as you get inside. With such external dimensions, Honda engineers managed to make the impossible salon very spacious and roomy. There is a constantly feeling that you are sitting in a car for a class, or even two higher. Planting, of course, is somewhat more vertical than in ordinary cars, but you hardly feel this because of the high roof. But four adults are placed without problems.
 
The floor under the feet of the rear passengers is flat and lowered as much as possible, since the gas tank is located under the front seats. You can also squeeze the fifth if it is not too large, after all, the width of the car is only 1675 mm. At the same time, he has a very tolerable trunk is quite enough to place purchases from the supermarket there. And with folded rear seats it becomes just huge, you can drive a couple of mountain bikes there!
  
They love Jazz for his unlucking and original appearance. Of course, you can’t call him a handsome man, but he looks very good even against the background of younger rivals. There are various kinds of pleasant and original little things that attract customers, like everything that shines (Glitter), Magpie. Many people will like these elegant repeaters of rotation indicators in the mirror housings, three wells of the dashboard, funny climate control keys for control and radio, folding pillows of the rear seats. And to those who prefer more assertive and dynamic jazz, Honda offers a version of Sport with rear windows, tanned glasses, a beautiful three -spitz steel, sheathed skin, other bumpers and a skirt along the thresholds. It was such a car that we went to the test.
 
But if you decide to choose a Sport package, do not forget that by overcoming the Moscow snow blocks or trying to climb into the curb, you can make the baby painfully the risk of scratching the details of his sports outfit.
 
But any car is created primarily in order to drive it. It is clear that Jazz is not intended for a long distance march, not the class. His element Crazy Rhythm megacities. Here he is like a fish in water. Motor I-DSI (Dual & Sequential Ignition) modest volume of 1.3 liters and a capacity of 83 hp. It forms a completely coordinated pair along with the variator.
 
Do not look at the acceleration data to Coet, they do not reflect the agility and soreness of the car in real sensations. During the test, there was a feeling that Jazz is able to climb into any hole and park anywhere. What else does the inhabitant of stone jungle need? The CVT variator offers a choice of several operating modes, from the usual Drive to Sport, in which the gas reactions become sharper, and braking by the engine is tangible, or even the Low of the remote analogue of the reduced row of the transmission, which implies the baby to climb into serious ascents or get out of snow captivity in the yards .
 
By clicking the 7 Speed \u200b\u200bMode button on the right knitting needle of the steering wheel, you can force the variator to work in the mode that imitates the 7 -step checkpoint, and switch with the help of steering wheel petals. Just like adults! But do a small car need all these bells and whistles? My opinion is not particular. There are practically no changes in the work of the transmission in different modes, the car is the same staple in any position of the variator selector. But the people like all these marketing bumps, so why not?
 
On the highway, the car leaves no such favorable impression than on city streets. High growth affects, and with it bad aerodynamics (at speeds after 120 km/h it seems that flags are developing on the sides), and a lot of sailing. Nevertheless, a suspension was pleased, surprisingly not even noticing the serious irregularities and waves of asphalt. Jazz and in corners is excellent on the arc, almost without rolls. But everything spoils the extremely low sensitivity of the steering. What the steering wheel makes from the stop to the stops of as many as 3.5 turns was noticed in the city, and on the high -speed direct highways of the highway near Moscow and protracted turns, the denouement also showed a complete lack of information on the steering wheel. Offensive defect, especially against the background of the general composure of the car.
 
But this did not prevent me from brushing on Jazz for more than a thousand kilometers. A pleasant, understandable car that does not frighten beginner drivers, among which the vast majority make up, of course, representatives of the beautiful half of humanity. It remains hoping that all this jazz will remain in the next generation of the model, which was already presented last fall at a car dealership in Tokyo. After the updated Jazz reaches our country, we will definitely check if this is.
 
Dmitry Krotov

 
 

A source: Motor magazine [April 2008]