irishcar.com

3 January 2002: Honda have placed the emphasis on fun and performance for its new Jazz 5-door hatchback while at the same time claiming class-leading fuel efficiency.

The new Honda, which went on sale in the Irish market in December, is pitched at the upper end of the supermini segment in both size and pricing.

In Japan where it has already been on sale, the Jazz is known as the Fit, a name that certainly wouldn’t fit well on this side of the world.

Full of ‘intelligent’ packaging, minimum space is taken up by essential components, leaving more space for passengers, perhaps in some instances on a par with C-segment vehicles. A short nose section frees up even more space in the cabin.

Small outside like a supermini (only 3.8m long), the Jazz is deceptively roomy inside, setting new benchmarks for space, flexibility and refinement as demonstrated by the innovative rear seat arrangements. The cabin can cope with up to five passengers with ease.

In its normal position, the rear seat gives lots of back legroom, plus 382 litres of luggage space. Tipped up, it gives nearly 1.3m of cabin height. Folded into the deep footwell, without even removing the headrests, it makes a flat floor more than 1.7m long, in a cabin tall enough to handle a mountain bike.

All this is made possible through locating the fuel tank centrally instead of the usual behind the rear axle line. The car has a strong body frame and from a safety aspect comes with standard dual SRS airbags.

Other features include electric power steering, dual airbags, and a radio/cassette unit.

The new Honda Jazz has a 1.4 i-DSI engine which Honda has patented. DSI stands for dual sequential ignition, and denotes double spark plugs in each cylinder, firing one after each other for more efficient burning of fuel.

The makers claim a fuel consumption of 51.4mpg for the combined cycle. At the time of going to press we hadn’t had a chance to drive it, but watch this space.

The car is available in seven colours, priced at e16,500. TW