Discussion
Looking at cars to replace the Mrs Fiesta and she's taken a liking to the Honda Jazz. £5k gets a nice first generation 1.4, but for a bit more there's a few second generation 1.2 i-VTECs, which seem to have more power and better fuel economy than the older 1.4
I know it's not very PH but does anyone have much Jazz experience?
One review I found reckoned they can start to have problems with gearbox bearings on higher mileages, anyone had issues?
Not had a look at a second generation one yet, is there much advantage over the first gen besides the engine?
I know it's not very PH but does anyone have much Jazz experience?
One review I found reckoned they can start to have problems with gearbox bearings on higher mileages, anyone had issues?
Not had a look at a second generation one yet, is there much advantage over the first gen besides the engine?
I've been driving an '09 iShift Jazz for the last year or so.
Terminally dull, but nothing has gone wrong between 21k and 41k miles so far.
I'd be worried about the flappy paddle gearbox, but manual should be fine.
A couple of relatives have first generation '05 cars and both have been faultless.
Terminally dull, but nothing has gone wrong between 21k and 41k miles so far.
I'd be worried about the flappy paddle gearbox, but manual should be fine.
A couple of relatives have first generation '05 cars and both have been faultless.
My wife has a 2nd generation Jazz 1.4 and she loves it. If you could stretch to a 2nd generation car I'd recommend it, it's a nicer package. They are very practical with the magic rear seats and a decent boot.
Running costs are low (although ours has a strange tyre size which make them more expensive than they have any right to be) but Honda dealers like to charge come service time. There don't appear to be any issues so long as you avoid the i-shift auto.
I quite enjoy the odd trip I do in hers, the i-vtec engine loves to rev.
Running costs are low (although ours has a strange tyre size which make them more expensive than they have any right to be) but Honda dealers like to charge come service time. There don't appear to be any issues so long as you avoid the i-shift auto.
I quite enjoy the odd trip I do in hers, the i-vtec engine loves to rev.
On 1st of Feb this year I parted company with my trusty MB2 Civic that I'd had for nearly 12 years. After much umming and arrhing I booked a test drive in a 11 reg 1.4 Jazz. I'd driven the first gen Jazz and while it was a decent car I found it a bit gutless. Most of my driving is around town but my family are a 400 mile round trip away, so I want something that will run with the flow in lane 3 of the nations motorway network.
I explained what I wanted the car for to the salesman and he understood and said I may well be surprised. Long story short the test drive sold me and I now have an 11 plate 1.4 ES with now 7200 miles on it.
It is an utterly brilliant little car that I'm chuffed to bits with. It's no performance car but hs more than enough go in it for traveling at "motorway speeds". It's plenty nippy around town, a piece of piss to park, comfy, more than well enough equipped and as practical as the day is long.
Driving it carefully I can get 53.5mpg in a mixture of short journeys around town and a little gentle DC work. But I've started to drive it properly now and am seeing less the 50mpg as an average.
Highly recommended.
I explained what I wanted the car for to the salesman and he understood and said I may well be surprised. Long story short the test drive sold me and I now have an 11 plate 1.4 ES with now 7200 miles on it.
It is an utterly brilliant little car that I'm chuffed to bits with. It's no performance car but hs more than enough go in it for traveling at "motorway speeds". It's plenty nippy around town, a piece of piss to park, comfy, more than well enough equipped and as practical as the day is long.
Driving it carefully I can get 53.5mpg in a mixture of short journeys around town and a little gentle DC work. But I've started to drive it properly now and am seeing less the 50mpg as an average.
Highly recommended.
RizzoTheRat said:
Not considering the auto so no problem there, and dull is good, she's after white goods transport rather than fun.
Absolutely ideal for that then.I just get in and drive whether it's the local Tesco or a 250-mile journey.
Car seems to just keep on going.
Practical for decent sized loads too, my mountain bike lives in the back of mine most of the time!
Also, they are very frugal; 51.9MPG over 20k+ over very mixed driving for me.
My lady has an '06 1.4CVT bought new. Never put a foot wrong and has more rear leg room than my S60. Capable of being converted to a van with windows. We call it Mrs Pickford. I've offered to replace it but been told that I will need to prise the keys out of her cold, dead hand.
I would have preferred a manual but I get to play with the 7-speed paddle shift when she's not looking. I wish they did a version with decent power and reworked suspension, it would be a hoot.
As a totally practical car it's truly very hard to beat.
I would have preferred a manual but I get to play with the 7-speed paddle shift when she's not looking. I wish they did a version with decent power and reworked suspension, it would be a hoot.
As a totally practical car it's truly very hard to beat.
I've had a mk1 2002 Jazz for a year now. Good little car and surprisingly spacious for what it is. They do have a fault with the gearbox bearings at manufacture so make sure these were replaced before you buy one. Honda do it free under warranty until a certain year so best check it out.
Servicing wise it's fine. They have 8 spark plugs instead of 4 and easy to replace. Parts are pretty cheap. The valve clearances are meant to be adjusted every 24k miles. Pretty easy to do with a Haynes manual. I've heard some owners don't bother doing so. Looking back in my past service history i don't know if mines been done and its at 114k miles still with good fuel economy and no sounds. Also rear wheel bearings do fail, again very easy and cheap to replace. Took me 10 minutes and at a cost of £35 to do so. I've recently had the clutch done for under £190 so all in all pretty cheap to run and service.
I normally get 45mpg around town and 50 to 55 on the motorway. Took a family of 5 to Cornwall a few times with no problems. As mentioned before it's pretty gutless fully loaded.
I purchased it to last a year or so until i could buy something a bit more up beat but to be honest i'm more than happy with it and don't think i will get rid any time soon. If you can get past the image its a good little run around. Just make sure the gearbox has been done before purchase.
Servicing wise it's fine. They have 8 spark plugs instead of 4 and easy to replace. Parts are pretty cheap. The valve clearances are meant to be adjusted every 24k miles. Pretty easy to do with a Haynes manual. I've heard some owners don't bother doing so. Looking back in my past service history i don't know if mines been done and its at 114k miles still with good fuel economy and no sounds. Also rear wheel bearings do fail, again very easy and cheap to replace. Took me 10 minutes and at a cost of £35 to do so. I've recently had the clutch done for under £190 so all in all pretty cheap to run and service.
I normally get 45mpg around town and 50 to 55 on the motorway. Took a family of 5 to Cornwall a few times with no problems. As mentioned before it's pretty gutless fully loaded.
I purchased it to last a year or so until i could buy something a bit more up beat but to be honest i'm more than happy with it and don't think i will get rid any time soon. If you can get past the image its a good little run around. Just make sure the gearbox has been done before purchase.
My missus had a 2003 1.4 SE and now has a 2009 EX. Both bought new.
The gearbox bearings on the old model could get noisy - Honda used to have a fantastic reputation for doing stuff as goodwill although I get the impression they've tightened up a bit now, but I've seen comments suggesting they fix boxes up to 8yrs old. Ours had done about 50K when we changed it and I *think* I could hear the bearings but it might have just been auto-suggestion.
Earlier cars also had problems with the C post (hatch door) and roof seal going so the spare wheel well fills with water. Again, Honda will repair but I'm not sure up to what age.
Obviously the goodwill stuff depends on the car having full dealer service history. Our dealer always renewed the Honda Assistance package with every service so that made it worthwhile to keep using them - I don't know if that's a standard thing.
The expensive bit on servicing is the plugs (8 of them on the old model) need changing and valve clearances checked at 25K miles. Apparently the clearances never actually need adjusting and they changed the interval to 62,500 miles on later first gen cars. I'm not sure what happens on the newer model's VTEC engine.
The car is so effortlessly good at what it does (but also a sign perhaps that it's just a boring appliance, which for some people is fine) that I lost track of how old the first one was, hence we kept it for 6yrs. When I said we should change it, she didn't even want to look at anything else, which suited me fine.
The ride and seats are massively better in the newer model. In some ways I preferred the old engine, seemed more torquey.
The gearbox bearings on the old model could get noisy - Honda used to have a fantastic reputation for doing stuff as goodwill although I get the impression they've tightened up a bit now, but I've seen comments suggesting they fix boxes up to 8yrs old. Ours had done about 50K when we changed it and I *think* I could hear the bearings but it might have just been auto-suggestion.
Earlier cars also had problems with the C post (hatch door) and roof seal going so the spare wheel well fills with water. Again, Honda will repair but I'm not sure up to what age.
Obviously the goodwill stuff depends on the car having full dealer service history. Our dealer always renewed the Honda Assistance package with every service so that made it worthwhile to keep using them - I don't know if that's a standard thing.
The expensive bit on servicing is the plugs (8 of them on the old model) need changing and valve clearances checked at 25K miles. Apparently the clearances never actually need adjusting and they changed the interval to 62,500 miles on later first gen cars. I'm not sure what happens on the newer model's VTEC engine.
The car is so effortlessly good at what it does (but also a sign perhaps that it's just a boring appliance, which for some people is fine) that I lost track of how old the first one was, hence we kept it for 6yrs. When I said we should change it, she didn't even want to look at anything else, which suited me fine.
The ride and seats are massively better in the newer model. In some ways I preferred the old engine, seemed more torquey.
v15ben said:
I've been driving an '09 iShift Jazz for the last year or so.
Terminally dull, but nothing has gone wrong between 21k and 41k miles so far.
I'd be worried about the flappy paddle gearbox, but manual should be fine.
A couple of relatives have first generation '05 cars and both have been faultless.
Dull - start working them paddles. It does come alive with some revs - but its still no fast car.Terminally dull, but nothing has gone wrong between 21k and 41k miles so far.
I'd be worried about the flappy paddle gearbox, but manual should be fine.
A couple of relatives have first generation '05 cars and both have been faultless.
We ran an early CVT for five years then an iShift for another five (recently changing for a larger B class - with CVT). MPG can get into the 60's if driven in dull mode (although we once got 72 - off a full tank !
). The first generation have a slightly more comfortable / nicer seating position in our opinion.Whilst its nice to get a CVT back in the B class I do really miss the Jazz as a town / local car.
Our only issues were the iShift getting 'confused' by rapid use of the paddles in the cold (-14c) which sorted itself after sitting for five minutes. Plus the car failing to start after sitting for 20 minutes outside Dominos with hazards / lights etc on. Again sorted itself after a few minutes just as we were showing the traffic warden that the car was broken down and awaiting the RAC.
Our local dealer tried to work us over so we had to travel 70 miles to a more trustworthy family owned dealer.
Tyres - fronts wear on the inside due to the bit extra height of the car when cornering. Original fit tyres are best for mpg - save money on a cheap tyre and pay at the pump.
anonymous said:
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A few reviews have stated they're expensive, but looking around the £5k mark gets us a 06/07 SE with 45-50k mile on the clock, compared to an 07/08 with a similar mileage for a Fiesta, which doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much space inside, so the first gen ones seem a pretty good price. There's a few second gen 1.2's in budget but nearly an hour away to find one so may have to find a slightly more expensive one locally to look at.
anonymous said:
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I'm amazed the Merc would be cheaper - it that a function of the high-end model Jazz residuals being hit by cheaper models? We had that on a Clio once - bought Mrs NPI a 1.6RXE and got absolutely spanked when we came to change it as you get a basic new Clio for about what ours should have been worth.I had a new B Class courtesy car the other day and I was taken aback by how thoroughly horrible it was, not helped by it being a "Sport" and diesel manual.
RizzoTheRat said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
A few reviews have stated they're expensive, but looking around the £5k mark gets us a 06/07 SE with 45-50k mile on the clock, compared to an 07/08 with a similar mileage for a Fiesta, which doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much space inside, so the first gen ones seem a pretty good price. There's a few second gen 1.2's in budget but nearly an hour away to find one so may have to find a slightly more expensive one locally to look at.
Obviously don't know anything about your personal circumstances etc, but have you looked at the deals on new ones? Honda is keen to sell these now as the 2015 model isn't far away, and that's only going to make the original model age even more - and it already looks very old, I think. They're doing a 5yr service and warranty package for £500 so if you do normal sort mileage then that gets rid of your servicing price concerns for some time.
ETA: Don't get the entry level one without a/c!
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