Barn Find Honda Jazz 2008

[Wheatsheaf]

I appreciate this is not exactly the most enticing of Readers' Cars threads, but for those of you who may remember my VW Polo, I do have a penchant for acquiring old, fairly rubbish cars and trying to make them look good and work well.

Also, I fully acknowledge the Honda Jazz is widely derided on this forum due to its image and propensity to be driven badly by old people. This example is no exception, as can be evidenced by the terrible bodywork which bears marks, scuffs and dents on almost every panel.



True to form it had been owned by an octogenarian lady who died 3 years ago and who had given up driving in late 2017 and the car had resided in her garage ever since. She had owned it from new and had only ever done just over 12,000 miles. The beneficiary of her considerable estate saw the car as a millstone around her neck so was only too happy for me to take it off her hands.

I spent a few hours watching lock picking videos as we couldn't find the key to the garage - this was time well spent as I opened it in about 30 secs using a pair of tweezers and one of my daughter's hair pins :-)

I wasn't surprised to find the car totally electrically dead, so I removed the battery in the vain hope I could revive it with a nice steady charge, well that was a waste of time so armed with a new battery I returned the next day and fitted it. Bearing in mind the car had not been started in well over 4 1/2 years and bearing in mind I had gone down a rabbit-hole researching the dangers of stale petrol I wasn't very optimistic that I would get any life out of it.

I switched on the ignition and the dash lit up pleasingly, so imagine my surprise when after less than 2 seconds of cranking the engine burst willingly into life and settled into an immediate smooth idle. I couldn't believe it :-) Half a tank of fuel in it as well.

I gingerly reversed out of the garage, gently easing off the rather rusty brakes and took a while to assess the situation in the daylight:



Covered in fir tree debris and dust, and dented/scraped all round, but I felt able to declare myself highly delighted so far, and set about blowing up the tyres then giving it a quick rinse off and bucket wash:



Looking much more promising, I sorted out temporary insurance cover (under £16 for an hour, which I was happy to pay given the convenience) and steeled myself for the 6 mile drive home.

This is the 1.4 litre version equipped with an "I-Shift" automatic transmission, which (from what I can gather) consists of a fully automated conventional gearbox and clutch - i.e. not via a torque converter or CVT type system. The makes for rather slow gearchanges but I'd probably say provides a slightly more engaging driving experience, especially given the option to change manually via the gearstick / steering wheel controls. I am not a fan of automatics at all, so don't have any love for it, but to be honest it seems to work quite well in this application. Although a small car, the huge windscreen and high roof height made me feel like I was in a much larger car, but being lightweight and handling reasonably well, I'd have to say it is actually quite fun to drive.

Anyway I got home without issue and today I couldn't resist giving the inside a freshen up. With the crazily low mileage it really is in timewarp as-new condition inside and it was very satisfying bringing it back almost to a factory-fresh look:



So what am I going to do with it? Based on my short journey I can't identify any problems with it at all. Everything works - even the air conditioning. I will probably change the oil and filter, possibly the brake fluid which looks a little brown, then take it for an MOT, remedy any failures, and sell it. It's a shame about the panel damage but hopefully it'll find a buyer who doesn't care so much about that.

I'll update on progress in a week or two. Thanks for reading.

[lemmingjames]

I'd imagine the fuel will be skanky and needs draining/replacing those filters.

I may or may not have been watching too much vice grip garage on youtube

[Wheatsheaf]

lemmingjames said:

I'd imagine the fuel will be skanky and needs draining/replacing those filters.

I may or may not have been watching too much vice grip garage on youtube

I'd feel inclined to agree (and was preparing to drain the tank which from my research is a bit of a pain - dismantle centre console and remove pump/filter assembly etc) but the engine exhibited no signs of rough running or hesitancy whatsoever, so I don't think I'll be talking myself into that job

[Mr Tidy]

I had one of those as a hire car in Cyprus in 2009 and it was much better than I expected!

Would make a great SOTW!

[beambeam1]

Wow, what a find. What's the actual mileage on it? My only experience of these is an old mate who stuck a K20 engine in one, never had a go but I witnessed it shifting very well on departure from car meets!

[d_a_n1979]

This is scarily close to how we got our Racing Jazz (bar the owner didn't die)... Wife's Nana had to give up driving in 2016 (well, she was told by us all)

We got the Racing Jazz, 58 plate, 1.4 asthmatic every corned dinged in, lots of bodywork needed to rectify, only cover 12k miles too etc

It's been a superb car!

Get it fully serviced ASAP (ALL fluids, coolant, oils, gearbox oil etc); drain the washer fluid tank as it'll be full of black gunk and wash it out/refill & away you go

[KelvinatorNZ]

We've had ours (JDM 1.5 RS CVT) for almost 10 years, and it's got 216,000KM on the clock now, and we love it as the daily. Great cars.

[anonymous-user]

I didn't know they had an automated manual gearbox, what is it like pulling away, does it creep like a conventional automatic?

If it was me I would just brim the tank with petrol to dilute what is already there and just keep doing this when it gets down to half a tank. Draining the fuel seems like a complete faff as well as having to dispose of it.

[Om]

d_a_n1979 said:

This is scarily close to how we got our Racing Jazz (bar the owner didn't die)... Wife's Nana had to give up driving in 2016 (well, she was told by us all)

We got the Racing Jazz, 58 plate, 1.4 asthmatic every corned dinged in, lots of bodywork needed to rectify, only cover 12k miles too etc

It's been a superb car!

Get it fully serviced ASAP (ALL fluids, coolant, oils, gearbox oil etc); drain the washer fluid tank as it'll be full of black gunk and wash it out/refill & away you go

Snap - except in my case it was a Skoda Fabia - the aspirational pensioners car of choice - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... The petrol in that was fine after about 4yrs parked up! Full service and brimmed with fresh petrol and it went fine. Still going strong - just gone over 29k miles - so it doesn't seem to have suffered from its years of rest.

[Challo]

Good find OP. My Mum (73) has one exactly the same although her's is the manual version. The engine is loud and boomy on the motorway, but its indestructible. Never breaks down, never had a problem with it. Apart from regular servicing its not cost her a penny.

Its full of toys that all work, and the interior is still immaculate after 80k miles.

As much as they are cars for the older lady I cannot fault it. It also has the rear seats which can be folded up or down which is really clever.

Maybe its because I am getting older, but I cant fault its practicality.

Edited by Challo on Thursday 21st July 11:24

[eltax91]

Sent you a PM. My post was removed

[djtom]

Make sure you get a hefty cage welded around the cat if you are planning on keeping it for any length of time. They're favourites for cat theft as the cat is massive, ridiculously valuable, and easily accessible to a scumbag with a trolley jack and a cordless grinder.

[eltax91]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

It’s me. I’ve messaged the OP privately

[Brett748]

The most depressing car I’ve ever driven was a Jazz. Fair play OP but not for me.

[Brett748]

The most depressing car I’ve ever driven was a Jazz. Fair play OP but not for me.

[vulture1]

Brett748 said:

The most depressing car I’ve ever driven was a Jazz. Fair play OP but not for me.

Its a well named car then

[paradigital]

I inherited a 2012 one of these with CVT in September of last year.

I used it to commute for a while and found it surprisingly: A) Quiet, B) Economical, C) Not entirely awful to throw around.

[zax]

Had one for about 160,000km (manual version), not exciting but spacious and insanely practical, mine was regularly used for road trips with a couple of kayaks on the roof and assorted other camping gear inside. Utterly reliable even in our cold winters, I think apart from servicing I replaced a couple of lightbulbs and that was it. This is good cheap transport for somebody!

[juice]

I love mine, its a great little car. Mine's an 07 'Sport' (ha ha).

Bought it a few years ago for £1700, one owner full Honda SH. It's used to take my 2 dogs out for walks (Cos Magic seats at the back). Been utterly reliable but did have issues with the notoriously crap Honda calipers so it's had new disks, pads and calipers all round.

Apart from that nothing else. Does 40+Mpg, is quite fun to drive as it turns in quickly, rolls quite a lot and the engine runs out of puff at about 5000rpm but is plenty nippy enough to keep up with traffic and has annoyed/surprised a few drivers when I've overtaken them in it.

[d_a_n1979]

I'd highly recommend getting the cat protection plate and getting it fitted ASAP

The wife's Racing Jazz had the cat stolen 3 weeks ago and it's been an absolute faff due to the wrong lambda sensors being fitted, twice (different ones between manual boxes and CVT boxes)!