Is Honda Jazz costly for 7.62 lakh INR on road?

Review of Honda Jazz

Honda Jazz price and features

Honda Jazz's basic price is 6,98,000/- INR.

Honda Jazz's mode price is 7,28,000/- INR

Honda Jazz's active price is 7,33,000/- INR

The above all are ex-showroom prices. Brand new car price quote for Jazz Active in Mumbai is ex-showroom price 7,33,000 INR with RTO 13,389 INR, Insurance 16,502 INR, so the total on road price is 7,62,891 with air conditioner, power windows, anti-lock braking system, power steering, airbags for driver and passenger, and CD MP3 player system.

Overall Length of Honda Jazz is 3900 mm with overall Width of 1695 mm and overall Height of 1535 mm.

Kerb Weight is 1055 kg and seating capacity is the usual 5 persons, number of doors are 5 door including the same one driver, three passenger, and one backdoor. Engines is of 1198 cc with power of 90 PS at 6200 rpm, torque 110 Nm at 4800 rpm, transmission type is manual. It has 5 speed gears and one back gear. Jazz has minimum turning radius of 4.9 meter. Tires: 175/65 R15 84T.

Honda Jazz is packed up with new seating system with more luggage space

The new Honda Jazz is enhanced with 3-mode Magic Seat configuration for achieving cargo carriage and multiple seating configurations for tall or long items in addition to the usual 5-passenger system.

The first one is utility mode, which is one motion dive-down with reverse operation of back seats and it is interesting to note that the luggage area can be increased to maximum of 1720 millimeters in length.

The second one is long mode. Now in utility mode, you can place any passenger seat in a fully reclined position in order to create more free area of 2400 millimeters in length to carry lengthy items.

The third one is tall mode. In this mode, you can fold back seat cushions in order to create free area of 1280 millimeters roof height for carrying tall items.

All Honda Jazz variants are fully equipped with dashboard-integrated CD and MP3 sound systems, double front airbags, steering mounted controls, and ABS or anti-braking system and EBD or electronic brake distribution system

Jazz does not have

Alloy wheels, seats adjustable according to the height, and a dead pedal. There are also no armrests in the front or at the back, no parcel tray, no ACC or automatic climatic control, and no lower lumbar support seats.

I test drive the Jazz today and must say it is a big car.

To call it a normal hatchback would be wrong. It is almost a sedan. It has a huge boot space of 337 L and amazing legroom to accommodate even people who are 7 feet tall.

The rear seat-folding feature is handy and doubles up your boot space if the need be. Headroom is more than Maruti Swift but that is probably because of no seat height adjustment features in Jazz.

The ride quality was decent and no rattles at all and potholes are swallowed with ease. Suspension is on the softer side and this translates into a smoother ride quality. Fit and finish is above average. No wood finishes for the interiors though. Gearshift is ultra excellent. No auto climate control. Steering mounted controls look jazzy. Steering wheel is the same as in Honda Civic and the new Honda City.

The engine though didn't feel as responsive as you would expect a Honda i-VTEC engine to be. Torque is slightly lower than Swift Petrol and you can tell that when you drive. You need to push the car around the 2K mark to get the power surge. After having driven Maruti Swift for 1 year, I do not find the Jazz engine to be any different in terms of pick up and in gear acceleration times. The Jazz engine is smoother though and revs more freely than the Swift.

Besides this, the quality of Maruti cars cannot be compared to Honda. The build quality, fit and finish, quality of interiors of any Honda are bound to be superior and that is why Honda spares cost a bomb; maintenance is lower though. Honda scores over Skoda in terms of engine refinement and aesthetics (car design). Skoda's build quality is definitely superior to that of Honda. Honda with a diesel engine in India would be ideal but that car may never launch here.

Honda is not in favor of launching diesel cars in India?

If Toyota, Ford, Skoda, BMW and Mercedes cars can run on existing diesel quality in India, then Honda should also be able to do the same. Right now, they are concentrating only on the petrol segment in India. Most of the Honda cars abroad all run on petrol and also the difference in petrol and diesel prices outside India is not much.

BUT, here a big BUT comes in between and it is that it is all over the news that Honda is planning on launching not only Honda Jazz in Diesel but also New Honda City Diesel.

Now answer to this long question: Does it make sense to buy Honda Jazz at 6.98 lakh INR? Honda Jazz has the hit the Indian roads on June 11th, 2009 with a price tag of 6.98 lakh INR which is a costliest hatch with currently Skoda Fabia being the one having 1200 cc vtec petrol engine.

Honda has a superb fan following in India. People who have that extra money to shell on a hatchback will definitely go for Honda Jazz but it is for only those people with extra money. Jazz is a 1.2 liter car, i.e., essentially a small car and is available in between 7 to 8 lakhs and I do not think it makes sense. Yes, Honda makes great vehicles for sure but I wonder what extra can you get in that? After all, it is meant for city driving and other cars would surely serve the purpose equally well. Don't think it is worth the amount. The economics don't make sense at least to me. Refinement, finish, etc, are surely there, but then one needs to have a cost-benefit analysis before drawing the conclusions and in that surely don't forget the opportunity cost of funds blocked on the extra amount spent for the Jazz. The price of Honda Jazz is definitely high but at last I would say that it is a car buyer's own wish and budget whether he/she would like to go for Jazz or not.