Honda Jazz Review & Prices

The Honda Jazz is the automotive equivalent of a three-bedroom, semi-detached house on a nice, leafy street. Sure, there may be more architecturally exciting alternatives, or apartments conveniently located above nightclubs, but this is the solid, sensible, dependable choice that’s roomy and comfortable too.

With all that dependability built in, it’s a slight shame that the Honda Jazz isn’t a bit more exciting to drive. It’s fine, but the likes of a Peugeot 208 and even the VW Polo and Skoda Fabia are more entertaining to drive. Then again, none of those is quite as roomy and useful as a Jazz…

This version of the Jazz has been on sale for some time now, but thanks to its simple, clean lines it’s a look that’s ageing quite well. Well, you can’t become unfashionable if you’ve never been fashionable, right? Either way, the Jazz’s cute snub nose and neat, upright tail don’t just look quietly pleasant, they also contribute to smooth aerodynamics that help with fuel economy.

The Jazz’s cabin is nicely laid out, with a neat two-spoke steering wheel and a touchscreen that’s big enough to be impressive, but not so huge that it takes over the cabin and becomes distracting. The big windows and comfy seats make the cabin feel almost more like a mobile conservatory at times, and there’s loads of space.

Up front, the driver’s seat is notably comfy, while in the back there’s enough space for even the tallest passenger — the Jazz has plenty of legroom and headroom. Better yet, the seats in the back are truly versatile — you can fold them flat, as you can in pretty much any car, but you can also flip the seat cushions upright, like a cinema seat, to open up a big, tall load space which is great if you have to carry anything with an unusual or bulky shape.

The downside is that the boot behind those seats isn’t all that big — at 304 litres it’s well down on the space you get in a Polo or, especially, a Fabia, but the versatility of the back seats kind of makes up for that a bit, and the tall body means that you can open out the load space to a massive 1,205 litres with the back seats folded.

Indeed, the Jazz is so practical that you can buy it as a ‘Crosstar’ model — a sort of faux mini-4x4, with stick-on protectors for the wheelarches and a touch of Land Rover swagger about it.

Whether you go for the standard Jazz or the Crosstar, you get only one engine choice. It’s a hybrid, that’s really refined and very economical too — 60mpg is do-able if you’re careful.

Drive the Jazz around town — which is really its natural habitat — and you’ll spend a surprising amount of time running on electric power, which combined with the great view out and the light steering makes the Jazz supremely relaxing as an urban transport solution. There’s even regenerative braking, like an electric car, to make things even easier.

The Jazz isn’t one of those small cars that gets lost on the motorway either because it’s impressively refined, plus you get adaptive cruise control to take the sting out of longer journeys. The only downside is that the engine gets a bit loud under hard acceleration.

Check out Carwow’s latest Honda Jazz deals to get a great price on a new car, as well as our Jazz lease deals. You can also browse used Jazz models from our network of trusted dealers, as well as other used Hondas. You can sell your car through Carwow, too.

The Honda Jazz is expensive, there’s no getting away from that fact. To be fair, you’d expect it to be pricier than the likes of the VW Polo and the Skoda Fabia, especially given that neither of those cars offers a hybrid version, and indeed the Jazz is around £7,000 pricier in basic form than either (although it’s also better-equipped as standard).

The Jazz is also pricier than the Toyota Yaris Hybrid, to the tune of around £4,000, although it’s worth remembering that the Jazz is also considerably more roomy than the Yaris.

There’s a colossal £9,000 gap between the cheapest Jazz and the cheapest MG 3, but again you have to remember that the Jazz is both roomier and a much more sophisticated car.

Comfort and refinement are the Honda Jazz’s strong points, but don’t go expecting thrills and excitement on a twisty road

In town

Driving the Honda Jazz in town is a pleasant experience on the whole. The steering is light to make manoeuvring and parking a simple exercise, with the turning circle just 10.1 metres on the Elegance trim and the Crosstar Advance, and 10.7 metres on both the Advance and Advance Sport models. That’s on par with its main alternatives.

The suspension is comfort-focused and allows the Jazz to soak up almost all the cracks and bumps in the road, unless there’s a larger pothole. You won’t hear or feel many rattles either.

You’ll be happy to hear that there’s also good visibility all around. The large front window helps you look out over the front corners, while there are large wing mirrors and large windows either side.

The hybrid setup suits in town as the electric motors do most of the heavy lifting. That allows for good acceleration from junctions, while you won’t notice too much when the petrol engine is needed to drive the wheels. The automatic transmission means you won’t have to worry about changing gears either.

Putting the brake regeneration mode on makes things easier as well, as you can drive mostly with the accelerator alone, while the resistance levels under deceleration put energy back into the battery.

On the motorway

With the comfort focus for the suspension, you’ll find that long drives in the Jazz are easy to do. There’s little wind and road noise to be worried about, as there’s good sound insulation and the alloy wheels only go up to 16 inches — in fact, a basic Jazz wears only 15-inch rims — which don’t emit much noise compared to larger wheels.

Adaptive cruise control is fitted across the Jazz range, making long motorway journeys or shunting along in traffic a lot easier than if it wasn’t included. Lane-keep assist helps to stop you drifting out of your lane, while emergency brake assist is there to save you too.

With the electric motors giving instant torque, you can get on the way to motorway speed before the petrol motor needs to kick in. The engine drones a lot when you’re accelerating, but when you’re cruising it quietens down and you can drive in near peace.

On a twisty road

With the ‘Sport’ mode engaged, the steering weight goes up a little and there’s more responsiveness from the throttle. That doesn’t change the characteristics of the Jazz much though, as it’s not the most fun to drive on a twisty road – especially when compared to a Volkswagen Polo or the much-missed Ford Fiesta.

While the suspension is great at soaking up bumps almost everywhere, if you’re cornering and hit a sizeable bump, the Jazz will skip a little. That’ll show you that keeping it cool and calm like the rest of the Jazz’s character will set you right – rather than trying to hustle it down a back road.

The Honda Jazz has plenty of space in the front and back seats, and clever storage solutions, but the boot is actually quite small

Honda has done a great job of making the Jazz’s cabin as practical as possible, considering its rather modest dimensions. Just in the front part of the cabin, there are multiple cubbies and places to store things, while the seats themselves are comfortable – trimmed in cloth and synthetic leather, with a smattering of suede in the Advance Sport model which also gets water-repellent fabric on the seats.

You have plenty of adjustment with the seats and because there’s so much headroom above, you can jack the seat up or sit much lower depending on your preference. There’s angle and reach alteration for the steering column too, meaning it’s easy to get comfy.

There are large door bins, cupholders in the centre console and at either end of the dashboard, a space under the central armrest and two gloveboxes on the passenger side. There’s also a place for your smartphone below the central touchscreen, which houses two USB chargers.

Space in the back seats

The rear seats are an interesting feature to the Jazz, as they can hold three adults or be folded up to be an extension of the boot.

When you’re using the bench to carry people, you’ll see there’s lots of head and legroom, while you won’t be fighting for foot room much, as the flat floor means you can spread out and under the front seats.

Sitting three adults across the back is a bit of a squeeze, but the cushioning on the seats does mean you can take them in relative comfort. For fitting child seats, you have two ISOFIX mounting points on the outer seats, with the large door openings allowing you to slot them in place easily.

Folding the seat bases up — Honda calls this the ‘Magic Seat’ function — reveals a large and tall space that can be used if the boot is crammed full and you need more room to carry larger items. You will sacrifice the space for passengers if you choose to take both the 60/40-split seat bases up, but you can leave either the two-seat or single-seat section down if you need to.

Boot space

The 305 litres on offer in the boot isn’t exactly small, but the Volkswagen Polo’s 351-litre boot and the 380 litres from the Skoda Fabia are larger than the Jazz’s. The Vauxhall Corsa (309 litres) and Peugeot 208 (311 litres) also offer a touch more.

You get a small area under the floor, while there are a couple of bag hooks to hang things off if you need. A fold-up pram and a weekly shop will easily fit in the boot without much trouble.

If you need to fold the seats down, the seat-back latches are easy to reach. When you fold them, the space is flat and the 1,205 litres – the biggest in class by about 100 litres – offer a good area to throw things in, while the load lip is level with the floor. That means sliding things in and out is simple.

The Honda Jazz’s cabin is a bit monochrome, but it’s well-equipped and thoughtfully laid-out

Although it’s no premium large saloon, the finish in the Jazz is excellent, with all the elements fitted nicely and all the materials feeling decent for the price. Sure there’s no Nappa leather or fancy wood veneer, but the smooth faux leather and plastics help make the cabin a comfortable place to be.

The look of the cabin is also rather pleasing, with simple lines combined with easy-to-use knobs, dials and stalks making this a great place to be. It’s just a shame Honda couldn’t add a little more character – there are grey and black trim pieces everywhere, with only the Advance Sport getting a splash of yellow detailing.

You do get a large gear lever, which feels a little unnecessary when buttons could have done the job – but there are conventional dials and buttons for the climate control which is great.

The two displays – a 7.0-inch driver’s display and a 9.0-inch infotainment touchscreen – are both very clear and crisp. The software is smooth and the menus are easy to navigate on the infotainment screen, while you can customise the driver’s display to your liking. A head-up display is also available on the top-spec models.

You can use Apple CarPlay wirelessly, but you will need a wire to load up Android Auto. The directions from your map application will integrate with the navigation system in the car and show up on the driver’s display, which is some neat integration that not every car is able to offer.

There are some options to add character to your Jazz, including a couple of exterior styling packs, while there are storage packs to make the boot more practical or easier to clean. But as the Jazz comes fully loaded on most trim levels, you won’t need to add much to it.

You only get one engine option with the Honda Jazz. The 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine is teamed with two electric motors to make it a self-charging hybrid, while a CVT transmission is used when the petrol engine is engaged.

With the electric motors doing most of the heavy lifting at slower speeds and the petrol engine taking the strain on the motorway, the Jazz can do between 58.8 and 62.7mpg depending on the trim level – better than most alternatives that don’t offer a full hybrid powertrain. Only the Toyota Yaris Hybrid, Mazda 2 Hybrid, and the MG 3 Hybrid+ can match the Jazz for frugality — although it’s worth noting that the very affordable mild hybrid Suzuki Swift can get close.

Emissions are also fairly low with the Jazz, with combined CO2 figures between 102 and 108g/km. That means first year VED road tax and company car tax rates will be affordable.

The Honda Jazz has an excellent safety rating, scoring five stars when tested by Euro NCAP, while all bar one sub-category scored above 80% – a good all-round showing. It did particularly well in adult occupancy, achieving 87%, but child occupancy, pedestrian safety and safety assists weren’t far behind.

As standard, all Jazz models feature a host of safety assist technology as part of the Honda Sensing setup. That includes brake and collision mitigation assist, lane departure and keep assist, forward collision warning, traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control with low speed following. Advance and Advance Sport models also get blind spot monitoring.

Models also get a security alarm with an immobiliser, two ISOFIX points on the outer rear seats and airbags throughout the cabin.

The current Jazz has had some recalls in the UK. One was for a sensor in the seat belt assembly, while the other was a software issue for the front camera when you start the car up. Both are easily solvable, so used buyers should check to see if any Jazz they’re looking at has been affected and resolved. There have also been recalls for faulty airbags fitted by the Japanese company Takata, and that’s a serious safety issue, so you’ll definitely need to make sure that has been done.

Each new Honda comes with a three-year/90,000-mile warranty, although this can be extended by up to five years before the car is over three years old. An additional guarantee service can also be purchased, which can be bought from Honda until the car is eight years old.

The Jazz finished in an impressive 14th place in the most recent Driver Power Top 50 Cars To Own list, with a very high rating for build quality and reliability.