Honda Jazz (2015 - 2020) 1.3 SE 5d Owner Review

Honda Jazz SE 1.3 (manual) - The 'does what it says on the tin' car. This was my second Jazz, I previously had an 09 plate which gave me 3 years, of trouble-free driving (but I just wanted something a bit newer). To put this review in context I am early 30s (so half the average age for a Honda Jazz owner), male, with 2 young kids (and ALL the stuff that come with them), limited space for parking at home and work (so small car dimensions required). I also have a short regular commute in town traffic but as a one car family I also need a car to be able to cope with the big holiday trips up and down the country. So in summary I need a small car that's big on practicality, economical, safe, and reliability, and the Honda Jazz delivers on these. Size - the Jazz is only 4m long, which is great for parallel parking on busy streets or tight multi storey car park spaces. Practical - The Honda has one of the largest boots in the class, with a low load lip. When the 'magic seats' are folded forward in turns into a small van, capable of carrying a chest of drawers OR a kids wardrobe OR a shed load of rubbish (literally) to the tip. Rear leg room is noticeably better in the 3rd gen Jazz compared to the 2nd gen Jazz. The magic seats also allow for items to stored under the rear seats, ideal when you're cramming in the 7th bag of luggage under the kids feet for long trips. It really is a TARDIS this car. Fuel Economy- does mid 40s mpg on my traffic heavy commute through town. Longer journeys with a family of four and all our stuff I get low 50s mpg. Not amazing, but very reasonable real world figures, especially if you keep it in the green zone when driving. Safety - NCAP 5 stars. Isofix points in 2 rear seats (not the middle and not the front passenger). Wide opening doors* (if space allows) makes it relatively easy to fit kid seats. Other good points: The Jazz can fit in tight parking spots, yet has enough space to carry a family of four, including a bike rack on holiday. I actually quite like the external design of the car, it is more 'assertive' than previous generation, especially in red, but they could do so much more with a 'Type R' Jazz. Electric folding mirrors Things I dislike: The infotainment system. Now I knew it was heavily criticised in the reviews so I wasn't expecting much, and the screen resolution, menu logic and screen responsiveness is POOR. The 2nd Gen has a more functional radio/dashboard (what happened to the second glove compartment with air conditioning?). The hard scratchy plastics everywhere. Now I know its designed to be able to survive a nuclear fallout but some soft touch materials on the steering wheel, gear stick and dash would be nice. 6 speed manual. Now this is a double edge sword, as the gears shift well and is light (one of the better driving features) However, the gear ratios are very close together so you end up shifting gears a lot, or double shifting, you can basically drive the car using 1st, 3rd or 5th for about 80% of the time. The 1.3 engine - whilst I do like revving this when I'm on my own driving it does lack actual off the line acceleration speed and trying to overtake, you have to rev it hard before you get the power. Which makes you sound like a boy racer, when overtaking on an A road at 40mph. If you want a fun to drive car look at the ford fiesta, but if you want one that is easy to drive, then choose the Jazz. The most annoying feature is the safety warning that comes up every time you get in. You have to turn it off before you can function any of the infotainment (even when the engine is not on). But if you turn it off before switching the engine on, you have to turn the message off AGAIN when the engine starts (using the unresponsive touchscreen, there's no steering wheel short cut to do this)!! DAB radio - this works ok other than it never seems to show the name of DJ or the name/artist of the song being played, which my 10 yr old kitchen DAB radio does, so I just expected this would. I can't seem to find a setting function for it? I deliberately went with an SE model rather than EX as I wanted nobs for the air conditioning controls. I'm so glad I did as the touch screen is really unresponsive on the Jazz. Tyre deflation warning message - this comes up a lot on my car. I've heard that it's when you start a quicker/longer journey after doing lots of town traffic. Not sure how common it is with others but about once every 4 weeks this warning message comes up. I check tyre pressures and they are usually OK (only once was a tyre slightly deflated). It's quite easy to reset -find a YouTube video. But its like 'the warning light that cried wolf' it's gone off so many times I now don't believe it. Parking sensors - very loud and you cannot set volume control. I wanted to see the visual sensors but not be distracted by all the beeping (as well as 2 kids crying in the back) but you cannot customise the volume (maybe I have better hearing than the average Jazz owner?). So I've just turned this helpful safety feature off and gone back to trusting my own ability to park the car. Rear door design - this is a small thing but the rear door juts out about waist height ( or 4yr old head height). Also it means in tight multi storey parking spots or a garage you have less space to open the door than if the door was just 2 inches less wide. Considering this is meant to be a practical car - this is not a good design feature IMO. HDMI port - now you have to give credit for Honda trying to future proof the car with a HDMI port, but why would you want to watch anything on the Honda Jazz infotainment screen? I just don't get it. Overall, it's still a very good car and does what it says on the tin, I give it a solid 4 out of 5, because it does the things that I need a car to do very well. But there is no 'bells and whistles' Jazz option, nothing to get excited about, or to aspire to stepping up to a higher trim level. The Honda Jazz Sport does have a bit more power with a 1.5 engine, but it still has the terrible infotainment and plastic fantastic interior (bit with some red stitches).