• This is the Jazz’s strongest selling point
• Hugely versatile Magic Seats in the back
• Loads of space for passengers 

How much space is there?

Front seat occupants have lots of headroom and the driver’s seat has enough adjustment to suit both tall and short. It feels light and airy, with only the space between you and your front passenger reminding you that you’re sat in a supermini.

The rear seats have been redesigned for this car, moving the hinges wider apart and adding padding for more comfort – legroom remains strong at nearly a metre too, which would be impressive in a limo, let alone a hatchback. There’s more than enough room for a tall passenger behind a tall driver, and there are two USB charging points on offer too.

Interior storage is also good with a big box under the armrest, three smaller storage compartments in the centre tunnel, and two big cupholders built into the dashboard at a very convenient height. You also get a split level glovebox, which we think not only looks cool but allows more effective use of the space on offer.

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Boot space and storage

The hybrid drivetrain does eat into practicality a little – taking up about 50 litres of bootspace compared with its predecessor, but the Jazz’s capacity remains strong with 304 litres on offer. That increases to 844/1,205 litres depending on whether you measure up to the windowline or the roof when you collapse the clever rear seats. If size is important, a Skoda Fabia‘s boot is usefully larger.

But the Jazz’s boot is more useful than the figures suggest, with our long-term example fitting nine bags of shopping in the back with the rear seats in their upright position.

The versatility of the Honda Jazz has always been more than just numbers, thanks to the Magic Seats in the rear of the car – these can be folded completely flat or flipped up from the base cinema-style in order to carry tall or awkward items. The front passenger seat also folds flat to fit longer items. We think it’s genuinely brilliant, offering a huge amount of flexibility in a car with such a small footprint.

Is it easy to park?

The latest Jazz is a little longer than its predecessor but no wider, so it’s just as easy to manoeuvre. The big windows help visibility and while the base SE trim doesn’t get parking sensors, a reversing camera is optional. SR trim adds front and rear parking sensors with EX trim adding a standard rear camera.

There’s no assisted or automated parking function available, yet the Jazz’s size, visibility and sensors make parking pretty stress-free, with only the sharply disappearing nose proving hard to judge.

Safety

• Stronger body thanks to high-strength steel
• Clever new front centre airbag
• Five-star Euro NCAP safety rating

Before we get onto any new active safety systems it’s worth pointing out the increased use of high-strength steel in the Honda Jazz, which should make it stronger in a crash. You also now get 10 airbags as standard, including one in the front centre that prevents the driver and passenger from injuring each other in a crash.

It has achieved a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, no doubt assisted by the increased amount of driver assistance tech included in this car that wasn’t fitted to the old Jazz. The Honda Sensing Umbrella has been enhanced this time around by a new wide angle camera (the previous system used a narrow view camera and a radar) which makes things like the autonomous emergency braking and lane-keeping features more effective, particularly at night time.

Anecdotally we found the adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping function worked very well indeed, even on winding country roads where driver assistance tech can sometimes struggle to keep up. That said, during our long-term test, we became increasingly tired of negotiating the various menus and button presses in order to turn off these features.

The full suite includes:

• Collision mitigation braking
• Adaptive cruise control
• Lane keeping assist
• Road departure mitigation
• Traffic sign recognition
• Intelligent speed limiter
• Auto high-beam
• Blind spot and cross traffic monitor (standard on EX grade)

Watch: Honda Jazz Euro NCAP crash test video