Honda Jazz
Honda's little big car





- Big inside, small outside (B-segment exterior, C-segment interior)
- New Global Small Platform featuring centrally mounted fuel tank and compact suspension front and rear
- Debut of Honda's i-DSI engine, featuring twin plug sequential ignition
- 5-speed manual transmission at launch, CVT (with a 7-speed semi-automatic shift control system) follows..
- The "Magic" rear seat: simple to use, exceptionally flexible; fully collapsible creating flat load floor; innovative secondary load area
- Overwhelming choice as 2001-2002 Japan Car of the Year


Honda's Jazz is one of the most significant small car debuts in recent years - it represents a quantum step forward rarely seen in today's era of evolutionary caution.

Already the model has taken the Japanese market by storm, to take both the Japanese Car of the Year and Japan's "RJC Car of the Year" titles. (This is the second successive year that Honda has won both titles - repeating the Civic's success the year before.)

In its home market, where it is sold as the Honda Fit, Honda Jazz quickly established itself as best selling small car. By November 2001 it had displaced the Toyota Corolla to take the Number One position for overall car sales, selling at the rate of 20,000 units per month.

And now it is set to shake up the European market. Two outstanding features separate it from the small car establishment, first its innovative packaging and then its new high efficiency petrol engine.

Despite Honda Jazz having an overall length of just 3830mm (placing it around the middle of the B-segment), interior accommodation is on a par with many vehicles in the next class up, the C-sector. A unique, centrally mounted fuel tank located beneath the front seats permits extremely efficient packaging - and allows two different rear seat folding modes to be used for unprecedented flexibility. The so called "Magic" seat can be used to create either a totally flat load floor or a novel second, independent load area in the middle of the car.

The spacious interior is complemented by the completely new 1.4 litre i-DSI (Dual and Sequential Ignition) petrol engine that uses twin spark plug technology and compact combustion chambers to achieve a blend of lively performance, exceptional frugality and compact dimensions. The new 1.4 litre SOHC engine conforms to the EU2005 emissions standard - and achieves 49.6mpg economy in the EU combined cycle test, with CO2 emissions of just 134 g/km, among the best in class.

Honda Jazz is expected to make a significant contribution to Honda's European sales... The model is built at Honda's Suzuka plant in Japan.



Attractive and contemporary design of Honda Jazz

Honda Jazz's innovative, monoform design shares styling cues with the larger Civic and Stream models and is characterised by the same 'short nose' theme. Flared, muscular wheel arches give Honda Jazz a broad, purposeful stance, while the rising lower edge of the side windows and the gradually falling roof line give more than a hint of coupe-like styling.

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