Honda Jazz Chennai Review

Well I evaluated most of the cars in the mid segment. 5-8 Lakhs segment. My old car was a Santro and hence I had some conditions before I buy my next one.

I needed a kind of small car, I was not for the C Segment though, as its harder to drive in the city, tough to park and unnecessarily expensive! I wanted a car with a decent boot. My driving needs were below 25KM per day. Hence a Petrol car was good enough for me. Additionally I at the back of my mind, i prefer to go for a Honda or Toyota - bigger brands than Maruti.

I test drove the following :

• Fiat Punto 
• Swift
• Swift Dzire
• Hyundai i20
• Toyota Etios Liva
• Saw the Volswagon Polo
• Skoda Fabia
• Honda Brio

All these cars Swift, Hyudai i20, Honda Jazz, Punto, Ford FIgo have decent driving comfort. So I was not really worried too much about the basics of the cars too much. They are from popular car companies and each has its value. All cars compromise on something and are a value for money.  This is one thing I learned.

I really do not believe in buying an expensive car upfront and then crying about fuel efficiency. So my policy is buy a car that is easy for you to maintain too, enjoy its usage as much as possible to the max. BTW for me car is not a status symbol either. I know that itself could change the car you would like to buy.  Hence I decided on a Honda Jazz even thought maybe i could have stretched myself for a 10L car - Honda City.


I am not going in to the detailed comparison of the various cars. But I am going to say why i rejected some.

Skoda  Fabia- very poor service in Chennai. Spares takes weeks or months to get imported.
Swift - Too common. Surprisingly the sales representative at the Maruti showroom itself told me to go for another car like Wagon R instead as the swift is too common now. However that said, there is no car company that I feel understands Indian roads and car driving needs like Maruthi. I state this after driving the my Jazz for 4 months.

Ford Figo - If Figo had come out with its 2012 model, I may have bought a Figo 3 months back. However I am  happy i did not :-) The Figo is a bit dated in its looks. But that is ofcourse the best value for money.


Fiat Punto was a good close second for me because of its build. If you are looking for a car that looks majestic in its appearance, the Punto is a good one. Add its powerful Disel engine and leadership in the diesel engine market and you have an excellent car. Its actually like a Mark III Ambassador car in its build and studieness. Very strong body. Heavier too. Hence could be a safer car. But ofcourse you are not going to war though.  It has some sensible options like 60:40 rear seats too. There was also a very helpful pre sales person at the showroom too. However the stories of poor after sales on the web were lingering around. So was a worried person. The problem for Fiat is its selling along with the Tata show room. The concord show room could sell over 1000 cars in a month. I heard in March, it sold 10,000 Tata cars. That is quie a busy day for them. No wonder these showrooms give second rate sales and support for Fiat cars. Hope Fiat wakes up after 20 years in India that excellent support can be made only if done directly.

Honda Brio - Poor boot space. Almost nill. But it is a sporty car. This car will rock in the cities too. However the one bad thing about it is its boot. If they fix that, they could see more sales soon. The drive is excellent, interior space too good.

Toyota Etios Liva : Well I felt that the Toyota show room only sell Toyota Innova and have left the cars in the lurch with some poor overall design. The car is good, but can't match the Honda jazz for its ride and comfort.

Hyundai i20 : Excellent on board electronics. For the same price, you get a lot of toys on board your car. Engine was good, but felt it a bit slower than the others I evaluated. This could have been a good second or third option for me.

Now to why I finally chose the Honda Jazz even though I did not test drive it !

• Excellent boot for a mid size car. The rear seats fold beautifully and becomes almost flat. Those rear seats itself could raise the price of the car by 20K vs the others. I was willing to pay that for such a smart car. The car closest with that was the Punto, but that too was not as smart of Jazz.
• Excellent drive. I guess if you drive a Honda, you may hate to drive any other car. I test drove the Honda City of a friend of mine and likewise the Honda Brio. Both were excellent. Felt like we were floating and not driving.
• Spacious interiors. 
• Turning radius is small 4.8M. I could still ride this car like an autorickshaw in traffic :-) That is necessary in Chennai's roads. The small engine gives it this advantage and allows more room inside the car.
• Good overall design. This was not so important for meet. It should look average to above average and I would choose any car. Maybe except for the old Dzire, I am kind of ok with most cars on Indian roads.
• One negative that i saw was the low ground clearance. However I guess for city driving that is not too bad. Its only 160 MM. Compared to a punto that has 170 or 180 and that is clearly felt when you onboard the car.
• Fuel efficiency of 12-14KM / L - felt that it was good enough for me now. Else I need to spend extra 1.2 L on a Diesel car and feel like driving a tractor all along. I am ok with the noise if the power is equally good. For eg. if I were to buy a Diesel car, I would hope to buy one with atleast 1.6 to 1.8 engine. The extra power atleast makes up for the higher noise of the car, from a value perspective or a great feeling perspective.

I have drive the car for just two days. So I will keep this blog updated about my usage in future. Well that is it from me.