All-New Honda Jazz To be Launched in July 2014
Honda Malaysia will be launching the all-new Honda Jazz within the next two weeks, and if what the government is saying about car prices coming down by about 5 percent, we can expect that the Jazz will see some adjustment correspondingly downwards.
The all-new Honda Jazz , just like the previous two generations of Jazz, is known as the Honda Fit in Japan, is based on the same platform as the Honda City, and will share the same basic drive train, i.e. front wheel drive, and CVT that is found in the current Honda City. Likewise, suspension will be made up of Macpherson struts in the front and a torsion beam at the rear. Similarly, the brake system will be identical, with ventilated discs in front backed by drums at the rear. However, the suspension settings may differ slightly to take into consideration the different weight distribution due to the rear hatch.
The 1.5 litre i-VTEC SOHC producing 125PS of power from the Honda City will be carried over into the Jazz, and so performance will be very similar.
A select group of journalists went as guests of Honda Malaysia to the royal town of Hua Hin in Thailand last week for a quick preview and a short test drive in the new Honda Jazz, yours truly included. The drive route stretched over 180 kilometres or so, and we managed to get a sampling of what the new Jazz was all about. Unfortunately, the drive was mainly on the North-south Highway that links Bangkok to Southern Thailand, and the nearest thing we got to experiencing a corner were a couple of U-turns, the rest of the road being long stretches of straights.
My driving stint covered approximately 80 kilometres over the two days that we were there, and my first driving impressions were good. The road we went on did not have the smoothest surfaces despite it being part of a major highway – I think the heavy traffic going over it may have caused some degree of settlement of the road surface, but the Jazz handled the undulations with relative smoothness. In a nutshell, it drives very much like a Honda City, and I expect that when we get to test drive the new car here, it will handle just as well, if not better. Mechanically it is similar to the City, so whether you select a Jazz or a City will very much depend on whether you want a sedan or the versatility of a hatchback.
We expect that there will be three to four variants, starting with a base model that will be priced very competitively, and two or three variants with higher specifications, plus perhaps a Modulo variant, very similar to the Honda City.
Honda Malaysia has not released any specifications, obviously saving all the announcements for the launch, which will be around the second week July 2014. The good news is that the sales branches are open for bookings now, and early birds will get their new vehicles first.
