2016 Honda Jazz petrol long term review, first report

Anyway, with the audio system streaming ’70s rock from my phone playlist, we started out from Mumbai. A late departure meant we got caught in the thick of morning traffic; conditions I foresee our Jazz spending a lot of time in, in the days to come. Good then that the main controls are light to use; the chunky steering is easy to twirl, the clutch is well weighted and gearshifts don’t need much effort. The Jazz doesn’t need much prodding to close gaps in slow-moving traffic either. But when traffic starts opening up, the Jazz doesn’t cope quite as well. The 1.2-litre VTEC engine has a mediocre mid-range so overtaking other vehicles isn’t just a prod of the throttle pedal away. I found myself downshifting to a lower gear on multiple occasions to get by aggressively driven state transport buses and the like.

Out on the highway too, the Jazz always felt like it could do with a few more horses under the hood. But the Honda felt relatively planted when out cruising and there was a good sense of connect between the steering and front wheels. Just as well, because you need all the confidence in your car when traversing the rain-soaked Mumbai-Pune Expressway that hides pools of standing water like landmines. Off the main highways, the roads progressively disintegrate. The potholes got larger with each passing kilometre, with some big enough to test the Jazz’s ground clearance. But the Honda took things in its stride and soon enough we were at the base of the climb up to verdant Matheran.

It might not be very high up as hill stations go, but the ascent is steep. And it is the climb that once again highlighted the engine’s lack of zing at middle revs. I was forced to choose between tortoise-slow progress in a high gear or driving in a lower gear with the revs soaring.