2009 Honda Jazz in New York
March 20, 2008 by George Skentzos
Honda has debuted the all-new Fit at the New York Auto Show, more commonly known here in Australia as the Jazz.
Small on the outside and big on the inside, the new Honda Jazz offers class-leading cargo space thanks to its improved rear seat functionality.
Available exclusively with Honda’s new 1.5-litre VTEC 4-cylinder engine mated to either a 5-speed manual transmission or 5-speed automatic transmission which surprisingly features steering wheel mounted paddle shifts on the Fit (Jazz) Sport.
Standard active safety equipment includes an anti-lock braking system (ABS), with ventilated discs in the front and drums in the back, electronic brake distribution (EBD) and Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA).
Dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags, dual front-side airbags with passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS) and side-curtain airbags are standard equipment on all Fit models.
Australian specifications and pricing are yet to be released.
Print it: 
Looks like the Honda Jazz had a pretty reasonable update.
hmm i quite like its sharper and more dynamic
The Jazz looks awkward and boxy, I hate it.. :-(
I really don’t like the windows in front of the mirrors. Are they really necessary?
I don’t get these autos u change yourself especially via paddles.
Exterior looks awkward from the back, and the headlights look ‘pasted on’ in my opinion.
The interior is also very wacky.
Not my cup of tea.
Ho hum ……………. yawn.
i’ve never really been a fan of the jazz.this new jazz looks very disproportional. the mazda 2 looks so much better.
Honda have totally lost the plot with their interiors of late. Looks bad in the photos above but even worse in the flesh. Whose sat in a civic lately? Its like being in a cheap arcade game of the 90’s with all that gaudy plastic. Accords not much better.
U…G…L…Y…Give me a Colt or a Swift anyday!!!
Naaah looks quite sporty for a blue rinse brigade wagon. But i’d never buy one myself. Its been round in the UK a little while now.
You Jazz-haters need to look at the worldwide sales figures. There are clearly huge numbers of people who love them. You can’t introduce things like Mazda2 and Swift into the comparison – whilst there’s no argument that these two are sportier to drive, compared to a Jazz they’re as useless as a chocolate teapot when it comes to stowing things and people inside. Yes, the old Jazz was a bit odd looking, but the new one is a huge improvement. They will keep selling millions.
It looks like the previous generation Jazz became pregnant and bloated
5 speed auto and VSC on a base line vehicle
Whats the f’n hold up COROLLA?
Cheers
F-0
Apparently Toyota are having trouble calabrating the Corolla for Australia, because it requires a different set up to other countries. Sounds like fluff to me, better having an avg stability control taht say doesnt work well at 100km/h on a gravel bend (ie who cares), then none!
The Jazz is a masterpeiece of design in terms of efficient use of space. The thing is like a Tardis, it can easily consume four 6′+ adults and their luggage, and transport them around town using around 6L/100km. Try doing that in any “mid-size” car.
The 9.4m turning circle and uber-flexible seating are just icing on a pretty sweet cake when it comes to practicality. IMNSHO, the Jazz is far and away the best “city” car going around.
It’s interesting that they’ve dropped the CVT transmission from the previous model though.
It looks quite busy and bitsy. I feel like quoting Tubbs from the League of Gentlemen here; “Lines, Lines, Lines!”
But it’s sure to be a good thing. Why wait for Toyota to fit ESC to the Crawler, Frugal? If it’s as expertly calibrated as the system fitted to the Klugger, you’d go one of these Fit Jazzy things or just chance it without.
I read somewhere very recently that our Crawler spec is shared by one other country in the world – Solomon Islands, or Tahiti or some place, which will explain Toyota’s bout of Can’tbebothereditis.
Yes Golf the Kluger referenece again, this annoys me to a great extent because 100km/h around a gravel bend isnt a very useful test. Attack the Corolla for not having ESP by all means, but that Kluger BS is just that….BS
Klugger didn’t roll over in COTY testing. It’s OFFICIAL!
I’ve driven a car around a gravel bend at 100km/h. Several times a week for 4 years, during my country rep days 20 years ago. If I caught sight of a roo in my peripheral vision or hit a series of corrugations mid-bend, I’d have been finished…KAPUT!
FOGGY
4 x 6 foot adults, and 6L/100km =$9
How about 5 x 6 foot adults, 13.4L/100km =$8, yet the driver seat goes far back enough so i cannot touch the firewall AND TOWING 1600kg at the same time [A broken jazz on a trailer? :-)]
Stand up and be counted the “green” LPG FULL-SIZE Falcon on LPG
Did i mention 157kW/357nM, DON’T try that with your buzz-box!
Cheers
F-0
Foggy, the review is about the US market Fit, which has always had a conventional auto instead of the CVT. I’d be very surprised if the CVT doesn’t continue for our part of the world.
And you are right about the miraculous interior space.
I own a current jazz, and can say by far, its is a better car than a Colt with its fisher price interior and backed into a brick wall ass end. I cant understand how someone could say a colt looks better than a jazz?? its copied off the jazz!! lol
as for the swift…. everytime i went to shut the door, it felt like i was going to pull the door panel off… its bigger engine was thirstier and it performed no better. At the time, the way the back seat folded was a joke ( though suzuki have now fixed this by copying jazz )
mazda 2 is a yaris with a mazda front ( but i havent driven one, so i wont comment any more )
I can say that i DONT like this new jazz at all, boxy ugly, and not up to scratch with what else is available. i reckon if i upgrade the new FIESTA will be the way to go ( if its not like the current one with its afterthought back seat, and no tissue carpet in the back)
tissue like carpet i meant :)
T, its the same shape as the last gen Jazz, but just with different styling at the front and rear.
Totally different car.
this new one has a chunky ugly front on it. looks ok from the front but look at the side on profile, from the base of the windscreen forward…
The Honda Jazz design has remain largely the same since its inception, with modifications here and there but you can tell easily that it is a Jazz without looking at the badge. The interior is a mix bag, I like the meters but the center console and the side doesn’t tickle my fancy.
Personally I prefer the Mazda 2 which in my opinion is the best looking small car out there. It has also won a design award in France and recently named World car of the year.
Mmm, i agree with T, you’ll notice how ill-proportioned the car is from side on. I’m assuming it’ll crash well though.
Can’t say i’m a fan of the interior, the controls for everything seem a bit spontaneously placed.
But hey, it’s fuel efficient and has magical, magical seats remember? :S
Storage space is king. Any sedan is a waste of space on the road. I could not fit a 51cm TV (boxed)in my Commodore sedan-never again! My mums Toyota Starlet could take a boxed 68cm TV easily(with seats folded of course).The Jazz II will be my next car.
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
This is way out of proportion. what have they done to the jazz???? This looks terrible. I have no doubt it is a great car but the look is backward and cannot compete with the mazda 2 for style.
Very dissapointing. Hondas just seem to be lacking something at the moment.
As an owner of a current Jazz, I can say that people who knock it clearly don’t understand it. It is by far the best of the “supermini’s” and even Jeremy Clarkson’s mum has one! The typical Honda attention to detail and the great build quality makes it easily better than a Swift or Mazda 2. With this amount of space, we call the Jazz, the “ute with a roof!
Looks sharper, interior is still organic and odd, but the fundamental design and execution is so befitting the times, who’d buy a Prius at twice the price. I owned a first generation Jazz. Nothing ever went wrong with it. It ranged 5~6.5 l/100km. It was never short of space or comfort. I’m waiting for this new model to be my second.
Great new car with one MAJOR drawback, a space saver tyre. One of the reasons I bought the current JAZZ was the full size spare type. It’s been a fantastic car and was looking to upgrade when the next model came out, but if it can’t fit a full size spare in the spare tyre well I will be passing.
Can anyone tell me how the car buyer benefits from a space saver tyre?
“Frugal One” is right about an lpg falcon, if you need the grunt it’s the way to go, but you’d be owning the car a very long time to pay back double the purchase price of the jazz, and by then the car would be stuffed – false economy. This is my same argument for the prius, as it’s twice the price,and oh how much the high tech hybrid bits and batteries will cost when they stop working!
The problem with the Mazda 2 is if you have young kids they cannot see out the back windows because of the high window line. We are currently liking at purchasing the current Jazz anyone know when this one is being release?
I bought a new Jazz VTI CVT auto earlier in the year I just love it, my tallhusband who is a claustrophobic in a small cars tried all the popular small cars before we bought this and declared he didn’t feel hemmed in in the Jazz. We have travelled from Victoria to Qld recently and the seats are perfection no back ache, great support. All on 5.9L/100 km is my idea of economy.The fold down flat back is superior with no lumps just flat.
OK so my second car will be the Jazz II. Don’t care if its ugly to some people, its a swan to me.
I bought a JAZZ (automatic) when it was first released in 2002. I have done nearly 100,000 km. The car is great as far as the interior space is concerned. I still get about 7lt/100km in city (Sydney) drive. The most remarkable thing is that the car has not developed any fault at all. It is still going like a new car. The servicing costs have been very reasonable except at 40,000km and 80,000km. What more do you want? My next cat will definitely be a JAZZ II.
I\’ve been searching for a small car for a while now. Through out the years I have owned many types of car and I think the most important factors when choosing a car comes down to price, economy, safety and reliability and I believe honda is by far the leader in all categories. I will never again buy a ford or Holden as they are the most unreliable cars.With ford and Holden manufacturers the cutomer is often the quality control!!!
Our first Jazz was a 1.3 CVT, brilliant on fuel 5.2 l/100 km, but asthmetic with a few people on board. Our second Jazz is a 1.5 CVT, averages 5.8 l/100 km. Very happy. In Australia Honda does not supply the CVT on the 2009 model, BIG MISTAKE. Reason was expensive repairs according to the salesman, which is bullshit because the CVT is cheaper to replace than other ‘normal’ automatics. A different reason given by Honda was the fact that the Oz Jazz are made in Thailand and they cannot supply the CVT…. ??? Fuel consumption is now much higher at 6.6 l/100 km due to more weight, bigger size and no CVT. I was considering buying the new car but lost interest when I was told that the CVT is not available in Australia, while you can still get it in Europe.
The steering wheel paddles are a useless gimmick and I don’t understand why Honda waste money on it. You want a manual or you want an automatic, that’s my view.
I took a Jazz(Fit) for a drive today and fell in love. I test drove a Vibe but the Jazz does circles around it in performance, quality and comfort. Check out consumer reports on it. The Jazz is out selling the toyota Yaris with hands down. This is a hot little car with lots of sparkle. I sign on the dotted line tomorrow!! I’m not letting this one get away!
I am living in Bali and while the roads here are small and have loads of traffic, most people here buy big people movers. I am 188cm and my wife talked me into buying a jazz, well I had heaps of head room and with the seats lying flat I can fit my surfboard in the car(cannot in a swift). The jazz is great to drive and I have just ordered the new model and will pick it up in a week…can’t wait. By the way my friend came over here and thought the jazz was a granny car.. not anymore
Hi there,
Anyone know if this new Jazz model will be available in New Zealand?
just remember the jazz vtis is the top of the range and sells for 25, for that price you really cant complain the jazz has so much better features then its competitiors such as the yaris, the swift, the colt, the mazda 2 as well, i will say this the interior could look better, but unlike the other cars the jazz is very quick, very spacy, and sits on a sport chasis.
now i will even go on a mend and say the jazz is better value then the corrolla, ive had a jazz for 5 weeks now its awsome the VTIS
and for those who say honda has lost the plot i beg to differ, the civic type r is a car that is better value then a wolkswagen and keeps up with an sti and the interior is stunning the only problem with it, is that it is a bit overpriced by 5 thousand for its class, the accord and accord euro are brilliant the civic is divine as is the crv, so all you honda haters out there, i would suggest you actually test drive a honda, and test drive the other cars because hondas are just as good as any other european car on the road today!
W
Oops my bad!
Anyway back on topic, wife an i bought one of these a few months back and are very pleased with it, we bought the mid range model as bang for buck it seemed the better deal.
The wife absolutly loves it as she drives the kids around during the week and i get to drive it on the weekend, only major problem i have being 6′3 is the complete lack of front legroom, waaaaay to much plastic underside dash going on, it resonable for very short trips but anything over half an hour and my knees ach. Drivers side is ok, not fantastic but bearable.
Bit cheap of Honda not to include a outside temp guage either, other than that its a very well built car that has lots of power and drives very well.
Just dont buy it if you or your partner is over 6 foot.
I just acquired recently one of the Honda jazz 2009 model. I guess it’s a great choice for me buying the Jazz. It’s light yet the stability is pretty much reliable. I love this car.