Friday, May 22, 2009

Honda Jazz sneak peak

i was sitting at my desk on a mundane thrusday morning when i recieved a phone call on my phone. the voice on the other end was a sophisticated male voice with an average decent english. the person introduced himself to me and said that was calling from Honda. initially i thought this must be some cold sales call about a honda car so i paid little respect or attention to it. i must say i usually dont keep a presumptive approach during a conversation but this one seemed like a no brainer till a couple of words caught me off gaurd. as soon as i heard the following words i was all ears: Honda Jazz, sneak preview, invite etc. i appologized to the dude and requested him to repeat whatever he said more clearly.

he said that honda is launching their new premium hatchback called the Jazz on the 10th of june and was inviting me for a sneak peak at the car pre-launch. 

this was not just music to my ears, it was like great music to the ears of Mozart. at once i picked up the car keys, made a dash for the parking, and before u can say honda Jazz, i was on my way to the spot i had been guided to.  it was a 15 minute drive but one of the longest 15 minutes of my life. and have u noticed how our cars seem unusually low on performance when we have an urgency to get somewhere...? well my swift was practically feeling like a nano (no offence). 

reached the spot, nothing major, no signs, no boards, not even a kiosk, just 2 cars and a bunch of 10-15 people gathered around them.

now lets get down to business. 

Honda Jazz, the car that has been abuzz for a while now. many launch dates have been spread around mostly as a topping on freshly cooked hot rumors. but this time it was confirmed. it was heard straight from the horse's mouth, "we're launching on the 10th of June as per current plans".





Honda Jazz at 1st glance, looks like a typical product of the Honda stable, unusually looking car but not ugly, futuristic, rather a little too futuristic for a mass production vehicle but what the heck, r we complaining? smooth flowing lines, curves in the right places and some unusual places also. the quarter glass at the A-pillar is now become a more common feature as car makers r now realizing the practicality of it. however, this is tricky business as a badly shaped or placed front quarter glass window can do little to enhance visibility of prominent blind spots. this i can only judge after a test drive so more on this later on.




the front of the car looks like u can obviously say "yeah, u belong to the Honda family" but still this car looks different enough from its larger, or shud i say elder, siblings, to have a distinct identity of its own in the market. 

this is another interestingly car-respecting thing about honda. they dont go surgically attaching an obese, middle-aged, black-woman ass on to a teenager like hatchback to present the indian consumers with a 'sedan'. this is what Tata and Maruti Suzuki did with their indica and swift respectively to give the indigo and swift dzire respectively to the indian car market. sure, such products give larger profits and introduce further economies of scale and fewer teething problems at production level, but they do little to provide the buyers of these cars a sense of individuality in their cars.

honda on the other hand, makes every car with a sense of its own indiviuality that we give to our kids when they grow up with their brothers, sisters and friends. kinda like treating and nurturing a child like there was no one else like it. thats the kinda love, affection, and more importantly sense of individuality that a car should say that it got since the time of its conception.



total respect man!!

the best part about honda cars is they are like an arranged marriage. initially things seem strange a bit but eventually they turn out to be better than just fine. the Honda City ZX and its immediate previous twin, both attracted a lot of critisism for their looks but with time that look started appearing more and more georgeous to us and for the actual users, with time they understood that looks might attract you as a buyer to buy a car, but its the car's practicality that'll keep u satisfied with it on daily basis for as long as u keep the car. 



and after the City ZX, Honda eliminated even the slightest of doubt in each n every indian's mind about honda's designs by launching the sophisticated sexy civic and later the latest version of the city.

like all honda cars in india now, this one too has a futuristic interior, with interesting features like the cup holders on each extreme end of the dash, build into the dash itself! the dash looks a lot ahead of its time. the 'signature' steering wheel with steering mounted audio controls, the dials and needles, the curves, edges, nooks and crannies of this dash are all dripping with a sort of futuristic class. indeed this is one interior that you would seriously have to be chronically depressed to get bored of. one thing worth mentioning is that i have never seen an in-dash CD player that has the dash so well designed around it. usually most of such in-dash music systems are just modular with the front facia of the system matching the dash. but this one looks to me like it was decided even before they decided the shape of the dash!

although there is nothing fancy like beige and brown combinations to exude luxury, but black and steel/silver in a good finish quality spell more than just 'sophistication'. 

another interesting feature that they (honda) have added in this car is that the rear seat folds in many ways. conventionally there were back seats who's back used to fall down on to the seat to give more storage space. then came the split seatback and then came the rear seat that folds and the topples over to rest folded vertically against the back of the front seats (like in the wagon R and santro).

Now, the seats in the Jazz fold interestingly. the rear seat doesnt sit in a raised sheet metal floor like in conventional hatchbacks but sits on a pipe frame on a flat sheet metal body floor. this way, the rear seat can be folded up to stand vertically along with the rear seat backrest or if we dont wanna do that, we could simply fold the rear seat back like we usually do to get a complete flat-bed storage area. 



this car is BIG on space. with the back seat folded forward u can practically shove in as much stuff as u can in a stationwagon. but even with the back seat firmly in its open position, the boot space is astronomical. 



in the above pic u can get an idea of the boot floor space of the car with the backseat in its unfolded, upright position. 

as far as engine and performance is concerned, Honda is not a part of the competition, and when i say 'not a part of the competition' i mean they are so ahead of the rest of them that there is no comparison.

just for the sake of comparison and to give u an idea of the level of performance, the Suzuki Swift petrol comes with a 1.3 ltr engine that generates about 86 horses and returning a mileage of around 11-13 kmpl. the honda jazz is a 1.2 ltr engine which generates 89 BHP of power and still returns a mileage of 14-16 kmpl. honda engine's are now coming with E10 compatibility i.e. they are compatible to run on 10% ethanol mixed in petrol. however i would seriously advice not to do this yourself. Ethanol additive petrol is sold in many countries to cover the shortage in supply Vs the demand of petrol. Countries like Mexico run on E40 gasoline i.e. gasoline with 40% Ethanol mixed in it.

looking at the state of fossil fuels worldwide, it is only a matter of time before the Indian Govt would also be forced into producing and selling ethanol mixed petrol in india. Honda is already prepared for this so U can move to a greener fuel as soon as its available. 

the Jazz is already Euro IV emissions compliant, which is another point in their checklist of making cars more environment friendly. this shows how seriously they take their environmental responsibility. if only we all could do our bit that religiously, mother Earth could soon be cured of her asthma. 

apart from this, Honda along with other Japanese auto giants like Suzuki are working on a new concept called Micro-Hybrid technology that is based on the rush hour, stop n go traffic lifestyles of most of us now. this technology can further reduce fuel consumptions and thus emmissions by as much as 25%!! details on that later.

i could not manage a test drive so my appologies on that... wud be writting about that very soon. but as far as the car is concerned, its definitely worth every paisa invested in it. 

Honda is one car maker in india that we can trust with our eyes closed. atleast i know i can. whatever product they launch in india, its after an exhaustively extensive research and development, which transparently shows in their cars. 

I personally dont include Honda in the competition of the indian Automobile industry, i dont think it would be fare. 

well thats about is for this edition, will come back with the test drive very soon...


Over n Out Houston!!