Bought a used Honda Jazz to replace my aged Tata Safari Dicor

Our 2016 Ford Endeavour handles the highway duties, with the Jazz taking care of the household work.

BHPian 123.rishabh recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello Everyone!

We bought our Safari Dicor LX 2.2 in the year 2008. The car was a great value for money purchase & was really close to my heart (like every hardcore safari fanboy). The car was a really durable, reliable & extremely comfortable companion be it city drives, highways or some dirt autocross events.

It was replaced by the Ford Endeavour 3.2 Titanium in the year 2016.

Post this the Safari was being used by me for going to college, doing household chores as an extra car in the house.

Fast forward to the year 2018, the car had covered 95K Kms (With All Original Paint), but thanks to NGT it was no longer fit to be driven in Delhi due to which I had to sell it with a heavy heart.

There was a need for a car to do basic household work and get around crowded places, so I thought of going in for a Used hatchback.

Wants:

• Reliability
• Good boot space
• Practicality
• Good ergonomics & comfort

Instantly the Old generation Honda Jazz (GE) & Ritz came to my mind & the search began.

Plenty of Ritz was available but didn't like the overall quality of the cars.

Then the search began for the Jazz GE.

I always liked this car due to the lovely Magic Seats, man maximum machine minimum design, the amazing reliability, efficiency of the L12B I Vtec powerplant & the quirky interior theme.
There were many cars available on Olx, but almost all of them were with the dealers and every car had done 60-65k on the ODO (All tampered).

After a search for a month, a known neighbourhood mechanic told me about a 2009 Jazz that had done 1,12,000 Kms but was a single owner car. Initially, I had apprehensions about the high mileage as none of my new cars had crossed the 1 lakh Km mark, still, I thought of having a look as this was the first example that was being sold directly by the owner.

I talked to the owner, fixed an appointment & saw the car. It belonged to a retired Major General & had all the service records from HONDA. The car looked in a much better condition than the ones which I saw at the dealers with fake 65k ODO. Requested the Owner to allow me to get an Inspection from Honda ASS. The ASS gave a go-ahead & I picked up the car.

What I like about the car

• Superb front seats & Ergonomics (Everything is just placed perfectly)
• Silent and refined 1.2L engine
• Slick gearbox with amazing drivability in the city
• Easy to use steering controls
• Magic seats are a boon (Can load almost anything)
• FE (Never drops below 12Kmpl, Have achieved a max of 17 Kmpl)
• Fit and finish of materials used is top-notch

What I don't like

• Steering size is a bit large
• Weak headlamps
• GC is on the lower side (I'm used to low cars, so does not bother me much)
• Misses on the relax mode which was available in the next-gen car
• Engine lacks punch (A 1.5 swap will make it perfect)

Safety & Built Quality

The car has decent safety equipment like ABS & Dual airbags as standard. It is much better built compared to the cars today and pretty decent for being used in the city. (Both the Airbags have been replaced under the Takata recall)

Usage Pattern

The car is driven in alternation with my A4 for a 65Km trip to the office & back. On weekends it's driven for 10 km for grocery shopping

Interior & Ergonomics

The interior fit & finish is great and good quality materials are used. All buttons and switches are decent. The headlamp controls are very premium but the audio switches are a shade lower. The front seats have great support & side bolstering. The only thing missing is a Dead pedal which is replaced by a rubber strip.

There are plenty of cup & bottle holders (ones on the dashboard act as bottle coolers as well). The dual glovebox is useful too.

Magic seats are a boon in both Tall & flat fold mode & create a huge room inside to carry anything.

Visibility

All-round visibility is excellent. The seat is non-height adjustable but for an average adult provides great visibility. The huge front windshield provides an airy feel, the Made in Japan Mitsuba flat blade wipers are amazing in combination with the mist type washer jets. The presence of a third sun visor in the centre is missed (Like the one in the MK1 Octavia). Both side mirrors are of a decent size with electric adjustment and have a convex set-up for providing a sufficient view of the cars behind. The IRVM is a manual dimming type.

Engine

The 1.2L I VTEC engine is super refined and bulletproof! Even with 1.34L km on the clock the starting sound and crank time are the same as a brand new one. Noticed a few changes in the old vs new Jazz engine bays like, The old one came with an aluminium intake manifold (Now Plastic) & 2 radiator fans (Now one). Drivability is good and can crawl in traffic with minimum gear changes.

Talking about performance, the low-end torque is a bit of a letdown hence needs to be floored hard and the engine happily reaches the powerband and works up nicely post 4500 rpm (VTEC Kicked in YO !!!!!!)

ICE

I'm no expert in this department & found the built-in 2 din audio decent and easy to use. As far as i know, this generation of honda cars came with Alpine speakers from the factory and 4 of the speakers do a good job.

The central volume control jog dial does malfunction sometimes and suddenly increases or decreases the volume, but i have a habit of adjusting it via the steering controls. USB is missing (was added later in the facelift model) so one has to manage with the AUX port.

Work Done after purchasing

Although the car needed no work post-purchase, as a part of preventive maintenance and being used to VAG group cars didn't want to take any chance.

Took the car to the Honda ASS and got the following work done

• All Fluids changed (Engine, Gearbox, Brake Oils, Coolant)
• Replaced the Iridium plugs
• Brake Pads were Replaced & calliper pins were greased
• Regular service
• Steering link rods (Rubber was worn out)
• Hand brake cable (Was a bit tight)
• Rear brake cylinders

Also ordered a Jazz SI Spoiler and got it fixed, the car is running a set of Yokohama Earth one Tires.

During my daily drives, I realised the great sense of balance this car gives, hence planning to take it to an FMSCI Dirt Autocross event in Manesar. The car performed really well and also got a podium finish in the below 1600cc Amateur Category.

The next pics are from an FMSCI Tarmac Autocross event held at BIC

It has been an exciting ownership experience with this car. I have driven 22,000 km in the past 1.5 years and the current ODO reading stands at 1.34 Lakh km.

Have sold the car now and replaced it with an E Verito, but I would highly recommend this car to anyone looking for a used hatchback - Nothing comes close.

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