Used Honda Jazz (3rd-gen) review

Few nameplates embrace the cheap and cheerful mantra as wholeheartedly, and evenly, as the diminutive Honda Jazz. Cute, smartly packaged, thrifty, it taps the spirit of the groundbreaking City cult car and Honda’s early car-making ethos, servicing grocery getting needs in Australia most recently in its third-generation hatchback guise.

As a showroom prospect, Jazz is now done and dusted, Honda Australia unable to make a solid enough business case to reboot the all-new gen-four Jazz – or Fit as it’s offered in other markets – at the model’s traditional sub-$20k sweet spot as Aussie buyer preferences scale upmarket and expectations of pricey standard-fit tech bloom.

Making its global debut in 2013, the third generation didn’t supplant its forebear from showroom until mid 2014 wearing MY15 designation. In its cheapest form, the five-speed manual, hub-capped VTi version lobbed at just $14,990 list, though the five-door only range was offered in a variety of trim levels and the lion’s share of owners optioning for CVT transmission to back Jazz’s single engine offering, a naturally aspirated 1.5-litre four-cylinder plying 88kW and 145Nm.

Cheap to buy, cheap to run but the big drawcard is the smallest Honda’s packaging. Its still-fresh, angular styling carves out a remarkable amount of utilitarian space, both in terms of cabin roominess for occupants and bootspace which, at 354 litres expandable to a whopping 1314L with its clever, folding Magic Seat arrangement. Jazz makes for a very tidy surrogate minivan.

Available in three grades – VTi, mid-spec VTi-S and flagship VTi-L – plus various ‘special edition’ extrapolations, gen-three Jazz saw a global facelift in 2017 plus numerous periodic updates to areas such as infotainment, which integrated Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring quite late, in 2020. Steel wheels were also phased out midlife.

The Jazz was rated five stars ANCAP right around its 2014 debut, though its safety credentials don’t smell quite so rosy in 2021. The cheapy Jazz never benefited from active safety assistance such autonomous emergency braking, which does blackmark its ‘my first car’ potential for safety conscious shoppers.

Honda discontinued the manual option late in the lifecycle in 2020. The fittingly named Final Edition swan song, as part of the farewell MY21 range, bundled alloy wheels, a CVT auto, cruise control, a reversing camera, 7.0-inch infotainment and phone mirroring…for a tenner under $20k.

After three generations and an 18-year providence in Australia, it’s sad to see that Jazz has taken its final bow, where the handbrake on new sales slowed to almost half of that in gen-three’s first year of release.

Enticing, though, is the prospect of what will be a growing number of relatively fresh and contemporary options on the used market, light on size and lean on fiscal outlay.”

Honda discontinued the manual option late in the lifecycle in 2020. The fittingly named Final Edition swan song, as part of the farewell MY21 range, bundled alloy wheels, a CVT auto, cruise control, a reversing camera, 7.0-inch infotainment and phone mirroring…for a tenner under $20k.

After three generations and an 18-year providence in Australia, it’s sad to see that Jazz has taken its final bow, where the handbrake on new sales slowed to almost half of that in gen-three’s first year of release.

Enticing, though, is the prospect of what will be a growing number of relatively fresh and contemporary options on the used market, light on size and lean on fiscal outlay.