Honda Jazz makes Mid-East debut

A top Honda official explained that with the small-sized Jazz 2004 joining Honda's formidable automobile heritage, the company is now in a position to offer something for all tastes and budgets.

"With the launch of the Jazz, Honda offers the most versatile supermini that is incredibly practical, economical and reliable," explained Yukio Honda, General Manager of Honda Motor Co. Ltd, Middle East Office. "Capturing the essence of a small-sized car, the Jazz is truly a novel and engineering masterpiece with clever design and innovative features designed to provide the ultimate driving experience!"

To further underline its refined credentials, the Honda Jazz 2004 made a grand entry to the accompaniment of jazz music, in the well-defined surroundings of the Madinat Jumeirah's Mina Al Salam hotel. As the musicians played, senior officials of Honda and Trading Enterprises, the official distributor of Honda products in the UAE, along with top regional journalists, welcomed the new car to the Middle East market.

Honda Jazz joins a highly contested but important small car market with a fresh new design that is spunky and youthful. When driven, the Jazz is sheer poetry in motion. The new car is also a full-blooded city car with compact dimensions, light steering and an ability to fit into small spaces are characteristics ideal for driving in town. Furthermore, it flows easily through the traffic and turns neatly through corners.

Defying the small-size convention by offering imaginative ideas to make driving fun and reliable in a more stylish environment, the Jazz continues to impress the international motoring fraternity. With the look and feel of more extravagant cars, Honda Jazz offers comfortable cabin space and flexible interiors in its four-metre length frame than any other car in its category.

From the perfectly weighted controls to the roomy interior space, driving the Honda Jazz is about as stress-free as you can get. The Jazz's i-DSI engine burns petrol more efficiently, which not only means that it produces more power and torque, but that its full tank (42 litres) is enough for 857-odd kms (based on the extra urban method of Euro Standard 1999/100/EC with manual transmission).

"The Jazz is a brilliant piece of engineering - big in the inside and small on the outside," stated Yukio Honda. "The funky design and beautiful reconstruction perfectly embody Honda's 'Originate, don't imitate' philosophy. Like in the rest of the world, we have no doubt that our latest offering will set the benchmark in supermini styling in this region."

The Jazz honours Honda's high-tech heritage with a 1.3 litre twin-spark plug variable valve timing engine. Utilising Honda's Intelligent Dual spark plug Sequential Ignition (i-DSI) technology, the engine provides an impressive fuel consumption of 6.9 litres for every 100 km on city roads and 4.9 liters per 100 km on the highways (based on the extra urban method of Euro Standard 1999/100/EC with manual transmission). Besides, the Jazz is equipped with a fuel mileage gauge that helps the driver monitor the average fuel consumption.

Available in two models - 1.3LS and 1.3ES - the Honda Jazz highlights the company's CVT (Continuously Variable power Transmission) supremacy that extracts the best performance and economy from the engine, whether it be heavy urban conditions or long highway driving. Its huge windscreen is steeply raked, bringing with it aerodynamic benefits and high visibility.

The Jazz's interior majors on functionality but not at the expense of style and space. Roomy interior has been achieved in the Honda Jazz 2004 by raising the floor under the front seats to provide space for the petrol tank and freeing up vertical space at the rear of the car. The result is cutting-edge rear passenger room and 323 liters of luggage space, which can be increased to 1,323 liters when the rear seats are folded down. Even with four people on board, four large, hard suitcases can be stowed easily in the boot, without affecting rear-mirror visibility.

The Jazz's dashboard offers generous storage with a two-level glove box and plenty of trays under the dash for personal items such as water bottles and folding umbrellas. The audio system is built right into the dashboard with a large, central LCD display to make the different functions easy to operate.

Besides, a front-end that has been specially engineered to absorb energy means that the Jazz offers excellent crash safety despite its short-nose design. This minimises cabin intrusion in the event of an accident by channelling the crash energy underneath the cabin.

"The Honda Jazz is a fresh alternative in city driving, with an appealing design and compactness that is rare in the small car category," commented Guy Edmunds, Sales & Marketing Manager of Trading Enterprises. "In Japan and in many other countries, this car is the fastest selling Honda automobile in history and we expect to emulate its successful performance in the Middle East."