The new Honda Jazz, which will make its comeback to India sometime in mid-2014.
The Jazz was always a great hatchback; in fact, the officials rated it as the best in its class. But it was let down by its price tag, and even a steep price cut didn’t help boost up its sales, forcing Honda to discontinue the particular model. However, with this new Jazz, Honda is looking to correct that now. The new Jazz will be powered by the 1.5-litre i-DTEC ‘Earth Dreams’ diesel engine as well as a 1.2-litre petrol engine. This maintains the basic quasi-MPV-hatch proportions of the earlier car. The car’s grille now sports more aggressive, almost Civic-like, headlamps and a sleeker grille as well. Its new bumper is dominated by large air-vents which add to the sporty appearance of the front, and on the side, there’s a prominent rising beltline, not on the previous car, which flows neatly into the new tail-lamps. The headlamps come with metallic inserts, those could possibly come with LEDs as well. And there are turn indicators on the wing mirrors also. The Jazz’s has always come with a spacious and extremely practical cabin, and this is a trait that will definitely be maintained.
The Company will produce the car at its Tapukara plant, using a large amount of content locally to keep costs down. And since the Jazz shares its platform with the new City (due here in early 2014), it will definitely be more affordable than the earlier car. Honda doesn’t want to go and make that mistake again and again in fact.
