Honda South Africa this week added a new model, a 1,4i-DSI with CVT transmission, to its popular compact Jazz range.
Honda South Africa this week added a new model, Jazz 1,4i-DSI with CVT transmission to its popular compact Jazz range.
The Jazz is powered by a 1,4-litre four-cylinder engine with Intelligent Dual Spark Plug Sequential Ignition (i-DSi) technology originally developed for the Insight hybrid car.
The Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) feature of the gearbox ensures movement through the gear sequence in one stepless motion as the car’s speed increases or decreases.
Also, depending on your mood, you are able to choose between “D” (Drive) and “S” (Sporty) modes. “D” is generally for zipping around town whereas the “S” mode allows for rapid acceleration when required. And if you need even more control while driving, the “7-Speed mode” switch on the steering wheel will activate the manual mode.
In the “7-Speed mode”, changing up and down is effortless as the “+” button on the steering wheel shifts up through the ratios and the “-” button brings it back down again. Pressing the “7-speed mode” switch again will restore the regular CVT capabilities.
This Jazz, too, has figures of 61 kW and 119 N.m and Honda claims an overall fuel consumption of 5,7 litres per 100 kilometres on an urban cycle. Top speed is a claimed 170 km/h and 0-100 km/h is reached in 12 seconds.
Technical highlights include anti-lock brakes with emergency brake assist (EBA) and stability under hard braking is further improved by electronic brake force distribution (EBD).
The suspension up front follows the conventional McPherson model, while considering the space, the rear axle is a torsion beam axle using short springs and widely spaced dampers to limit spill into the luggage area. The Jazz 1,4i-DSI retails at R136 000.