test drives

By Tim Saunders

It’s a busy week during the course of the test and while I thrive under pressure, I do get a bit hot under the collar especially in persistent heat waves. The Jazz copes with my varying driving styles with ease.

“It’s a granny car,” smirk the children. “It’s the Yazoo car,” chips in Harriett.

So they all expect this happy looking car to crawl about at a snail’s pace with no pizzazz whatsoever.

So imagine their surprise, and mine, when on the A32 – an excellent driver’s road, favoured by motorcyclists – I’m able to put it through its paces a little. So much so, I’m not convinced that the quoted nought to sixty time of just under 10 seconds is correct in anyway at all. It feels considerably faster perhaps because it’s accompanied by a fabulously eager roar, not dissimilar to a motorbike (which of course Honda also manufactures as well as powerboats). Very much a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Lots of fun. It’s a fairly light and tinny vehicle and all in all this is a winning package for me. At the start of the test I miss my beloved five-speed manual gearbox but surprisingly it doesn’t dampen my enjoyment of this car. Pulling away from roundabouts on the A3 is an absolute delight when the road ahead is clear at night. “Stop doing that,” my wife insists. “It’s not comfortable as a passenger.” She’s right of course but selfishly I need to see what it can do and that roar is ever so slightly addictive. It’s certainly a reliable overtaking machine, helped by that large panoramic windscreen which gives excellent vision.

This superb all-round family friendly package can cost less than £30,000 and it includes luxuries like all round electric windows, heated front seats and steering wheel, cruise control, speed limiter and sat nav. There are no sticky leather seats, instead there’s very pleasant cloth trim and the seats, oh the seats are so supportive. This is one of the areas some manufacturers can come unstuck on but Honda gets it right time and time again. There’s no glass sunroof. But there is an excellent driving position and that’s what matters.

A slight issue is when the sun is in a certain position the mottled finish of the dashboard reflects on the windscreen, which can be a bit off-putting for the driver but thankfully this only happens once during the test.

Honda’s hybrids really take some beating and I am even able to drive at 60mph in electric vehicle mode, which I didn’t think possible. How technology advances.

I can’t believe how tall our children are growing (but we’re still able to shoehorn them into our 24-year-old three-door Corsa) – anyway they sit in the rear of the Jazz in greater comfort; there’s a good amount of legroom, which Harriett at 5ft 7 and Heidi at 5ft 2 do appreciate. Henry’s still playing catch-up but it won’t be long.  

Usually rear seats can be a bit awkward to get down when a large amount of space is required. Not so in the Honda. Simply lift the lever at the top of the seat and it goes flat. I’ve got some old chipboard that’s 6ft long to dispose of and it fits in the Jazz.

Whatever the situation - be it the school run and pootling around between 30mph and 40mph or demanding motorway driving, the Honda has all the Jazz it needs to cope. This is a little car with a massive Japanese personality. It embraces hardwork, much like Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa who founded this conglomerate back in 1948.

So you won’t be surprised when I say this is an excellent family car. Reliable, robust and raucous when pushed hard. A sports car paired with a family car. For me this is the one to beat. Go and test drive one today.

Facts at a glance

VIDEO

By Tim Saunders

The Subaru Forester is a robust All Wheel Drive estate that tackles anything that is thrown at it, from taking the family on a day out through to being laden with items like a number of internal doors and hedge cuttings for a tip run.

One bank holiday weekend morning I'm driving at 60mph in the slow lane of the M27 when I'm suddenly confronted with a parked car in my lane. A parked car with its hazard lights on. The children are busy asking me to open the sunroof, then close it and to close the windows, too. Fortunately, we’re not travelling faster and even then I have to brake hard, forcing the car that’s tailgating me into the next lane, fortunately, otherwise they'd have gone into the back of me and there would have been an almighty pile up. Thankfully, the lane they pull into is free and I also have to veer into it. What a nightmare. Who’s stupid idea was it to remove the hard shoulder? I thank my lucky stars that I’m writing this now because my nine lives were already well and truly spent. Either the parked car had run out of fuel or had broken down, or perhaps the driver was ill but the problem here was not the parked car, it was the lack of a hard shoulder. My family and I were so very nearly another statistic – we could have all been wiped out just like that. So that really does shake us all up for the rest of our journey to New Milton where we’re going to the carnival.

It does take time to calm down but the Subaru’s comfortable leather seats - the driving position's pretty good - and decent stereo help to restore a less stressed mood.

Then my attention turns to the economy. It seems heavier on the juice than its rivals probably due to its all wheel drive system. Driving at a steady 50mph, as in any car, delivers the optimum economy and it's a pleasure to see it rise to 43mpg before falling below this as it gains speed. The cruise control is one of the easiest to operate that I have come across.

We all like the large electric sunroof which is lovely in a heatwave and the all round electric windows are very welcome. Power folding wing mirrors are useful when parking on the roadside. For a fairly large car it is easy to drive. If more engaging driving is preferred than relying on the automatic gearbox there are paddle shifts either side of the steering wheel.

It’s a good companion on journeys to Southampton, New Milton, Romsey and the New Forest.

Facts at a glance