15th Jul 2008, 16:02

I have an 05 Jazz sport. The warranty has just run out and the bearings in the gear box have just given way. According to my mechanic the gear box should last a long time. Certainly longer than the clutch which seems to be fine. Is there a fault that should be adhered to because Honda say that I have to pay for parts and labour regardless of the warranty just expiring. Can anyone help.

8th Oct 2008, 14:10

I have had my Jazz se sport new since 2006 it has only covered 18000 miles. on the motorway I easily get 52 mpg at 70 mph. However I also get the rattling at cold which disappears when warm. I've had this checked by my usual mechanics and they have confirmed that it is piston slap. Which they do not think will get any worse. It's due to the fact that the pistons do not have extended skirts and just consist of a piston head and enough skirt to house the small end gudgeon pin.

3rd Feb 2009, 03:38

I am aghast at all these people who park their cars on a hill and don't put the car in gear. Please don't park anywhere near me!! On any car, the handbrake depends on a bit of steel wire and, like any mechanical thing, it can break. You could go your whole driving career and get away with it, but on the day it does let go and roll into another car, it's your fault for not putting it gear - period!

20th Jan 2010, 17:04

Had my 2002 Jazz SE Sport for six years, so feel I should add my bit...

1. First problem was the SE Sport alloy wheels corroding and thus loosing pressure, bought a different set as out of warranty.

2. Juddering? This is the exhaust gas return valve, you can buy them for £100, don't go to Honda as it is triple the price.

3. Leaks badly on the tailgate and the car now smells of damp.

4. Engine noisy on starting, tappety... You can't adjust tappets on these cars, and if you could, you would be wasting your time; it's piston slap that affects the earlier models

5. Car is easily dented, my wife works in a hospital and the car is left in the car park, body work is now covered in dents.

Overall it's not been a bad car, BUT my Skoda Fabia has been far less trouble.

11th Feb 2010, 15:36

I have an 02 Jazz with gearbox bearings in need of replacing. This is a common fault with the Jazz.

Good news is that Honda have an extended warranty on these bearings. Bad news is it only covers cars build 2003 onwards.

I contacted Honda and was told the bearings used in manufacture before 03 were not faulty. I asked if that meant it was entirely co-incidental that my car has the same fault, and was assured that that was the case.

With a small amount of research on the Internet, I've found plenty of 2002 Jazz owners reporting this problem, so I am not willing to accept the fault was not there pre-2003.

If you have a 2002 Jazz that has worn out gearbox bearings, it would be worth posting your story. The more people who do, the harder it will be for Honda to claim the problem doesn't affect 2002 cars, and you might save yourself the £800 repair bill.

If you have a 2003 or later car, lucky you! (You may need to ask about this extended warranty as your local Honda garage might not know about it (I'm being charitable) ).

21st Jun 2010, 06:15

I have an 02 Jazz 1.3 manual (Austalian model)

I've crashed it, thrashed it, jumped it, off roaded it, blown up the gearbox spinning the wheels, pulled it apart, put it back together badly, ripped out the stereo, put in a bigger one, pulled it out, put back the standard stereo, carried massive things in the back (eg washing machines, try doing that with any other car in its class). It's sat in the weather for 8 years now, and still polishes up nice, in Australian heat, and its black.

It has stayed together amazingly.

I think the original poster here has not even owned a Jazz, or just is so damned disrespectful to it they they have destroyed it. If I can't kill mine, no one can.

150 thousand kms on it now, and it still returns 50+ mpg on the highway, and 40+ around town, with this rev head at the controls. I have managed to kick the asses of 1.5 Fiestas, 1.6 Nissan Pulsars (Cherry in the UK), and lots of cars with bigger engines (poor Jazz).

I cannot recommend any car more. If I were to buy something new, I would not even consider anything else!

4th Jul 2010, 10:46

I can't seem to make up my mind between the Jazz and Mazda 2. I think the 2 is the driver's car, and the Jazz the most practical and economical.

5th Aug 2010, 20:49

I have had my 2005 VTI Honda Jazz for over 3 years now, and my car was recalled last year in July for a check up on the hand brake, as there was a fault in some 2005 models. Lucky for me, my car was fine... although I did get them to check the shudder, they did a transmission flush and it was fine for like 6 months before it came back..

I left it for a while, and went back to Honda to see what they could do. They did another check and said it was my gear box that needed replacing, as that is what was causing it. They said to me that my warranty had expired, but still sent a request to their head office to see if they would approve it. At first they rejected the request, but my dealer insisted that mine really need to be changed. I received the good news that they were replacing a brand new gear box, and I didn't have to pay a cent. My warranty had expired in 2008. It doesn't hurt to try and get Honda to fix it; they even told me that they know about the fault in the Honda Jazz model, hence why they kept pushing head office. Now my car runs smoothly and sounds quieter after they fixed my car...

5th Aug 2015, 11:55

I do not believe this review to be a real review. Just someone slandering Hondas in general. Maybe to make people avoid buying Honda cars. I own a Fit i-dsi, and if you push down on the accelerator, believe me, you can accelerate past bigger engines easily, even with 4 passengers.

In my city (Tbilisi), the Honda Fit is extremely popular due to its reliability and good performance. Mine has done 41000km and doesn't have any chips or dents. But the red color does have a tendency to fade off in sunlight.

The AA comment about 'Hondas is his bread and butter' is obviously a wrong with Honda's well known reliability. Why does Fiat struggle to sell their cars and why do people line up to buy Hondas??? My Honda Fit doesn't have any rattles. The air conditioning is very powerful and cools down the interior within 5 minutes. I cannot imagine how his car's magic seats have collapsed.

19th Mar 2016, 10:43

I own this same car (2005 model) with the 1.4 idsi and CVT, and I disagree that the Jazz/Fit is underpowered. With full load and the A/C on, I can easily push up to 120 km/h and have my wife constantly nagging me to slow down. And at 120 km/h the engine doesn't make a big sound, unlike my earlier car, the 1998 Corolla with the 1.8 litre 1zz-fe.