2005 Honda Jazz review from Portugal

Passenger side automatic window, promptly replaced under warranty by the dealer;

For some obscure reason, Honda dealers in Portugal drill extra holes in the Jazz body to install rear license plates instead of using factory mountings;

The carpet self destroys. The car is about 1 year old and there´s a hole on the carpet, on the passenger side...

The Jazz is a no thrills no frills car. Don´t excpect great performance. It was built for town driving altough it will cope with highway traffic.

It´s versatility is one of its major selling points. The Magic Seat system is very ingineous and it will transform the jazz into a samll truck on demand. I´ve beem able to fit a full size matress in it...

Rear seats are incredible spacious and confortable.

Percieved quality is very good, except for sorry excuse for a carpet. It´s the worst I´ve ever seen. It doesn't look and feel like a carpet. It´s not even glued to the floor of the car. It feels papery... I have no ideia what was on Honda´s mind to use this kind of material in a car...

Also, I wonder why didn't Honda added a engine temperature dial. You never know how hot is the engine running until the warning light comes on, wich might be too late.

Fuel economy is very good, altough Honda overstates it. I´ve managed 4.5 liters per 100 kms on open road and constant speed of 80 kph. Anything near 100/120 kph and it uses some 6.5 liter per 100 kms.

Honda quotes 6 liters per 100 kms on city driving. Expect something on the region of 7/8, wich, anyway, is good.

The sound system is fairly good, cd player reads cd-r and cd-rw with no problems. Another thing that baffles me is why on earth Honda doesn´t offer an Mp3 reading unit? Newer models have a mp3 jack though, but still, no standalone mp3 reading possibility.