Honda Motor Co., Ltd. held last week the world premiere of the all-new Jazz (“Fit” in its home market) at the 46thedition of the bi-annual Tokyo Motor Show at the Tokyo International Convention Center, more popularly known as Big Sight.
The Jazz has always been acclaimed for its cavernous space and ingenious passenger- and cargo-carrying functionality. The all-new 4th-generation model retains these attributes while becoming the globally-accepted standard for compact cars suited to this new era.
The development of the new Jazz was approached as a new concept in automobile development, with the development team pursuing an “emotional value” which cannot be expressed numerically and embodying four dimensions of comfort that enable the new car to be better able to support the daily lives of its owners. The new Jazz will come in five different types so that customers can select the model that is right for them, depending on their lifestyle and life stage.
The hybrid version of the all-new Jazz will be Honda’s first compact car equipped with its 2-motor hybrid system developed to realize both excellent environmental performance and a comfortable driving experience at the same time.
Expansive outward view, premium comfort, and exceptional functionality—improving on long-held Jazz traits
The new Jazz features a front pillar with a cross-sectional structure that’s different from previous generations of Jazz and yet creates a structure that lets impact energy to flow to the vehicle body in a collision. This protective new front pillar also enables best-ever frontal visibility.
Moreover, the instrument panel features a flat-top design which emphasizes horizontal and straight lines, and windshield wipers are positioned to be barely visible from inside the cabin for an even clearer view of the road.
The new Jazz is be the first Honda to feature a new-generation body-stabilizing seat that Honda developed while envisioning application for its high-end sedans. The soft yet supportive front seats stabilize the body, making long driving less tiring.
The rear seats continue to feature seating configurations as versatile as that of previous Jazz models and achieve seat comfort equivalent to luxury sedans by adopting a larger and thicker seat cushions.
Five types of Jazz
BASIC: The basic type of the all-new Fit offers both high-quality design and occupant comfort. This type will feature a simple and endearing design including a front face design with a gentle look and seamless and flowing exterior form.
HOME: This type strives to realize a relaxing and carefully-designed space with high visual and tactile quality by coordinating colors and materials, including natural-looking fabric seats made with high-quality materials, a genuine leather-wrapped steering wheel and Prime Smooth soft padding.
NESS: This type features exciting color coordination and adopts water-repellent materials for the seat surfaces and soft padding on the instrument panel. It is a sporty and fashionable type which will enable customers to enjoy driving just like they enjoy fitness and sports.
CROSSTAR: This type features a more crossover-inspired exterior design with roof rails and SUV-like black body cladding. Water-repellent materials are used for seat surfaces and soft padding on the instrument panel. This type projects an enhanced image of a compact yet tough vehicle.
LUXE: Striving to create a space where people can spend elegant and comfortable time, standard genuine leather seats were designed as an exclusive feature for this type while pursuing excellence in visual and tactile quality. For the exterior, platinum-style chrome plating and 16-inch aluminum wheels were adopted to increase the upscale feel.
Advanced safety and driver-assist technologies
A front wide view camera which covers a wide area in front of the vehicle will be newly added to the Honda SENSING advanced safety and driver-assistive system installed to the new Jazz. By combining the front wide view camera and eight sonar sensors mounted in the front and back of the vehicle, the Jazz features further enhanced existing Honda SENSING functions as well as the new short-distance collision mitigation braking system. The Honda SENSING is available as standard equipment on all Jazz models.
The new Jazz will be the first model equipped with the Honda CONNECT on-board communication module developed exclusively for Honda vehicles. Honda will begin evolving Honda Total Care Premium which consists of three services; 1) remote control of some vehicle functions via smartphone; 2) emergency support service which connects the vehicle directly to a support center in case of an emergency such as a traffic accident and enables prompt and proper responses; and 3) security “rush over” service which dispatches a security guard when an abnormal situation occurring to the vehicle is detected.
The new Jazz/Fit will roll of showrooms in Japan in February. No word yet on when it will make its way to the Philippines.
