Hi everyone, new member here.
I'm from the UK so the car I've just ordered is the Honda Jazz (Fit) 1.4 iVTEC ES (beware, longish post ahead ).

EDIT: Piccie moved to new thread (no longer a "soon to be" owner )

which is coming on 15yo now and starting to fall apart a bit. I recently serviced it last month with my bro (new sparks, air filter, battery, radiator bits, oil change and filter etc etc) but this week there are new strange noises coming from the drivers front wheel. It seems that it's getting to that age where it needs to be put out to pasture (worsened by all these bleedin' potholes that STILL haven't been filled in ages after it snowed here ).
Anyway, it's a 1.5 (1496cc) non-VTEC model that is quite peppy around town but is getting worse with recent mpg's being 27ish range despite doing basics like correct tire pressures/driving sensibly etc.
It had (when new) 89bhp? and about the same torque? (from memory), insurance group 12 or something ridiculous (here in the UK, IG's go up to 20, so if a Lambo is 20, the civic was something screwy like 12 because apparently they cost as much as Audi's to fix for the insurer).

So I had a few options up my sleeve that would be decent evolutions of my trusty (but rusty) Civic.
For background, I basically don't need anything like a Type R or something but just need a reliable runaround for when I can't drive my other car.

I had quite a few on my shortlist but all that went out the window when I decided on another Honda. First car? A Honda Civic. Second car? That Civic from above. So I KNOW they're built well and damn reliable. I've lost count how many times colleagues in their clio's/corsas/c5's etc would be late for work 'cos their car wouldn't start, whereas mine would start up first time every time even in the depths of winter. Sweet as a nut.
Saying that, I went to the Honda showroom expecting to find a deal on a used 1.6 Honda Civic.
Sat inside one of the newer ones instead.
Erm......
Where's the rear visibility? Not only is there a ruddy great (un-needed) spoiler halfway across the rear window , but the pillars obstruct most rear 3/4 vision so you have to rely on the wing mirrors pretty much solely. Looking in front is nice with a cool ubersleek dash and it's a nice place to be, certainly, but I like decent all round awareness when driving and that's mighty difficult with the very poor rear visibility on the Euro Civic (it's like sitting in a van as opposed to a car ).

So I then jumped into a Jazz sitting next to it. Niiiice . I could now get a great all round view including the rear and I swear it seems like there's MORE space in here than the bigger civic has .......it's like a tardis .
Even though the UK ones are called 1.2 and 1.4, the actual spec of the 1.4 is 1339cc so it's actually a 1.3 (which is what the rest of the world correctly call it) isn't it? Despite this, it has more torque (127) and more bhp (99) than my current civic.....so I'd be going down on engine size but hopefully keeping performance about the same (slightly heavier car I think c.f. mine).
Fuel consumption also almost doubles (60 mway, 52 combined).
Insurance group halves to 5E.
Also, it has come within the top 5 for something like 5yrs in a row? in the JD power survey and resale value is superb.

So I started looking quite hard at the ES model but with a couple of additions:

Jazz 1.4 iVtec ES + metallic paint + front spots + 5yr servicing - scrappage scheme = £12178, of which I pay 35% up front and the rest off interest free over two years.......brilliant deal imho for a brand new ('10' plate) car with honda reliability, cheap to run, cheap to insure and comparable performance (but double the fuel economy).

UK scrappage scheme = you get £2000 ($3050) for any roadworthy car over 10 years old which is deducted from any new car you buy. The scheme has been running for some time but it ends next month so I just got in there before it stopped.

I was tempted by the EX spec but it had many things I didn't want:
don't need moonroof, climate control not needed in such a small car imho - I'm fine with manual A/c, I have an iPod but don't care about adding USB to a factory unit (if I needed I'd go whole hog and replace the audio myself), I'm happy with 15" alloys - neither of my prior civics had alloys so going up to 16" wasn't going to be "missed" and i'd risk it worsening ride quality a tad too (less rubber), it's heavier than the ES? because performance and fuel consumption is worse than the ES), and on and on...

but 1 thing I did want:
Front spots

so I simply added them as options into the ES spec .


The only thing I found it difficult deciding on was the colour. They're all OK but I had a few reservations with black (marks show up easily and it wasn't pearlescent like Honda's old (great looking) Pirate's Black) and I like dark grey / slate grey, so I plumped for the Storm Grey. I would have liked a darker version but after having a look in the showroom I think I've made the right choice.

Need to pay the rest of my deposit this weekend and then should take delivery next week......can't wait....I'm hopping up and down like an excited school kid in a sweetshop .

BTW, in the UK we don't get certain things as standard like tweeters, tailspoiler, slightly different centre console etc etc (but you can spec these as options). However, the 1.5 engine is not even an option over here, 1.34 is the highest we get.


Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. Be prepared to answer some pretty dumb Q's from me over the coming months as I get to grips with it .


P.S. I know this is the photo thread (couldn't find an "introduce yourself...." thread anywhere - apologies if I missed it), but I haven't taken delivery of mine yet. Well, I say delivery, but I need to go collect it as I'm handing my civic in. That'll be on the 8th March so i'll post up piccies of it after that

 

Welcome to FF.net.
Good to have a another UK'er on the forum. Where abouts are you located?
Just so you know, most people already know about the UK cars or whatever, as they are essentially JDM models. And most of the guys on here love JDM goodies haha.
Post up pics when you collect your car, and again, Welcome to FitFreak!

 

Thanx Braziers .

Here are some pics:
EDIT: I have the car now (no longer "soon to be" owner) so have moved the piccies to the new thread

 

Call me Sam. That's my name.
Not far from me then. I'm Chelmsford based. Essex.
You gonna do anything to the car?
Looks nice from the pics.
Need to get front fogs installed on mine at some point. Been on the look out for ages.

 

Cheers Sam

I'm not planning on doing anything as of yet because it has 3 yr warranty and 5yr servicing to go.
However, I can see myself wanting to do something about the stereo (if anything) at some point.....maybe next year.
If I do, it'll be upgrading speakers first (either 4 coaxial's or coax's in the back and components up front with me mounting the tweeters on the dash)
and the HU second (to a double din) whenever anyone like Autoleads can be bothered to do a RHD fascia adapter.....(more on this later ).