Honda Jazz Review 2026: Prices, specs and verdict

What is the Honda Jazz?

The Honda Jazz is a small car with a big following. Also known as the Honda Fit in some global markets, the Jazz has been around since the early 2000s and has become the defining car for rational, common-sense motorists.

While there might be more stylish small cars to look at (the Peugeot 208, for example) or more entertaining small cars to drive (like the Ford Fiesta) few are able to match the Tardis-like interior, flexible seating, easy driving experience and low running costs the humble Jazz offers.

The latest, fourth-generation Honda Jazz has been on sale since 2020, and was updated in 2023 with a sharper look, more performance and more standard kit. It’s been hybrid-only since launch, thrusting it right into battle with a small hybrid favourite: the equally sensible Toyota Yaris.

So, is the Jazz still king of the hill for those who care more about cupholders than corner carving? Or is it falling behind newer rivals? We find out in our in-depth, expert review.

Verdict: is the Honda Jazz a good car?

We reckon the Honda Jazz is more appealing than ever if you’re the type of motorist that prioritises a quality feel, an easy driving experience and top-notch practicality over gizmos and head-turning looks.

It has a feeling of solidity that’s reassuring, while great visibility, plenty of standard equipment and impressive seating flexibility makes it a do-all small car. Granted, it is pricey to buy outright, and not particularly entertaining to drive, so you’ll have to want what the Jazz excels at.

Pricing, specs & rivals

Prices for the Honda Jazz range start at £28,060 at the time of writing. That’s £4,200 more than the cheapest Toyota Yaris, and a chunky £6,270 more than a Renault Clio E-Tech.

That’s before we get onto the MG3 Hybrid+, which at well under £20k is a third cheaper than the Honda. Leasing deals are more competitive, but you'll still pay more for a Jazz than most rivals.

At least the Jazz comes with an impressive kit tally for a small car. Entry-level Elegance models have modest 15in wheels but also feature climate control, adaptive cruise control, LED lights, front and rear parking sensors, a rear-view camera and sat-nav.

Upgrading to Advance trim (from £29,280) upgrades the wheel size to 16in while also adding keyless entry and start, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel and part leather trim.

Advance Sport, meanwhile, adds a rear spoiler, suede upholstery inserts, sports pedals, a Sport drive mode and paddles to control the regenerative braking. It’s over £30,000, however, which is a lot for a car such as this.

Rivals

The Honda Jazz’s closest rival is the Toyota Yaris, as has been the case for years. Both latest models are hybrids, with a reputation for quality and longevity – although the Honda is noticeably more practical. We’d also consider the roomier Toyota Yaris Cross, and posher Lexus LBX.

The Renault Clio E-Tech and MG 3 Hybrid+ are petrol-electric models that are also well worth considering, while the Skoda Fabia, Volkswagen Polo and Peugeot 208 are good small cars if hybrid power isn’t a priority.

Interior comfort, quality & technology

With a lot of people choosing SUVs over hatchbacks now, the Jazz counters that with a high seating position giving you a great view out the car all-round. There’s plenty of adjustment in the seats and steering wheel to get comfortable, too.

The overall design of the Jazz’s interior isn’t exciting or flashy, and the dated look compared to newer rivals might put some off. But the more time you spend inside, the more your realise how simple and easy to get on with the layout is, with chunky buttons and physical climate control knobs.

Quality is very strong, too. There’s plenty of soft-touch materials that make the Jazz feel a step above the Skoda Fabia or Toyota Yaris inside, but beyond that everything feels thoroughly engineered – even the switchgear clicks and scrolls in well-finished way some premium cars can’t quite match.

Infotainment, sat-nav, stereo and connectivity

Every version of the Jazz features a 9in touchscreen infotainment system mounted centrally on the dash. It’s far from the best system out there, but it does the job.

The graphics are dated and the response to your touch is far from the quickest. But at least there’s big icons to jab at easily on the move, while the menu layout is mostly intuitive enough. You also get some handy physical Home and Back shortcut buttons, and a proper volume knob.

Wireless Apple CarPlay is standard, but it’s disappointing that Android Auto requires your phone to be connected via a cable. Overall, if you’re looking for the latest in in-car tech, you can do a lot better than the Jazz.

The digital driver’s display is similarly old-school in its look, with analogue fuel and battery charge gauges flanking it on either side. Again, it does the job without being very flashy or clever.

There’s no wireless phone charging pad even as an option in the Jazz, which is a shame. But there is two USB-A connectors and a 12-volt socket under the dash. Oddly, the two ports for the rear are of the newer USB-C connection. Every Jazz gets the same four-speaker audio system delivering reasonable sound quality.

How practical is the Honda Jazz?

Probably the best thing about the Honda Jazz is how it makes use of what little space it has.

It’s only 4,089mm in length, 1,694mm in width and 1,526mm in height, making it a touch longer but noticeably narrower and taller than the VW Polo. But it’s more spacious than pretty much any small hatchback rival.

Up front, a pair of tall adults will have no issue getting comfortable, with particularly generous headroom and shoulder space. Rear seat space is class-leading, too; a pair of six-plus footers can sit with headroom to spare and enough leg space to sprawl out in relative comfort.

There’s a completely flat floor, too, meaning a fifth adult could squeeze in the middle seat for short journeys without too much complaint. Compared to a Vauxhall Corsa or Toyota Yaris, the Jazz is in a different league when it comes to outright space.

Storage and boot space

There’s an impressive amount of in-car storage up front in the Jazz, including not one but two gloveboxes, a useful under-armrest storage area, a couple of centre console cupholders, a phone storage area, decent-sized door bins and two more cupholder at the end of each dash side.

In the rear you’ll find two pockets on each seatback (a large one for bigger items and a small one to hold your phone) and a pair of okay door bins. Our only complaint is there’s no centre armrest or cupholders in the rear, but at least it’s easy to load a child seat into the back thanks to large door openings and easy to access ISOFIX points.

The Jazz’s boot isn’t quite as big as you’d expect in terms of outright capacity, at 304 litres under the parcel shelf. However, that figure doesn’t tell the full story, because in practice it’s a very useful space.

For starters the opening is huge for a small car, giving you a low loading height and a large aperture for lugging big items inside. It’s also a nice square shape, with a useful bit of underfloor storage.

The rear seats also fold very easily thanks to levers in the boot, and that’s where Honda’s ‘Magic Seat’ name starts to make sense.

The seats have a clever mechanism so they fold flat to the floor with no effort at all, giving you a large flat load area and no awkward seat cushions blocking the folding. The seat bases also flip upwards when the backrests are up, giving you a huge vertical space from the rear footwells right up to the roof. It’s great for carrying tall items like plants, but even better as a space for a big dog to lie down without being too far away from its owner. It’s all really clever.

Performance and drive: What is the Honda Jazz like on the road?

The Honda Jazz has never been designed for outright driving thrills – even if some earlier models had rev-hungry little engines and slick manual gearboxes.

This latest model is only available as an automatic hybrid, majoring on ease of driving and efficiency rather than eye-widening performance. A 1.5-litre non-turbo petrol engine is mated to two electric motors, a battery and Honda’s ‘e-CVT’ gearbox.

The total output is 122hp, which delivers an entirely respectable 0-62mph sprint time of 9.4 seconds. That’s about on a par with the Toyota Yaris and Renault Clio hybrids.

The Jazz is mostly petrol-powered, with the engine either charging the battery up or driving the wheels directly. However, although the little 0.7kWh battery pack can only move the Jazz under its own steam for about a mile, the system does a good job of juggling power sources so that you’re often cruising around in electric mode.

Where the Jazz suffers is at higher speeds when you ask for a burst of performance. It’ll get you up to speed easily enough, but as is typical of a CVT gearbox the engine revs start soaring uncomfortably high and it all becomes a bit noisy. At a constant motorway cruise it’s fine, however.

Like most hybrids, the Jazz has regenerative braking to convert the energy produced by the brakes to electricity to charge the battery. Most versions have some regen effect in normal mode or a ‘B’ mode that brakes more strongly when you lift off the throttle. The Advance Sport, however, has steering wheel paddles to let you control exactly how much regen is applied.

Power, 0-62mph times

• Honda Jazz Hybrid (all versions): 122hp/ 9.4 secs

Ride and handling

It’s clear that Honda has designed the Jazz to excel in urban areas. That high seating position and good visibility combines with light yet precise steering to make manoeuvring a doddle. The hybrid system is also at its best in town, too.

Out of town the handling is safe and predictable, making the Jazz easy to place on the road. There’s less outright grip and more body lean than a Renault Clio or Toyota Yaris, though, and the steering doesn’t give you as much of a sense of what the front wheels are doing.

The Jazz’s ride is noticeably less firm than on previous generations, helping isolate you from the worst road surfaces. It does get tripped up by big potholes, but most of the time it’s more comfortable than most small cars.

Noise and refinement

The Jazz is very smooth and quiet around town, where it can roll around on electric power for decent amounts of time. When the engine cuts in it isn’t intrusive, either. Only when you ask for more power and up the speed does that change, with the engine becoming coarse and noisy.

Once at a cruise it settles back down, however. There is some wind and road noise, but neither are overly wearing for a small car.

Euro NCAP: is the Honda Jazz a safe car?

The Honda Jazz is among the safest small cars on sale today according to Euro NCAP, who awarded it the maximum five-star rating when crash testing it in 2020.

Safety scores are up with the best in class across the board, with the Jazz’s 87% adult occupant protection and 83% child occupant protection scores beating the highly regarded Honda Jazz. A vulnerable road user protection score of 80% is also well above the class average.

As well as a seriously impressive 10 airbags as standard, every Jazz gets autonomous emergency braking, lane keeping assistance, intelligent speed assistance and traffic sign recognition. Advance trim further adds desirable blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.

Running costs and fuel economy

The Jazz might be far from the cheapest new small car in price terms, but its standard hybrid power should keep running costs to a minimum.

The entry-level Elegance boast an official WLTP combined economy figure of 62.8mpg. Opting for the Advance model, with its bigger wheels, reduces that slightly to 61.4mpg, while the off road-style Crosstar manages 58.9mpg.

While rivals like the Toyota Yaris and Renault Clio E-Tech have slightly better economy figures in the official test, our experience with the Jazz tells us it’s perfectly capable of achieving its official MPG.

While that’s great news for private buyers, the Jazz’s official CO2 figure of 102g/km isn’t great for company car users as it means the company car tax (Benefit-in-Kind) figure is higher than the Yaris and Clio.

How much does the Honda Jazz cost to insure?

The Honda Jazz is far from the cheapest new car to insure for new drivers. Insurance groups for the Honda Jazz start at group 21 for the Elegance model, rising to group 22 for the Advance and Advance Sport.

By comparison, a Toyota Yaris Hybrid starts in group 15, as does a Renault Clio E-Tech. A MG3 Hybrid+ sits in even higher groups than the Jazz, however.