The Honda Jazz hatchback has not done too well in the market despite high expectations. However, following the trend of the crossover hatchback lineups of recent times, Honda has decided to revive the Jazz with the upcoming Jazz Cross.

The growing customer base of young Indians prefer the crossover hatchbacks as they look sportier at an affordable price. Following the example of Hyundai’s i20 lineup, Volkswagen’s Polo Cross, and the Fiat Avventura and Toyota’s Etios Cross, Honda will bring its Jazz Cross to battle the existing hatchback crossovers and revive the Jazz title.

The Jazz Cross is being designed and developed in Brazil. The car is being called the Honda Fit in Brazil and is likely to see its global debut towards the end of this year at the Sao Paulo Motor Show.

The development phase of the car is over and the production phase is near. A test mule was recently spotted, indicating that the production phase is yet to begin. Since the test mule was heavily camouflaged, it is difficult to say anything definite about the design and styling of the car.

Reports also suggest that Honda could name the car the WR-V, following the BR-V concept. The spy pictures of the test mule reveal the car will look much sportier than the original Jazz. There will be a new designed grille and the bumper will be lower with sharp edges. The crossover will have silver skid plates at both, the front and the rear ends. There will be new alloy wheels with a higher ground clearance.

The engine options will remain the same as in the Honda Jazz. The price for each variant will be about INR 1 lac higher than the corresponding Jazz variant.

On one hand Honda is busy with the production and launch of the Jazz Cross and on the other hand, the Company is tackling a major recall issue. The automaker has recalled 57,676 units of the Jazz, City, and Civic put together, to address a fault in the airbags. The Company has decided to voluntarily repair the airbag inflators in the driver’s side.

The affected cars had been in production between January 2012 and June 2013. There are 49,572 City sedans in this recall group. 7,504 units of the Jazz hatchback produced over a year is also part of the recall. The cars that have manufactured between Jan’12 – Aug’12 which sums only to 600 units of the Civic sedan are part of the recall. The Company is replacing the faulty airbags for free and taking the initiative to communicate with the customers directly for the matter.

This is not the first time the Company has made the same mistake. Earlier in September 2015, there was a mass recall of 2.24 lac units of the three models and the CR-V for the same, airbags issue. Again, in December, 90,210 units of the City and the Mobilio were recalled for some fuel return pipe issue. Looks like HCIL needs to be more careful with the production phase of the Jazz Cross if it does not want to make the recall business a habit.

The all-new 2014 Honda Jazz (also known as Honda Fit) was launched in the car market of Brazil in April, this year with in model variants. The Jazz which is a locally manufactured premium hatchback in Brazil also has a ‘Twist’ variant in its previous generation model. As the all new Jazz has arrived, it is but a matter of time that the new-gen Twist will also arrive. The Honda Jazz Twist is a special hatchback-crossover variant along with an outdoor-style body kit, and this model has been an exclusive offering for the Brazilian car market.

Honda Fit Twist Crossover

The pseudo crossovers that are actually large hatchbacks but have additional body panels or body kits to make them look bulky and heavy duty giving then a crossover stance. This segment of hatchback-crossovers is very popular in the international markets, and seems to be slowly getting popularized in India as well as there are rising numbers of these cars in the Indian car market.

The Honda Jazz/Fit Twist was first unveiled at the 2012 Sao Paulo Motor Show as an answer to the Hyundai HB20X. The premium hatchbacks with a pseudo crossover look are very common and popular in the car market of Brazil. The Toyota Etios Cross which was recently launched in India this month first debuted in the global auto industry with its launch in the Brazilian market. The other popular hatchback-crossovers in Brazil are Volkswagen CrossFox and the Gol Rallye.

According to the reports from Brazil, Honda has all plans to expand the soft-crossover range with the Jazz Twist in Brazil even and the car has been also rendered by an auto portal.

As already mentioned, this segment primarily has premium hatchbacks that only pretend to be compact crossover with mean, aggressive looks. Thus, the Honda Jazz Twist is also essentially the regular Jazz hatchback with added goodies and mean looks.

In order to give Jazz the required aggressive stance, Honda will endow a new stylish grille, darkened headlights, heavily designed and bulkier bumper, silver faux skid plate, new body skirting, side sill plates, new mirror caps, added roof rails and new larger alloy wheels for an all-round bold and tough look.

The exterior aggressive styling will definitely be also complemented by certain interior changes as well. The previous generation model flaunted redesigned lighting, new upholstery and chrome accents on the A.C vents and handbrake lever. The same changes are expected on the new-gen model as well.

The Jazz Twist will use the same 1.5L i-VTEC Flex engine producing 116hp of power, and mated to a 7 speed CVT transmission.

As for the Indian car market, Honda is already planning to resurrect the new Jazz with the launch of the all new 2014 model. As the pseudo crossovers are already populating the Indian market, Honda is expected to soon launch the Twist as well after the 2014 Jazz goes for sale. The Toyota Etios Cross and Volkswagen Cross Polo would thus have another worthy opponent in India.