According to a latest report, Honda is gearing up to unveil a range topping variant of the new Jazz, named as the Honda Jazz RS at the upcoming 2016 Indian Auto Expo.

Honda Cars India, the fully owned subsidiary of the Japanese car major Honda Motor, launched the new generation model of the worldwide popular Honda Jazz premium hatchback in India in the month of July, 2015. The launch of the new generation Honda Jazz is the resurrection of the Jazz brand in India, as the previous generation Honda Jazz was withdrawn from the Indian market back in the year 2013. Now, with the speculated introduction of the new top of the line RS variant of premium hatchback, Honda Cars India certainly wants to grab more attention for its new Jazz. Ever since its launch in the Indian car market last year the all new Honda Jazz has been garnering good sales. The new premium car model has been also highly praised for its great styling and good features which have made the car make a good mark in the Indian premium hatchback segment.

Coming back to the Honda Jazz RS model, this new top of the line variant is expected to be a sporty looking model that could be similar to that of the Honda Mobilio RS model of the compact MPV that is already sold in the Indian car market. Both the RS variants of the respective hatchback and MPV models though different in terms of design will be similar in terms of variant positioning that is top of the range as well as features.

The Honda Jazz RS premium hatchback variant is already available for sale in the international car markets. The Honda Jazz RS that is offered in the car market of Indonesia comes with many additional external features that makes it look sportier and includes special projector headlights, exclusive dark chrome front radiator grille with “RS” logo, round fog lights with LED Daytime Running Lights, electrically foldable Outside Rear View Mirrors, rear spoiler and special stylish 16 inch alloy wheels.

On the inside as well, the Honda Jazz RS will comes endowed with many equipments such as cruise control, smart keyless entry, leather wrapped steering wheel as well as gearlever stick and pushbutton engine start. The India-spec Honda Jazz RS might also add a 7 inch touchscreen infotainment system as a standard feature apart from some additional features.

The Honda Jazz RS’s engine range is expected to remain same as that of the rest of the Jazz lineup, as no under the hood changes are expected. The Jazz RS is likely to be powered by the same 1.5 liter DOHC i-DTEC diesel mill generating 100PS and 200Nm and mated to a 5 speed manual transmission, while the 1.5 liter i-VTEC petrol option is not expected to make to India.

Being a sportier and feature-rich top of the range model, the Honda Jazz RS will be more expensive than the current top model, the Jazz 1.5 VX which is tagged at Rs. 8.59 lakhs.

The Honda Amaze compact sedan is a very important car model that proved to be a huge game changer for Honda Car India. Prior to the Amaze’s launch, Honda India was always struggling to get a sustainable amount of sales volume, but post this entry level sedan’s launch in India, things changed rapidly for the company.

The Honda Amaze became the instant fortune changer from Honda Cars India. Being the company first diesel car in India, the Amaze not only marked the company venture into the Indian diesel car market, but also helped it to become one of the top car makers of India in a very short span of time. The Honda Amaze became an instant success in the domestic car market owing to its good looks, diesel engine option, great fuel economy and affordable pricing. The Amaze was also the most fuel efficient car in India before the new City and then the others came into the picture. Not only all this, the Honda Amaze also became the first car in India to challenge the indomitable ruler of the segment – the Marut Swift DZire.

Launched in 2013, the Honda Amaze compact sedan received overwhelming response, and Honda Cars India has managed to sell around 5,000 units of the car ever since. However, the launch of the other popular cars from Honda India seemed to have definitely impacted the demands of the Amaze. After the all new City sedan’s launch in early 2014, the Amaze’s glory dwindled a bit, and now with the launch of the new generation Jazz hatchback, the Amaze seems to be in a troubled situation. Honda Cars India has also shifted its attention from the Amaze to its bestselling model City and the new Jazz when production is concerned. This is because the company is not able to handle the market demands despite running both its facility’s on their full capacity.

The new-gen Honda Jazz premium hatch launched in July this year, and being the latest product it is currently enjoying Honda’s priority, while the City is always on top of the priority list, as it is the company’s highest selling model in India.

The fact that the popular Honda Amaze is getting hampered both on the demands and the production front is evident from Honda’s August sales. Honda Cars India sold 5,405 units of the City, 5,404 units of the Jazz and delivered only 3,260 units of the Amaze which is around 30-40 percent lesser than its usual average monthly sales. This is clear that the Honda Amaze’s sales is getting slaughtered by the rising demands of the City and the Jazz, while Honda is also producing lesser numbers of the car due to its production constraints.

However, Honda Car India is acting fast to solve its production shortage issue. The company is planning a new facility in Gujarat, which is expected to get operational by early next year, which would solve the company’s current production capacity exhaustion issue.

Japanese car maker Honda Motor just like its fellow Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor, has been troubled with faulty airbags issue for quite some time now. Every now and then, the Japanese car makers including Nissan are known to recall their cars in order to fix some defective part or the other, but the most common malfunctioning part has been the important safety feature – airbags.

Now, the Japanese car major’s Indian subsidiary Honda Cars India will be making a huge vehicle recall. The company will be recalling about 2.24 lakh vehicles from the domestic car market of India in order to fix the problem of faulty airbags. The recalled Honda vehicles in India which have the defective airbags problem include the Honda CR-V premium sports utility vehicle, the Honda Civic and Honda City premium sedan models and the Honda Jazz premium hatchback model. All the mentioned recalled vehicle models from the house of Honda were manufactured between the years of 2003 and 2012.

This will be Honda Cars India’s largest such recall exercise till date. The car major will be carrying out this recall drive in India in order to check and replace the faulty airbags that have malfunctioning inflators.

This major vehicle recall in India by Honda Cars India is actually a part of its Japanese parent company’s global recall initiative in order to replace the defective airbags. As per the company statement, Honda Cars India will voluntarily replace the airbag inflators of 2,23,578 vehicle units of the previous generation models of the CR-V, Civic, City and the Jazz in India.

This massive recall initiative will be covering 13,073 units of the Honda CR-V that were manufactured between 2004 and 2011; 54,290 units of the Honda Civic premium sedan made between 2003 and 2012; 1,40,508 units of the very popular Honda City premium sedan manufactured between 2007 and 2012; and 15,707 units of the Honda Jazz premium hatchback that were rolled out between 2009 and 2011, add the company statement.

Honda Cars India also said that the replacement procedure will be carried out free of charges at all the authorized dealerships of the company across the country in a phased manner, beginning from 12^th of October, 2015 and the customers will be directly contacted by the company.

Honda Motor had announced that the company is going to recall more than two million vehicles to replace the defective airbags that were manufactured by Japanese auto parts supplier Takata Corp.

Various car makers in India have been recalling the vehicles to fix the safety issues ever since the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) passed the voluntary recall policy in July 2012 to improve the safety of the Indian cars.

A total of 10,85,064 vehicle units have been recalled in the domestic India car market so far by several car manufacturing companies operating in the country, ever since SIAM initiated the recall policy in a bid to improve the safety of the Indian car buyers.

The all new Honda Jazz has been a great seller since it launched in July this year, and it has been getting praised as one of the most improved hatchbacks in the Indian market and also as a superb value for money car in its own segment. In terms of looks, it is surely the best looking model in the segment and also looks a segment higher.

Honda Cars India has surely done a great job with this forceful new launch which is playing its second innings in the Indian car market. Honda has also eliminated all the negative aspects that thwarted the success of the otherwise capable previous generation Jazz, and the new generation model is all set to have a long tern success in India.

The moment the all new Honda Jazz made its first appearance in India, its success was guaranteed, as such great looks are enough to win over the Indian car lovers. Honda has also loaded the premium hatchback with great features, a diesel engine option along with the most important factor – competitive price.

Here are the 5 reasons that ensure the new Honda Jazz’s long term success in India:

1.  The Honda Jazz has been always a great selling popular car in the global markets, though earlier it could not survive in the price sensitive Indian market. This time around, Honda has rectified all the shortcomings that the car had in terms of Indian preferences. Its stunning design, better features, diesel version option and competitive pricing all will surely ensure good market performance in India this time.

2. As India is still a diesel car preferring market, the new Honda Jazz has now come along with its first time diesel counterpart. Similar to the Honda City, the new Jazz is powered by the 1.5 liter i-DTEC diesel mill along with the 6 speed manual gearbox.  The Jazz diesel also offers the same 100 PS of power and 200 Nm of Torque like the City and is expected to be a great long term hit like its bigger cousin.

3. Mileage is another key factor that decides the success or high sales rates of a car in India, and Honda has also endowed the new Jazz with the right mileage quotient. The new Jazz diesel offers an outstanding fuel efficiency of 27.3 kmpl making it the second most fuel efficient car in India.

4. The all new Honda Jazz offer many great features including the segment first CVT gearbox. The petrol Jazz offers the exciting option of a CVT gearbox with paddle shifters. The Honda Jazz petrol CVT variant also offers the best mileage in its segment of 19 kmpl.

5. Honda has also offered the stunning new Jazz premium hatchback with competitive price range to ensure it gets many takers. The new Honda Jazz hatchback’s drastic price drop has been possible as the Japanese car maker has increased the car’s localization level to 95 percent.

The previous generation Honda Jazz did not get the attention or popularity in India that the capable car actually deserved. Stricken with low market sales, the previous Jazz premium hatchback was lifted off the Indian car market by Honda. The car suffered from the lacks of a diesel counterpart, less features and a high price tag. These ensured the Jazz hatch’s discontinuation back in 2013.  The story is however, completely different with the new Jazz which is another instant hit from the stable of Honda Cars India.

The new generation 2015 Honda Jazz premium hatchback has became a great hit with the Indian audience and is enjoying great sales figures. Launched on 8^th of July 2015, the all new Honda Jazz has already garnered massive sales of over 9000 units and has been the sole reason for the great sales growth of Honda Cars India in the monthly sales of July his year with the sale of 6,676 Jazz units. This led to Honda India’s overtaking the Indian car major Mahindra & Mahindra to grab the coveted third spot in the county’s automobile industry.

The all new Honda Jazz hatchback has been successful in grabbing the attention of the Indian customers from diverse profiles, as Honda has unmistakably made the package extremely appealing. The all new Jazz comes with a great innovative and contemporary design language, great interior space, class-leading fuel efficiency, segment first features and advanced technology to compel buyers to consider it.

The new Jazz has attained superb instant success with the first time car buyers of India as well, and the first time buyers have contributed around to 45 percent of the total sales volume of the Jazz in the first month (July). This is certainly the best response that Honda Cars India received from the country’s first time buyers for any of its car models.

The new 2015 Honda Jazz offers the best overall value package in its own segment. The primary highlights of the premium hatchback is certainly the superb combination of very sporty exterior design with great roomy interiors, comfortable and flexible seating arrangement with awesome fuel efficiency and a newly designed body structure which makes the new Jazz more functional and flexible than ever before.

The new Jazz also comes with a new diesel version that is powered by a 1.5 liter i-DTEC diesel mill, while the petrol version gets 1.2 liter i-VTEC petrol motor. And both the fuel options offer great fuel economy, fun to drive experience along with advanced technology which adds to the great driving pleasure of this car.  The all new Jazz’s flexible and smart rear seats called Magic seats 4 configuration mode to enhance cargo space.

Then again, the introduction of the new CVT variant in Honda Jazz lineup has also added to its value, as it has created new benchmark for the Automatic cars by offering higher fuel efficiency than any other manual model in the segment. Needless to say, the new Jazz CVT variant is also enjoying great market demands creating a win-win situation for the car.

The Japanese car major seems to be always getting a win-win situation in the Indian car market lately, no matter what the situation of the Indian auto industry. Honda Cars India has again cast its winning spell with the launch of the all new Honda Jazz. The new Jazz premium hatchback model has become yet another new launch from the stable of Honda to have received outstanding response from the Indian car buyers.

The new generation Honda Jazz premium hatchback model was introduced to the Indian car market, on 8th of July this and in just a matter of a month it has already become a great successful car. The Honda Jazz has seen has got overwhelming response from the country’s buyers in its first month of launch and it has already managed to garner the sales volume of over 9,000 units. With such great sells numbers, the all new Jazz has also managed to become the bestselling vehicle from Honda Cars India outshining the monthly sales rate of the City sedan.

The all new 2015 Honda Jazz premium hatchback model has all the reasons to win over the hearts of the Indian new car buyers. The car has stunning innovative new styling, good features including segment firsts, advanced technology and segment best fuel efficiency, which have surely grabbed the attention of all the premium hatchback buyers of the country.

Owing to the stunning new Jazz’s launch in July, like the good monsoons this year Honda Cars India has got a heavy shower of sales numbers which has helped it to dethrone Indian third largest car major Mahindra & Mahindra in the monthly sale in July. This has been quite the story for Honda India ever since it started churning out its diesel car variants. After Honda turned its fortunes in India with the launch of the Amaze, it has never looked back as it rolled out back to back instant hits in the form of the City and the Mobilio.

This is the second innings for the Honda Jazz in India, as its brand has been resurrected with the new-gen model after the last-gen car was discontinued in 2013. Back then, the Jazz did not have a diesel variant and was rather exorbitantly priced.

The all new Jazz comes with a handsome exterior design, outstandingly spacious cabin, both petrol and diesel versions and competitive price range. The Jazz diesel is powered by a 1.5 liter i-DTEC mill and the petrol version gets a 1.2 liter i-VTEC motor. While petrol oil burner generates 89 bhp of power at 6,000 rpm and 110 Nm of torque at 4,800 rpm and is equipped with a 5 speed manual or a CVT automatic gearbox choices, the diesel mill delivers 99 bhp at 3,600 rpm and 200 Nm at 1,750 rpm and gets a 6 speed manual transmission.

The Jazz petrol offers a maximum mileage of 19 Kmpl, while diesel variants can return up to 27.3 Kmpl. The 2015 Honda Jazz has a price range of Rs. 5.30 to Rs. 8.59 lakh.

Honda’s Jazz when got launched a while back, nobody knew how was it going to perform. However, there were speculations that this may beat the sales statistics of the much celebrated and the old player from the Hyundai family, City. A few days back, reports were afloat that the new Honda Jazz has become the bread winner as it had beaten the sales of Honda city in the month of July. This passenger car is writing its own success story and it is all set to be one of Honda’s most successful cars of the year. And further keeping the Honda officials rejoiced is the latest report in the market that says that the company has sold close to 9,000 units of Honda Jazz in just under a month’s time and this is the biggest honour a car could receive from the consumers. The reviewers were going on about the positive and the negative aspects of the vehicle but little did they know that this is going to be a massive success and public wont react to their reactions as the car got somewhat mixed response from the critics.

Got launched in the Indian territory on 8^th July 2015, the car arrived this time with some much desired changes with a brand new diesel power train and an all new overall design format. But however the outsides were changed to quite a degree, the interiors mostly remained the same with the car having a very spacious interior just as its previous generation model. Along with that the car features the same console box, the dashboard, the glove compartment among other things. This is already lovely car, has been made more attractive with some elegant touches on the exteriors. Now, as the car is slowly becoming one of the most successful cars of the year, it is up to the company, Honda to keep meeting the consumer’s demands on a very regular basis or else in no time, the enthusiasm will be lost as it is the case with Creta. The waiting period of more than 10 months is affecting the overall interest of the car lovers in a very negative way. The Korean carmaker giant Hyundai has been trying very hard since then to adapt necessary measures to tackle the situation and so far they have managed very well as they decided to boost up the number of manufactured units.

Coming back to Honda Jazz, the previous generation of the vehicle was made available only with the petrol variant which slowly became very troublesome as the diesel engine cars suddenly were in a huge demand owing to the decreasing price difference among the diesel and petrol variants. And now, the Jazz is available with a 1.5 Litre i-VTEC diesel engine which, by the way also is powering other Honda members such as Honda City, Amaze and Mobilio. The very efficient engine will produce a power close to 99 bhp while it gives out a very good mileage of about 27.3 kilometres per litre.

The all new Honda Jazz premium hatchback has stolen the limelight from its bigger cousin the new-generation Honda City premium sedan. Honda Cars India has recently launched its much awaited new generation Jazz in the domestic car market last month, and it has got very good response from the Indian car buyers, which has become usual for the Japanese car major for all its recent model launches. In its launch month (July) itself, the new Jazz has sold in great numbers to cross the monthly sales of Honda’s bestseller for over a year – the City.

Thus, the all new Honda Jazz hatch is Honda Cars India’s new bestselling model, at least for now. This is because the new premium hatchback has just launched in the market and all new cars experience initial spurt of demands. The real sales rates of the Jazz per month can be ascertained only after a few months from now, and the City is very well expected to bounce back as the Japanese car major’s bestselling model in the Indian car market.

Coming back to the newly attained bestseller tag of the newly launched Honda Jazz, the car has become its maker’s new bestselling vehicle for the month of July 2015, as the car’s sales for the months crossed that of the City’s. While the new 2015 Honda Jazz managed to sell 6,676 in the month of July, the City sedan’s sales volumes for the month stood at 5,180.

Moreover, last month was an overall chirpy month for Honda Cars India on a year on year basis. The company witnessed a good sales growth of 18 percent of all vehicles in its Indian portfolio as compared against its sales volumes in the month of July last year. In the same month in 2014, Honda India had managed to sell 15,709 vehicles that is relatively lesser than the monthly sale of the 18,606 vehicles in July this year.

This is the Jazz’s comeback in the Indian market, after the previous generation Jazz was withdrawn from India in 2013. The previous Jazz was not suitable for India, as the market had not matured so much a couple of years back and its high price tag killed its chances for success in this still price conscious market. However, Honda recovered from its disappointment and offered the new generation Jazz along with its diesel counterpart and with competitive price range to win over the Indian premium hatchback buyers this time around.

The Honda Jazz gets the 1.5 liter i-DTEC diesel mill and the 1.2 liter i-VTEC petrol motor. The new generation model competes with the very popular bestselling premium hatchback models in India such as the Maruti Suzuki Swift and Hyundai Elite i20 apart from many other models like the Fiat Punto and Volkswagen Polo.

The spurt in the July sales numbers for Honda Cars India has also enable the Japanese company surpass the July sales of the Indian car major Mahindra & Mahindra, which managed to sell 14,556 vehicles.

Honda Cars India is currently again on high with yet another spurt of sales growth. The Japanese car major has been already enjoying superb growth ever since its launch its first diesel car in India – the Amaze. Ever since, the company which used to be sale woe stricken never looked back, as it kept on rolling out more new car models in the form of the all new City and the Mobilio. Now, that Honda India has newly launched its all new Jazz, its sales are yet again spiraling high.

The new Honda Jazz premium hatchback model has got very good response from the Indian car buyers, which enabled the monthly sales of the company soar up last month. Launched on 8^th July, 2015, the new Honda Jazz is expected to generate higher sales volumes for Honda Cars India going ahead. Now, the car major is said to be contemplating to increase the production capacity of the Jazz, so that the prospective buyers don’t have to wait long to get their new Jazz.

According to a new report, Honda Cars India is planning to adjust the production for the Mobilio and the Amaze in order to increase the production output of the Jazz; just as what Honda did with the City to increase the production for the Mobilio soon after its launch in July last year.

As per the report, Honda India is currently having a tough time juggling the productions in both of its Greater Noida and Tapukara car manufacturing facilities. This is because of the high demands that the auto giant is witnessing for its new generation Jazz premium hatchback.

The increased production of the new 2015 Jazz will be thus, coming at the price of a production cut for the Amaze compact sedan as well as the Mobilio MPV. This production cut has already directly affected the sale of the Amaze with its July sales going down to 4,589 units, which is a sales plummet of almost 2,500 units as compared against the sale of 6,834 Amaze units in the month of June.

On the other hand, Honda has also cut out the production for the Mobilio MPV of around 5 to 10 percent, as per the latest report. Nevertheless, as the Mobilio’s demands have dropped, despite the production cut, there is a very small drop in its monthly sales numbers. The Mobilio’s sales have dropped from 1,043 units in June to 909 units in July this year.

The new Honda Jazz, currently comes with a waiting period of 1 to 2 months. The new generation premium hatchback launched on 8^th of July with a starting tag of Rs. 5.3 lakhs. Till now, the car has registered sales of a good 6,676 units in the month of July itself.

As per the report, the new Honda Jazz sales have a ratio of 60:40 between its petrol and diesel versions. This is the second innings for the Honda Jazz in India, and it is expected to be fairly successful this time around.

The Honda Jazz started off a little wishy-washy on the drive in 2002 while the Volkswagen Polo, though started off unimpressively, attained a highly satisfying driving experience from the 2010 fifth generation version. It is time to find out whether the third generation Honda Jazz can compete the new Volkswagen Polo.

The new Honda Jazz will come with a redesigned, sparkling chassis while the new VW Polo will get an upgrade in the engine. After thee facelift, both the models are almost at par with each other in every area of concern, so let’s find out which contender wins the battle.

Price

The new Jazz is priced at a $16,990 base price while the Polo starts at $18,790. The Honda Jazz will replace its 1.3L engine with a 1.5L one and the 5 speed automatic transmission will be replaced with continuous variable transmission. The Polo will sport a 7 speed DSG.

Basic transformations

The soft dashboard, damped glovebox door and tactile buttons and spine-friendly seats of the VW Polo gives the car a more comfortable feel. However, the Jazz still remains the better looking car overall with more boot space than the Polo. The boot space of the Jazz is 25 percent more than the 280L of the Polo. Also, the folding ‘magic seats’ further add to the 350L boot space of the Jazz.  The folding rear seats of the Polo doesn’t match up to that of the Jazz.

Features

The Honda Jazz will come with a 7 inches color touchscreen and a back camera. The connectivity features include Bluetooth mobile connectivity and audio streaming. Android users will have fewer advantages with the car features than iPhone users. The HondaLink Navigation system can be downloaded for enhanced navigation.

New Volkswagen Polo

The base trim of the Polo has no camera or satellite navigation option, only the Comfortline variant will boast these features. Volkswagen has however replaced the poor Bluetooth features with a 5 inches color touchscreen, USB port and SD reader along with a standard Bluetooth device. Unlike the Jazz, the Polo has no steering wheel buttons, therefore, requiring the driver to stretch over to reach for the infotainment utilities.

Performance

The new 1.5L 4 cylinder Jazz VTi has a few changes but the torque and power remain unchanged. The 1.2L 4 cylinder engine of the Polo offers a lower power of 66kW compared to the 88kW of the Jazz. However, the torque is higher at 160Nm compared to the 145Nm of the Jazz.

The fuel efficient start-stop system, sophisticated drivetrain, and the noiseless engine of the Polo outdo the drive experience of the Jazz. The responsive DSG system renders a quicker response to acceleration and brakes for the Polo. The 66kW power does not help the performance though.

The Honda CVT has a slower response while the high power engine makes up for the lag. The Honda Jazz offers 1700rpm compared to the 2100rpm of the Polo at 100kmph. The Jazz the more fuel efficient than the Polo, offering 23 percent higher mileage.

Verdict

The Honda Jazz is better as a utility vehicle with a high mileage, huge boot space and fully equipped technology. The VW Polo offers luxurious cabin comfort and better driving dynamics. Both the cars appeal to different target groups.