How the Honda Jazz saved the Philippine car culture

The Honda Jazz is an intriguing model. Released in the Philippines back in 2004, it was touted as "the one," the savior of Philippine motoring. You see, it was at this time that fuel prices were starting to skyrocket. The era of cheap fuel that your moms and dads used to tell you about was over, and people were suddenly starting to get conscious about fuel spending habits —if they weren't yet. 

New car buyers who wanted fuel-efficient cars settled for underpowered mini hatchbacks that no one wanted to be caught dead driving at the time. Then there was the Honda Jazz  and, unlike contemporary cars of the time, we actually wanted this — we wanted this a lot.

Some car reviewers at the time even hailed it as the second coming of the Honda Civic EG Hatchback. It was, however, so much more than that.

I remember I just started college at the time, I was reading about how great the Honda Jazz was. People couldn't stop singing its praises and despite it being initially offered only with a 1.3 IDSi engine that made a paltry 82 horses, it was the breed those horses that made them special, along with the carriage they pulled. It was one of the few cars that featured a continuously variable transmission and was simulating seven-speeds.

Nowadays, that seems to be the norm among economy cars, but at the time, that was fairly unheard of. The marketing guys from Honda at the time even compared the seven-speed CVT to driving an F1 race car where you can “switch gears” using buttons on the steering wheel. Of course, we know so much better now that it was all marketing-speak, but we ate it all up because of one more promise the car made: excellent fuel economy.

I believe that this was the time that Honda started to market its small engine to perform as good as the next displacement tier above the model, while having the fuel economy of a smaller engine. True enough, the Honda Jazz was a real champ!

People were only discovering the benefits of having a CVT. It was able to put the power down more effectively than any other transmission and could even surpass a manual transmission car’s fuel economy figures. If you recall, this was also the time they were doing fuel economy runs around the country and true enough, a Honda Jazz won that endurance race driving from the northernmost part of Luzon to its southern tip. Finally here was our savior! Saving us from boring cars and the mundane.  Having a small car was cool again.

A more powerful 1.5-liter VTEC engine was released and you also had an option for a manual transmission which were both great options. The not-quite VTEC engine was indeed more powerful and the manual transmission was the typical Honda precision which no other car brand came close to, even to this day.

But there was something about the original IDSi engine mated to the CVT that just gave the car its true character. Fun fact: Did you know that the 1.3-liter engine had a total of eight spark plugs? The engine was designed for total fuel efficiency that four timing sparks weren’t enough; you had to double that to achieve optimum ignition. 

It doesn’t hurt that the car was easy on the eyes as well. It was different from every other small hatchback at the time, in a sense that it embraced its small stature. While the Aveo, Picanto or even the Toyota Echo reveled at their own cuteness, the Honda Jazz meant business. It was purposeful, with sharp, sweeping lines and doors that opened wide enough for people to get in and out with ease. For the first time ever, a small car was begging to be taken seriously — and that we did. 

The Honda Jazz’s trump card, however, is in the interior. If you look at inside the first-gen Honda Jazz, you’ll be amazed at how the design holds up quite well. White panel gauges, large dials for the AC system and soft touch materials on the dash, Honda at this point was flexing its design and engineering might. Since it was based on the Honda City of the period,  it also featured everyone’s favorite ULT seats. ULT stood for Utility Long and Tall and it was more than just a party trick.

You can configure the car’s rear seat benches to fold up for long, upright items or the back rests to fold flat, giving you enormous space from the hatch. At the time, nothing else came close to the level of versatility offered by the Honda Jazz.

Every other generation was pretty much the same concept as the first one. The only difference was that each generation became a little bit larger, and Honda ditched the zippy 1.3-liter IDSi engine for the more mature VTEC. It also got more toys, and safety features like airbags and even ABS became standard. One thing that also changed was its pricing. It became more and more expensive each year, and the design language mirrored the prevalent and trendy styles of the time. 

Still, it remained a Honda staple at showrooms to always see what the Jazz looked like and you would eventually drive home with one — convinced of the value it offers compared to any other car out there, Honda or otherwise. For the past few years, however, that seems to have changed. 

The Philippine market seems to have moved away from subcompact hatches and traded in its desire for sporty sedans and hatchbacks for hulking seven-seater SUVs and trucks. Honda tried its best the past few years to counter this effect by releasing a subcompact SUV of their own as well as another mini hatchback further chipping away at its popularity. No longer was the Honda Jazz the darling of the automotive scene but it soldiered on, spawning two more generations, each retaining the same old spice that made the original Jazz special but adding more tech hoping to entice new customers. There is even a 2021 model released overseas but Honda Philippines has decided to take a pass on it.

Instead, it's bringing in the original sub-compact hatchback, the Honda City Hatchback, but that is a different story altogether.

With the Honda Jazz being discontinued in our market, we can now remember it without any reservations and recognize its cult-like status.

For a few years in the mid 2000s, one car proved that you could be practical yet sporty. It was a market disruptor that made waves in the car scene. It didn’t cost an arm and a leg, but had everything you needed and wanted. The Honda Jazz will be a shoo-in at the Philippine Car Hall of Fame, if there ever was one. 

It certainly gets my vote. 

Photos from Mugen Archives