It’s not the grandest car in the world, but the Honda Jazz maintains the manufacturer’s reputation for trustworthy but spunky vehicles with a nice gloss. Casting one’s eyes over the outside of the Jazz and the aesthetic prowess responsible for the Jazz’s capture of Japanese Car of the Year on consecutive occasions a couple of years ago is readily apparent. To begin with, though the Honda Jazz is a little car – it only measures 3.8 metres long, 1.675 metres wide and 1.525 metres high, with the Honda Jazz Sport being a tiny bit longer – your view of the road isn’t small. Relative to the size of the whole, the front windscreen and side windows are massive, ensuring a panoramic view of the highway and surrounds. Glare-reducing green glass through 360 degrees means no hassles with low sun, and also looks cute. The fleshy appearance suggested by the exterior is realised by what’s on the inside – it’s all bold round knobs and dials for the control panel. Also nice are the headlights, which blend nicely into the lines of the sloping bonnet but still maintain enough character and expression to give the Honda Jazz a bit of personality.

For all its diminutive pretensions, the Jazz spreads out handsomely enough inside – to a class leading extent in fact. There is also a terribly handy optional addition of a swivel seat for the front passenger side that rotates to allow those of limited mobility easy and hassle-free access, even from a wheelchair. Although I didn’t have recourse to try out this particular feature, it strikes me as a particularly thoughtful one. In the standard Honda Jazz, the Magic Seat System allows the cargo space to be dramatically expanded with a flat floor. And with all seats up, the Honda Jazz can fit five people in style and in reasonable comfort. Air conditioning and steering-wheel mounted controls for the single-CD sound system are other standard features inside the Honda Jazz.

And what’s under the snappy little hood of the Honda Jazz? In the standard version of the Honda Jazz, you’ll find a thrifty (5.7 litres per 100 km in the manual) little 1.3 litre petrol engine that can pop out a top torque of 119 Nm at 2800 rpm and a maximum power of 61 kW at 5700 rpm. If you’re wanting to find a bit more oomph – hot jazz rather than slow jazz – then the Honda Jazz Sport has a 1.5 litre engine that pumps out 81 kW of power at 6000 revs and 143 Nm of torque at 4800 rpm. Doesn’t seem like much power? Well, when you remember that power is derived from force, which in turn is derived from mass in kg, then it becomes obvious that a little whizzer like the Honda Jazz doesn’t need as much power to be a lot of fun and perform well. And the standard Honda Jazz has a performance enhancing Intelligent Dual and Sequential Ignition in the engine, helping you get the most out of the little ripper. And the VTEC engine in the Honda Jazz Sport is another great enhancement.

One of the first imperatives for a small car, given that they can’t rely on their inherent strength in the way of larger vehicles and SUVs, is a rack of solid, intelligent safety features. Not only does it have the active safety features such as the ABS braking that works in tandem with the EBD and emergency brake assist, the Honda Jazz also has plenty of passive safety features. The chief of these is the G-force control technology body shell, the side intrusion beams and the collapsible steering column. Passengers inside the Honda Jazz are kept well cushioned with the front and side airbags, and they’re kept firmly in place with the front seat height adjustable pretensioned seatbelts with load limiters.

As far as small cars go, you could do far, far worse than the Honda Jazz. Its fairly brimming over with character and spark, and its minor shortcoming, all of them largely typical of this type of vehicle, are compensated for by the sheer fun of putting it through its eager paces.