What's the news?
Honda is facelifting its Jazz supermini, just in time for the Frankfurt Motor Show, and it is also introducing a higher-powered engine variant for the B-segment monobox motor.
The key visual updates amount to the bumpers fore and aft, as you'll notice the front item has more aggressive contours around the air vents - and these outer items are now linked by a horizontal bar of trim. Also at the front is the 'Solid Wing Face' headlight signature and grille, a feature which is lifted almost wholesale from the bigger Civic hatch.
Round the back of the Jazz, the shallower grille sections either side have a gloss black trim strip linking them together, which in turn sits above a trapezoidal lower section. The final addition here is a new colour for the paint palette, Skyride Blue metallic being the newcomer.
The new engine is the 130hp 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol, offered for the first time in Europe and supplementing the existing 1.3-litre i-VTEC, with 102hp, that has been the sole choice of motive power up until this point. Honda says the 130hp motor meets stringent Euro VI emissions regs and can deliver up to 52.3mpg (5.4 litres/100km) with CO2 emissions as low as 124g/km.
Those figures, however, are when paired to the optional continuously variable transmission (CVT), which is not our favourite gearbox. However, Honda claims the system has been revised to deliver a more linear and refined response under acceleration.
Fresh trim grades are offered for the Jazz in other markets, although it's not clear if they'll make it to Ireland, where we enjoy SE, ES and EX specifications. Items such as LED headlights and front foglamps, side sill skirts, a thinner front splitter and triple-strake rear diffuser (these items, on a Jazz, of all things!), a tailgate spoiler (ditto...) and gloss-black 16-inch alloys will all be part of a model called the Dynamic, which also enjoys red pinstriping on the outside and a unique interior finish. We'll wait to see if it comes here with bated breath...
Other than that, the Jazz line-up is familiar stuff. There's the massive (for class) 354-litre boot, which rises to 897 litres with the rear 60:40 split Magic Seats folded away, while standard equipment on all cars includes cruise control, automatic headlights and the City Brake Active safety system.
Anything else?
Following on from its appearance at Frankfurt in early September, order books for the facelifted Jazz will open in November, with the first cars being delivered to customers at the start of 2018.