The car returned a mileage of 16.6 kmpl for a 105.9 km drive.
BHPian jaysheth recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Update: Went for a highway drive (Pune-Talegaon-Lonavala-Talegaon-Pune, through old highway) and covered 106 kms today. The primary reason for the drive was to run our 2-week-old Honda Jazz VX CVT enough before its first service. Odo stands at 377 kms since purchase.
Today, I deliberately stuck to Manual/Sports mode throughout the drive, and without using cruise control. The reasons were manifold:
- To get full familiarity of using manual mode which compulsorily requires use paddle shifters, so as to build muscle memory with respect to my first automatic car
- To test the controls required for various situations like quick overtakes, intermittent speed breakers leading to gear shifts etc.
- To have the engine take varying degrees of throttle inputs, varying gear situations and thereby varying RPMs
Note: I have gone through the whole Honda Jazz manual twice and there are no running-in period requirements. Yet out of common sense I have been gentle with the car, and ensuring no lugging of the engine
Observations and Mileage:
- Just like the D (Drive) mode is quick to upshift at the earliest opportunity (possibly to return the best mileage), the S (Manual/Sports) mode is equally quick to downshift. After each speed breaker for instance, it shifted down seamlessly from 5th or 6th gear to the 1st gear. I would have kept my manual transmission car in the 2nd gear in all such cases, but here it came down to the first gear.
- While the S (Manual/Sports) mode is quick to downshift, it never upshifts on its own. I really appreciated this behaviour, as during quick overtakes or quick acceleration requirements, I could rely on downshifting a gear or two (through paddle shifters, as the only available way to manually downshift or upshift) and it gave me enough power/grunt and speed to complete the overtake.
- However, since the S mode downshifts so early and never upshifts on its own, you have to remember to upshift each time. More often than not I found myself driving in one or two lower gears than my usual habit. For instance, after the speed breakers, I had to remember to upshift from 1st to the 2nd (or even 3rd) gear. Whenever I forgot to act, I was forced to drive with heavy throttle inputs, just to quickly realize I needed a manual upshift!
- Due to the above-mentioned behaviour, I had to generally accelerate a little harder than I would need to do in the D (Drive) mode unless I remembered to upshift generally by 2 gears (many a time, 1-up wasn’t enough!). Mileage too dropped by around 4 kmpl (though still respectable, mentioned below)
- Due to all of the above, and due to occassional slew of vehicles/traffic conditions/stop-and-go traffic at the toll plaza, the drive was not very comfortable. As I type this, I feel slight back pain (have no back pain issues in general). It was very tempting to shift to D (Drive) mode and just enjoy the drive, which is what I intend to resume now that I have learnt various tricks with the S (Manual) mode. This manual mode experience will come handy when situation demands.
- The drive has been somewhat tiring mentally as well. This is because I had to constantly peep into the dashboard to “find out” which gear I was in, and then adjust accordingly, that too “one gear at a time”. This small exercise also steals a portion of your attention from the road!
- To conclude, Sports mode is okay for occassional/fun drive, and it can come really handy when there are several demanding situations (AMTs, are you listening?!!). After this drive, I am very thankful for (a) having the really automatic D mode with this great CVT car, and for (b) having the cruise control. I would be much less physically tired and much less mentally so, the moment I would start using the D-mode and cruise control combo more and more.
My daughter had a much better time than me , as she was continously playing and enjoying her favourite songs. The infotainment system is pretty good and reliable (V variant does not have it, VX and ZX variants have the exact same infotainment system). Purists shall be able to nitpick regarding the speaker performance especially at high volumes, but for “safe” drives with music in moderate volumes, it is very pleasing! Bluetooth pairing was simple and enough. Android Auto was not required.
(Android Auto would be required for navigation etc. which requires wired-connectivity. Personally I am not sure why many folks complain about this, as it takes 2 seconds to connect the cable, and also keeps your phone charged that way!)
Finally – the mileage (snip attached): It returned 16.6 kmpl for 105.9 kms drive. Using D mode it would have returned 20/21 kmpl easily, and using cruise control would have increased this even further.
Very happy with the decision of having bought (a) a Honda, (b) “the” Jazz, (c) the CVT gearbox and (d) the VX variant. Yes folks! This is October 2022 and I mean it!
Keyword: Honda Jazz CVT: Tips & tricks for extracting good mileage on highways