Spy Shots: Honda Fit growing
Beneath those ridiculously large tacked-on fender flares lies the next Jazz (Fit in the States). Thanks to Auto Express and an alert reader, we have a glimpse at what the future may hold for Honda's most recent hit. They believe this is a mule being used to test Honda's next supermini. Apparently the UK developed Civic did so well for Honda that Britain is again being tabbed to help with the replacement for the Jazz. Built on basically the same chassis as the current model, the new Jazz should keep its innovative central fuel tank, fold-flat rear bench, five-seat configuration, and 1.2 and 1.4 liter gas engines. Although the spyshot seems to show the five-door will be growing a bit in every direction, the big news is the diesel that might find its way underhood. A new dash and upgraded interior materials round out the changes. This new for '08 Jazz should have its coming out party at the Tokyo Motor Show in October. Click the image or the read link for a pair of full-size shots.
[Source: Auto Express]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Yatrik 2:13PM (1/10/2007)
This MUST be another winding road hoax. It's too good to be true!
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Jim 10:11AM (1/10/2007)
And you thought Honda makes Japanese cars.
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che culattone 12:20PM (1/10/2007)
ahh.. it's good to see the japs sticking to what they do well: making soulless cars for daily commutes. don't try to make performance sedans (LEXUS) or cutting edge coupe designs (ACURA)...just stick to bland. you'll keep your market share that way.
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Sam 12:50PM (1/10/2007)
Che you're an idiot. Honda owns Acura.
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Mike 12:38PM (1/10/2007)
#2 Soulless cars? So do you think Lotus Elise has a soul? I bet you do............but i guess you will pretend that you never heard that Lotus uses a 1.8 liter TOYOTA engine.
What a dilema............
Do you think Saturn has A SOUL? VUE uses Honda's engine and transmition.
Infact in 1999 GM made a deal with honda to buy 90,000 engines and stransmitions a year.........VUE doesn't sell 90,000 a year........meaning other GM cars have Honda's engines and transmitions.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh so sad to be you, here you were about to buy a soulful GM but now you do not know which cars have Honda parts.
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che culattone 12:48PM (1/10/2007)
well, first of all, moron, i don't buy american cars, i only buy german. but that's irrelevant, because the soul of a car has NOTHING to do with its engine. an engine is linked (somewhat) to the car's performance, not to its soul. soul is how much love and heart was put into designing the car. making an ugly box with triangular lights is not soul, its a hunk of metal put together.
If you think that a some GM cars having Honda engines makes them hondas, then you seriously need to reconsider how much you know/understand about cars, because, in all honesty, the engine is only 1 of dozens of very important sections to a car, the least of which is not the design (something the asians just can't seem to get)
by the way, i'd buy an american car with soul (although those have been lacking in recent years; hopefully the ford interceptor and some of the GM concepts will actually go to production) over a japanese 'appliance' anyday...i've said it once and i'll say it again, my whirlpool dishwasher has more soul than a toyota or a honda.
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Nellydesign 12:51PM (1/10/2007)
Wow, that was incredible logic. Since GM buys the engines and they don't sell 90,000 Vues, they must be going in other GM vehicles. OR, maybe they are sitting in vehicles on lots that aren't sold. Could be. How about actually naming another car that GM makes that uses the Honda engine instead of spouting useless conjecture. As if to imply GM can't function without a Honda engine.
Remember when Honda used an Isuzu to crack into the SUV market? It was a deal made to help both companies and it had the worst reliability of any Honda at the time because it WASN'T a Honda. Companies make deals like this all the time. Toyota sold GM's badged as Toyotas in Europe at one point during the whole Corolla/Geo thing.
How about mentioning that the Honda engine has been or is being replaced with GM's own new V6.
Oh and until recently, I don't think anyone would have said Saturns have "soul".
The "Souless" Japanese comment wasn't exactly fair either. Does the new Lexus IS-F with 400 hp sound souless? Actually sounds great if you ask me.
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che culattone 12:57PM (1/10/2007)
Oh THANK YOU SAM, FOR EDUCATING US ALL.
can i sit with you all day so you can teach me more? what else does honda own? oh my god what would I do without you?1!??!?!!?!
you stupid retard, when did i say honda doesn't own acura? if you followed cars at all, you'd know that acura put out a coupe concept recently that's trying to push the limits, but is basically the japanese equivalent of a huge TURD.
no please, shut up and go back to your room little boy.
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Brandon 1:19PM (1/10/2007)
Culat,
Do me a favor, go drive a Fit first then comment. Aside from the almost universally positive reviews of the car, I can tell you from firsthand experience it has a soul. A very different one than the German luxobarges, but a soul nonetheless.
The type of chipper, eager, tossability that once was the sole (pun unintended) domain of VW, until they lost it in the 90s (having recaptured it recently with the GTI). As you point out, the engine isn't the soul. And like the original Rabitt, the Fit's quality is defined by it's performance but rather by its want to be pushed.
Frankly, and CAR agrees with me here in large part, it's got a lot more soul to it than the overly computerized monster than is the M6. Now, the M5, that's a whole other beast.
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che culattone 1:45PM (1/10/2007)
You know what, actually Brandon, you might be right. This car, the Fit, seems like one of the very few japanese iterations where it seems like they actually put thought into something other than "RELIABILITY RELIABILITY" (which by the way is a croc...toyota recalled more cars in 2006 than it sold)
I'm actually happy that the fit is being sold in the states, and i agree that it resembles the old golf...but you must also admit that the japanese lineups, from top to bottom, essentially offer nothing more than "we are reliable! buy us because we won't break down!!!!" which is totally not true. nissan, the WRX and the EVO are exceptions for me. I'd say Mazda is an exception as well, but really Mazda is just a better looking Ford...
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Mike 1:54PM (1/10/2007)
by the way, i'd buy an american car with soul (although those have been lacking in recent years; hopefully the ford interceptor.........................................OH STUP UP already
So Japanese just take a box and call it a car? Ok what about taking a car and rebadging it....like VW and calling that a Volvo...is that soulful? Or making cars that have some of the worst quality out there, is that soul? Because Benzs quality is so poor it can only mean engeneers spend too little time on that car...........is that SOUL?
Speaking of dishwashers........i have one, i did not need a single fixup in a decade....which is not something you can say for german cars....but you already know that....MORON
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Mike 2:03PM (1/10/2007)
"RELIABILITY RELIABILITY" (which by the way is a croc...toyota recalled more cars in 2006 than it sold)
You wanna back up that statement?
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Mike 2:04PM (1/10/2007)
Soul.............yeah, let's talk about soul. If the car is made poorly, it can only mean that people who build it, designed it, developed it did not care enough about it to make it good. That is why Benz, GM and Ford have about as much soul as as a garbage can, which is not that far away from GM by the way.
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Mike 2:10PM (1/10/2007)
10.---I meant SHUT UP and not a Volvo....AUDI
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che culattone 2:19PM (1/10/2007)
"Ok what about taking a car and rebadging it....like VW and calling that a Volvo...is that soulful?"
hmmmm, funny, i couldve sworn that Volvo was owned by FORD. ASS. Germans don't rebadge cars. That's something that is exclusive to the Japs and the Yanks. Just to make it clear to you, i'll go through each of the major german companies and explain it to you piece by piece:
BMW - owns: BMW, Rolls Royce, Mini...no need to argue that nothing is rebadged there
Daimler - owns: Mercedes, ChryslerCorp...MB has openly stated that they will refuse to let Chrysler use any of their platforms for any cars. This is not rebadging, mind you, but using platforms at the very basest level. Yes, Chryslers and Dodges are rebadged versions of eachotehr, but again, that's an american thing. The only car that is rebadged in DCX is the Dodge sprinter, which originally is a Mercedes V
VWAG - owns: VW, Audi, Lambo, Bentley, Seat, Skoda...VWAG, though they have many brands in similar segments, do not do rebadging in any meaning of the word. They share platforms, suppliers, and technology within the group. But an Audi is not a rebadged VW, just as a Bentley is not a rebadged Audi, though they are built on teh same platforms to improve costs and efficiency.
Porsche: owns Porsche (and minority stake in VWAG)...All of porsche's cars, except for the Cayenne, are purpose built from top to bottom. no rebadging done anywhere. wiht hte Cayenne, it is once again just like within the VWAG group: the cayenne is based on the same platform as the Touareg, the Q7 and the future Lamborghini SUV, but they are not rebadged versions of eachother.
Opel - owned BY GM, and rebadging is common, but really just in order for GM to sell the Opel products in the US as Saturns.
so you see, Germans don't rebadge, or badge engineer. They share technology and platforms. if you knew anything about cars, you'd know that those are two completely different things.
Now let's examine Toyota and Honda
Honda: owns Acura, Honda... Pretty much EVERY SINGLE ACURA ON THE MARKET is a rebadged Honda, with bascially the headlights and taillights changed, and the interior improved, sometimes with a bigger engine, being sold for a 30-40% premium. That's a ripoff. Acuras have no soul, just as their Honda counterparts. The only Acura i can think of that could be considered NOT to be a rebadged Honda, is their most expensive sedan (whose name eludes me at this time), though in reality, it could just be a rebadged Accord just like the TSX and TL are.
Toyota: owns Lexus, Toyota...Toyota is slightly less guilty that Honda in the sin of rebadging Toyotas as Lexus to sell at a higher price. They used to do that on every model, but recently, have been coming out with some models are are truly Lexus. However, I challenge you to look at most of the Lexus models and tell me they aren't rebadged Toyotas (EVERY SUV, as well as the LS which is an Avalon, the ES which is the Camry)
so please, shut up when you know nothing about what your talking about.
As i said earlier, Toyota had more recalled more cars in 2006 than it sold, which shuold tell you a good amount about the reliability and quality of them. I have always owned German cars, and have ALWAYS been happy. The only time i got into trouble was with my 740, which was the frist series BMW to get the navigation installed, and so that would bug from time to time. but as far as the quality of the engineering, the interior, and the SOUL and HEART put into the car, the japs could never measure up to Germans.
and even if they did have qulatiy problems, which they don't (i challenge you to actually sit in a new E350 or an Audi A8 and tell me they are bad quality), that once again is not relevant to the car's soul and heart. i guess it's just something someone like you could never understand...
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Jim 2:17PM (1/10/2007)
when you recall a car... the car didn't break down. it's a preventive fix.
Recalls are good... manufacturers pay for free fixes.
So the customer doesn't get exposed to any break down, just a longer next maintainence.
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che culattone 2:21PM (1/10/2007)
"15. when you recall a car... the car didn't break down. it's a preventive fix.
Recalls are good... manufacturers pay for free fixes."
That's not entirely accurate. When you recall a car, it's because it was built properly the first time around. If they had done a correct job on it to begin with, they wouldnt be recalling the car. A recall is just the company catching a mistake after it's been done, but before a huge uproar about it starts.
Recalls are a major component of reliability ratings given to companies. Toyota is no longer the most reliable car company. It just still has the perception of it. That will soon fade, as people who buy toyotas and lexuses will start getting sick of having their cars recalled repeatedly
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che culattone 2:25PM (1/10/2007)
edit: I meant to say "When you recall a car, it's because it WASN'T built properly the first time around" in my 2:21PM post
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withoutasol 2:46PM (1/10/2007)
These comments about Japanese cars having no soul are getting ridiculous. What the hell does it take for a car to have soul? If its based on the love and care in building a car then Hondas should rank on the top of the soul list. They are all about precision- and I can tell you first hand that even for an econobox the Fit is a blast to drive. Of course slapping a Porsche badge on a VW truck and all of a sudden it magically comes to life?
Just because Japanese makes have pretty much perfected the bread and butter econoxes and familay cars doesn't mean they don't have a passion for anything building anything else- Whether it be a passion for environmental friendliness, precision engineering, tech gadgets, or purebread sports cars (S2000 anyone? The Z? RX8). Why not compare apples to apples less you forget all those Mercedes Taxis and cargo vans running around.
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Atul 3:14PM (1/10/2007)
All cars have souls. We each like different types of souls and some of us don't like boring souls or ones that are too common.
Atul
www.realitydriven.com
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