This is not a coffee related blog posting. Well, OK, the last paragraph might be. Instead, it’s a little posting in praise of our Honda Jazz car and it’s capabilities with regard to taking it to the South of France, doing over 2,600 miles, and seeing how it fared.
First things first, the storage capacity for such a small car is huge. The boot is a decent size. Yet under the boot, there is a further compartment that is also really spacious. Then, under the rear seats is a space big enough to put a flight bag. Wow. Add to that a series of nooks and crannies and I reckon you could easily fit a family of four plus luggage in there. In our case, it was just going to be me and Angela and some extra luggage for the kids who were flying down. We managed to cope with everybody’s stuff plus a few bottles of wine that we bought on the way back.
On the motorway, the 1.4 engine was great. We have the semi-automatic version with cruise control (I know, it’s for old folks). With quite a heavy car, the Jazz was still fairly nippy when it needed to be. On the autoroutes in France, the cruise control came into its own. We were running at just under 50mpg for the trip which was great.
Sometimes, on long journeys, my lower back tends to get a bit sore. I didn’t have any trouble with the Jazz. The seats were firm and comfortable and I didn’t have a single twinge all holiday. I’m six feet tall and the driving position was fine for me. There’s enough adjustment to allow you to find the right angle.
All in all, the Jazz was just a superb small car for such a long journey. We lacked for nothing and the fuel efficiency was outstanding. We probably save ourselves £100 on fuel compared to our old Picasso. More money to spend on wine.
Finally (and here comes the coffee bit) look at what we saw in a service station! Proper coffee machines that run off your cigarette lighter socket. We haven’t bought one yet but we are sorely tempted.
