Penang Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD Test Drive Story at Teluk Bahang

Penang Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD Test Drive Story at Teluk Bahang

I was selected by Honda after participating in the ‘The Great Honda Hybrid Discovery’ to test drive their hybrid vehicle for 3 days and 2 nights (1st November to 3rd November 2013). Wow, I was so excited and happy as this is the first time I get chosen for test drive for more than a day! Initially I thought I was given a Honda CR-Z for test drive because I was told so by the program manager from the phone call. Then I went to get my friends to come along with me to share the joy.

We went to the Honda showroom, Vivahill showroom, located at Bayan Lepas, Penang for the car collection. When we reached the showroom, we were greeted politely by the Honda staffs and they assigned me to the Honda program manager. He explained the test drive rule and details then I was given an envelope.

I opened the envelop and found out the car that I was given for the 3 days and 2 nights test drive is a Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD, not the Honda CR-Z!

It was a bit disappointing, but we were still happy to have the car. Honda had provided us a full tank of petrol and a demonstration to show me how to react in case I come across any emergency. Huh, nothing much to learn from them. In fact, what I really need to do is just call the program manager in the event where there is really any trouble. After having a photo session with Honda, we proceeded to drive back the car to our office because we collected the car during our working hour lunch break.

We were excited and we planned to test the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD at Teluk Bahang – Balik Pulau route. This route is the perfect route to push the car to the maximum of its capability in terms of handling and the performance of the engine. Three of us, 2 handsome guys and a beautiful lady went for the fun test drive on that night.

Before I talk about the fun, exciting and thrilling drive at Teluk Bahang drive, let me introduce a little about the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD first.

Honda Jazz Hybrid only come with one specification, and the same goes the the other Honda hybrid models as well.  Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD is the new model which is locally assembled in Malaysia. For those who is still unsure of what CKD is : CKD means Completely Knocked Down where the vehicles are locally assembled. At this moment, hybrid cars are exempted from government tax, this is the encouragement from the government for people to buy hybrid cars.

Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD uses two distinct power sources, the i-VTEC engine and the electric motor. This Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid system enables the Jazz Hybrid to achieve better fuel efficiency with its enhanced performance.

That night, I went to pick up my friends with the Honda Jazz Hybrid. Upon started the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD, the engine runing quietly and everything just work like a normal petrol car. The car comes with a blue theme for its panel dashboard, and its looks very pleasant to me.

What really catch my attention is the stylish, blue and sporty speedometer. It is so beautiful and I have to admit that the speedometer looks so much nicer than my Toyota Vios Gt Street!

The Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3L CKD speedometer background light will change colors according to the driver’s driving behavior. The background light comes with 3 colours, which is blue, green and blue-green.

a) Blue light  –   indicate your driving behavior is not fuel efficient
b) Green light – indicate your driving behavior is fuel efficient
c) Blue-green light – indicate your driving behavior is moderately fuel efficient

The beautiful background light speedometer not only enhances the appearance of the speedometer but also makes the car fun to drive with. It also guides the driver how to drive in a fuel efficient way. The speedometer is attached with digital information display at the middle, and my friend said that it looks like toy car indicator.

The information display shows the average fuel consumption of the car, mileages of the car, status of the engine and the IMA and also how ‘green’ the driver is during every trip.

The dashboard design is refined with dual tone colors of black and beige. I personally like the digital temperature indicator design which is located at the bottom, right side. The air conditional comes with auto mode and is powerful and sufficient to cool down the whole cabin within a short period of time.

The In Car Entertainment (ICE) comes with CD player, USB and AUX input along with 4 speakers. The sound clarity is above average only because the sound is not solid enough (this score is based on my own feedback).

There is a drawback in the interior of Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD. Most of the Honda Jazz interior is covered with plastic cover. This is something that Japanese cars are still lacking behind compared to the Continental cars. We wish that Honda can further improve the covering materials in their next new models.

Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD comes with big storage capacity of 1321 liter cabin space when the rear seat is folded.

I notice that the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD headlamps produce brighter light intensity compared to my Toyota Vios during the night time drive. The headlamps are bigger than my Toyota Vios headlamps too 🙂

Now, let’s get back to the story, where I picking up my friends for the joy ride.

On the way to fetch my friend Andrew at Sungai Ara, I did myself a few power slides with the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD on the way  uphill Bukit Jambul route. I was surprised with the handling of this car. Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD is equipped with MacPherson Strut for front suspension and Torsion Beam Axle for the rear suspension that gives a stiffs suspension setting which allow the car to tackle the corner without having to slow down too much.

After picking up my friend from Sungai Ara and then proceed to pick up Ai Ling, who staying somewhere in Greenlane. Then we headed towards the Teluk Bahang dam. We did a few power slides whenever there is possible, while on the way up to the dam. Occasionally, I did try out the 2 different modes from the CVT transmission which gives us the excellent transmission shifting. These 2 modes are the ‘Drive’ mode and ‘Sport’ mode.

‘Drive’ mode gives us a smoother acceleration and we can barely feel the gear changing. Most of the time we were using the ‘Drive’ mode until we reached the top of Teluk Bahang dam. ‘Drive’ mode caped the RPM limit at 5.5K before it shifts to next gear. While ‘Sport’ mode gives the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD a much powerful and responsive acceleration.

The drawback for this ‘Sport’ mode is that the car will be more jerky and noisy. ‘Sport’ mode capped the RPM limit to the 6.5K before it shifts to the next gear.

We use ‘Sport’ mode all the way from Teluk Bahang to Balik Pulau. Upon reaching the top hill of Teluk Bahang at 10.45pm, our lady Ai Ling wanted to try out her first drift or known as power slides. Initially she was nervous and drove as a usual driver but in less than 10 minutes, she was getting use to it and started to drive like a racer LOL. She did a few power slides at the sharp turns, we heard and smell the rubbers burnt off. Yea, everyone in the car is excited and dizzy as well because of the harsh acceleration and breaking… @.@

Our loose items such as wallets, cellphone and water bottles inside the car are flung all over due to harsh driving condition during the car cornering and braking. After slightly more than 10 minutes of thrilling drive, we finally reached Balik Pulau market. Now, Andrew took over the driver position. We proceeded to drive back to Teluk Bahang. Andrew was much faster than Ai Ling and did an awesome, fast and long power drift at first turn.

We can feel the car over-steered at that moment and almost hit the fence which blocked us from falling down from the hill! But thanks to the safety features of VSA, ABS + EBD, Brake Assist (BA) which immediately slowed down and stopped the car once he stepped on the brake pedal. We are still alive!  Luckily we didn’t need the 2 air bags from the front driver and front passenger to be activated.

Then he proceeded to drive uphill and the thrills continued! The Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD was sliding and burning rubber all the way up with 175/65/15 tyre profiles. At every single turn, we rev the engine that powered with Maximum Power [kW(PS)/rpm]: 65 [88] + 10 [14] (Engine + Electric Motor) and Maximum Torque [Nm/rpm]: 121 [12.3] + 78 [8.0] (Engine + Electric Motor) to the red line with ‘Sport’ mode then we did a sharp turn. The car never disappointed us.

As usual, we were getting dizzy after a few powerful sharp turns. Then I took over the driver seat just before the few more turns to reach Teluk Bahang dam. Similarly, I continued by slamming the accelerator to the floor, and performed power slides and rubber burning with the car to every corner and Ai Ling surrendered to us for the cornering skills… haha

The brake system combined with the safety features and the great suspension setting give us the confident to push the car to the limit. All the way from Teluk Bahang to Balik Pulau and vise versa route, and the speedometer indicates only blue light all the time. We pushed the car to the red line every corner yet the fuel indicator still showed more than 75% of the petrol level. This car is really fuel efficient. We are impressed by the fuel consumption of this car.

After the fun and thrilling driving experience, we headed down to the town for our supper and I dropped Ai Ling back to her lovely home.  I have to passed the car to my friend, Andrew to return the car back to Honda showroom after the next 2 days as I need to be outstation tomorrow onward. He dropped me back at our office to collect my Toyota Vios.

Just before we apart, we had a short race between Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD and Toyota Vios GT Street. Guess what, Honda Jazz Hybrid smoked Toyota Vios GT Street at Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah Highway! This is not a joke, I’d pushed my Toyota Vios to the maximum acceleration with changing every gear at the red line (6.5K rpm) yet I still slower than Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD.

Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 CKD is not only fuel efficient but it is also a powerful with good handling.

On Sunday, 2nd Nov 2013, just before my friend returned the car to the Honda Showroom, he checked the fuel efficiency on the information display. The information display still showed the impressive fuel efficiency at 15km/l after all the revving we had done to the car. Price at RM89,900, this Honda Jazz  Hybrid 1.3 CKD is a definitely a worth car to buy.  

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