Honda Jazz Crosstar Review 2024

The Honda Jazz has long been one of the best small cars, offering impressive space efficiency and low running costs with the brand’s impressive reliability record. Now its maker is seeking to get in on the SUV-crossover market, by giving it more visual attitude, but at what cost? Find out with our full Honda Jazz Crosstar review.

In a similar vein to the Dacia Sandero Stepway as well as now-departed rivals such as the Audi A1 Citycarver and Ford Fiesta Active, the Honda Jazz Crosstar features mainly visual changes rather than any serious mechanical upgrades. What it isn’t is a direct alternative to the Toyota Yaris Cross.

New front and rear bumpers, cladding around the sills, a different grille and roof rails mark it out from the regular Honda Jazz and it is also 30mm taller thanks in part to raised suspension. The spirit of the Rover Streetwise is alive and well.

Based on the Jazz Advance model, which is already highly specified, in this guise the Crosstar Advance – the sole trim level – gains some extra features as well as the visual changes to the exterior. The seats are trimmed in water-repellant fabric and on earlier versions, the media system gained upgraded audio including a boot-mounted subwoofer.

The Honda Jazz Crosstar also shares the regular model’s hybrid powertrain, which means a 1.5-litre petrol engine with a single-speed CVT gearbox, plus two electric motors powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. There’s no four-wheel drive on offer here, though, with both motors and the engine powering the front wheels.

The result is impressive fuel consumption, with a claimed figure of 58.9mpg, although this is slightly below the claimed figure of the regular Jazz.

What hasn’t changed is the impressive amount of space on the inside. The Honda Jazz Crosstar may be compact on the outside but inside it is remarkably spacious, with generous seating for four taller adults and plenty of light in the cabin thanks to the large windows. The cleverly folding rear seats mean you can also carry bigger loads than most rivals.

The driving experience is unsurprisingly similar to the regular Honda Jazz. The hybrid powertrain offers useful if not sparkling performance, but the gearbox and engine combination works well to deliver an easy-going driving experience. Less impressive is the ride quality, which is also similar to the regular Jazz in that it tends to react sharply to bumps, which is less than ideal for a car which will likely see a lot of use in the city.

On the upside, the driving position is good with an excellent view out, and the steering is light with a compact turning circle, making it easy to thread through urban traffic. A reversing camera is standard too, so parking is also a breeze.

Overall the Honda Jazz Crosstar is an excellent small car in many respects, but the biggest issue is that other than the looks, audio system and seat fabrics, it doesn’t offer anything of real benefit over the regular Jazz, but is significantly more expensive. It’s not a bad choice if it ticks all the right boxes, but the normal Jazz offers almost all the same qualities for less money.

One of the reasons the Jazz is a popular car is that it is easy to drive, and the Honda Jazz Crosstar is no different. The steering is light and accurate, so urban running is a low effort experience and makes it a breeze to park too, helped by the tight 10.1-metre turning circle. 

However there is not a great deal of feel through the wheel, so it can seem a little disconnected from what is happening at the front wheels, although for many drivers this won’t be an issue.

One area where the Honda Jazz Crosstar lags behind small car rivals is the ride quality. On smooth roads it feels controlled and composed, but if the surface deteriorates it can become a little choppy and bigger bumps are transmitted into the cabin too frequently. 

This is much the same as the regular Jazz, so the raised ride height has had little effect in improving the ride and there are better options if a comfortable ride is an important factor.

Despite the raised ride height, the upside of that relatively firm suspension is that the Honda Jazz Crosstar does not experience too much body roll, so you can corner with confidence. For a car of this size it has a relatively big-car feel, which gives confidence to the driver when out on the open road.

The driving experience in the Honda Jazz Crosstar is very similar to the standard car, so it is best suited to anyone looking for a car that demands little from the driver rather than those who want to enjoy a B-road blast on occasion.

Once again the Honda Jazz Crosstar follows the template of the regular model, which means there is only one engine option — a 1.5-litre petrol hybrid with two electric motors, both of which drive the front wheels.

This means there is no need to charge and you can enjoy the benefits of electric assistance without any input from the driver required. The majority of the time it uses a combination of the petrol engine and electric motors to provide drive, while at higher speeds the motors remain dormant and the petrol engine does all the work. Similarly, at low speeds and with sufficient charge in the battery, it can run solely on electric power.

Honda doesn’t quote combined output figures for the Jazz Crosstar, but the engine produces 107PS and 131Nm of torque, the electric motors 122PS and 253Nm. Top speed is 108mph, while the 0-62mph acceleration benchmark takes 9.7 seconds.

Not only does this mean you can enjoy the silent running of electric power when available, but the Honda Jazz Crosstar will switch seamlessly between the power sources depending on the circumstances, so you get the benefits without having to decide for yourself. It’s no more challenging to drive than a conventional petrol or diesel car.

What is more, the hybrid engine is connected to an automatic CVT gearbox, so you don’t need to change gear either. A further benefit of this is that Honda has engineered fake gearchanges into the transmission, so it largely avoids the high rev drone that other CVTs suffer from when you demand stronger acceleration.

The performance is useful too, with the electric motors and engine combining to provide good acceleration when required. It should be more than brisk enough for the majority of buyers.

Euro NCAP tested the Honda Jazz Crosstar in 2020 and awarded it a five-star rating, helped by the comprehensive list of safety equipment which includes Collision Mitigation Braking System that uses a front-mounted camera to detect other vehicles and even pedestrians and apply the brakes if necessary.

The Crosstar also benefits from Road Departure Mitigation System, automatic high beam headlights, adaptive cruise control and an intelligent speed limiter. The Crosstar is also fitted with 10 airbags should the worst happen.

Honda’s official figures for the Jazz Crosstar give a maximum permissible towing capacity of 500kg, so although a towing bar is available as a dealer-fit accessory it is not best suited to towing duties unless the load is relatively modest.

One of the Honda Jazz Crosstar’s best features is the practicality it offers given its size. Happily the Crosstar retains the Magic Seat function, which allows the rear bench to flip and fold so it can accommodate taller items upright, and while this may be a feature that isn’t used often, it’s a very handy thing to have.

With the rear seats in place there is 304 litres of boot space available, although earlier versions had 298 litres, which is six fewer compared with the conventional Jazz, due to a subwoofer taking up space in there. Even so this is a large and useful space, expandable to 1205 litres (1198 litres on subwoofer-equipped versions) with the rear seats folded.

The same goes for passengers too, with excellent headroom and good legroom for those in the front and back. It’s easy to find a good driving position too, and although the seating position is slightly raised it’s not quite as high as you would find in a proper SUV of a similar size.

Honda’s reputation for quality is clearly in evidence here, as the Honda Jazz Crosstar’s cabin is both appealing to look at and feels good to the touch. Being based on the high-spec Advance model helps here, with a fabric covering on the dashboard, comfortable seats and a sturdy feeling to the buttons and switches, although some of the plastics are clearly of the cheaper variety.

It feels solidly built too, ready to withstand thousands of miles of use. The water-repellant seat coverings should also help the Crosstar to withstand the rigours of pets or children, while a leather covering to steering wheel and gear lever mean your hands are at least in contact with a more pleasing material.

As standard the Honda Jazz Crosstar gets a 9-inch infotainment system which is mounted towards the top of the dashboard. That means it is easy to see and to reach, although it is mounted at an angle which does make it susceptible to glare and distracting reflections.

More positive is that the system itself feels up to date in terms of its appearance and how it responds to inputs. The graphics are sharp and clear, and navigating the system is easy thanks to a responsive screen and large, simple tiles for the menus. It’s also helped by the fact that the controls for the air conditioning system are physical buttons mounted below, reducing the amount of content that the screen has to control.

The specification is good too, with standard navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and a pair of USB ports in the rear. The premium sound system is also impressive, offering high quality sound reproduction and more than enough power, and there’s also voice control so you can avoid touching the screen while on the move.

One of the main downsides of the Honda Jazz Crosstar is the price. Currently the conventional Jazz Advance retails at £28,085 with solid paint and offers generally the same specification, while the Jazz Crosstar Advance is £29,085, so you pay £1,000 for the audio and styling upgrades.

For some degree of comparison, even though it’s not available with a hybrid engine system, the Dacia Sandero Stepway’s prices range from £15,295 to £19,145.

As for used examples, the earliest versions of the Jazz Crosstar start at around £15,000, but given it has been on sale for a relatively short time there are not a huge number of examples on the market so you may need to hunt around to find the ideal example.

The hybrid powertrain means running costs for the Honda Jazz Crosstar should be satisfyingly low and although the claimed fuel consumption of 58.9mpg might be difficult to achieve, it should still deliver good figures thanks to the mix of petrol and electric power. It is slightly behind the regular Jazz Advance, which offers a claimed 62.8mpg.

The Jazz Crosstar is group 22 for insurance, which is on a par with the rest of the Jazz range but is relatively high for a small car and higher than some rivals such as the discontinued Ford Fiesta Active.

Only available with a single trim level, the Honda Jazz Crosstar Advance comes as standard with LED headlights and tail lights, front and rear parking sensors, rear view camera, adaptive cruise control, 16-inch alloy wheels, Honda Connect infotainment system, keyless entry and start, heated leather steering wheel, water-repellent upholstery, wireless Apple CarPlay, Garmin navigation, heated front seats and black mirror caps.