As is traditional, our first category is that of the Compact Business Car of the Year an amalgamation of the Motor Industry Associations Micro and Small class segments.
It is from these classes a fleet manager might be tempted to draw a company runabout or pool car from.
With that in mind, we have to point out there are effectively two grades of Compact cars, which makes judging tricky since we can’t factor price in fairly.
It is not always the most expensive car that wins and – with Pool cars – you could be forgiven for thinking the lowest price would take the prize, which gives credibility to our discounting price from our judging criteria.
This year sees a return to form for our winner which has been a Company Vehicle award recipient previously and in different segments. It is, however, the Compact car segment where Honda seems to be able to repeat a winning formula.
The Honda Jazz has three variants for 2022 and all could be considered winners in this class, but this year it is the cumbersomely named e: HEV LUX Jazz which struck the truest chord for our judges.
Arguably Honda’s most technologically clever Jazz, the e: HEV LUX features everything the conventional Jazz has to offer in terms of safety, storage space, driveability, simplicity of controls and fun factor.
It retains the advanced versions of the Magic seats which now integrate fatigue fighting design in addition to versatility, but the real trump card is the powertrain.
Honda often marches to the beat of a different drum, and usually gets to the end destination at the same time – if not a little bit ahead of everyone else – but via a different path, as it has with electrification technology.
The e: HEV system turns the conventional hybrid formula upside down. The twin electric motors are connected to the 1.5-litre petrol engine which in turn powers the electricity generator.
This affords the Jazz e: HEV LUX its smooth and crisp characteristics and the performance of an electric vehicle without the range anxiety considerations.
Technically then, the e: HEV LUX Jazz is head and shoulders above others in class and that would be enough to tip the award in its favour, but Honda was not ready to stop at some clever ‘leccy tech.
The e: HEV LUX has specification and features comparable to full-sized cars, but you don’t see all of it and that’s by design. Another winning attribute of our Compact Car of the Year award recipient.
