Been pondering a Honda Jazz 2004 1.4I SE CVT auto for towing my little diddy 650kg max laden weight Kip caravan. Can anyone tell me if this will be ok as a tow car? I've tried a few tow car match sites, they say it will be ok, but might struggle on hills...
The car I presently tow with is a Nissan 1.6 SE auto P reg, so getting on in years with 93K on the clock - but which has very little trouble towing, and the towing specs are pretty low for this car.. also struglles a bit on hills, but not bad. I've also looked at the 1.6 Nissan Note auto, and it seems to be worse than the Jazz on paper for towing.
I wondered if a 1.4 auto engine with only 8valves would have less power than a 16v, but as these two cars are coming out at about the same, I'm getting all confused now!
Any advice most welcome and I would be really grateful. And the sooner the better as this car I'm thinking of buying won't be around for long! Please, though, any answers the less technical the better as I'm a girly and just need a tow car that will tow a little van and not cost too much overall.
Thanks for your reply. I think it might only be slow going up long slow inclines... With the Nissan, I just press a button and it drops into a low gear until I get to the top, doesn't really struggle though.
I have only towed with a petrol manual version, and a max load of around 400kg, tows fine on the flat and keeps upto the max limits on motorways, but you do have to work the gears and crawl up any inclines. Where you will struggle is getting off on hillstarts from stationary, and may have to plan your route carefully to avoid stalling the engine on these.
TBH, l wouldnt like to tow anything heavier than the 400kg, a much better bet would be to look for the bigger engined Civic, the 1.8 makes a much better towcar, the 2.2 diesel even better, and there are a fair few decent examples at reasonable prices around if your budget could be made to stretch to an 06 plate or even an old shape 1.6 Civic of around 2004.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Hi Romany Girl and thank you for the info. I used to have a 1.6 Civic, lovely car, but very expensive to run, tax and insurance wise. The seats were uncomfortable as well, so I traded it in for the Nissan Almera I have now, the seats are like armchairs! Although I know most of the newer cars do have harder seats than what I'm used to! However, that's hardly the real point in case!
Looks like I'm going to have to get a 1.8 Nissan Almera - bit heavy on insurance and tax though!
I believe the CVT version cannot tow. A friend had one I think it was the CVT and being a boat owner was very upset to find out he couldn't have a tow bar fitted because it was not allowed to tow by Honda themselves.
The boat was only a dinghy so 300kg max. The issue was the auto transmission.
Thanks for that info. Parkers guide says it has an unbraked towing weight of 400 and a braked tow weight of 1000kg! That's for a cvt~7 though, and the ad doesn't say that there is a 7 after the cvt.
Seems like you are correct, Navver! A quick Google came up with the same thing you said. Apparently the auto oil gets too hot unless you fit an oil cooler or some such thing! And this explains why my old Nissan does tow a small caravan well, I remember the garage saying some sort of cooler gizmo was installed... back to the drawing board... :(
Thank my unfortunate friend, He actually bought one from a main dealer then asked them to fit the tow bar and found out. Not happy. Got a good deal on another Jazz which can tow though so happy now.
I have towed with a 53 plate Jazz 1.4 sport manual and a 09 Civic 1.8 manual, never had a problem getting a towbar fitted by the Honda dealerships other than price.
When we bought our CRV, l did have the dealership fit the towbar due to the softwear upgrade requirement and dedicated wiring loom to cut out any potential problems from the parking sensors whilst towing. One thing with Honda is l believe the figures quoted for max towing limits are set rather high in the handbooks to what is practically achievable out on the open road for a safe and comfortable tow.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Thanks once again, everyone. If I was buying a little runaround with no towing, I would have gone and had a lookie, but the good advice has just saved me from an expensive mistake, I think! :)
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Topic: Honda Jazz?
