Chinese Jazz heads to UK

By Ross Pinnock

01st April 2007

	The cars should start to arrive in late summer, but they will be indistinguishable from the existing models

Jazz sup­erminis produced at the brand's Guangzhou factory in China will hit British showrooms this summer.

One of Auto Express's class favour­ites, the model is always a strong performer in our annual Driver Power survey. But until now, dealers here have only received cars built in Japan.

A variety of UK models will be des­patched from the Guangzhou plant, which is well established and has been successfully producing left-hand-drive versions of the Jazz and Accord executive car for mainland Europe since 2004. But will the arrival of Chinese-built vehicles harm Honda's chances of future success? Bosses say not, so don't expect to see any change in standards as a result of the move.

A spokesman for the company told Auto Express: "The cars should start to arrive in late summer, but they will be indistinguishable from the existing models. They will be exactly the same quality as the vehicles we get from Japan and use the same materials."

In 2004, the practical supermini scooped the top honour in our Driver Power customer satisfaction report, when it beat all its rivals to claim first place in the reader survey.

The Jazz has consistently rated very highly with Auto Express's readers - and to find out how well it performed in this year's rundown, turn to the special pull-out supplement in the centre pages of this issue.

Tell us about your car in our Driver Power survey.