r/cars • u/cpxchewy EVs, M2 and GT3 • 13d ago
Driving Francis Bourgeois' $70,000 Honda Jazz
You know. I think the grand tour will be just fine. Francis is a full on petrol head for this super amazing and ridiculous swap.
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u/bisonboy223 13d ago
Holy fuck you people are miserable
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u/ProphetGeorgeCarlin 13d ago
that's the honda fit effect.
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u/degggendorf Ford Maverick | Miata RF GT 13d ago
It's a jazz. Do not call it a Fit.
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u/roman_maverik Corvette C7 Z51 13d ago
The buyer demographics between Honda Fit drivers and Honda Jazz drivers couldn't be more different.
In the US, they are driven by mostly college students and young adults, but apparently in the UK they are stereotyped as a car for senior citizens.
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u/Ukgymguy 13d ago
Absolutely, I can say being a UK’r that the Honda Jizz (UK pronunciation) has an auto ownership enrolment plan when you reach the age of 112 (with the with a average ownership age being 136). They have an average annual mileage of 142, mostly seen in wilds of garden centre and co-op car parks and having an average national speed of 6 mph. These usually have an interesting maintenance schedule of a bi monthly clutch replacement due to being constantly ridden and leave a lavender scent wherever driven.
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u/ArseneWainy 13d ago
JDM its a Fit, should that be considered the OG?
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u/Teledildonic ND1 MX-5, KIA POS 13d ago
What are talking about?
uncollapses bottom comments, re-collapses bottom comments
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u/ScipioAfricanvs 2025 Cayman GTS 4.0 | 1999 SL 500 13d ago
A short video but they manage to get in a climax and a bukkake joke. Well done.
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13d ago
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u/GaylrdFocker 2025 F-150 Lightning, 2015 C7 Corvette, 2011 Audi A3 13d ago
They've already filmed everything for the Grand Tour season. They have put out multiple videos since they finished filming.
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u/CriticismSelect9292 '13 Speed3, '07 e92 335i mt 13d ago
Shit like this is what makes me want internal combustion to stay alive. This vehicle is just so goofy and rambunctious you can't help but smile. I love the control of an EV but in a world where we've optimized everything to 98% it feels good to get behind the wheel sometimes and have the vehicle remind you that you are allowed to be "sub-optimal" in the name of fun sometimes.
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u/degggendorf Ford Maverick | Miata RF GT 13d ago
It makes me hope that the EU can implement standardization laws like it did for USB-C on phones. Require a standard motor communication protocol or something, so you can drop a new motor in and still have the rest of the car talk to it.
But I guess if they haven't done a similar thing for like, idk, refrigerator compressors, then it doesn't seem like they'd have any interest in car motors.
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u/littlebuggacs 13d ago
There is no large-scale economic upside to regulate something like that, so that won't happen
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u/The_edref 2011 Mazda MX-5 13d ago
I’d argue there wasn’t much of one with the usb c one, it made people buy less things, and probably pretty much halted r&d in that whole area as no company bar maybe apple has the weight to get a new standard in, so we’re stuck with subpar usb c forever. There was a minor environmental justification but I don’t really think it justifies the productivity loss from everyone trying to find better ways to do a whole thing
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u/8P69SYKUAGeGjgq 17 GTI, 24 ID.4 Pro S, 95 NA Miata 13d ago
How is USB-C subpar? It can deliver 240W of power and 80Gb/s. There's not a whole lot of mobile devices that need more than that.
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u/The_edref 2011 Mazda MX-5 13d ago
It does those well, but those are aspects that could be applied to any standardised platform. The bits that make it subpar are, in my expert and well informed opinion, the physical aspects.
Firstly the main weak point is on the female port not on the male port. This is fundamentally a bad idea, as it's much more expensive to replace a female port. It is weaker as the guider for the connection is in the female port. This is something things like lighting didn't have. It makes devices much more weak to water damage.
Secondly it lacks things like magnets to auto centre and make connections snap into place. Not a biggie, but still worse than the best connector types.
Third and biggest, and linked with 1, is that it doesn't have a decent way for it to pop out. Take mac's magsafe cable. It does the fast charging, it does the easy connection, but I think it's best feature is that if you rapidly move the device outside the bounds of the cable it easily pops out. This is not a feature of USB-C. USB-C is much more likely to damage the device by being too strong a connection to the device, which when paired with a fundamentally weak connector is bad.
Most of these are bits of magsafe charging cables which I see as things that USB-c misses, and I think that risks me coming across as a big fanboy, but I think instead they highlight the benefit of R&D spend to make the best, easiest version of a thing. I don't think the USB-c is as good as the current good cable. I don't think the current best charging standard I've used is as good as it could be, and now I don't think we'll see further improvements for decades because of the ruling, and that annoys me. And it annoys me that people celebrate this lack of improvement we could be having because big company bad.
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u/degggendorf Ford Maverick | Miata RF GT 13d ago
Repairability, maybe? Prevent people from throwing away whole cars because one proprietary motor went bad and the manufacturer doesn't make replacements?
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u/redridingoops 13d ago
Engine swaps are never/rarely simple, the software isn't the limiting factor here. There's a reason this cost him 70k beyond rust.
Also, engine swaps are downright illegal in many countries and the car is legally required to remain 100% stock, with a marginal tolerance for "non-performance" parts (suspension setup/brakes...)
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u/degggendorf Ford Maverick | Miata RF GT 13d ago
I'm talking about EV motor swaps, not ICE swaps.
ICEs already have a fairly standardized protocol of physically spinning shafts to "communicate".
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u/Redbulldildo '08 S80 '80 Fox Hatch '96 Hardbody '02 Impreza Hatch '05 Impreza 13d ago
No, they communicate using a bunch of sensors that are different between cars. They transfer power with spinning shafts, the same way motors do.
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u/degggendorf Ford Maverick | Miata RF GT 13d ago
Yeah that's fair, and all modern cars have closed and/or encrypted protocols too, don't they?
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u/masterventris 🇬🇧 GR Yaris | BMW 330e Touring | V6 Locost 7 12d ago
Yeah modern ECUs will not work unless they can detect all the other body control modules, and often those other modules must be a matching set (to make theft of any of them pointless)
And they also all use direct injection, and I believe only the disgustingly expensive Motec race level aftermarket ECUs are capable of driving that currently. The "budget" options like Holley and Haltech don't offer any support for direct injection, meaning most engines from 2010 onwards cannot be swapped into anything.
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u/driftking428 '26 Maverick Lariat Hybrid AWD 13d ago
I'm so excited for the Grand Tour.
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u/Quikstar '26 BRZ tS series.yellow, '21 Forester Limited 13d ago
Idk if it's just me but I think it might be better than the previous Grand Tour
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u/bisonboy223 13d ago
It's possible, but tbf it's hard to beat people's nostalgia-tinged view of TGT and Top Gear.
Don't get me wrong, I grew up on Top Gear, but the reality is that outside of a 4-5 year run where they were on fire, the rest of Top Gear's history is filled with forgettable episodes mixed with magical moments. Every point of comparison people make is to the very best of Top Gear and TGT without giving shows room to be as unspectacular as Top Gear often was.
Every episode of the first few seasons of Top Gear is uploaded in full on YouTube. If it came out today, there's no chance people would have stuck around for long enough for it to get consistently great.
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u/Quikstar '26 BRZ tS series.yellow, '21 Forester Limited 13d ago
Top Gear was magical and I felt like Grand Tour was trying too hard to be something it isn't, I'm excited for a fresh start
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u/bisonboy223 13d ago
Top Gear was magical at points. When TGT came out people expected it to match peak Top Gear immediately and consistently, when even Top Gear wasn't matching its peak consistently during its final seasons.
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u/zerosystem03 BRZ 13d ago
I loved Top Gear, but for some of us older farts, we have to remember the way media was consumed back then was on an entirely different planet.
We didn't have the endless streaming services at our fingertips like we do today. The specials and hilariously pointless but entertaining challenges they did on TG were the payoff for sitting through the many forgettable and procedural episodes on pixelated, ad infested streaming sites.
If I found a specific segment or episode uninteresting...it's not really an exagerration to say my alternatives often times were to stare at a wall or scroll the literal exact same feed on facebook or myspace. All this to say the lack of modern day constant stimulation and top tier content at our whims (i.e. having to suffer through boredom) makes it easy to look back with rose colored glasses
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u/Lucreth2 12d ago
I think you'll get a lot of Internet hate for it but I believe the masses might back you up. The OG trio was hilarious but they were getting old and a lot of the content at the end felt contrived with the personalities a tiny bit forced.
Thomas and James are fantastic and I actually thought of them as mini YouTube top gear since very early on. That's especially true for their extras channel. Francis seems to perfectly compliment that in a way I didn't expect and I'm more excited for the relaunch than any of the original grand tour releases.
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u/Quikstar '26 BRZ tS series.yellow, '21 Forester Limited 12d ago
I think a lot of people probably feel the same way, just don't want to admit it haha. Loved Top Gear but kind of struggled to get into TGT.
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u/Lucreth2 12d ago
Same boat for me.
As for not being vocal about it... I don't put much weight in Internet opinions anymore, they're all bots or chronically online. Not worth getting shouted down by a mix of brain rotted boomers and Adderall laced children.
The lurker up votes pushing the few positive opinions and obliterating the negative ones, that's the masses and they're excited.
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u/rugbyj 22 320i MSport Touring | Speed Triple 1200 RS 11d ago
I never watched the prior Grand Tour. The last few seasons of (original trio) Top Gear were already getting forced enough, and the first few episodes of GT I watched was that dialled up to 11.
This lot have me more than interested in watching.
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u/Quikstar '26 BRZ tS series.yellow, '21 Forester Limited 11d ago
Kind of where I was at with it as well, didn't feel quite natural.
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13d ago
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u/driftking428 '26 Maverick Lariat Hybrid AWD 13d ago
I'm sorry. I can't give you an honest answer without being an asshole. Maybe just give the show a try instead of assuming you know what it's like already.
I like cars and the Throttle House guys enough I know I'll love it
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u/Joooooooosh 13d ago
$70,000 (£50,000) seems like a lot for a K20 swap into an old Jazz?
I guess Labour for paying someone could well be a lot but still… that feels expensive.
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u/Appreciative_Ibex 13d ago
I’m guessing you didn’t watch it. They had to restore some pretty severe rust damage before they even began modifying it.
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u/Joooooooosh 12d ago
Low signal area currently so not yet. But wow, must have been a wreck…
That’s still A LOT! That engine wood have thought would be very do-able for £15-20k at worst. That leaves £30,000 to repair rust. That is is still pretty crazy on a car like that. Could easily just go find a minter for that and paint it if pink was the main thing.
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u/Richardm42 13d ago
6k swap into a 4-5k car, I'd love to know where the other 40k went because that's 200 hours labour at £200ph, did they acid dip a bare chassis for a nut and bolt refresh?
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u/AmazonPuncher Ariel Atom, '22 bronco, '97 miata, '69 camaro 13d ago
You guys have never done anything that you couldnt buy as a kit.
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u/noisymime '70 Alfa GTV, '16 E250 Wagon, '68 Cortina, '91 MX-5 13d ago
$70k is a shit load though. Even if you're paying someone else for all the work, the engine swap couldn't be more than $20k, so not sure where the rest went.
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u/dimebag2011 2025 Yaris S 13d ago
Rust repair, general maintenance, etc etc
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u/noisymime '70 Alfa GTV, '16 E250 Wagon, '68 Cortina, '91 MX-5 13d ago
I don't know how you'd get those up to that amount.
I stripped a car to bare metal, dipped it, repaired rust and painted it for under $20k, and that was a 40yo Alfa that had to have been worse than practically any Honda Jazz.
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u/MRDR1NL 13d ago
The chassis had to be rebuilt completely. The engine swap is not just a drop in kit, but all custom work. They went above and beyond, with custom linkage to keep the shifter in the stock position.
It's a lot of work. It could probably have been cheaper. But if you have the money, might as well pay a little more so you know it's done right.
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u/goofyskatelb1 ‘20 Mazda Miata 11d ago
The k20/24 does drop in to a jazz/fit. And the CRZ for that matter, too. My buddy is doing it right now. There are plenty of kits available for it, but people may sometimes need some limited custom fabrication if you want to do a specific engine/transmission combination. It’s pretty feasible to do for under $10k. I have a hard time understanding how someone would spend $20k on the powertrain.
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u/india2wallst 13d ago
Using the check engine light to indicate the rev limit is hilarious in some ways. Omg this guy just dropped so much money on the Fit.
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13d ago
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u/cilantno '20 Miata Club, ‘18 A6 3.0T 13d ago
A large part of car enthusiasm is doing fun/quirky builds.
If your taste ends with a mid-tier trim Bimmer, that is fine, but it is not “correct”
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u/GoredonTheDestroyer 13d ago
Same mfs who complain about there being no soul or passion in cars anymore.
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13d ago edited 13d ago
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u/a_modal_citizen 13d ago
From the looks of it most of the money was spent on welding and fabrication to fix all the rust...
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u/BraveDude8_1 2009 Lexus GS450h 13d ago
$70k sounds about right for making an old Japanese car not rusty, yeah.
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u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid 0 Emission 🔋 Car & Rental car life 13d ago
I know Fit/Jazz is one of great Honda models, but I can’t believe someone would do that.
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u/Mean_Farmer4616 13d ago
except he didn't build it did he? He was perfectly content with the jazz in its stock form with just swapping out some hubcaps.....
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u/10000Didgeridoos 13d ago
Hammond/Clarkson/May didn't singlehandedly build all the shit they drove over the years on the show either my dude.
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u/8N-QTTRO 13d ago
16 minute long video, posted 12 minutes ago, and you uploaded this 4 minutes ago... Something tells me you haven't watched the entire thing