Honda Motor Co Ltd : Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3 HS.

If first impressions count, there was only one word to describe my initial introduction to the Honda I've just been driving. Green. Or, in two words; very green.

It's called fresh lime metallic and it will add Pounds 450 to the cost of your little Jazz Hybrid and, boy, will it get you noticed.

And when your neighbors remark on the unsubtle green-ness of your car you can tell them that the green streak is more than skin deep. This car is green to the core.

For beneath the body of a conventional hatchback (if a little taller than usual) lurks a beating heart that aims to make this one of the least polluting cars you can buy.

Honda has cleverly added a compact electric motor to a small conventional petrol engine to produce a car that takes on smellier, noisier diesels at their own game and comes up smelling of roses.

Along the way, it produces a warm glow at annual licensing time, with a mere Pounds 20 to pay (and nothing the first year), while it promises tremendous efficiency and only rare visits to the pumps as well.

There must be a catch, I hear you say. And indeed there is. The Jazz in conventional non-hybrid form is already an economical car and so good to own that it has won an army of contented users to its cause of pleasant, reliable motoring.

Thrill seekers need not apply to the Jazz club but for anyone, from growing family to stiff-kneed grandparents, the Jazz comes close to the perfect all-round car.

So surely, making it even more economical can only improve an already impressive machine? Well yes, until you turn all account- like and do the maths.

The fly in this Jazz ointment is the price you'll pay for part- electric power versus the benefit it's likely to bring. And it won't take even an accountant long to fathom that there's a cheaper way to enjoy the undoubted benefit of joining the Jazz band.

You'll pay Pounds 1,700 more for this Jazz (a mid-spec version of the Hybrid) over an equivalent 1.4-litre petrol model with automatic gears but no electric motor. Now, out with the calculator.

Both cars cost nothing to tax in the first year. After that its Pounds 20 and Pounds 105 annually, in favor of the one with electric assist. That car also beats the non-electric one on official fuel consumption figures, although neither will likely approach the rated economy. Nothing ever does. For the record, I managed 46mpg in the Jazz Hybrid.

Taking those official numbers at face value - and petrol at Pounds 6.23 a gallon - you'll save Pounds 209 in fuel cost over 10,000 miles of motoring.

Big deal, you might mutter, and you'd be right.

Me? I'd happily settle for a more modest Jazz, with no electric helper and a manual gearbox and enjoy a car that seems to have matured over the years into a comfortable, spacious and well made family runabout.

Price: Pounds 17,295 Mechanical: 101bhp, 1,339cc, 4cyl petrol engine and electric motor driving front wheels via 6-speed automatic gearbox Max speed: 109mph 0-62mph: 12.1 seconds Combined mpg: 62.8 Insurance group: 16 CO2 emissions: 104g/km BiK rating: 12% Warranty: 3yrs/90,000 miles.