Anyone own a Honda Fit?

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Agreed with the different tires making the car quite different. We put 205/50-16 tires on ours, and are much happier. The ride is better, the handling is more confident due to a tiny amount of tip-in understeer gone and the wider contact patch, and it doesn't tramline as readily on the freeway.

We're taking ours on a 14 hour road trip soon. It's as ready as we can make it...
 
Originally Posted By: BrianWC
Now if only it had another liter of displacement or a turbo!


A little turbo in this car would be perfect. Something that made boost starting at 2500 RPM or so, spooled quickly, and made peak power from 3000 RPM to 6500 RPM. Then it's its little fuel-efficient self cruising on the highway, while more power is just a downshift away.
 
We've had small cars for over 20 years . Had 2 of them totaled due to being rear ended , not our fault . Still kickin' around .
 
My son bought a 2011 Fit Base 5MT back in April. It's a lot of car for the money, even the base model is pretty well appointed. Rides OK, handles OK (needs better tires), is reasonably comfortable.

It's giving 38 MPG, which is much better than the EPA estimates. He does not drive it gently. The onboard computer matches manual calculation within a few tenths of a MPG.

The Fit is enormous on the inside. I don't know how they got that much interior volume into such a small car. My son can load his entire drum kit into the back with the rear seats up.

Biggest complaints:
- Needs a 6th gear for highway cruising.
- Stock lumbar supports made the front seats uncomfortable. The plastic factory supports have been replaced by homemade supports made of wood.
- Stock audio system was awful, but easily upgraded (Crutchfield FTW).

Some people complain that that the Fit is noisy, but it's really not that bad. It's much quieter than the '97 Civic.
 
Ron917, congrat to your son on the new fit.
the noise is from the engine bay, it is pretty loud to similar vehicle (corolla)

yes the factory stereo is &^^% but give it few months and it sounds better. I can live with mine now, I think the base model lacks the tweeters in the front dash. Anyone can confirm that?
 
We got our Sport model because of the uprated sound system. It sounds okay, but still isn't the greatest by any means.

Out on the highway, there's far more tire noise with the OEM tires than engine noise. Different tires cut the interior noise level down significantly. Wind noise is also a big thing with these Hondas. The window seals are frankly awful, so much that a 40-50 mph gust will have the windows moving 1/4" in and out.

If you're hauling anything of any weight in the back, look into getting a Firestone Ride-Rite air helper spring kit for the rear coil springs. The rear springs are tuned for ride comfort, not load hauling. They sag quite a bit when anything much over 50 lbs is placed into the back. The air spring kit helps out quite a lot.
 
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Originally Posted By: stockrex
Ron917, congrat to your son on the new fit.
the noise is from the engine bay, it is pretty loud to similar vehicle (corolla)

yes the factory stereo is &^^% but give it few months and it sounds better. I can live with mine now, I think the base model lacks the tweeters in the front dash. Anyone can confirm that?



My first car was a 1978 VW Rabbit Diesel. By comparison, every other car ever made is quiet :-) Installing Dynamat or similer in the Fit would be an improvement, but really, it's not that bad. Like I said, it is much quieter than the '97 Civic.

The Base model does not have the tweeters installed, but they are easy to add. The stock speakers aren't that great, and the equalization on the Base head unit is not good. My son is an audiophile, a musician and runs the audio equipment for his band and our church so he is very picky. He bought a new head unit, door speakers and tweeters from Crutchfield and did the install himself. It is much improved now. If it were my car, I wouldn't have bothered.
 
I have to say the road noise doesn't bother me that much. It's pretty uniform across the Honda lineup and with the radio and a/c on, its not a concern at all. I suspect that if I owned a M/T Fit with it's higher rpms at highway speed, I'd be a bit more annoyed.
 
" I think the base model lacks the tweeters in the front dash. Anyone can confirm that? "

Our 2011 base model FIT with auto has tweeters on the dash . We too are averaging close to 38 m.p.g. overall .
 
Ours just got 39.5 mpg on a road trip to Cedar Point, OH. 65 mph with the cruise control on, A/C on full tilt for the last part of it, and a fair bit of in-town driving also.

The AT, while convenient, really sucks the power and fuel economy from this car.
 
Originally Posted By: odie
" I think the base model lacks the tweeters in the front dash. Anyone can confirm that? "

Our 2011 base model FIT with auto has tweeters on the dash . We too are averaging close to 38 m.p.g. overall .
Ron you are right. Just looked at the window sticker and it states 4 speakers. Still like the sound system.
 
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I drove a 2007 (previous generation) Fit with an automatic when they first came out here. I was really impressed with the interior room and handling. I was underwhelmed by the road noise and middling power (though the 2009 and newer models are a little better in that regard). Honda will have to tweak the power (without affecting fuel economy) and comfort to keep it competitive.
 
My coworker has a Fit. His opinion:

Gets great fuel economy
Not so comfortable on longer trips
huge inside
scoops up snow too easily and packs up inside the engine bay (and he won't drive on really bad roads either)
 
Yes, a large oversight on Honda's part was the vulnerability of the front A/C condenser to rocks and other hard objects. With just under 9k miles, mine looks like it has been hit with 150k miles worth of crud. I'm sure this will especially be true this winter with the rock salt
eek.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
My coworker has a Fit. His opinion:

Gets great fuel economy
Not so comfortable on longer trips
huge inside
scoops up snow too easily and packs up inside the engine bay (and he won't drive on really bad roads either)
What year Fit does your coworker have? Thanks
 
Just got back from a 1500 mile road trip in the Fit. Overall fuel economy was about 37 mpg alternating between the wifey's 34 mpg and my 40 mpg. That was going about 65-70 on the highway with the A/C on, 2 people in the car, and a load of stuff in the back. Overall we were quite pleased with the Fit. The seats were comfy for 2-3 hour stints, the handling was fine, the engine could be coaxed into more power by application of the flappy paddles as needed, and the fuel economy was great. We weren't trying for fuel economy, so it could have been better.

Driving style plays a huge role in fuel economy with our Fit. Baby the gas pedal, and 40 mpg is easily doable. Drive like a nutter, and high 20's to low 30's is the best one will get.

For the A/C condenser, we put some "pet-proof" window screen over the lower grille opening. That's been in place for over 40k miles now, and can get a LOT of debris collected into it. The condenser has a few dings, but nothing major.
 
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