2009 Honda Fit Sport: What the Manual Says About Towing

Hee, hee! Who here wants to bet that Dan towed that Uhaul with the Fit??

Wait for a blog post on a blown transmission soon!

The U-Haul site says you can get a hitch to tow 2,000 pounds with that bad-boy.

U-haul may say that, but I wouldn't do it. Hitch companies will sell you anything you want, but they don't warranty tranmissions or engines.

There is more to a tow rating than a hitch of sufficient capacity. Transmission, brakes and suspension need to be up to the task as well, and Honda has to certify the towing ability of the vehicle. They don't in this case, so if you show up at a Honda dealer with a hitch on your Fit, don't be surprised if they tell you your warranty is now void.

And if you have an accident, you'll be held responsible and likely charged.

I agree that it would be pretty dangerous to trailer anything remotely heavy with Fit, but I'm sure you are really inclined, you would be able to tow stuff with it.. not much, mind you, but you could.

I remember Top Gear episode where the hosts trailer a light RV trailer with 1.3 L diesel Kia.. of course they couldn't go anywhere quickly, but they still did it. and apparently, that 1.3 Diesel Kia was trailer car choice of the year
(according to jeremy, for what it's worth.)

Saturns are popular with RV'ers because they can be flat-towed. I'm not sure about the current models, but all S-series, L-series and pre-2007 VUEs were flat-tow capable.

Towing this vehicle behind a motorhome is something I hadn't thought of with, but it does seem like it'd be a perfect car for that purpose, since it's small and relatively light. But following those procedures every time before the car is towed would be a big reason why I wouldn't get the slushbox with it.

Ted Turner (man who founded CNN/TBS/TNT/TCM/etc... and an avid sailer) once wanted a Ferrari. He decided that to tow his sail boat he didn't want to buy a second car, so he got a trailer hitch, attached it to the Ferrari and hooked up the boat/trailer to his car.

Enzo would have probably died an early death had he seen a picture of it.

The thought of towing a trailer behind the Fit reminded me of that.

These sorts of procedures are not uncommon for autoboxes that can be flat-towed. And for those persons who do this regularly, often retirees, the desire for an automatic usually trumps any annoyance with instructions such as these.

In fact, what the motorhome towing set really wants to know is this: do miles accumulate with the engine off and the key in the accessory position? They reckon that if the engine is off and they're not driving it, the warranty clock shouldn't tick over, even though the car might get dragged thousands of miles behind the MH. I couldn't test this aspect, but I'll try later.

If I was retired, I cannot help but think I would prefer to road trip in a Cadillac CTS-V with my wife, stay at bed and breakfasts and lodges at our wondrous national parks, rack up a few speeding tickets, and save over $100,000 over buying an RV and a Fit, plus all the extra fuel.

I swear, I saw a fit (first gen) towing a small trailer this morning. It was one of those small aero dynamically shaped ones. kind of like this...

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h320/vegandiva/misc/?action=view¤t=12_28_trailer.jpg

redliner- You probably did. This past Christmas, going down I-95 on the way to the Florida Keys I saw a Yaris 3-door towing a small U-Haul box trailer. It was hilarious! But the guy was doing it. WRT the Fit: In (all) other countries, I believe it's rated to tow 2,000 lbs. At least that's what the previous gen was rated at. (I looked at getting one, and have a Jet-Ski I would need to pull.) Because of our lovely legal system, manufacturers are terrified of telling us we can tow things with our cars. And, of course, if you have a small trailer, Honda would much rather sell you a Pilot. Also, I seem to remember the previous generation Passat Wagon (and maybe the current one?) being rated at like 3500 lbs. Same story though for almost any vehicle sold both here and overseas.

While you have a point, there's more to it than that, sandcountry

In Europe, tongue weights are miniscule. A 2,000 lb trailer (caravan) might only have 50 or 60 lbs of tongue weight. That's because the trailers sold there have centrally located equipment for a small moment of inertia, and towing speed limits are generally lower than here (except California). Here in America, our less-regulated trailer designs use the brute force approach of 10% tongue weight for their stability, or 200 lbs in this example -- a big difference on a car so small.

And we have Death Valley, Jacumba grade (Interstate 8 @ Ocotillo, Ca, our tow test hill), and scores of other very steep desert grades in the mountain west with 110 to 120+ degree summer temperatures in places where you're at wide open throttle up those climbs for minutes at a time. No such equivalents exist in Jeremy Clarksonville.

Environment, both in terms of towing equipment design and potentially blistering summer weather, is the main difference in the ratings.

And, to your final point, there isn't the same demand for small cars to do such things over here; we've got pickup trucks and big honking SUVs.

I've seen a fellow with an e36 BMW M3 towing a trailer w/ jet ski. A fine usage of the performance vehicle in my mind....

I'm positive I've seen first gen Fit's with the 'Hidden Hitch' style attachment. I know I've seen MINI's with it, which is alarming as well.

The best hauler my family ever had? 1984 Chevy Caprice Classic station wagon. My dad hauled everything from enormous jetboats, to trailers across to country, to you name it. He off-road towed with it too in the Northern Alberta wilderness.

Some of those may have had hitches installed for bike racks or other carrying devices, not necessarily towing. I thought about putting a small hitch on my 330i, but you wouldn't catch me towing a U-Haul, I just wanted a stable bike rack.

An excellent point.

sandcountry and actualsize bring up good points. I still think it's a cop-out to not provide any tow rating in the US when there's a rating elsewhere. They don't tell you not to drive in the rain because you could drive too fast, have a wreck, and total the car. Likewise, if you happen to be one of the very few who would tow up a mountain grade in hot weather, it's up to you to do so responsibly (take it slow, watch your temp indicators, run the heat if necessary, etc.). Give people the actual tongue weight rating and GCVWR and let people responsibly use the vehicle they bought (ie tow within the ratings).

FWIW, the Fit/Jazz in the UK is rated to 1000kg = 2204 pounds.

Perhaps the governments standards for setting tow ratings are different in the US then they are in the UK.

Towing 1000 kgs with a Fit would be a bad idea. Just because Europeans do doesn't make it a good idea.

So who determines if it's a good idea? Honda condones it in some markets, so their engineers must feel the vehicle is capable. Both Europe and Australia have published tow ratings for many vehicles that have no rating here. Are all the manufacturers wrong in tow rating their vehicles abroad?

I've towed thousands of miles with various small trailers behind a late 70's Accord hatchback, a couple mid 80's Civic wagons, and a Passat Wagon (which after '99 VW claimed was incapable of towing anything in the US while in Europe it could tow 3600 pounds). Never had a mechanical or safety problem. From that experience I've learned that even small cars are more capable than most people think. Of course, if more people realized that a modest car and a small cargo trailer will do most of the light-duty hauling that a pickup or SUV can (moving furniture or a fridge, not big campers and boats), they might lose out on some sales of their high-profit-margin vehicles.

I don't know if I'd want to flat tow an automatic, regardless of what the owners manual says.

^^I agree, gp, I'd get a dolly and be able to lock the Fit up without leaving the key in it, along with not worrying I'll frag the AT if I miss a prep step.

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/johndale/2008/05/16/gallardo.jpg

According to Honda's European site, Honda itself has the European version with the 100hp 1.4 engine rated for towing a 450kg (992 lbs) unbraked trailer or a 1000kg (2205 lbs) braked trailer. They do sell a hitch as a Honda-approved dealer-installed option.

actualsize,

I believe the Fit (Jazz) is rated for towing 1000kg (trailer plus load) in Australia, which has even worse temperatures and terrain than North America. It states the max towball download (laden trailer) as 70kg.

If it can tow in Australia, then the Fit can tow here, for sure.

I'm thinking about buying a Honda Fit automatic to tow. What are people being told about the following paragraph from the owners manual?

With the front wheels on the ground,
do not tow the vehicle more than 50
miles (80 km), and keep the speed
below 35 mph (55 km/h).

There's a lot of (mis)information on here... just like anywhere on the internet I suppose.

A dealer cannot and will not automatically void your warranty as 'acutalsize' says, just because you have a receiver hitch installed on your Fit. Mine has one, and has been to the dealer several times for TSB covered work. The hitch can be used for other things, besides towing, if you're so inclined. Mine I use to carry a 30lb mountain bike outside of the cabin.

The tongue weight on mine says 200lbs. Even with 10% tongue weight, a 1000lb trailer should be able to be carried no problem. The only power-train difference between USDM and JDM/EDM spec Fits is the rear discs vs. USDM drum. If I wanted to I would feel perfectly safe towing 1000lbs behind my Fit... I would just do so at a safe speed and allow plenty of stopping distance.

Really if you think about it, 1000lbs is not that much, considering if I were to carry 5 180lb men and some luggage I would be over that limit, and wouldn't expect the engine to immediately grenade when I left a stoplight.