Generally speaking, I'm a Fit fan. And one of the main reasons I like this car is the way it steers.
Granted, I know what Engineering Editor Jay Kavanagh is talking about when he describes the dead zone just off center in both the Fit and Insight. But when you give the Fit a bigger steering input as you're about to enter a corner or unusually technical freeway entrance ramp, the little car turns in smartly. It's not so quick that you imagine yourself in a sport compact, but at that moment, you don't feel quite so dorky driving around in an orange hatchback. For me, it's addictive. I take every opportunity to pitch the car into corners at speed. It was the same way with the original Fit.
Obviously, there's more to the Fit's (borderline) sprightly turn-in response than the published 12.7:1 steering ratio, as the suspension setup and even the skinny P185/55R16 83H Bridgestone tires have plenty to do with how it feels. Right, it's the total package that makes the car pretty good, and I'll reiterate for the umpteenth time that I like it.
Also likeable is the 2009 Fit's 34.4-foot turning radius. I made very few multi-point turns last weekend, because you can pretty much steer your way out of a hallway in this hatch.
Erin Riches, Senior Editor @ 18,347 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Over the weekend, I drove our 2009 Honda Fit to a toystore to buy a 20-inch bicycle for a 10-year-old. I purchased the bike unassembled and needed to load the box into the car.
Because the bike's manufacturer, Huffy, admonishes against laying the box flat, I had to find a way to keep it upright -- no easy task with the way I drive the subcompacts. Folding the "60" side of the rear seat flat accomplished this task beautifully. We wedged the box in, and it didn't budge an inch during 300 miles of driving over the next three days.
Erin Riches, Senior Editor @ 17,951 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
On beautiful days like today, you really appreciate the Fit's relatively big greenhouse. The car has a really airy cabin -- those portholes may look kinda dorky, but all that glass makes it easy to enjoy the view. Views of pretty blue skies. And *sigh* surrounding traffic.
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
By some aligning of the stars, Kurt and I both happened to fixate on the wipers in our 2009 Honda Fit Sport. And I agree with him, our Fit does have puny front windshield wipers and you can't manually vary the intermittent interval, either.
And so I was caught off-guard when I noticed this neat-o convenience during a weekend of steady rain. When you shift to reverse while the front wipers are on, the rear wiper automatically activates, even if the switch for it is in the off position. Very useful for parking. (Toyota bag was used to haul veggies, not promote the brand, at least not directly.)
Erin Riches, Senior Editor @ 17,844 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
How cute! Ok, not really.
That little guy is tasked with only having to clear about one-third of the windshield; the third directly in front of the passenger. You see, the other wiper blade is so huge that its sweep takes care of the rest of the Fit's sizable windshield. I wouldn't have given it a second thought but for not having to look through the 'seam' created where the passenger side wiper usually stops in the center of the windshield. It's a minor distraction to be sure, but over time, that 'seam' tends to get etched into the glass and becomes visible rain or shine.
Hit the jump (I've always wanted to type that) for a special bonus question.
Continue reading...
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Hot on the heels of my cramped adventures in the SX4, I drew the Fit straw last night. The last Fit fit me pretty similar as the SX4 -- not enough seat travel, the back of the seat was mounted too high, there was no height adjustment and no telescoping steering wheel.
The new Fit, however, is better. There's still no height adjustment, but the back of the seat is mounted a little lower. The telescoping wheel is also a big help. I'm generally more comfortable, but I still wouldn't want to travel very far in the Fit. This isn't a small car thing, either. The Mini is fantastic and the new Ford Fiesta is pretty good, too. Hell, even the Smart was OK. I'm curious to see what the small Fiats (500, Panda) will be like if and when they show up in Chrysler dealerships.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 17,563 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
I stirred up a baby hornets nest the other day when I said that I preferred the Insight to the Fit. I drove the Fit the last couple of days and confirmed my thoughts: although I still prefer the Insight, I would give both fun-to-drive ratings of "Not very."
I see the primary reason for getting a small car as the fuel economy. And the Insight comes up big here with 39 mpg; others would probably get an even better figure.
Why anyone would get a dink car that gets lousy fuel efficiency (not the Fit) is beyond me.
Why not just get the next size up and suffer only a minor fuel economy penalty?
mheikka hit the nail on the head when he commented on my Insight post that the Fit has the look of a "first car". Yes, and quite nice for a first car or college kid vehicle, unless your last name is Hilton.
And as for the Fit being fun to drive? There's an old saying: "Life is what you make it."
Albert Austria, Senior Engineer @ 17,550 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Don't you hate when this happens? The sun managed to find that (none-too-small) open space between either of the Honda Fit's sun visors on my drive home. There was no relief to be found with any amount of swinging, flipping, or otherwise manipulating the visors. Some manufacturers offer multiple defenses for this annoyance like mini center sun visors above the mirror, sun visors that slide side-to-side on their mounting arms, or auxiliary visors that deploy from the parent visors. The Fit has none of those and a very large, fast-raked windshield to make matters worse. The windshield's dot-matrix pattern did little to mitigate the problem. Argh, just looking at this photo is giving me a head ache.
Chief Road Test Editor, Chris Walton @ 17,400 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
I took our 2009 Honda Fit yesterday to the Los Angeles Auto Show.
As you know, ours is a copper-tinged orange.
As I pulled into the LA Convention Center parking lot, another Fit followed me in. It was orange.
And at my school parking garage, I usually see the same Fit there. It's orange.
I've even driven by some orange Fits in Santa Monica, expecting to see one of my colleagues in our long-term car, only to find a complete stranger driving it.
What -- you boosted our test car?
Nope, it's just that in my experience, nearly every Fit I see is orange.
As a matter of fact, earlier this year Edmunds had two of them at the same time -- both orange, of course.
Albert Austria, Senior Engineer @ 17,300 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Below are the fuel economy numbers for November 2009. We've listed the best, worst and overall average tanks.
As usual, a couple of cars are out on the road or unavailable at the time of this writing. I'll continue to add them as they come in and let you know in the comments.
| |
Car |
Best
|
Worst
|
Average
|
|
2009 Audi A4 Avant |
26.8
|
15.2
|
21.7
|
|
2009 Audi S5 |
22.3
|
10.8
|
16.2
|
|
2008 BMW 750i |
23.3
|
12.4
|
17.5
|
|
2009 BMW M3 |
24.2
|
10.8
|
16.0
|
|
2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS |
23.1
|
13.1
|
17.4
|
|
2009 Dodge Challenger R/T |
26.4
|
10.3
|
17.1
|
|
2009 Dodge Ram 1500 |
19.4
|
10.5
|
14.1
|
|
2009 Ford Flex Limited |
26.7
|
13.3
|
19.2
|
|
2007 Honda Civic GX |
47.3
|
12.7
|
31.8
|
|
2009 Honda Fit Sport |
39.0
|
24.9
|
31.0
|
|
2010 Honda Insight EX |
43.9
|
27.9
|
38.5
|
|
2009 Hyundai Genesis |
28.5
|
14.3
|
21.2
|
|
2009 Infiniti FX50 |
22.0
|
10.7
|
17.1
|
|
2009 Mazda 6 |
30.8
|
18.7
|
23.8
|
|
2010 Mazdaspeed 3 |
28.1
|
16.3
|
21.2
|
|
2009 Pontiac G8 GT |
24.3
|
12.0
|
18.0
|
|
2009 Suzuki SX4 |
28.3
|
17.2
|
23.1
|
|
2010 Volvo XC60 |
19.6
|
12.7
|
16.9
|
After the jump you can see the list sorted by best average MPG.
Continue reading...
Categories: 2007 Honda Civic GX,2008 Pontiac G8 GT,2009 Audi A4 Avant,2009 Audi S5,2009 BMW 750i,2009 BMW M3,2009 Dodge Challenger R/T,2009 Dodge Ram 1500,2009 Ford Flex Limited,2009 Honda Fit Sport,2009 Hyundai Genesis V6,2009 Infiniti FX50 AWD,2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring,2009 Suzuki SX4,2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS,2010 Honda Insight EX,2010 Mazdaspeed 3,2010 Volvo XC60 T6 AWD
Oh look! Autumn leaves! Matching car! Blah, blah, blah.
If you wanted a good little city car and had $19k to spend, you'd probably buy a Smart. You'd probably also have a yoga mat for every day of the week (Bikram yoga makes your mat all sweaty) as well as a subscription to a hummus of the month club - not to mention a screw loose.
If you took that $19k and bought a Honda Fit, you get not only a great city car, you also get back seats, good fuel economy and it will allow you to do something that no one in their right mind would do in a Smart; you can drive it across the state of California.
I can count as one of the sketchiest things I've ever done as driving our old Smart from Los Angeles to Bakersfield. I thought I was going to die. Four times. By contrast, I piled 1,200 miles onto our Fit this past weekend, driving it from Santa Monica to San Francisco, around the Bay Area and back without once having a near death experience. Did I mention I used 87 octane gas as well as haul around 2-3 friends and family members at the same time? Yeah, you can't do that in a Smart either.
Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 17,208 miles
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
