2009 Honda Fit's interior is strikingly roomy, and the car, which goes on sale next week,
also gets very impressive gas mileage. It lacks zip on highways and hills, though.
The Fit's
not a hybrid — which is the first question people asked at rest stops. But
its window-sticker prices of
US$15,000 to US$19,000 make it thousands of dollars cheaper than hybrids
(unless dealers start marking up Fit's prices,
just because they can, in this climate of fuel-price hysteria).
The test
cars delivered 30 to 40 mpg without any attempt to conserve — indeed with
much sampling of full-throttle acceleration.
That's better than government fuel-economy ratings for the car.
Remarkable.
The testers
were preproduction models, but Honda says they were built to production specifications
and the fuel-economy
readouts should have been spot-on.
The '09 Fit seems so right that we should cool our collective jets by looking first at the bad things:
•Ride.
Stiff to the point of teeth-jarring on some bumps. Clearly a suspension
designed by a dentist.
Honda, of course, thinks the characterization, not the ride, is what's harsh.
•Fuel
tank. Tiny, less than 44 litres so you're constantly refilling despite
good fuel economy.
The previous Fit holds a couple tenths more.
•Steering.
Despite what Honda says are big improvements, it can be a bit twitchy.
Not a car for the habitually over-caffeinated.
•Power.
Not enough for comfort on fast interstates or hilly terrain. The fuel-sipping
engine has to work like a whipped
mongrel to run with the big dogs on the big roads. Makes you long for the
easy comfort of a big Detroit V-8 after a
couple of hours. The '09 engine is rated 117 horsepower, up 8 hp from the
'08. Torque's up just 1 pound-foot, to 106 lbs.-ft.
•XM Satellite
Radio. Nope. Honda thinks buyers will be more enamored of the plug that
lets your iPod be controlled via the
car's stereo than they would be of satellite radio.
•Stability
control. Only comes on the highest-price version — the one that'll be
bought by well-heeled drivers moving
down from gas-guzzlers, who have lots of driving experience and don't need
stability control, which helps prevent spins
and skids. Younger folks with less time behind the wheel and a bucketful of
hormones will need the stability control but
won't be able to get it in the cheaper versions.
Honda brags about its "safety for everyone" philosophy, and this seems counter to that. No surprise, it's about the money.
"A lot of
these things that people don't see, don't use every day, they'll pay more
for an audio system" than unseen safety gear,
says American Honda.
The only
way Honda got its Civics widely equipped with stability control was to make
standard the somewhat pricey feature.
Before that, "Either dealers wouldn't order it or would tell customers it
wasn't available" as an option.
On the positive
side of things, Fit's lively driving personality is more engaging than that
of its main rivals,
Toyota Yaris and Nissan Versa.
That's especially
so in Fits with the manual transmission, which shifts so easily and pleasantly
it has you
looking for reasons to change gears.
The five-speed
automatic — most cars this size have four-speed autos — shifts crisply up
or down at full- or part-throttle.
Paddle shifters on the steering wheel let you shift manually by stretching
a finger or two.
What's more, the paddle-shift feature is always available.
You needn't move the main gearshift lever into a special mode first, as you
must on many cars.
Need a lower
gear fast? Reach out a left finger or two and lightly tug the down-shift paddle.
Use the right paddle to upshift, and hold it a moment to go back to full-auto
operation. Nifty. Sensible.
The interior's strikingly roomy for the car's size, which is about 4 inches longer than the '08.
The back seat has ample leg and knee room for adults. Not all midsize cars have as much.
The unique
back-seat feature — cushions that lift and latch to open the center of the
interior for tall cargo
— carries over from the 2008 and now is a simpler, one-hand operation.
The second
row also will fold flat for more cargo space, and on the 2009, you can do
that without pulling
out the second-row head restraints.
The big picture:
Fit's a sweetheart for urban and suburban users, but marginal for highway
commuters
and hill-dwellers.
ABOUT THE 2009 HONDA FIT
What? Small, front-drive, four-door economy car, slightly larger than previous Fit.
When?
Next Tuesday at a few dealers; most should have Fits in September.
Honda expects Fits to sell immediately (which isn't self-serving hype in
today's high-mileage climate).
Where? Made at Suzuka, Japan.
Why? Fit is sold worldwide. The one arriving in the U.S. now is the makeover that went on sale in Japan last year.
How punchy?
1.5-liter four-cylinder engine is rated 117 horsepower at 6,600 rpm, 106
pounds-feet of torque at 4,800 rpm.
Five-speed manual transmission is standard; five-speed automatic is optional.
How lavish?
Standard features include anti-lock brakes; front, side and head-curtain
air bags; air conditioning;
power steering, brakes, windows and locks; AM/FM/CD/MP3 stereo with auxiliary
input jack; tilt/telescope steering
column; rear-window defroster, wiper.
How big? Bigger than a Mini Cooper, smaller than a Honda Civic.
How thirsty? Rated 27 or 28 mpg in town, depending on model; 33 or 35 highway, 29 to 31 combined.
Trip computers
in test cars showed: 29.6 mpg in manual transmission model on short, hilly,
two-lane loop.
Automatic transmission model showed 39.6 mpg in 280 fast highway miles; 32
in 50 miles of brisk suburban driving.
Overall: City sweet, highway harried.
