Given my work in the auto industry over the years, I frequently get asked for car buying advice. If I determine that the person asking the question is need of a new small car, my goto response for the past half dozen years has consistently been to get a Honda Fit. Last year, Honda introduced an all-new third-generation Fit and I just spent a week driving one and unsurprisingly, it will continue to be the small car I’m most likely to recommend.
When my daughter was in the market for her first new car seven years ago, she checked out all of the small cars available and quickly dismissed the Chevy Aveo, Toyota Echo and Scion xA and xB. At the time, the Fit was a revelation in the segment. A few years earlier MINI had demonstrated that Americans would pay a premium price for a well-built, fun-to-drive small car. As fun as the MINI was, it’s back seat was too tight to be useful and it was a bit pricey. The first-gen Fit on the other hand, could be had starting at just over $14,000 and even a loaded Fit Sport was less than $18,000.
The Fit had go-kart handling, very good fuel efficiency, and unheard of packaging efficiency. One of the smallest cars in the American market had ample room for four adults to sit in comfort plus a bunch of cargo in the back. A year after that car landed in our driveway, the second-gen Fit improved on the looks, efficiency and offered even more refinement.
Since the first generation model, the Fit has offered by far the most rear seat room of any small car
For round three, Honda has worked some Time Lord-style magic by actually making the Fit slightly shorter while increasing the interior volume. Like the Doctor’s Tardis, the Fit has a shockingly capacious interior volume considering its condensed footprint on the ground. What makes this achievement even more impressive is a comparison against some of its chief competitors, the Ford Fiesta and Chevrolet Sonic.
Click here for a comparison of the Fit, Fiesta, Sonic and Toyota Yaris.
Fit, Fiesta and Sonic share virtually identical exterior dimensions and yet GM designers only managed to provide 90.5 cubic feet of passenger volume, while the Fiesta offers a measly 85.1 cubic feet. The new Fit provides 95.7 cubic feet along with superior flexibility thanks to its industry-exclusive Magic Seat. The roof that extends straight back to the rear hatch means there are none of the compromises in rear headroom that comes with the coupe-like rooflines of many new midsize sedans. The combination of rearhead and leg room provides comparable to or better than many midsize sedans for two adults.
Like every other small car, the rear seatbacks fold forward, providing a massive 52.7 cubic feet of storage. With the rear seats up, there is actually storage room below the rear seat cushions so you stash items out of sight when parking. When you need extra room for taller items, the rear seat cushions can actually flip up against the seat backs, providing enough space to stand up a few big screen TVs or a couple of bicycles with the front tires removed.
Like the previous two Fits, controls are generally well-placed with most of what you need access to regularly right on the steering wheel. Visibility out of the car is excellent in all directions thanks to large windows and surprisingly slim pillars for this day and age. Clearly Honda has made good use of high-strength steels to provide a structure that feels stronger and quieter than the original Fit without leaving occupants feeling hemmed in.
Only the Honda Fit and now the upcoming HR-V feature the Magic Seat which folds up to enable the swallowing of tall objects in a tiny car
For 2015, Honda has installed its latest direct-injected “Earth Dreams” 1.5-liter four-cylinder under the hood with power and torque now bumped up to 130-horsepower and 114 lb.-ft. respectively. Thankfully, a six-speed manual gearbox remains available in the base LX and mid-level EX models. However, the top EX-L trim that I drove is only available with continuously variable transmission. Honda has incorporated an adaptive control system for the CVT that changes how it’s managed based on what you do with the go pedal. With a light touch on the accelerator, the tach jumps up to just above 2,000 rpm and holds there as you gradually build speed. That’s a low enough engine speed that you don’t really get the impression of the continuous engine drone that annoys so many people about CVTs.
Dip a bit deeper into the power and the CVT begins to operate more like a traditional step gear automatic transmission, allowing engine revs to climb with vehicle speed and then “shifting” to a higher ratio. The end result is getting the efficiency benefits of a CVT by keeping the engine near its sweet-spot for torque and efficiency but providing a more sporting feel to the driver when called for.
Speaking of sporting feel, the latest Fit retains the nimble character of its predecessors, going precisely where you point the wheel (assuming the road is dry enough to get some grip, something you can’t always count on in Michigan in January) while providing enough feedback through the wheel to help you judge what is actually happening. When you want to take a more active role in managing the behavior of the CVT, shift paddles on the back side of the steering wheel allow you trigger up or down “shifts” on command.
In keeping with the Fit’s go-kart character, the ride has never been plush, but it is well controlled and while you feel the road texture, it’s not jarring most of the time. Of course there is another unfortunately well-known characteristic of Michigan roads this time of year as temperatures often oscillate above and below the freezing point of water, gaping potholes.
The Lane-Watch camera under the passenger side mirror gives a clear view of everything alongside the car
One such crater threatened to consume a front wheel of the Fit on evening after sunset. Fortunately, I rolled away with just a large bulge in the sidewall and some scuffing on the perimeter of the 16-inch alloy wheel. A visit to the fleet shop the following day brought a quick tire replacement before it could catastrophically fail. If you live where potholes form, make sure to do a visual inspection after hitting a big one and if the tire or wheel has sustained some damage or the car starts pulling, get yourself to a tire shop quickly before something more serious happens.
So is the Fit the perfect small car? Close, but not quite. I’m not enamored with the Display Audio infotainment system. It features a nice seven-inch touch-screen with navigation. However, Honda chose to implement touch controls to the left of the display for the Home, volume and menu. Let’s just say, that volume should ALWAYS be a rotary knob, none of this touch nonsense. Fortunately there are redundant physical volume controls on the steering wheel.
HondaLink currently only works with iPhones, but the basic bluetooth streaming works well with all phones
Unfortunately, the HondaLink system that allows drivers to use apps such as Aha Radio and Pandora from their phone is only supported for iPhones at this time. Come on Honda, I can see leaving out Windows or Blackberry, but both Android and iOS should be the minimum default for all new vehicles. Fortunately, Honda has indicated they plan to support both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto going forward so hopefully we’ll see both of those in the Fit and other Honda/Acura products before the end of 2015.
My final complaint with the Fit has to do with the voice controls system. Let’s just say this is one of the most verbose systems I’ve ever used stopping after each step to read out all of the available options before allowing you say the next entry. Even with fairly accurate recognition, it still took several minutes to input a single address by voice. It was often quicker and less annoying to pull over, enter the address by tapping the screen and moving on. Again, bring me Android Auto or CarPlay so I can be on my way.
The EX-L with a CVT is officially rated at 32 mpg city, 38 mpg highway and 35 mpg combined according to EPA. In my mixed driving, I saw just shy of 36 mpg, even in often frigid conditions which tends to degrade mileage. That’s about 5 mpg better than I achieved a few months ago with the Fiesta with the vaunted 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder. The turbo triple has a lot more low-end torque than the normally aspirated Honda and is certainly fun to drive, but like most other EcoBoost engines, the reality at the pump just doesn’t seem to measure up.
Like everything else, the Fit has climbed up a bit in price over the past seven years, but this latest edition is still a great value. Starting at $16,470 delivered for the manual LX, the loaded
EX-L with navigation, leather seats, power moonroof and more still crosses the line at just $21,475. I still wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Fit over any other small car available in America today and for those that are more budget-minded, you can easily skip the nav, leather and moonroof and get the mid-level EX at just $18,830 with the manual.
Click here for full specs of the 2015 Honda Fit
