Speaking of the Honda Fit, those ads about cargo space aren’t kidding. I just got back from a car camping trip in which I carried food, beer and supplies for eighteen on the way out and leftovers, tents, mattresses, folding gazebos and folding chairs on the return. The gnomes at Honda make the back seats fold down in a way that creates an amazingly roomy space for about as much crap as the little engine can credibly pull without stalling out on steep hills. I’m not saying that the car rivals a minivan with removable seats, but compared to the impression that you get looking at the outside (kind of a feline Geo Metro) the car’s interior is almost TARDIS-like. I feel safe predicting that when gas costs a couple more bucks per gallon, everybody who still owns a car will want one of these.
Fit Love
by Tim F| 46 Comments
This post is in: Popular Culture
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Especially the Daleks.
Jason
FWIW, the GEO Metro I had used to haul a lot more stuff than any of my friends’ cars. We used to use it for a lot of moves.
The hatchback makes a big difference. That’s why we got an Elantra GT. More storage.
Incertus
How many companions can you comfortably bring along with you? And is there a 12v outlet to charge up your robot dog?
Crusty Dem
I’m a little surprised you don’t get better mileage. My wife drives a 4WD Pilot and gets ~25 mpg on the highway, of course, tuat’s keeping it below 70, but I wouldn’t expect to be anywhere near a Fit.. I’m continually disappointed with the mileage of smaller cars these days. I remember cars getting 40+ back in the 80’s, is it just bigger, more powerful engines?
John H. Farr
Those are excellent cars, I hear. Zippier than our Pontiac Vibe, although neither of those vehicles is any kind of hot rod, to say the least. I had us get the Vibe instead, though. I think it looks cooler and tougher, has bigger wheels and more ground clearance. It’s really fun to drive with as 5-speed, and we’re tickled pink. We’re getting a consistent 37-38 mpg with 8,000 miles on it so far. I tell my wife too often, “A car like this is the only weapon we have against higher gas prices.” Never fails to set her teeth to grinding, but thank God she likes the car.
We don’t ride, but I’m also thinking of pair of horses. Not to hard to make that happen, here in Taos County.
NonyNony
Does it come with a sonic screwdriver? If so, I’m getting one tomorrow.
Misanthropic Meanderings
I would give you 100 points for proper use of “TARDIS” on a blog. I’d love a Fit but I’m holding out for a Mini Cooper wagon. And I just saw one, so they do make one. I just need to prove I am Bill Gates’ love child.
Volum
I love my Fit.
It took me two months to finally locate one, they were selling above sticker price when I got it last year.
I’ve driven it nearly 20k miles so far, and it looks, smells and drives like day one.
And you’re right about the interior. It not only can fit tons of junk inside, but I’ve used it as a tent, for two ppl who both of us are over 6 foot tall. It was a perfect setup.
Mine’s a Fit Sport, with the 5-Speed manual OR auto transmission. Driving through the mountains, pop it into manual mode, and holy shit it’s so awesome. The handling on the Sport model is a lot tighter and accurate than the standard.
Holy shit I love this car, and I’m not a car guy whatsoever.
phobos
Don’t give that dimensional transcendentalism son. Where the hell is my gun rack gonna fit?
lilysmom
I just love it that you used the TARDIS comparison.
Ninerdave
No thanks, if it doesn’t have at least 300hp 289 V8, I don’t drive it. Commuting via public transit and a Mustang ftw.
Martin
I have a Honda Element and love it. Took the family on a 7K mile road trip two summers ago. 4 of us and camping gear for 3 weeks. Averaged 29 on the trip which was better than I expected with a bunch of crap on the roof rack and 8 or so crossings of the continental divide. AWD so it’s pretty fun to bomb around in the mud and snow, and with no carpet inside it’s perfect for kids and a dog.
Wish the mileage was in the 30s, but it’s our go-have-fun investment since we go camping several times a year. My commute is only a few miles round trip, so I generally only fill it up once a month otherwise. I can haul plywood home, and brought home an 8′ leather sofa in it. It’s just awesomely useful. And I’m not a car guy either.
The Other Steve
Problem with the Honda Fit is you can’t buy them. The dealers don’t keep any on the lot. They’re a special order item only.
Weird, cause I agree when I saw it at the auto show I thought it was a pretty awesome little car.
gbear
Boxy little cars are deceptively roomy. Back when I was playing drums for a living, the two cars that I hauled around my stuff were a 78 Toyota Corolla wagon and then an 87 Mazda 323 wagon. I was playing a pretty good sized kit back then (it kept getting smaller as I got older).
Dylan
We’ve got a Honda CR-V, and have friends with a Fit (called a Jazz in this country.) I just can’t believe the build quality of Hondas. Really outstanding attention to detail. It’s a car we use 100%, which is saying something.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Ditto that. The amount of backseat leg room in the Element is jaw-dropping. We never fail to get comments when friends ride around in ours. Pop out the rear seats, and the cargo capacity is outstanding because of the boxy shape – no unusable wasted space. I’ve seen a lot of them around town being used as fleet vehicles by small businesses (garden centers and such).
Cap and Gown
I am not impressed. My 2005 Hyundai Accent 5 speed gets around 38 mpg highway traveling 65 mph. Course, that is with just me and next to no luggage. But the car could fit 4 people moderately comfortably.
My Geo Metro used to get 45 mpg highway and 33 city when it was newish. By the end of its life it was down in the 30s for highway. It was blowing oil like a mother by that time. I’m afraid 3 cyliders is not enough, particularly for any kind of steep terrain. Better to go with 4 cylinders minimum.
Tell me though: for hybrids, does the gasoline engine connect to the drive train? Or is its sole purpose to charge the batteries? If the latter, it would seem you could really optimize that engine where it would alway turn at the exact optimum rpm.
Martin
Yeah, we liked that for the kids. The rear seats are higher so they can see over our heads. Less barfy on trips. And the rear legroom is large enough for the corgi to wander around there when we travel.
Mr. Tactful
Cappy, all production hybrid cars’ gasoline engines do connect to the driveline.
The design you describe is more similar to a modern diesel-electric locomotive than a hybrid car.
Hey, I was a mechanic for a long time. Can I be the Balloon Juice car guy? I already have my own tire gauge.
mantooth
Mr. T,
It sounds like Cappy is describing the Chevy Volt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt
Cap and Gown
Thank you for the answers.
Ninerdave
Oh for those of you who have cable…and BBC america and sort of like cars, you should check out Top Gear. Best show on TV.
Mr. Tactful
Volkswagen has a TDI (diesel) hybrid Golf running around and getting over 100 mpg. And it is 500 pounds HEAVIER than the standard non-hybrid gas Golf.
Badtux
Shhh. You can’t buy a Fit around here. They jump off the lot, and when you do find one, they want full retail price, sorry, no discounts.
One thing about Hondas. They just run and run, with the exception of some of the early Honda Odysseys where the transmission disintegrated after a while. My mother had a ’91 Honda Civic with 150,000 miles on it and she drove it here to California from Louisiana. I drove the thing while she was here, and it was like driving a friggin’ sports car even though it was a 15 year old car with 150,000 miles on it. The steering was tight, the transmission was tight, the engine wailed like a banshee whenever you stuck it to the gas pedal… I was just completely amazed at how well a 15 year old Honda Civic with that many miles scooted around.
So yeah, a Fit is on my “to buy” list, if I ever buy another car. At the moment I’m getting 55mpg on a Suzuki V-Strom 650, though, so I’m happy just using my gas guzzling Jeep for the occasional shopping trip (and I live around the corner from my local grocery store, so that dont use much gas). If I lived in Yankeeland where you can’t ride a motorcycle year ’round, I might feel different…
– Badtux the Motorcyclin’ Penguin
Thursday
Fine and all, but too many wheels.
Brand new Honda CB125R + jacket + helmet = $3500. Add in 95 miles per gallon highway and insurance that costs a couple hundred bucks for a year and you’ve got one hell of a commuter. Admit: most of your driving is to and from work anyways.
Down side is that it doesn’t quite have enough juice to haul my fat ass at highway speeds. Kawasaki’s new 250 is looking pretty good, though…
Thursday
Harumph – teach me to type before reading ALL the comments. That Strom is the best overall bike on the market right now, and has been for a couple of years. Nice choice, Badtux.
emptywheel
I do love my Fit–I first learned about them while doing work for an American automotive company (which, btw, will have it’s own very good BMAZ out shortly), and I wanted one right away.
But for those touting its quality? I had a recall within three weeks after buying the car. Some genius decided to put a connector in the wireharness right under the driver footwell, which means that in cold weather climates, salt erodes the connection and blows the air bag.
Paul Weimer
Re: Thursday. A motorcycle is nice and all in fine weather locations, but I wouldn’t want one up here in Minnesota in the chilliness of January.
wvng
Hey Marcy (emptywheel) – if that’s the worst problem your Fit has, you’ll be just fine. Probably another case of Japanese craftsmen intentionally adding a small defect so that they don’t piss off the gods by being perfect.:-)
I love my Fit too.
Original Lee
Completely OT, but over at Alas a Canadian has posted that the GOP has outsourced campaign calling for McCain to the call center s/he works in. Is there any way of checking this? Would it violate any election laws if it is true? I realize they’re all about free trade and stuff like that, but this is one toke over the line, IMO.
Napoleon
You should be getting better MPG. My 02 Toyota Echo gets 35 around town and I flog it (30MPG with my bike rack on it).
EL
I was lucky – I bought mine a year ago when they were still considered a “loser” car, and the dealer was willing to bargain just to get it off the lot. I smile a lot about that now.
chopper
if i pull the back seats out of the element it makes a great lil camper. plus i can fit two vintage scooters side by side in the back. it’s frickin huge back there.
jnfr
Our Prius is also a hatchback (technically mid-size not a compact) and we can fit a mmetric shit-ton of stuff in the back. Drove all over the western US on a two-week trip carrying in-town clothes and gifts, all our camping gear, and enough books and movies to last four times longer than we were away. It was incredible, and we averaged 50 mph for the trip.
The hatchback makes all the difference.
Luke
I got the boxy Scion Xb in 2005, and still love it. Tons of room, great for packing up for festivals, gas mileage in the low 30s, and it is light enough that it doesn’t feel underpowered by its tiny 106hp engine.
b. hussein canuckistani
A motorcycle would be cool, but getting kids, camping gear and telescopes into the saddlebags is a bitch. I’ve rented a Fit a few times, and it is truly an outstanding car.
Tsulagi
No offense, Dr. Tim, but I’ll drive a Honda Fit about the same time I start wearing Birks.
One big factor is maintenance. Wife drove a Honda Civic before her current Audi A4. Her Civic was a good car, but a complete pain in the ass to work on. It’s like the Japanese, at least this Honda, went out of their way designing the car making it as hard as possible for a home mechanic to work on. Especially for one with hands bigger than those of a toddler. Probably so you’d take it to a dealership for maintenance.
OTOH, the Germans seem to design and engineer their cars to be as user friendly for maintenance as possible. Doing a brake job on my BMW M5 was a pleasure. No special tools needed; all bolts and screws easily accessible. No drama. Changing the oil filter simply open the hood, unscrew the lid on a canister sitting just behind the top of the radiator, easily pull out the old filter and slip in the new. 30 seconds. Bliss.
Not only do the Germans engineer cars that perform and drive great, they make their maintenance drama free. I love that. Maybe when they start producing hybrids I’ll take a look. 0-60 in six seconds, great handling, 50 mpg, I’m sold.
reid
EL, are you referring to the Fit? We bought ours last summer. The local Honda dealer was having a hard time getting enough, and the one they happened to have in stock they were asking $1500 over MSRP. That and the fact that the salesman was a bit of a snobby douche was enough for us; we happened to find a slightly used one at Carmax. (We were also considering a Prius or something else like a Kia. Mileage became important due to increased travel.)
Graeme
A friend just got a Fit. We rode in it back from Tahoe, and I’m impressed. Plenty of room. Lots of headroom in the front, too. Which reminds me of our Element.
Put me down as another big Element fan! We love ours! Roomy as hell, and we can help friends with other SUVs and wagons get home the furniture that won’t fit in their rides! Ha!
Mr. Tactful
Hey Tsulagi, how bout you price a timing belt job on that Honda, and the same job on your A4. You have to DISMANTLE THE ENTIRE FRONT OF THE CAR to do so on the A4.
chopper
besides which, my element doesn’t have a timing belt. uses a chain, so you don’t have to fuck with timing. first time it’s supposed to be checked is over 100,000 miles i think.
Tsulagi
I’ll probably pass on pricing it for the wife’s A4 as I’m a cheap bastard and like to do my own work. Haven’t looked in the A4 repair manual for what a timing belt job entails as she’s only at about 25k, but I’d be willing to bet it will be straightforward and easily done without drama. Unlike the timing belt replacement I did on the wife’s Civic around 70k because it needed it then. God that was a cheesy setup. Felt like shooting the bastard.
Didn’t say BMW dealers repair their cars less expensively than Honda dealers or repair shops. Don’t know. Halfway thought of letting a dealer do the brake job on my M5 last year. Until I was quoted a price of $1,300. Instead, picked up top quality Brembo rotors for all four wheels, performance pads, new sensors and everything in a package from a distributor on ebay for $400. Entire job requiring a minimum of standard tools took me four drama-free hours. Could cut that in half next time. Less time consuming than taking it to a dealer or shop.
Admittedly just my anecdotal experience, but Honda sucks ass compared to BMW.
bedtimeforbonzo
Just asking:
How many young kids can you comfortably fit in The Fit on a trip like Tim’s?
I agree with Crusty Dem: These compact cars need to do better than 36-38 mpn.
Gus
Yep. I’m hoping that within a couple years either hybrids are so common that they’re priced in the same range as the Fit or Yaris, or that non-hybrids that get 40+ mpg are readily available. Shit, my V6 OldsmoBuick gets 28 on the highway.
Mr. Tactful
“Easily done and without drama” lol man are you in for a shock….
Thursday
Paul Weimer –
I’m a year-rounder, myself (welcome to British Columbia, eh!) but I can certainly understand that not everyone can do that. Still, consider what you save over the six or eight months you can ride. Fewer emissions, less fuel, and a hell of a lot more fun. Plus the ultra-cool of walking in to work with a helmet and jacket.
Skid lids: the ultimate clothing accessory!