I have to wonder whether this is an issue with the CVT, and not the engine. People not use to CVTs tend to have the same complaints you do.
I would never want a small car with any kind of auto transmission, and especially hot a Honda, as Honda has a dismal record when it comes to auto transmissions.
My sister got a Nissan Versa, base model with auto and cruise control, for $14,2xx out the door. I think the Honda Fit costs at least another $1000 more.
I don’t think the Fit has CVT. If it does, the one I test drove was way broken. The Versa does have CVT and was excellent. If the Fit had had the steering and pickup of the Versa, we’d have bought it–we went out expecting to drive home in a Fit.
In fact it (the North American variant) doesn’t. I don’t know why I thought it did. Never mind… :smack:
I seriously do not know what people are talking about when they say the Fit has lots of space. For a one or two person car, the thing is fine. For a family?! ha!
My sister bought one for the nanny to shuttle her two kids to school and back everyday. I drive it occasionally on the weekends to drive back to my hometown. The thing is a hazard on the highway (S. Ontario 401) and gets blown around by transport trucks. I’ll drive it all summer long, I’m more than comfortable driving it; but in the winter, on a highway, NEVER.
In regards to baby / booster seats in the back, it is easy enough to get kids in and out of them. The car is fine for that, my sister’s car is used almost exclusively for that. However, don’t listen to people who say there is lots of cargo room. You cannot, without squishing half, put a family-sized load of groceries in the truck.
Now, for around town, that is downtown Toronto, the Fit is perfect. Easy to park, can glide through traffic, I actually like it in that environment. The only handicap is the turning radius of the thing.
All in all, a poor choice, IMHO, for a family car. And for any type of driving in snow, ha!
What? WHAT? Speak up! I can’t hear you! I’m all the way in the back of my incredibly roomy Fit, and you’re going to have to speak more loudly from the front if I’m ever to hear you! Outside voice please!!
I will admit this: I think there’s an absolute ton of cargo room in the Fit, but I’m thinking of it with the back seats folded down. If you take your kids grocery shopping, and thereby can’t fold the back seats down when you load 'er up, then that will probably be an issue. However, with those back seats folded down, I once put $700 worth of stuff from Ikea and a month’s worth of groceries in there at once. Lady Soul had to hold some milk in her lap, but it worked, I swear!
Almost went out and posted this from my phone in the car, but I decided to consider myself an artist and use that damn artistic license I had lying around
I was mentally prepared to replace my 1994 Honda Accord with a 2009 Fit. But then I heard that Honda plans to introduce a hybrid version, supposedly in the 2010 model year, so I was going to hold out another year. But the article I just found on the Edmunds website says that it’s to be introduced " in the early 2010s." That’s further out, so maybe I won’t wait. (I’m such a cheapskate I haven’t even fixed the radio/cassette deck in my car. So one of the luxuries I’m looking forward to in a new car is a working radio, maybe even one that can play CDs!)
By the way, for those who have been shopping for the Fit, can you get it at a discount, or the dealers only offering it at list price? The window stickers on the cars at my local Honda dealer show an additional dealer markup of $2,000 or so on all the cars on the lot. Now, I haven’t actually talked to a sales person, so I don’t know if they’re getting away with that. But it seems outrageous.
The Nissan sales guy tried to get us to believe the price on the Versa, which showed the MSRP on the window sticker, was $2000 more than that when we got inside. Nope, that’s a 12% markup, and my sister (also an auto seller) told me that in this market, Nissan’s MSRP should be only about 1-2% above invoice.
We started off considering the Versa, the Fit, Mazda 3, VW Rabbit, Ford Focus, Saturn Astra (my favorite, if only it had an aux jack for an mp3 player), Chevy Malibu (great car but what, no Maxx?) the Toyota Matrix, the Scion Xd and Xb, the Volvo C30, the Chevy HHR (another fave of mine, but my wife hates the styling), Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Rondo, and probably a few others.
What did we get? Honda CRV. Best value for mileage, size, and comfort, IMO. Nissan Rouge would be a close second, but a Ford Focus would be perfect if they made a wagon. They don’t.
Subaru would be in the running, and probably a winner, if they offered 2wd. Everything they make is AWD, and the mileage reflects that. Too bad, I’d like a Subie. The Scion Xd would be great too at $12K or so. At $16K, why not take the Xb?
The 2009 Fit is supposed to address some performance issues. From Honda’s website:
I actually parked next to someone’s Fit yesterday and I took a look inside. I saw that it definitely does not have a ton of cargo space with the seats up, but I don’t need a ton of space. My husband has a Suburu Forester, which has a ton of cargo space and we usually take that for big trips. My husband and I split the grocery shopping; he takes one kid to the supermarket and I take the other to the farmer’s market, so I don’t need a ton of space usually.
The comments about winter driving have me a bit worried, but I’m hoping that the 2009 fixes will enhance performance.
Thanks for all the comments.
The place where I bought one had a price like $18,000 on a Versa, there was a 2 or 3 thousand dollar “Market Adjustment!” I immediately started disliking that dealer, but the sales lady was reasonably nice so I gave them a chance. I held out for an out the door price based on my research, and they got within $250 or so.
And there wasn’t any talk of the Market Adjustment at all. You gotta wonder if people actually pay that, or if the dealer just put that there so people can feel good about not paying it.
Anecdotally, my Fit Sport has performed well in the snow the last two winters (I live in New England). There was one day this past when a “surprise” storm hit Boston and the roads were horrendous due to lack of treatment/plowing. The Fit performed better than I anticipated in such conditions, and was cruising along while other larger cars were spinning out. I’ve yet to spin out, fishtail, or otherwise lose control in the snow. Of course, my tires are pretty new, so that helps 
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Yesterday I took a wooden cross downtown for my daughter to use in her art show. I put it in my 2000 CRV with the back seats down.
The cross was 7.5 ft long and the cross-piece was 4.5 feet wide. :eek:
I’ve also put 3 or 4 six-foot-long 2x4’s in my '90 Civic Wagon (similar size to the Fit). It’s amazing what you can stuff in a Honda.
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Soul, you’re cracking me up!
It strikes me that if one were in the market for a car and couldn’t afford anything more than a Fit, they’d somehow make do with the small space. How often are you hauling everyone and everything around anyway? But anyway, if you can afford more and want to, be my guest. I just think we make things work when we have to.
(I drive a Prius, but if for some reason I had to buy a new car right now, I’d totally consider the Fit - it doesn’t have the hybrid premium price, has a low acquisition cost, and one of the best MPGs you can get without a hybrid.)
I bought the Fit in mid-March (March 15th, to be exact – that date is circled on my calendar) because my Dodge Neon was about to drop dead dead dead. When I was shopping around, I had a $25k budget set for myself, and was seriously considering the Scion xD and xB, the Prius, the Civic, and the Element. I eliminated all the others for various reasons: the xD and xB both had interiors that felt cheap to me and their mileage didn’t touch the Fit, not to mention the step down in cargo room; the Civic didn’t have the cargo room I thought I’d need, since I was planning on moving at least two or three times in whatever car I bought, and it was much more expensive than the Fit; the Element was fugly, had horrible wind noise, and its mileage just wasn’t going to cut it; and the Prius, which was the Fit’s closest competitor to me, had that strange digital display that for some reason made me slightly dizzy and nauseous to look at. I can honestly say that if I went car shopping again right now, with $50k free and clear, I’d buy three Fits.
…It’s possible that I may be fanatical to the point that a grain or thousand of salt should come with my posts in this thread. But when you first configure your Magic Seats into Lounge Mode, well, it’s like being back in middle school and first realizing that oh my god girls have BOOBS!
Wow. And I thought* I *loved my Fit a lot. 
Wait, the Fit has BOOBS?
Oh. Never mind.
Looks like you researched this quite a bit and you probably have seen this before but if not this is a good pic of the the room
To be fair, the configuration of the Fit’s cargo space is great.
Well, the christmas tree (6’6") fit in there lying flat with just the backseat folded down, so I knew the hockey table would too; I’d been more worried about the width than the length actually, but I measured both the box and the car beforehand. Anyway, I angled the box slightly towards the front seats.