2009 Honda Fit

[A Horse With No Name]

...and yeah, blu it was an EXCELLENT review.

Chris

[ocnblu]

Thanks Chris. Local dealer has three Fits left out of about seven, one a base manual in bright blue, a black Sport 5 speed w/nav, and a silver Sport w/auto and nav.

[Satty]

I have a feeling most dealerships are going to stock nav models, because they'll be able to get more out of customers who dont want to wait for them to get a Sport w/o nav.

[ocnblu]

I must be out of touch, because I think nav is a waste of money. It is also an invitation to break into the car... although I'd hope the unit is rendered useless if it is removed unprofessionally.

[Sixty8panther]

Sure, you DO have the freedom to er... "enjoy" a small car like a Fit.

"Enjoy" away... but I personally think it's a sad time we live in, when

people would rather spend $18,000 to buy a Honda the size of a collge

refrigerator while there's a million awesome cars out there for pennies

on the dollar like respectable G-body Regals or Malibus that get pretty

darn good milage and have more cargo room than my daughter's

sock drawer to boot.

I guess maybe I'm a jackass becuse it disgusts me to see a car forum

full of (mostly) American car/GM fanatics talking about some Japanese

made tin-can go-cart-blob as if it was the 2nd coming.

[ocnblu]

The Fit has over 20 cu ft of luggage space with the rear seats up. That's more than any current Chevy sedan, and on par with a B-body Caprice. And then you can put the seats down and gain a whole heck of a lot more hauling space than the awesome old B-body sedan. I stopped by the local Chevy dealer today. They have several '09 Aveos, and they are truly pitiful when put up against the Fit. In this class, the Fit is a much more fully realized product. Edited September 14, 2008 by ocnblu

[Satty]

An aftermarket nav system would be an invitation to break in, thats an easy grab. Factory nav would be a pain in the ass to remove and would be pretty much worthless outside of the car because it wont install easily into any other car.

[ocnblu]

Yeah, you're right. But I'd rather not have the distraction of nav, period.

[Z-06]

I must be out of touch, because I think nav is a waste of money. It is also an invitation to break into the car... although I'd hope the unit is rendered useless if it is removed unprofessionally.

Great review sir. I love your write ups. Yeah I always had softcorner for the Hondas and as an ex-owner of a 2005 TSX I can definitely relate the manual transmission experience like you had with the Fit. The Hondas are easy to modulate. By far the best stick in the business as someone earlier mentioned come from Honda, the Horndawg manual transmissions are better than the Germans. Also it is sad to know that Aveo sucks balls. I wished GM had made that car better and like always they are going to be last in the party behind Japanese hell even Ford in that respect.

As far as the Honda navigations go, they are rendered useless once taken out of the host vehicle. Each comes with an eight digit code which should be activated along with the vehicle and has the preprogrammed VIN in the system. As a TSX owner I never have to worry about it. Plus it has side kicks of voice activated commands like when you say, "Find Nearest Blowjob" it gives you the closest hotels and motels, or when you make farting noise it turns AC on full air. Actually if you are traveling on rural highways it is good, and plus Honda has one of the simplest navigation systems I have seen better than those vaunted Germans (like it is not obvious). The only navigation system that comes close is the Lexus IS, but it has the dumb thing of not allowing the inputs while driving even if there is a passenger by your side trying to input the data. I do not think you will be disappointed and this is coming from a guy who has won the best map reader award for Scout camps.

[siegen]

Plus it has side kicks of voice activated commands like when you say, "Find Nearest Blowjob" it gives you the closest hotels and motels, or when you make farting noise it turns AC on full air.

[Z-06]

I am not kidding at least the 2005 TSX does it, the dealer showed it to me.

[ocnblu]

Whoa small, interesting! But on a car like a Fit, the nav is a huge percentage of the MSRP (they admittedly bundle it with stability control). I think it goes from like $16.7k to $18.3k or something.

[A Horse With No Name]

I wouldn't want NAV in one. I wonder if the blackberry color carries over...the FIT looked excellent in that.

Although the Cobalt is really growing on me also, I am almost ready to get in the market for one.

Chris

[ocnblu]

It does carry over. Local dealer had one, a Sport manual, but it was spoken for before it hit the lot. There are two new colors, I think, for '09: a new black metallic (a different color from Honda's longrunning Blackhawk Pearl) and an orange that's different from last year's.

[pow]

Plus it has side kicks of voice activated commands like when you say, "Find Nearest Blowjob" it gives you the closest hotels and motels, or when you make farting noise it turns AC on full air.

[regfootball]

It does carry over. Local dealer had one, a Sport manual, but it was spoken for before it hit the lot. There are two new colors, I think, for '09: a new black metallic (a different color from Honda's longrunning Blackhawk Pearl) and an orange that's different from last year's.

i called 2 dealers to look at fits and neither had any. spoken for before hitting the lot.

[regfootball]

Edmunds full test FIt Sport

[regfootball]

got to sit inside an 09 Fit at noon today. I'll post some thoughts over in the Honda section.

[A Horse With No Name]

Looking forward to seeing what you think, reg.

Chris

[regfootball]

i admire the fit but think its not worth ALL the hype its gotten.

[A Horse With No Name]

i admire the fit but think its not worth ALL the hype its gotten.

Almost no car is, actually, not even a Nissan GTR.

However, it is a damned nice car for 14k.

I know you put off the Astra thing reg, but what are you really thinking right now in terms of another car? Just gonna drive the Azz-tech or what?

Chris

[Sixty8panther]

The Fit has over 20 cu ft of luggage space with the rear seats up. That's more than any current Chevy sedan, and on par with a B-body Caprice. And then you can put the seats down and gain a whole heck of a lot more hauling space than the awesome old B-body sedan. I stopped by the local Chevy dealer today. They have several '09 Aveos, and they are truly pitiful when put up against the Fit. In this class, the Fit is a much more fully realized product.

Well, for you that works, cause you don't have kids....

I'm pretty sure a b-body wagon with the middle seats

folded down could swallow an entire Fit, if only slightly

compacted by a forklift.

[siegen]

However, it is a damned nice car for 14k.

Not quite 14k. The base MSRP is $14,550. With $670 destination fee that is $15,220 for the base model.

Searching AutoTrader nationwide, the average sticker price is $17,610. That's out of 1,654 listings. It's more indicative of what you would actually pay if you wanted to purchase one, unless you are willing to wait for the factory to build and ship you a base model.

For comparison.

2009 Aveo $15,269 average sticker price out of 4,693 listings.

2009 Yaris $16,090 average sticker price out of 2,216 listings.

2009 Fit $17,610 average sticker price out of 1,654 listings.

That says nothing about features though. The average Fit is probably equipped better than the average Aveo or Yaris. They are all quite expensive though since they are in high demand. And of course the fewer available, the more dealer mark up potential.

[Sixty8panther]

Well, I will agree that paying a few grand more for a Fit over an Aveo is worth it.

Either way I'd never spend that kind of money on a car the size of a sardine can.

[2005 EquinoxLS]

Should I gt rid of my 2 for one of these so I get better fuel mileage? By the way Mom and I are pleased with her Aveo.

[turbo200]

having seen one in person, on looks alone and presence , the fit looks like an upscale car. the price is shocking on a NAV model, the last gen seemed high to me when it was priced at $15k, for an economic subcompact albeit a highly sophisticated one. certainly the sophistication and fuel economy will live up to thier end of the deal, and acceleration is no doubt improved. presentation wise it lives up to the price, but for $19k, there are designs that move you more and other cars that have most of the sophistication, but maybe not honda bulletproof build and efficiency. i am thoroughly pleased with my honda, but I won't make the mistake of spending $25k on a design that doesn't excite me.

Edited October 10, 2008 by turbo200

[regfootball]

to me, from the presentation i saw and sat in, you'd be pushing it to push the prices above 18k on ANY version of this. But I'm cheap. The SX4 by the way feels much more solid and more of a piece as far as interiors and tactile / visual inspection. The Fit has a slight Korean aura to it.

Magic seat and all, I'd get an SX4 over this. Of course, I'll need to drive the Fit to substantiate it however.

Edited October 10, 2008 by regfootball

[Mule Bakersdozen LS]

Yup, sat in a grey base model about $14,000 on Tuesday afternoon after work when I went brochure banditing. It was so ugly I wanted to barf. It was like that in pictures beforehand too (even worse than the previous model), and the dashboard was absolutely huge, when it didn't work in the 1990-96 GM minivans (the Dustbusters, of course), and it sure doesn't work now. Couldn't see very well out front and of course the seats were not height adjustable. My 1989 Buick Century was a model for front visibility, this was terrible, and the hood must be a mechanic's nightmare-I hate these small car designs these days! I call this Cab TOO FAR Forward! And 35 MPG highway? That's it??? Didn't the Civic get into the 40's highway a decade or more ago?

[siegen]

Yup, sat in a grey base model about $14,000 on Tuesday afternoon after work when I went brochure banditing. It was so ugly I wanted to barf. It was like that in pictures beforehand too (even worse than the previous model), and the dashboard was absolutely huge, when it didn't work in the 1990-96 GM minivans (the Dustbusters, of course), and it sure doesn't work now. Couldn't see very well out front and of course the seats were not height adjustable. My 1989 Buick Century was a model for front visibility, this was terrible, and the hood must be a mechanic's nightmare-I hate these small car designs these days! I call this Cab TOO FAR Forward! And 35 MPG highway? That's it??? Didn't the Civic get into the 40's highway a decade or more ago?

The Civic got 40mpg HWY with the old EPA rating. The Fit gets 1mpg less hwy mileage than the Civic currently, likely because it is less aerodynamic.

[caddycruiser]

With the previous ('08 and earlier) gen, I'd see the occasional Fit every couple of days but it wasn't necessarily a common site even around here.

Then, somehow, from the days that the new '09s first became available, I've seen one after another after another of the new ones buzzing around in their shined up, temporary paper tag state, everywhere I go. In the past week, I saw at least one everyday in a different color and clearly just purchased. People are also clearly driving to get them, because of all that I've seen, only a couple have been from the "local" Honda dealers with others from bigger places across the bay in Maryland and up north in Pennsylvania...so people are driving to get one, too.

Just based on this, there seems to be bigger than usual interest in the Fit, for sure. I don't know how I'm now seeing more '09s than others that have been out for years, but I am. Anyone else seeing similar things or is the explosion just local for me?

[Satty]

I've only seen a couple '09s but the previous ones didn't sell that well around here, there are 4-5 that run around, but thats about it.

[Sixty8panther]

Oh there's plenty of the old model around here.... as hideously ugly as thy are!

(Dustmite on crack)