Life With My 2015 Honda Fit

After driving a succession of larger vehicles, because of their utility, I was primed and ready to switch to a car that was sporty and fun, yet practical.

As we had owned a Honda Civic that we got 210,000 mi. out of, and drove for free for 11 yrs., and after just purchasing another one for my wife, which she loves, I felt that I had to investigate the Fit, and compare it to other, similar types of vehicles.

It had much better reviews than the other cars in it's class, and after a little deliberation between it and a Mazda 3 hatchback, I chose the Fit because of the great experience that we had had with our local Honda dealership.

The transmission on my Fit is very smooth, and easy to manage, even in city stop and go traffic. (The transmission, with its limited slip differential, is also very easy to drive on hills in stop & go traffic, because it does not roll backwards, as manual transmission vehicles without the limited slip will do.)

I like the performance in 5th & 6th gear, as the car still has good torque, and the engine doesn't wind out very far when cruising on the interstate, which results in better mileage..

The acceleration in 1st thru 4th, however, is much better than I had expected, with the growling sound of the engine enhancing the whole experience. (It drives like an 80's sports car, with better performance and mileage.)

My wife and I also enjoy the comfort of the interior, particularly the firmness and the contours of the front buckets, the roominess of the rear seats, and the functionality of the rear hatch / cargo area.

With the rear seats folding down, we find that there is still plenty of transport area, and have yet to find the Fit wanting in that regard, although we admittedly don't do much transporting.

The ability of the front seat backs to fold down completely, forming a flat surface all the way to the rear seat backs, while being an idea that we like, is not something that we've had occasion to use yet.

Our concerns with the 2015 Fit being manufactured in Mexico instead of Japan came to reality, somewhat, when, after sitting in our driveway for two days in the rain, I found 1/2" of water accumulated in the front, driver's side floor area.

It then took us several days to get a slot at our dealer to get the problem addressed, where the dealer found that there was a gasket in the hood area that had become displaced. (Since being repaired, we have no more leakage issues.)(We did, however, have fogging issues all winter long, as moisture coming from the saturated carpet was a problem!!) (now that we're into the warmer spring weather, the fogging issue seems to have resolved itself.))

My 2015 Fit LX has a small issue where the speedometer read-out is obscured by the steering wheel when it is in a comfortable position for me, and the dashboard read-outs, in general, are a bit more obscured than I'm used to.

I really like the color Gas Efficiency Indicators on either side of the speedometer window. They show different colors, depending on how economically you're driving, with green indicating the most efficient driving.

I also like the oil efficiency indicator located in the mileage and trip mileage window. (It shows in percentages of 10, from 100 to 0, how much oil life is remaining.)

While it's not really an big issue, I can feel the wind pushing me around more than I can when I drive my wife's 2014 Civic.

The wind issue with my Fit is nowhere near as noticeable as it was when I drove larger vehicles!!

Just prior to winter snow season, I put some Yokohama snow tires on, and have been very satisfied with their performance on our Vermont winter roads. The tires are very quiet, and I find the car to be very stable on any winter road condition. (I would not hesitate to buy these Yokohama snow tires again, and will do so when these need replacement.)

My Fit has been averaging 35 mpg around town, and 38 - 40 mpg highway, and driving the 6 speed has been an absolute blast.

I recently did a day trip that was 3 hr each way, with 70% being 40 - 60 mph on two lane roads, and 30% being interstate, and at the end, when I refilled and calculated my mileage as I do at every refill, I had averaged 44.02 mpg, and had tons of fun driving these curvy, hilly Vt. state roads.

My 2015 Fit has now gone from the drive - it - off - the - lot 15 mi., to 37, 590 mi., and my opinion of it is now fully formed.

I find that it is a very good handling, fun to drive, sporty car with a snarly, very peppy 4 cylinder engine, that just happens to average 37 mpg over the course of the year, and is very good in winter conditions.

At this point, I will definitely make my next car a Fit, (manual transmission), assuming that this one gets the requisite 200,000 before I have to trade it. (We try to drive our vehicles with payment free for as many years as possible.)

(The only problem that I have had with this car is the leak around the gasket that resulted in water on the driver's side floor when the car was brand new !!)