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| 2007 Honda Fit Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
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| Road Test | |||
Oddly enough, the Fit is just as much a slice of another specific era - say, between 16 and 19 years ago. Back then as now, Honda had a scrappy little subcompact measuring about 14 feet long, powered by a cute little 1.5-liter engine.Is the 2007 Fit just a repeat of the 1988 Civic wagon? Well, yes and no. Both have nearly identical footprints and blueprints and live up to the standards of their time, but well, we're living in a different time. That cute little 1.5-liter now features variable valve timing (marking history's cheapest VTEC-powered car yet), and now makes 109 horsepower where 92 once stood. It zings to redline with the alacrity of any modern Honda (though the smaller displacement lends a slightly buzzier quality) and hits 60 MPH in a perfectly decent 8.7 seconds with manual shift. With an automatic, that stretches to about ten - kinda slow in today's power-rich culture. It in fact is slow when loaded up with passengers aboard and the A/C running (which have a disproportionately higher impact on a 109 HP car), and it's a little uneasy to hear your motor buzz at a hornet's nest-like 5,500 RPM when climbing a high-speed hill. But both power and torque are at least in the triple digits, so as long as you're not afraid to floor that pedal, the Fit won't try your patience too much. And the transmission's there to help. Honda has one-upped its peers by giving us not four, but five gears to play with (whoa there, we're still getting used to seeing 5-speed autos on Civics!), and you really can play with them since the Fit has a SportShift manual mode, accessible via ideally-placed steering wheel paddles (something even Accords don't have). SportShift gives near-complete control by never shifting against your will - good for fun and frugality alike - and as in Subarus, the paddles can also be used for spontaneous temporary shifts when driving in "D." Lastly, Honda set up the torque converter to lock up in all gears, improving efficiency. Aside from the occasional unwanted downshift and too much engine braking, the Fit's transmission stands alongside the engine: on top of the class. Outside the powertrain, Honda takes us to one Civic prior by saddling the Fit with a not-quite-independent rear suspension - yep, it's a clunky torsion beam back there. This is also the lone Honda without a single wishbone at any wheel; the front end gets struts, and is the only place to find a stabilizer bar. Predictably, the Fit's ride quality comes off as a bit thwackier than a Civic's; you can feel the car's hind end doing a few gratuitous pole vaults. But the ride is reasonably compliant - a little more so than a Scion xA's. That suspension isn't the best handling recipe, either (the back end can step sideways on mid-corner bumps), but the Fit still zips around curves like Civics of yore. It's been a long time since Honda offered a car weighing just 2,551 pounds (2,432 in one version), and the first time they've given such a car tires of size P195/55R15 or steering this quick. One downer is the steering's electric nature and hence its plain feel, but the Fit is so tiny and tossable, you kind of forget. Another possible nit to pick is that the Fit's tail is unwilling to rotate, though with over 0.8g of grip to spare, understeer's not a big deal. Oh, and this is about the easiest car to park in the world. My only real complaint with the Fit experience is Honda going overboard in its mission to make the Fit a super sport compact. It's not so much the ride or the racket (which are both reasonable), but more the way the Fit fills its role in the family: as the hyper little kid who wants his way and wants it now. The Fit's standard antilock brakes (lifted verbatim from the Civic) work just fine, but the usual Honda non-linearity is further exacerbated by the rear brakes being drums; there's always a spike of bite near the end. The drive-by-wire accelerator's a little jumpy, possibly to increase the impression of acceleration, and finally there's Honda's odd rule that the steering must get faster as the car gets smaller. Down here at the Fit's end, we find a freakishly low steering ratio of 12.8:1 (uh, the Acura NSX's was 18.6:1), which combined with its microscopic 96.5-inch wheelbase causes the car to dart around streets as if every errand were an obstacle course. Flingability is fun, for sure, but Honda is nearing the day when a muscle spasm means a U-turn. The Fit has one more shocking spec up its sleeve, and that's the number 33.5. Luckily, we're talking about fuel economy here, where too much is never enough and the Fit, again, stands at the top. On top of the Civic, on top of its class, and on top of Automotive.com's 83-vehicle database (the Prius isn't in there). Taking partial credit is Honda's decision to make the Fit the first subcompact car in today's world with cruise control. The tall 0.55 fifth gear in the automatic transmission also helped, as did the added control of SportShift, which allows such tricks as holding 4th gear on uphill grades instead of letting the computer settle for 3rd. Every bit counts, and in this case the bits beat the Scion xA and Kia Rio by a good 3 MPG. It's nice when a car drinks more frugally than it drives. |
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