With my recent Subaru troubles I've been spending a lot of time in dealership loaner cars.
The latest is an 08 Honda Fit sport with the 5-speed auto.
After 300 miles I can easily say this is one of the best packaged small cars I have ever driven.
First off, the interior is a great mix of ergonomics and hidey holes. Seriously this thing has more places to stash stuff than I can even count. Cup holders? How about 5 within reach of the driver. Yeah I hope you're thirsty.
Materials are very nice. The plastics are all soft touch, none of the hard cheap crap that was everywhere in the Chevy HHR I had previously (awful car). The nice plastics are important here, since you could land a Cessna on the dash. Did I mention the dash is huge? Maybe Honda made a deal with Armor All.
It has a lot of useful space, especially with the rear seats folded flat, allowing the car to swallow much more than you'd expect it to. And room in the front is ample even for my 6'2" frame. The rear would be a little tight but certainly livable for short trips. Kids could be absolutely fine in the back.
The seat fabrics are VERY nice. Surprisingly nice actually. Soft and smooth material makes me wonder about durability but there were no signs of wear on this car with 14k miles.
The seats themselves were comfortable but could use more side bolstering in the twisties, which is where this car truly surprises.
Yes it's a front heavy fwd car, but the Fit feels like a terrier in corners. The steering is quick though not incredibly communicative, perhaps due to the electric power steering rack. It's accurate though.
Body roll is nicely controlled and along one of my favorite roads heading to the track Sunday I was grinning as I picked through the apexes while spinning the little 1.5l engine at 6,000rpm. When the limits are found it's always understeer, in fact it's hard to provoke oversteer even with trail braking. Better rubber would certainly help as the stock all season tires are a far cry from grippy.
If you're like me, you still have the fact that the car is an auto in the back of your head, but it really doesn't hamper the fun much. Shifts are crisp and using the "tiptronic" paddles on the steering wheel surrenders only short pauses between paddle push and actual shift. The manual would certainly be the more rewarding choice though because the 1.5l engine needs to be worked to gather speed.
It's not a powerful unit but the engine has a sweet willingness to spin like most Hondas do. It's smooth all the way through the rev band and there are few moments where you feel like the car can't get out of it's own way.
Not that the motorhead in all of us doesn't wonder what a K20 would do to transform the car. But then you wouldn't be averaging more than 40mpg. Frugal fun.
When all is said and done, I wouldn't hesitate to suggest a Fit to somebody looking for a small car. It's a fine little package. I'll take mine in blue with the manual transmission please.
