Fuel Efficiency in the Honda Fit
If you drive the Fit for maximum fuel efficiency with very light throttle applications and you shift into the next highest gear as quickly as possible, the Honda Fit gets amazing gas mileage. On our best tankful using this method, the Fit averaged 37.3 mpg—and that was combined city and highway driving. Hey, who needs a hybrid? But if you keep up with the rest of the lead-foot drivers in Los Angeles, the fuel economy does drop. And so the average for the past nine tankfuls works out to 33 mpg—still quite good.
As the odometer rolled past the 3,000-mile mark, it got me thinking about the first scheduled maintenance. Call me old-fashioned, but shouldn’t there be some type of schedule printed in the owner’s manual? Instead, our Honda Fit has a “Maintenance Minder” computer, which tells us at 3,361 miles that we have 50 percent of our engine oil life remaining. I’d like to know when Honda’s engineers recommend I should change the oil—especially under severe-duty useage. More importantly, if you don’t get your car serviced at a Honda dealer, you’re forced to reset the Maintenance Minder yourself—and remember to do it. How many owners are going to be up for that?
Honda Tops Consumer Reports for 2009
In what’s starting to seem routine, Consumer Reports has released it’s 2009 Auito Issue and once again Honda is at the top of the Auto Maker Report Card. The report card compiles data from autos from all car manuafacturers and the scores are based on road test data and reliability ratings.
Honda, Toyota and Subaru were the top three auto manufacturers overall. Honda fared best overall based on predicted reliability, with only the Element falling slightly short. While the European manufacturers didn’t fare as well overall, they did earn high marks in performance comfort and safety.
For some reason, American auto manufacturers are scored separately (which seems odd and almost unfair). Among them, Ford came out ahead with it’s Flex and F-150 vehicles, and GM managed to get 8 of its vehicles on the Consumer Reports Recommended list.
Honda Announces New CEO
On Monday, Honda announced Takanobu Ito as the new president and CEO of Honda Motor Corporation. He was previously positioned as a Senior Managing Director of the company. Former president Takeo Fukui will remain on as a director and advisor.
Ito, pictured left:
Other management changes were also announced and the entire press release can be read on Honda’s website.
Honda Fit Ranks #1 among 35 Affordable Small Cars
Based on the US News Ranking and Reviews evaluation, the Honda Fit ranked #1 out of the 35 affordable small cars that they tested, based on 22 published reviews of the 2009 Honda Fit and a detailed analysis of saftey and reliability data on the car.
The larger, sportier 2009 Honda Fit has more utility than most cars in its class, and has a strong resale value. It was rated teh 2009 “Best Car for the Money” in the subcompact class according to US News.
The Fit has made the top 10 list for Car and Driver’s “Top Ten Urban Vehicles”, for both the 2008 and the redesigned 2009 models for its comfort, fuel efficiency, seating modes and available cargo space. While the price is a bit higher than some of the other “affordable” subcompact cars it has been compared against.
One of the only shortcomings among all of the reviews of the 2009 fit is the lack of a stability control option like the one that comes in the VW Rabbit as standard equipment. However in my opinion, you shouldn’t be pushing subcompacts to such limits to require electronic stability control systems. My s2000 doesn’t have stability control, and I drive it a heck of a lot harder than the Fit.
Here is a break down of the US News Rankings:
Fit Performance - 8.5 (Very Good)
Fit Exterior - 7.6 (Good)
Fit Interior - 8.5 (Very Good)
Fit Reliability - 10.0 (Excellent)
Mugen Honda Fit: RS Aero & L/G Aero
I really don’t get why high-end tuner companies aren’t as popular here in the US as they are in Japan. Of course a lot of these company’s products such as Mugen eventually make it to our shore, but rarely in the full form they do in Japan.
Mugen, the primary tuner for Honda factory cars, puts out some of the cleanest products for almost every Honda model. In Japan Mugen has 2 packages for the Honda Fit: RS Aero and L/G Aero.
The Mugen Honda Fit RS Aero tuning kit contains a new front bumper with an integrated grill and HID lights, new side skirts, dual exhausts and other accessories.
The Mugen Honda Fit L/G Aero tuning kit contains a new front bumper and side skirts, chromed exhaust pipe and a tail wing.
Honda Fit at the 2009 LA Auto Show
Last weekend my friends and I went to the LA Auto Show to check out the new cars for 2009. I was particularly interested in some of the new Hondas like the CR-Z (I’m guessing they went straight from -X to -Z because -Y would’ve made it the CR-Y and that just sounds weak). One of the cars getting the most attention though was the Fit. This was actually the first time that I’d seen the new model closeup and while I didn’t feel like waiting to sit down in it, I did check out the interior and was impressed. The integrated navigation system is very clean, additions like cub holders in the dash and armrests were practical, and like I’ve said since it came out, the exterior modifications are also very nice. I wasn’t too fond of the purple color this model was shown in, but that’s just me.
Installing New Speakers in the Using the Factory Mounts
This weekend we installed some new speakers in the Fit. The install was pretty straight forward, save for some door clips and the way the factory speaker basket mounts to the door. But here’s a quick writeup for those of you looking to do a similar install. The factory speakers really are junk paper cones, and it was fun to tear them apart.
Removing the door panel is pretty straight forward. There is a single Phillips screw that goes through inside door handle, and there are 3 more screws inside the center of the door which can be accessed by pulling off the plastic cover that encases the center of the door. Once these screws are off, carefully pull on the edges of the door panel to pop off the door clips, and finally push the door handle through the door panel, remove all of the plugs and pull the panel up to bring it up over the door edge.
Now that the door is off, remove the factory speaker and basket together. You’ll notice that there aren’t any screws, what you need to do is gently pull the top part of the speaker towards you, and use a flathead screwdriver to push the tab down that will allow the speaker to come all of the way out.
To mount the new speaker, we just cut the original basket up and screwed the new speaker into it and simply replaced the whole unit into the door. We also cut and resoldered the factory clips, so that we didn’t have to cut the car’s harness.
How to reset the oil life monitor / indicator on a Honda Fit
My oil life indicator got down to 10% today (at about 6500 miles) and, since I had the day off for Columbus day, I decided to take my Fit in for its first oil change. Living in the small ghetto-ish community of Echo Park here in Los Angeles, there aren’t too many Honda service centers or even Econo Lube n Tube’s around. This is why I found myself at the little service center in my local independently run gas station. They changed the oil on the Fit for $30 and got it done fairly quickly. The only downside was that they didn’t reset the damned oil life inidicator. Thanks to the “Having a Fit” blog, I discovered how to reset the indicator myself and thought I’d share them with you:
- Press the trip meter select/reset pin until you the oil life reminder is displayed
- Press and hold the select/reset pin down for approximately 10 seconds until the oil life reminder is blinking
- Press and hold the select/reset pin down for another 5 seconds or so until the oil life reminder is reset to 100%
Big thanks to Having a Fit for posting this. Up next, I’ll be posting about my brand new Pioneer Avic F700BT.
What kind of mileage do you get in your Fit?
My fit is a 2008 Sport with automatic transmission. Since I opted for the AT over MT (a pretty damned big decision mostly influenced by the hours a week I spend on the LA freeways), I’ve known not to expect amaaazing gas mileage out of my Fit, but that said, I’m still just not that impressed with my results.
I’ve heard people say that I need to wait for the car to be truly broken in, but at this point my Fit has just over 6k miles on it and I’m still basically averaging around 29mpg. My useage is almost entirely highway and I really expected to see closer to the 34mpgpromised. I’ve even heard of some people on various Fit/Honda forums getting up to 45mpg … which leads me to wonder whether the rumors of amazing gas mileage for the Fit stem mostly from people who drive it like a 90 year old woman. I’m no where near the most aggressive driver I know, but driving in LA, you definitely need to accelerate enough to not die when merging onto the freeway.
So, whats the deal Fit lovers? What kind of mileage are you getting? Anyone have any real world, practical, tips that don’t involve drafting behind a giant truck or turning off the engine in the middle of a crowded highway?
Honda Fit Best Selling Car in Japan for 11th Month in a Row
For the 11th straight month, the Honda Fit has ranked as the best selling compact car in Japan.
Up 52% in September, the Honda fit has sold 16,350 units, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a release today. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Corolla ranked second with 12,176 vehicles sold, and the Vitz took third with 9,972 sold.
Demand for Honda’s Fit and the new Freed minivan boosted the Tokyo-based company’s domestic sales, excluding minicars, by 12 percent in the fiscal first half. The Fit, revamped last October, helped Honda defy the industry’s 2.9 percent drop to the lowest level in 34 years.
Japan’s first-half auto sales slumped to 1.54 million vehicles as rising unemployment and decade-high inflation sapped demand for new vehicles.
Here is a ranking of the top 10 Japanese subcompact’s for September:
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No. Model
1. Honda Fit
2. Toyota Corolla
3. Toyota Vitz
4. Honda Freed
5. Mazda Demio
6. Nissan Tiida
7. Nissan Serena
8. Toyota Prius
9. Nissan Note
10. Toyota Passo
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