Next Car: Honda Fit? - Page 4 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

99LeCouch · 04-15-2009, 10:56 PM

Hard to beat the Fit for space. That little car has more room than my Buick! Well, when you include folding down the seats and cannibalizing some passenger space.

I bet the manual does get better FE than the auto when driven correctly. My last manual car killed EPA ratings consistently when I drove it correctly.

NeilBlanchard · 04-15-2009, 11:17 PM

Hi,

You cannot forget the final drive ratio! My xA has "overdrive" 4th and 5th gears -- but the 4.13 final drive just kills it.

Kuda · 08-20-2009, 01:18 AM

Hi,

2009 A/T Fit Sport owner here. All auto Fits have paddle shifters which can be used in normal drive and in an S mode which gives you more control. The sport weighs around 120ish pounds more than the regular fit IIRC. I'm not so sure how effective the rear spoiler is, but the regular trim has a nice profile. Driving mainly in 5th gear at around 65mph at ~2100 rpm I managed 47.7 mpg highway according to the factory installed FE gauge just today (130 mile trip). As someone mentioned earlier 2-2.5k really is the sweet spot for economy. It does have a ton of room for stuff and friends and handles pretty well. I'd definitely recommend a Fit but with it being a Honda, a used one or even an older Civic would suit you just fine and provide similar results.

My first post btw, love the site.

NeilBlanchard · 08-20-2009, 07:14 AM

Hi,

I got the final drive ratio transposed:

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

You cannot forget the final drive ratio! My xA has "overdrive" 4th and 5th gears -- but the 4.31 final drive just kills it.

mcbrew · 08-20-2009, 01:57 PM

The Fit is a nice car. My brother bought a 2009 Fit Sport back in November '08 and loves it. His is 5-speed... and I'd have a hard time believing that the auto could produce better numbers with the same driver. Just an oddity of the EPA testing method.

I came close to getting a Fit, but chose a Scion xD instead. The main reason was the way Scion works with options... you pick options by themselves... there are no "packages". The only option that MUST be built-in at the factory is VSC (stability control). After some first hand experience with stability control a few years ago on German cars, I decided that my next car would have to have it. Honda makes you upgrade to the "Sport" and then get the "nav" package in order to get stability control. That's over $2,000 in options that you may not want. Scion is one of the few companies that would let me get VSC without forcing any other option on me. The 2010 Scion xD's come with VSC standard, as will all cars by 2012.

I'm sure you'll love the Fit. You can get upper 30s without trying hard, and into the 40s without too much of a hassle. My brother's MPG hovers around 40, and he drives sensibly, but is not a serious hypermiler.

I don't consider myself a serious hypermiler, either... but I get well above EPA numbers in the xD (which, for those of you who don't keep track, is the new version of the xA like Neil has). I'm averaging about 38 MPG so far, but that includes towing a trailer a few times a month.

Anyway... enjoy the Fit! It's a neat car with lots of MPG potential!

Old Tele man · 08-20-2009, 03:57 PM

...in my best Johnny Cochran voice imitation: "...if the HONDA Fits, you must buy it!"

aerohead · 08-20-2009, 06:19 PM

MOTOR WEEK,The weekly PBS Television magazine,reported an average 31.6 mpg for their test Fit,over 15,000 miles of driving.I do not know if it was automatic or stick.I was surprised at the low mpg figure.

99LeCouch · 08-20-2009, 07:14 PM

My fiancee is averaging ~35 mpg with her 09 Fit Sport automatic. This is mixed driving.

stevet47 · 08-20-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aerohead

MOTOR WEEK,The weekly PBS Television magazine,reported an average 31.6 mpg for their test Fit,over 15,000 miles of driving.I do not know if it was automatic or stick.I was surprised at the low mpg figure.

On the fit forums, the general consensus is that the EPA estimates are waay low. Weird motorweek did so bad.

MetroMPG · 08-20-2009, 10:04 PM

The "new" (revised) EPA estimates may be low.

But I just did a quick search for 2007 5-speed Fit results "by drivers like you" on fueleconomy.gov: 49 vehicles reporting, average was 35.7 mpg combined, and the "old" EPA rating was... 35 mpg combined. The new EPA value for the 2007 is 31 mpg combined.

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