[SentraSE-R]

Hi Kyle,

I'm your nearby inspiration with the xB. Welcome, and it looks like you're off to an excellent start.

The issue with the xB isn't so much drag, as it is a larger frontal area. I had my first hypermiling clinic with another hypermiler who drives a Fit. It was on his daily commute route, so he had the home court advantage, but he beat me by 8 mpg (62 mpg to my 54 mpg, IIRC). I think the Fit should get ~5 mpg more than the xB in the capable hands of the same driver. Offsetting that is the Honda price premium. If the same year, same condition Fit costs $500 more than an xB, you might never make up that $500 in initial cost by getting 55 mpg v. 50 mpg. 100000 miles @ 50 mpg uses 2000 gal, and will cost $8000 if gas averages $4/gal. You'll use 1818 gal @ 55 mpg, at a cost of $7273. You'll never notice $30/year.

I'd like to do the xB final gearing swap with Yaris ring & pinion, but at $400 for parts, or $1400 parts & labor, I would probably neiiver see an advantage doing it. I hate the MT xB's buzz bomb gearing - 3200 rpm @ 60 mph (the Fit is about the same). So the reason I'd do it is lower cruising rpm, not fuel economy. Let me know if you've ever done a FWD transaxle teardown.

Fit & xB are similar in many ways - VTEC and VVT-I, timing chains, short gearing, huge cargo space for subcompact size. I shopped both, but needed something capable of carrying my 32" tall, 32" wide, 32" deep telescope mirror box, and the Fit came out 1/2" too short. Another astronomer was shocked to learn the second generation Fit is just 1/4" too small to fit his homebuilt 22" scope in it. The reason he was shocked was that he was replacing his first generation Fit, that was able to carry the same scope.

xB does not have direct injection, nor does the Fit have 2 spark plugs/cylinder.

Fuelly lumps 1G & 2G xBs. 1Gs have a 1.5 liter engine & weigh 2400 lbs. 2Gs have a 2.4 liter engine & weigh 3000 lbs. That skews the xB mpg figures way down. To see how Fits and xB1s compare, limit your Fuelly search to 2004-2006 xBs.

Buy what suits your needs. I've grown to love the xB1s for their classic look, best-in-class headroom, and short length (1 foot shorter than a comparable Civic)! Fits remind me of granny cars, compared to modern hatchbacks like the Fiesta. But those are my biases.