To buy a used Fit or xB?

[kYLEMtnCRUZr]

Hello all,

My name is Kyle and thank you all for inspiring my new driving habits!
I went from 22-25mpg in my 99 2.5L Subaru to 30 first tank. Now with my SGII I have 37mpg avg 80 miles into my second tank, and that's hilly rural city driving.

I am looking at used (both 1 gen) Fits and xBs. The two have similar bicycle hauling capabilities and I like the looks of both.

My main concern is drag. Fit has .32/.35 listed by random claims (not Honda) and the xB is .35 if I recall.

xB final gearing swap with Yaris would be a nice mod.

xB has, if I recall, direct injection while Fit has 2 spark plugs.

I tried comparing on Fuelly but I dot trust the figures, especially when some ICE claim 100 mpg, clearly amateur data entry.

The green xB who posts here from the Bay Area is a big inspiration to my choice after seeing it's numbers from a true hypermiler. And my mom has one and they handle very well.

If an xB can hit 50mpg I don't see why a Fit couldn't. Would the Fit yield slightly better mpg due to (assumed) less drag?

Given these two choices, what would you buy and why? Thanks for any opinions!

-Kyle

[cfg83]

kYLEMtnCRUZr -

Some garage comparisons :

Fit = EcoModder Fleet list - EcoModder.com
xB = EcoModder Fleet list - EcoModder.com

I think they're almost the same. If you were hard core than I would *guess* you could research foreign tranny swaps for higher gears for the Fit.

The "rear seat down" cargo capacity of the Fit is 57.3 cubic feet :

2012 Honda Fit - Specifications - Official Site

The 1st-gen xB gets 43.4 cubic feet, but the 2nd-gen xB gets 69.9 cubic feet (and lower MPG than the 1st-gen) :

HowStuffWorks "Scion Cargo Carrying Capacity"

CarloSW2

[niky]

Do the US ones have dual plugs? Thought it was only the Asian/European ones that did. You guys got VTEC. Old xB is not DI, if I recall, either.

The Fit is a good car. Get it with a stick and not only will you have a small, frugal daily driver that can hold more cargo than seems possible... it's also genuinely fun to drive over a twisty road.

[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.

[kYLEMtnCRUZr]

Awesome, thanks! Just the info and the links I was looking for.

Averaging out the garage numbers, the xB came up 1mpg higher than the Fit. Though better than Fuelly reports, I still see a lot of heavy right feet in the garage link, which doesn't make me comfortable leaning on those numbers. As I feel I could match half of those numbers in my 2.5L!

I've been thinking of a civic vx hatch as a wild card, but a lot I see were driven by "wutsup CL I got dis fly civic for sale wit stolen parts on it" haha. Not to mention my cousins stock Si was stolen up in Chico. And more attention from the law on those, but I believe xBs were high on their list as well. Going 45 on the freeway might cause some suspicion with those.

Oh and anyone know the weight of the rear seats of each? I have read that the rear seats of the Fit, being as advanced as they are, weigh 300 lbs. I really doubt that, but in a USDM market car I wouldn't be surprised. I would lean more towards 100lbs. But if I could shave that much off, I would lean to the Fit.


This info is definitely a great start so thanks again.

[SentraSE-R]

I'd avoid Civic vxes. They're too old, too expensive, unsafe, and half of them have been hot-rodded.

I don't know about Fit seats, but both rear seats on xB1s probably don't weigh 75 lbs combined, including the lower seat cushion.

[niky]

Fit seat assembly includes the folding mechanism and legs. Most car seats are simply foam cushions molded to fit over the tank. Fit seats are actual... chairs... with legs. The probably do weigh a lot more but 300 lbs sounds excessive. 100-150 is more likely, but I've never had occasion to remove a set.

[kYLEMtnCRUZr]

Thanks, 100lbs is very promising then. I took my passenger seat out of my Subaru for an autocross, and have left it that way. My wife doesn't mind the back seat. Plywood cut down the length is no problem!

Fit is another plus, because if I ever put a tiny turbo in there, it would work great for autocross, for a turbo car. My 1985 Prelude Si was a blast so I don't doubt the Fit.

[niky]

HKS kit in the Fit can hold about 150 to the wheels... around 170-180 bhp. Drives like a bat-out-of-hell and doesn't use any more gas in the daily grind off-boost.

Don't know how long the engine would last at that boost level if you're tracking it, though.... but a bone-stock Fit is already a good autocross car... except for the problems in fitting wider tires (narrow wells).

[Xist]

Kyle, we have had similar cars. My first was a 1987 Prelude Si and my current one is a 1999 Forester. My best mileage was 40.4 MPG driving 164 miles back from my parents house--on a mountain.

I bet you didn't drive your Prelude with the seat all of the way back, though, did you?

My knees touch the dashboard of a Fit.