HELLo from Canada (Honda Fit M/T)

[PaleMelanesian]

Hey! Nice car you have there. I always did like that color, but settled for a white one myself. You can't be so choosy when buying used.

You can haul just about anything in it. It just "fits". I've carried a lazy-boy, a water heater, a stove, a dresser, multiple bales of hay at once, a sheep, lumber, rolls of fencing, and much more.

I agree about the lower grille block. I used a foam exercise mat cut to size. Poke a couple holes through and secure it with zip ties around the grille cross pieces.

Shift early, keep the rpm low, use neutral whenever you're not actually needing power like on downhills. (but careful to avoid over-speeding) With the gear ratios the way they are, high speed means high rpm, so slow down if it's reasonable to do so.

[Fat Charlie]

No, I haven't. What I need to do is reseal the block I do have, except it still works great and I have no incentive to dig around reinforcing it and retaping it. I'll take a look at the dam when I do that.

PaleMelanesian's pic of the hay bale helped my wife think the Fit was a good move.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

I've carried a lazy-boy, a water heater, a stove, a dresser, multiple bales of hay at once, a sheep, lumber, rolls of fencing, and much more.

I saw what you did there.

With the gear ratios the way they are, high speed means high rpm, so slow down if it's reasonable to do so.

Has nobody figured out a 5th gear swap for the car yet?

[PaleMelanesian]

I build a plywood crate to fit in the back to help contain it and any mess. I now have a trailer and a hitch.

If you could swap the cr-z's final drive and 6th gear instead of our 5th, it would lower the 60 mph rpm from 2800 to about 2500. That's not enough to be worth the hassle, especially not knowing if it'll actually fit. If it would drop it to 2000 rpm I'd be interested.

[Andrei_ierdnA]

Now that I have 5 posts, I can add some photos and links:

1 day after picked it up - I call it "The Fit Smurf" because of the colour, but I would like to give it a girl/woman's name. Any suggestions?



I've had some people commenting that it's a girly colour, or that I let my girlfriend pick the colour, but whatever. I'm happy and to each their own. At least I never have to search forever for a grey sedan in a "sea" of grey sedans in parking lots.

Here's a pic of it's back-side, with the arm for HELLoween:

[PaleMelanesian]

The Fit actually has a fairly long nose, so it already scrapes sometimes in stock form. I don't want to go any lower. The JDM model had a shorter nose but it wouldn't pass US crash tests so they made it longer.

The 2015 new model has the same short nose worldwide.

[MetroMPG]

That's quite the collection of "GO AROUND ME" messaging on the back of your car, Andrei.

[Andrei_ierdnA]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

...

The upper grille is tiny, the lower one is a gaping wound that ducts air through the radiator and compresses it underneath the car. Block that one.

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

It's coroplast spray painted black, and the lower pic is with the block.

Damn, Charlie, you made it so slick I didn't even notice it there.
I just thought the second pic was with different angle/lighting and more shade over the radiator.
So how did you insert it? Did you have to remove the top plastic cover by the hood latch?

Also does anyone with a Honda Fit 2nd gen know why the underside of the hood has that plastic duct for directing air from the upper grille to the battery, brake fluid and clutch fluid containers? I think the engine fuse-box is around that location too.

[Andrei_ierdnA]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Some members block behind the grille opening to keep the OEM look. There may be a small efficiency penalty vs. an external block, but it's still way better than wide open OEM.

Also you might consider a block heater if you've got somewhere to plug in. Depending on wattage, an hour of pre-heat will make a noticeable difference in cold weather.

For starters I would like to do it easy and just block from behind the grille. Also since I jumped from an 18 year-old car to a 2 year old car that still looks like new, I want to keep its OEM looks for a few years at least.

Unfortunately I don't have the possibility of using a block heater, either at home or at work. It's something I would definitely get if I had a plug available.

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Hey! Nice car you have there. I always did like that color, but settled for a white one myself. You can't be so choosy when buying used.

You can haul just about anything in it. It just "fits". I've carried a lazy-boy, a water heater, a stove, a dresser, multiple bales of hay at once, a sheep, lumber, rolls of fencing, and much more.

I agree about the lower grille block. I used a foam exercise mat cut to size. Poke a couple holes through and secure it with zip ties around the grille cross pieces.

Shift early, keep the rpm low, use neutral whenever you're not actually needing power like on downhills. (but careful to avoid over-speeding) With the gear ratios the way they are, high speed means high rpm, so slow down if it's reasonable to do so.

Thanks a lot PaleMelanesian.
I too really like its colour, especially since it's not very common on cars. I went over my budget by 40% to get this particular Fit, but all the other ones with manual/stick-shift I saw had ridiculous mileage and full of little bumps, dents, scratches and small rust spots; or lacking cruse-control.

I usually shift up around 2,500-3,000 rpm. Is that early enough, or I should try even earlier?

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

That's quite the collection of "GO AROUND ME" messaging on the back of your car, Andrei.

You all probably know how often you get aggressive a**-riders when you're driving at speed limit on the hwy. This way, they usually smile and will change lanes. But as far as I'm concerned, only 2 are for "GO AROUND ME". The others are just for fun - the 3 screaming heads are from an awesome electronic music festival in Ontario (Harvest Festival @ Midloathian Castle in Burk's Falls, Ontario), 3 years and hope for many more.

[PaleMelanesian]

I think you're running a little high on your shifts. I do it in the 2000-2500 area instead.