Im trying to make up for the lack of a single review last month. This time a Honda.
Introduction: The Honda Fit has been around in the North American market since 2006. The first generation despite being outdated when it was first introduced ended up being one of the most popular subcompact cars. Doing well against its competition the Nissan
Versa, the Toyota
Yaris, the Hyundai Accent, and
Kia Rio. In 2009 a brand new version was introduced, being larger than the outgoing model. Honda hopes to continue its success with this new Fit that the old one managed to accomplish.
I was eager to try this car out as I quite liked the older Fit. The older one was easily my favourite among the subcompact cars so I was holding this car up to that standard.
Performance: The Fit gets a newer 1.5L engine that comes with i-
VTEC which boosts its power now to 117 hp and 106 lb.ft of torque. Since the car gained a bit of weight due to its increased size this power increase does not translate into a quicker car. It takes about 10.7 seconds to accelerate from 0-100 km/h which is about a second slower than the older car. Fuel economy is still very good and due to how few changes were made to the engine overall over the old one not all that different.
My Score: 7/10 - Has the same good points as the old engine...unfortunately its a bit slower this time.
Handling: I absolutely enjoyed how sharp the old Fit handled in corners despite its so so ride comfort. In this car, I believe the weight has changed the way this car handles. The steering feel is somehow not as capable of producing feel like the old one. Both are electric power steering systems, but somehow this new Fit doesnt seemed tuned to the level of sharpness the old one had. Taking this into corners, because of the larger size I started to feel the high center of gravity and the added bulk. It corners somewhat flat, but definitely not to the standards of the older one. This one had the same feeling of driving a minivan Im afraid. This car does ride a bit better than the older car, but I feel in this case it doesnt justify losing what I felt made the Fit a good car.
My Score: 6/10 - Disappointing, the Fit lost its nimbleness in favour of becoming a tiny van.
Interior: I had no qualms about the older cars interior despite being mostly plastic. All cars in this segment will have mostly plastic interiors. In the case of the new Fit, unfortunately its a bit easy to see that Honda cut items. The carpet for instance is very thin, the door pouches are made of thin plastic and the wheel is much like the cheap Civic wheel where if you dont buy the options you get very thin plastic with enough holes to be a cheese grater. Honda advertises this car has 8 cup holders...but I dont care, plus how many drinks do you need for a car that carries only 5 passengers? A few of them were cheaply thrown in making them unpleasant. Honda placed the climate controls in a fashion closer to the steering wheel...but filled the center of the console with a ugly stereo. As it is with Honda, this stereo doesnt redeem itself being a low quality sounding system. The good news is due to the Fits larger size, head room isnt much of an issue for a smaller car and the seats fold flat better allowing a decent amount of cargo room. Fortunately it doesnt have any build quality issues, the Honda Fit is built in
Suzuka,
Mie, Japan.
My Score: 6/10 - Lots of room considering its size, but it shows a lot more cheapness than before and has a ugly stereo.
Styling: I always thought the old Fit was a rather conservative looking car for Honda. This new one doesnt really change this, the rear is a tad bit different but overall it doesnt look all that different from the old one. Its more round and bigger for certain but no other noticeable changes. It still looks like a pretty decent hatchback.
My Score: 7/10 - Much like the old one not much has changed.
Value for money: This issue was the biggest failing of the older car. I scored the older car a 4 due to its price. This new one sadly does not change this at all. I consider this car to be worse than the older one and due to the changes particularly to the interior is not even justified. Worse yet, it no longer has an outdated Toyota
Yaris to push around now with the new Ford Fiesta and Mazda2 arriving. Im interested in seeing how the Mazda2 fares, it may take the mantle of most fun subcompact that I believed was true of the old Fit. Already the Mazda2 is cheaper, but this Fit at a disadvantage. The cheap interior is not going to help against a re-energized Ford, Hyundai is coming with a new Accent which is certain to have a better interior.
My Score: 2/10 - Even worse value than the old car as its still expensive but feels much cheaper, its competition is better too.
Overall: 28/50 - A disappointment, one of my favourite
Hondas has become soft and driver unfriendly vehicle full of nasty cheapness.
