Honda Fit Interior and Passenger Comfort Concerns

jsuess

Longest club is a driver which is 46 inches. The ideal would be to lay 4 bags widthwise and have all 4 seats available for 4 golfers. Where do the wheel wells end in inches from the bottom?

dewaltdakota

...AND you have to make sure you get the parts from a country that has left-hand drive!

kagedude

I looked at the Fit Sport for the 3rd time and test drove it for a bit. Not the seat height that I "prefer" but its definitely acceptable. I raised the seatback as well to give me a better view and support for my lower back.

So with that, I wrote up a contract to take delivery of the Honda Fit Sport Meteor Silver 5spd. I coulda taken the showroom car but I want a new delivery. For the price I'm paying, I want to have a good feel of this buy.

I posted my purchase price on the other topic. Too many huh?

dewaltdakota

You're definitely excited, given the number of threads you've posted your purchase info on.

:: gets in close for a whisper ::
Pssst ... the color is "Storm Silver", not "Meteor Silver."

ramo

I am still waiting for my car, but would like to say that my first reason for choosing the Fit was the amount of space in the hatch for our 60 lb. dog. I do not need to put the seats down to give him room, so the dog hair is confined and my son has the seats to himself. I test drove the Yaris, but could not comfortably accomodate our pooch, even in the RS model. I think there will be no problem carrying the boy, the dog, his golf clubs, his father and his golf clubs too. We will make it work.

kagedude

Haah. I am very excited but really, there are just too many topics.

Weird, you are right. The color is storm silver. Where the heck did I get Meteor Silver from. I hope its not from that salesperson giving me the wrong info. :sick:

richards38

Saw the FIT a few days ago and it's a well-designed and useful car. FITs were everywhere in Japan where I visited a few months ago--the FIT is one of the most popular cars in Japan. I wasn't able to sit in one when I was there, but eager to do so when the car was introduced in the U.S.

But I'm disappointed that the FIT sold in the U.S. doesn't have a seat height adjustment--a glaring omission for a tall car whose extra headroom is wasted.

There's no telescoping steering wheel either, but that's not as bad as not having the seat height adjuster. I think for many people that'll be a deal-killer. Too bad!

jonniedee

Word of Dog warning - I've already heard from a dealer that the rear window defrost wires are easily damaged :mad:

fitsearch

What are all of the dimensions for the cargo area?

In particular, what is the depth of the cargo area, both at its widest point (between the base of the seats and the hatchback) and the narrowest (between the top of the seats to the hatchback). Also, what is the height from the floor of the cargo area to the top of the seats? Thanks

jsuess

ramo

Thanks for the warning, I had no idea. Our dog is pretty sedate, but just in case, I ordered 2 terrific dog seat covers from kozy k9 in California, so if Bullet has to move up to the second row, the Fit is covered!!! He is definitely one of the main reasons for the new car. I hope the seat belts age better than my toyota's have.

spotbearsd

I sold my Fit tonight because I never could fit right in it. I spent the last week of ownership trying to find a comfortable driving position but could never find one. I developed a pain in my neck that occured during and after driving some distance. I was either to close to the steering wheel and then would loose leg room or I was to far away from it and reaching for the wheel (Im 6'2" and 225lbs). I would jockey back and forth with the seat angle and tilt wheel as well.

It was OK on the 20 minute test drive, but after that, what a drag! Honda needs to put a telescopic wheel in this car and improve the layout. I also think the narrow width & short wheelbase ads to the side to side neck jarring motion for me (I had a motorcycle accident in 1996 that involved neck issues).

The Honda dealership offered me $14,500 for it. I traded it at a Nissan dealer on a Murano for $14K. Damn, that sucked! :lemon:

bodble2

Man, that does suck! :sick: Why did you not go for the Honda offer for $14.5K? Was it because there was ssles tax savings on the trade-in?

spotbearsd

The $500 difference was because I was considering buying another Honda from the same Honda dealership I purchased it from last week.

Since I decided to buy a Nissan Murano down the street, that same Honda dealership reduced the buy bid by $500 on me when Nissan called them up right in front of me and asked for a buy bid.

moparbad

What will you carry with your Fit that you could not carry in a Civic sedan?

plekto

http://www.collegehillshonda.com/storeart/1stgenfit/import/doorvisors.jpg

These solve the problem nicely. Most cars should have them installed.

$75 for a set of 4.

ramo

Thanks for this. This College Hills Honda site looks great, don't know yet if I would do well to order from States or not. Our dollar is rising. I was looking at floor mats, but want to check at Canadian Tire first. I guess we could live without Fit mats. Ahead of myself anyway, hard to put the mats in drive with no car. Still waiting.

bamacar

In my case, a Bicycle and a TV. The Fit and the Civic sedan are the two vehicles I am most debating between with a little Mazda 3i sedan thrown in.

qbrozen

i see all of the Fits they show on order are automatics. yuck!

mtngal

My cross country skis don't work well inside a sedan and I've never bothered with a roof rack, since I only drive a couple of miles to where I ski. Also, trash cans (I don't have trash pickup so we haul our own).

I'm short and often have problems figuring out how long a sedan is when backing up (also have trouble with the front of some cars, too). I never considered the Civic or any other sedan.

As far as styling - different strokes as they say. I like the styling of the Fit. What really surprised me was how many other Wrangler owners mentioned that they liked them when I said something about getting one.

ephemere1

What will you carry with your Fit that you could not carry in a Civic sedan?

I've never owned anything but cars with trunks, but it seems like I'm always finding the need to move large boxes and other bulky items that just won't fit. Usually I just wrangle whatever it is into an unused seat. I was barely able to put a 27" TV in the front passenger seat of my 1986 Prelude after I took it out of its box. Seems like the Fit would be a lot nicer in some of these situations. With the back seats down it looks incredibly useful -- for the handful of times I'll need it. But with the back seats up with a family of four in tow, it's probably no better than a good trunk and possibly worse. I wish the rear cargo area was a little deeper.

mtngal

Have you looked at the Yaris hatchback? There's almost no room behind the seats, it makes the Fit look huge.

jbwest

Have you seen the amount of cargo space the Fit offers with its back seat up (in its "normal" position so that people can sit in the back seat) in person, as opposed to just a picture of it? Because if you haven't, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I was. It's quite an ample "trunk" -- definitely larger back there than I was expecting.

ephemere1

Yes, I've seen the Fit's "trunk" (space with back seats up) in person. It seems like it's about the same usable volume as a "real" trunk, but oriented vertically. I'm not sure it would be as useful for a lot of luggage and bags. It's way bigger than the xB, but not as big as most station wagons or small SUVs.

With the seats down, on the other hand, it's awesome and seems pretty comparable to something like a Forester.

shneor

Evey now and then, I need to leave the hatch open for hours at a time. I'm concerned that the cargo bay lamp cannot be shut off as far as I can tell - it might deplete the battery after 8 hours. In the meantime,I have popped it out and disconnected it, but does anyone have a better solution?

sntgizmo

Let's see what can I haul in my FIT that I can't haul in a Civic sedan???

6 piece drumset(in cases), 2 double 15" speaker cabinents, my Radio Control Airplanes. 200 sq feet of hardwood flooring(found out this week). If you want to get creative 2 beer kegs standing straight up where the back seats usually are, and still have a lot of room for chips and junk in the back.

bodble2

Ok, then I'm sold. I carry that stuff on a regular basis.

jsama

If you are 6'2" why do you want to raise your seat?.
Would'nt it be more difficult then to get in the car without bumping your head ?. :confuse:

bodble2

One other factor one should consider is this: As the seat is broken in, or worn in, one will sink down more into the seat. So, if the seat height is adequate, but just barely, when new, it may not be so a couple of years down the road. And with no height adjustment to compensate....

johnnyb11

Does anyone think there might be a possibility our cars could be retrofitted with the height adjuster -especially if it is added to the model in US at a later date? Any sense of what such a retrofit might cost? I would be willing to spend some money to get this done (I'm short).

backy

You could buy one of the driver's seats that has the integrated height adjuster.

shneor

Honda says that the Fit has 42.9 cubic feet or cargo volume with the rear seats down. The owner's manual says that you should not put cargo higher than the bottom of the windows or the side airbags could cause problems. (I notice that my side airbags are turned off, fine wth me for now). So the real cargo volume is more like 60 cubic feet. Finally, I understand why the numbers seemed too low .

makabe

The cargo volume in my 91 civic wagon is listed as 60.3 cubic feet and the shaded area for "cargo" goes to the ceiling. After measuring the Fit vs the 91 Civic wagon, the Fit really does have over 60 cubic feet of cargo space, and for legal reasons, Honda doesn't want to publicize it.

bodble2

It's not only for legal reason. If you pack all the up to the ceiling, how are you going to see out the back?!! :confuse: The real cargo volume for any station wagon, hatchback, SUV is the area up to the bottom of the rear window. Of course, you can have the odd tall item sticking up beyond that, but you certainly can't jam boxes up to the ceiling!

bodble2

You probably could, but my guess is that it would cost a pretty penny, so much so that you might want to either just get a seat cushion, or trade up to a newer model, which would undoubtedly include a bunch of other upgrades.

hungarian83

The side airbags in the seatback and the weight sensors in the seat cushion would make that an expensive seat to buy just for the height adjuster.

anotherscott

> If you pack all the up to the ceiling, how are you going to see out the back?!! The real
> cargo volume for any station wagon, hatchback, SUV is the area up to the bottom of the
> rear window.

By that definition, the cargo volume of a u-haul is zero.

backy

You're right, you might as well buy a car that already has a height adjuster.

strager

killer...

MOST cars and SUVs, even inexpensive ones have a manual seat height adjustment. Obviously, I'm not talking about 8 way power adjustable seats, memory seats etc.

When people check out the Fit, they'll find the Fit DOESN'T have something (seat height adjustment) that they've taken for granted in their car or SUV.

Honda's decision to take out this inexpensive ($20?), but MUST feature in a $15K car is unreasonable. NONE of the added features of the Sport such as alloy wheels, paddle shifters, more powerful stereo, spoilers, etc etc are important to safe, comfortable driving. But the seat height adjuster is.

moparbad

By that definition, the cargo volume of a u-haul is zero.

Ridiculous comparison. The Uhaul has no side curtain airbags in the cargo compartment. The Uhaul has no seats in the cargo compartment.

In the Fit, a side curtain airbag could propel cargo into the back of your head in the event of a crash.

Comparing Uhaul to Fit, not constructive.

bodble2

Aside from the side airbag issue that moparbad has pointed out, even strictly from a visibility perspective, if you pull a U-Haul behind your car, with the use of side mirrors, you would have less of a problem with blind spots then you would if you cramped your Fit up to the rafters with cargo.

dewaltdakota

Virginia State Law (USA) is that you can't block your view out the back, unless you have a passenger side mirror. If you have a side mirror, you can fill it to the ceiling.

Aside from that, you should always secure your cargo, to keep the contents from becoming flying projectiles, should you have to stop suddenly.

makabe

There are times when you stuff a car to the gills, to the ceiling if necessary--that is why we have mirrors on both sides of the car. Most people unfortunately simply don't know how to use right hand mirrors. If you have ever driven a truck with no view out the back, you know that you can operate a vehicle safely in this manner.

This is just a matter of maximum available cargo carrying capacity, which, in a pinch, is over 60 cubic feet. Nuf said.

dewaltdakota

I dunno... my pickup truck has the 8-way power adjustable seat with leather and lumbar support. It helped me to find a comfortable position for long-distance driving, but is a pain in the butt to find "that spot" again, once some yahoo at the dealership has played with the seats during a service appointment.

As long as I can find a decent position to drive in, with the seat that comes with the car, I don't care if it is/was height adjustable or not. It's only if I can't get comfortable, and love every other aspect of the vehicle, that I care.

moparbad

This is about safety from the airbags, not mirrors.

makabe

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't see how airbags is an issue in any way here. The airbags will still deploy if you are in an eccident of sufficient severity to deploy them. You don't have boxes on your lap, so what's the problem here?

moparbad

The side curtain airbags deploy from the top of the door and cover an area to the sill of the door from front to rear.
For example purposes imagine moving and having a toaster oven sitting on top of a box behind the rear drivers seat.
Being carful, you make sure it is 12 inches from the window area, however, the load shifts and the toaster oven is now 3 inches from the drivers side rear window.
Driving thru an intersection a driver fails to stop and slams into the side of your Fit. The explosive charge is triggered and the side curtair airbag inflates launching the toaster oven both toward the passenger (right) side of the Fit and forward at the same time. Woe...the tragedy...killed by safety device. Pehaps the toaster oven would miss your head and hit the front passengers, maybe it would just pinball off the other curtain airbag????

Perhaps the risk is infinitesimal. However small the risk, it is because of the curtain airbags that Honda limits cargo capacity to height below the curtain airbags.

micweb

That's a really interesting, and plausible, scenario. Doesn't the Fit automatically turn off the rear side curtain airbags when you drop the seat into cargo position? I know Honda has the technology to turn off the passenger side front airbag when a kid is in that seat and would be at risk....

shneor

It's not a problem - yout turn off the side airbags. Mine were (and still are) off as I took possession of the car.

bodble2

"As long as I can find a decent position to drive in, with the seat that comes with the car, I don't care if it is/was height adjustable or not."

I guess that would be true if you were the only one who will ever drive the car.