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For reference, I live in China where I bought and use the vehicle. I was initially living in Shenzhen near HK and moved to the Island of Hainan about 800 KM south west.
Before buying the car, I considered the Nissan versa but ruled it out immediately because of its smaller than in the US 1,6L Engine and 30% higher price tag
I looked at the Toyota Yaris which was only available with a 1,3 engine and appeared much smaller. It was cheaper than the fit but did not matched our needs though. Same for the Chevrolet Aveo. The Peugeot 206 was not available yet, but I would have pondered over it longer with its 1,6L 105 hp engine and same weight. But I think it's old 4 gear automatic would have made it thirstier and its 1998 conception would not have allowed as much accomodation space as for the younger Fit. it was 15% cheaper though.
Other cars were overpriced or underpowered (or even both). Putting so much money imho for a car, I wanted to play it safe so did not dare to fiddle with the dodgy second hand market here.
The car was bought new for the amount of 125K RMB which translated roughly into 15K USD at that time (now 8% more). Car was covered by a 2-year warranty with unlimited mileage, and nothing more. we got about 10% rebate on sticker in the form of extra dealer installed accessories like leather, rear bumper sensors, door side protections, foils to tint glasses and a full underbody extra blackson protection.
We went for the highest spec available model, a 1,5L silver model with CVT auto transmission. This model comes with CD-radio, central locking that also locks the fuel tank trap, height adjustable driver seat, power glass sunroof with shade, Trip computer. There are some pieces of equipment missing in regard to the US version : Sat radio, side airbags and cruise control.
Tires are Bridgestone 175*14 on alloy rims. This is the first car I bought as new. Previous cars were MB280SE (78) , MB 190E 2.6, Nissan Sunny 1,6, Peugeot 406 SW V6, Nissan Primera 2.0SE SW, MB C240 SW, BMW 740, all with automatic.
Some pictures of my car should appear in earlier posts dating beginning of 2006.
In two years, I can say that this car was a good experience and that I would make the same choice should the opportunity arise again.
Pros :
Outstanding passenger and luggage space for the size, excellent flexibility
Precise and secure road handling, save when taking curves at speed even loaded
Smooth CVT with seamless gear change
Easy to park and move around town.
Very able for long motorway journeys.
Fair fit and finish
Average :
Motor noise lvel is OK, power delivery is adequate even for highway, but get strained when under full load (which is understandable)
Fuel mileage is satisfactory around 8L/100KM (29 mpg I think, sorry I am US-measures impaired) 300-350 miles between fill-up
Front seat comfort and support acceptable.
Cons:
Road noise is pretty present, depending on road texture.
Riding is on the firm side which is the trade off for the good road handling. Road bumps are harshly felt.
There is a blatant lack of body protection, so any small traffic shock will require some paint job. This is a problem here in China where most people really drive like a licence was not mandatory.
Front A pillar is too thick, hiding too wide an angle, which put me in dangerous situations.
Still blows warmer air even with colder setting but A/C turned off.
This car is the first and only family car so we rely on it for everything. The use is mostly urban as we live in city area but not right in downtown. Commuting and short trips mostly with some occasional week-end longer trips. Car mostly sleeps in an underground parking lot.
The inside fit and finish is good but not as warm as the Fit Sedan which comes with fake wood trimming and more upscale presentation. It is adequate through and free of rattle until now. I regret the radio antenna is not integrated in the windshield, as it doesn't make the radio reception any satisfactory.
We made 2 long (for us) trips with 2/3rd highways and 1/3rd A roads 1000 miles per trip. These were good experience and did not bring too many complaints from passengers. We mostly went 80-85 mph, traffic permitting and returned around 8 L/100km (29 mpg) under full load. Fuel consumption spread is pretty narrow with 7L/100 being the lowest and 9 L/100 the highest. As some redlights can last up to 3 minutes, i often switch the engine off to marginally decrease my bill.
The ease of use of the CVT is very welcome in the city. Without pressing any hard, I effortlessly leap forward when light turns green, whereas many other stall or crawl with their cheap manual and cheaper gearchange skills.
Leaving the highway, the countryside roads quickly become dodgy and sometimes without any pavement. I happened more than a few times to go where only a SUV or a pick-up would have been suitable. more than a few times, especially under full load (as often the case in China) i had to go through very harsh roads full of pits and bumps and I pushed the car ability up to scratching the belly many times. The car behave as much as it could in a context it was clearly not designed for. I short, this car was not treated smoothly compared to an average same car in US.
The internal accomodation space is a real plus and we find ourselves enjoying the huge (for the size) rear trunk space. I happened to make deliveries of goods , folding the rear seats and managed to cram the load I wanted to. When we moved to Hainan, we filled the car like an egg with the 2 kids and my wife on the back. we could put an incredible amount of goods and last minute stuff that saved us the day.
Oil change was set every 3000 miles on the service manual, which I think is an overkill. The same car is set at 9000 miles intervals in Europe. We set at 6000 miles. We are closing now 18000 miles with very few troubles.
Once did the driver window erraticaly lowers when I ordered it close. I mentioned it at the following service and it did not occur again. One other rampant glitch is the front passenger side windows that is much slower than the others. I was told that a cleaning of the guiding rails would help, but it did not do and I fear the garage is dragging off until this gets out of warranty. One last issue I have is with the rims which are getting corroded behind the enamel. Either the Enamel was defective or the Aluminium quality not good enough, this issue make the rims look bad. There again the dealer claims this is unavoidable as the humid air from the sea would be the cause (we live close to the coast). I know this is baloney, but sueing is not as straightforward as it is in the U
i've read many of your previous posting and always found you fair, but what impresses me most is your command of english. you either were raised in an english speaking country, or you had good english teachers in china.
Actually I have no merit at all. I am just a French guy from who happened to live in UK and Ireland before. I prefer to check Edmunds Forums because they offer a much higher quality of discussion than the French speaking ones (including canadians).
I forgot to mention a car I drove 10 years ago when I was in UK which was the Honda Concerto (a model also sold as the Rover 216 I think.) Although this car did not fit my taste (manual short gears, 4200RPM / 85 MPH) throaty noise, It gave me a good impression on Honda as a brand. I am thinking now that somehow it maybe gave an extra push to my decision for a Fit
I am thinking about another competitor of the Fit would be the MB A-Class. Very close in terms of size and concept with good internal space (I think better than the FIT) . The only problem is that If I bought one with comparable specs and equipment, it would easily be the price of 2 FITs.
MB pushed the concept further with offering a full choice of engines (Gas + Diesel) and gearbox. A full spec model with the 140HP Diesel + CVT auto would be a great allrounder for me. Issue is that such a car would cost about 32K Euros in France, that is about 48K USD, the price of a much more valuable car in the US...
OK, Fuel efficiency would be better than the Fit with 35-40 MPG easy to reach but, will need quite a few miles before feeling the sweet pleasure of the payback.
On a side note, I saw a picture of the internal headliner of a US Fit sport and it seems there is no light at all. In my Fit, close to the rear view mirror base,there is a central light that goes on when opening doors and there are 2 reading lights left/right for the driver and the passenger with independant switch. This is useful when one want to look for something or check a map in the car.
In my model, there are 2 vanity mirrors as well
I can't understand why Honda makes those penny pinching differences between different markets, as I think deigning one same models with the same options would have leveraged more scale savings.
Maybe they got some marketing guru who told them people prefer an improved handling (a fewer grams in the top side) at the expense of practicality. Ridiculous.
I pretty believe the removal of side airbags for the china market is a budget decision though, and we all know a life in China does not account for much.
It certainly makes sense: it would be very popular in Europe, and now that Honda developed a new system to clean up diesel exhaust emissions that meets the strict USA emission standards, they can even sell it in the USA. The possiiblity of a Honda Fit/Jazz getting around 50 or more miles per US gallon is definitely very enticing, to say the least. :shades:
The Toyota Yaris is already offered with a 1,4L Diesel boasting 90HP in Europe. It is one of the very few small cars to offer an optional robotized clutch transmission (an automatic without torque converter, not as smooth, but as Fuel Efficient as a full manual).
A nice little and torquey diesel with a CVT trans would be a treat. Just pray for they don't price it the European way.
I mentioned the power sunroof earlier in the thread or in a dedicated thread. If one want to look like how the reading lights are, they are next to the sunroof power switch.
http://www.carspace.com/vchiu/Albums/Honda FIT (chinese model)/Fir_roof1.J- PG/page/photo.html#pic
it will be clearer than my painful description.
I checked the prices of a Honda Fit in France. If I wanted one with leather, A/C and CVT, I would need to pay 18400 Euros , that is about 27000 USD. This won't happen. To top it off, the engine is the weaker 1339cc with 20HP less than the 1,5L. This 1,3L model is sold for about 13400 USD in China.
I even considered sending my fit to France by container when I move back home. Regardless of the cost (3000 USD at least) I would meet some maintenance issues, as the 1,5 engine is not available in France and maybe Europe. Will probably use the saved money to buy a SH Nissan micra.
Speaking about nissan, it seems the Nissan Note (Tone in Japan, excellent Anagram) would be the main competitor of the fit in Europe
http://www.channel4.com/4car/rt/small+family/full+road+test/290/2
but their engine choice is still a bit limited compared to a VW golf for example.
Note is also selling in China for a tad cheaper than the fit
The new Fit had better succeed, for Honda is really hurting in Japan right now. In terms of sales volume, the company is currently No. 5 in the Japanese market.
Well frankly I bought the fit without even testing it in China, so I guess It would be the same should I buy the new Fit. I may be back to Europe next year and given the price difference, I will stick to my current old cars.
It seems the Note is not selling that well in France, as I see quite a few discounts. Regretfully Nissan did not put the most powerful 1,5L renault diesel inside (86 HP instead of 105 HP) and no automatic. This is for me the deal killer.
The 1,6L Gas is available with an automatic 4 gears and no CVT (in contrary to the Chinese Versa) so certainly more thirsty than the Fit.
-We both like the styling of the xD a lot better than the Fit Sport. The narrow front-end of the Fit is a kill-joy for us, we preffer the broader front on the xD.
-We also preffer alloy wheels (because they look nicer and they give better fuel economy) and we know the Fit Sport comes standard with 15' and it's offered optional on the xD with 16' which look a lot nicer than the Fit's but at a steep price of $799. Is the price worth it? And does it really affect fuel economy enough to make a difference with mgp? If not, then is it simply looks? More importantly, I work in a body shop so I know that no insurance company will cover aftermarket wheels. But if we get the 16' optional alloys with the xD they will be covered because they come from the dealer. So even if I bought my own cheaper aftermarket wheels for the xD I know we will be at a disadvantage with our insurance coverage...
-Also, we wanted to know if anyone has gotten the xD for less than the sticker price (pure pricing)? And if so, how did you go about it? I know I read on this forum that a lady managed to get the F&I processing fees that everyone seems to complian about discounted....
-Another option we love on the xD is the Ipod compatible steering wheel mounted controls and the Pioneer radio. Although the Fit Sport comes equipped with a seemingly good radio (6 speakers and equalizer), though no Ipod compatibility. Although, I think I saw it as an option for $299(?) I believe...
-We like the fuel economy on the Fit. Does anyone know exactly how much more fuel economy the Fit Sport delivers when compared to the xD? I know we looked on cars.com and the difference was 1-2 mpg.
-The xD comes equipped with a 128hp engine, but we've read that the Fit has better pickup due to the xD being heavier. Is that true? We don't really care about top speed since we'll realistically never need it. But we do need acceleration since we are in the city and you have to be agressive sometimes. :P We can probly find that out when we test drive it later, but I'm still curious what other peoples experiences were.
-The Fit has gotten better reviews than the xD on cars.com and it is also ranked #1 on US News and World Report in small affordable cars while the xD is at #11. I guess we are wondering if those differences can be outweighed by the xD's looks and features... or not.
-We care about safetly a lot. Both the Fit and xD have gotten good safety reviews. Is there anything we need to know about them? Differences or similarities?
-Are the cargo spaces really that different? I know one brags about sliding back seats while the other about seats folding up.... :confuse:
Thanks in advance for the responses! This is our first time buying a car so we are trying to do as much research as possible to make a good decision. We are putting down 4k-5k and are looking to have payments of 300-350 for 3-4 years. How do we go about financing?
Larger tires would generally wider tires (say 205 instead of 185) with increased drag and road noise. This would also increase the likeliness of aquaplaning when raining. Large rubbers will also wear quicker and may be more expensive to exchange, but this obviously needs to be checked in your area.
I have 14 inch rims with 175 and I find the ride firm enough not to upgrade. after 19000 miles, the front tires are still good for another 10000 miles whereas the rear tires could go another 25000 miles easy.
I don't know to which extent larger tires would increase fuel efficiency, should the width be the same to the smaller ones. I guess the gear box ratios are already set to a good compromise between performance and FE.
So this $800 option is just for the sake of a better look, imho naturally
One thing you should be aware of about the xD is that it got only an "Acceptable" score on the IIHS frontal crash test. Fit scored "Good". Both scored "Good" on the side crash test. I don't know how important crash safety is to you, but these days getting only "Acceptable" on the IIHS frontal crash test is very uncommon.
Right. Honda must be relieved that over 20,000 units of the new Fit were ordered in the first two weeks of the model life. Even then, Honda is way behind in sales because other models are not doing well domestically. Pundits blame Honda for becoming so North America-centric that they have forgotten how to build cars for the home market. I think there is a point there. No one in Japan buys a Civic or Accord any more because they are North America cars.
First of all, when the Japanese say that a Honda car is "American' or "Ameri-centric," they are not talking about where the car is built. What they are referring to is typically the size, and the personality of cars.
Take the size. To most Japanese, the Civic is too big. Yes, it is actually too big over there, especially in the width. But the Civic was not always this way. It became fat for the Japanese market because the car is designed for North America. Due to the taxation system that exists in Japan, you have to pay a higher tax if the car's size exceeds certain set dimensions, and the Civic goes over that. If the Civic is too big, imagine what happnes with the Accord in Japan.
Personality: In Japan, four-door sedans are dead, except in the luxury class such as Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and such. In this climate, Honda eliminates the Civic Hatchback and releases in Japan nothing other than a four-door sedan, which is the configuration that sells in North America. Guess what the Japanese people say: "Honda cares only about the North American market."
Of course, it is too simplistic to say that Honda is not doing well in Japan all because their cars are too sycophantic to the North American market. There are other reasons (the biggest reason is Toyota). But I think that it is instructive to see that Honda's two biggest selling cars in North America are absolute flops in Japan, and that Honda currently sits behind Suzuki and Daihatsu in terms of the Japanese domestic market position (in units sold).
Take the Corolla. The JDM 10th-gen Corolla is smaller than the USDM (and most of the rest of the world's) Corolla. It was an intentional plan on Toyota's part. Also, Toyota never intended to rely on the Camry in the Japanese market, since they have other sedans that are exclusively JDMs (smaller) and of a much higher volume, so it's not a problem for them if the Camry does not sell (it doesn't).
Toyota has an enormous car lineup for the Japanese market, and most of those cars are intended solely for that market. Hence, their cars get a great response from the well-studied (by Toyota) Japanese customers. Honda, on the other hand, cannot afford to focus so exclusively on the Japanese market, where they have historically had only a little more than 10% (10 to 12%) of the domestic market share. Toyota, by the way, has just exceeded 50% in the same Japanese market. For Toyota, the Japanese market literally pays for itself so they can have a lot of Japan-only vehicles. Honda cannot afford to do that, so the Japanese market has to ride on what its NA market is doing because NA is where Honda has to eat.
This is one of the reasons why Honda cars end up being flops in Japan. Toyota sells in Japan many Japan-only models as well as global models, whereas, due in part to the smaller lineup, Honda has to sell a larger percentage of its lineup in Japan and elsewhere. To put it another way, Toyota has a much sharper focus on the Japanese domestic market.
Another very important reason for Toyota's dominance over Honda in Japan: Every time Honda comes up with a seeming winner, Toyota comes back with a counterattack, that has almost always succeded (the Fit is about the only survivor of the Toyota-on-Honda counterattack).
I tried it twice on the Fit. It didn't work. The Fit doesn't have the 'Air recirc" button... Bob, if can get it to work on the Fit, please let know. Thanks.
Here it is for the Accord. This was posted by Dudley..
1) With vehicle on, push the airflow button for "top vent".
2) Shut car off.
3) Turn temp knob to the coldest setting
4) Turn fan off
5) How down both "Air Recirculation" button and "AC" button. With both buttons depressed, turn key to "ON" position. (don't need to actually start the car) Keep holding the buttons down for at least 7 seconds.
6) The AC and Air Recirculation lights will light up and flash at different points during the 7 second hold-down.
7) When the air recirculation light stops flashing, release the two buttons.
Now you have full control over the AC. When you hit the Defog button, the AC light will now illuminate. You can now shut it off if you so desire and get Defog air without AC!
Regards,
Bubba
In case the warm weather owners of the Fit are wondering, this recall is for owners who live in cold weather states that use salt. The salt and the wetness on your shoes may go through the carpet and damage the wire harness for the passenger's side and front airbags thus causing them to malfunction. The Honda dealer will inspect and replace or repair the wire harness free of charge (that's nice of them).
They mention nothing about a permanent fix for this problem so I guess it could happen again. I've had floor mats in my Fit since I bought it so I would think I would never have this problem. Oh well, I guess I will be going back to the dealer again in the future just to make sure.
Sniffles
The Fit does come with the immobilizer, so you're probably safe from the perps taking the car. Most of those guys are mainly looking for stuff like coins, CDs, ipods, cameras, etc.
I thought the morons just get off breaking windows and damaging the window frames and fittings. I regularly entertain what must be a theme fantasy of the social collective, where the vandal or violent actor reaps ther instant reflection of his actions. Break a window => a bone shatters, fire a bullet at someone => you're dead, .attack a weaker person => get shrunk, etc. Feel free to join in as needed.
Sniffles
Before, we just had bought stuff at the supermarket and we did not bother to remove the 2 children's safety seat from the car.
We picked 3 persons at the airport with all their luggage. Even though they had pretty large bags, the boot swallowed everything : luggages, supermarket food and children seats. We were five in the car.
had we have a liftback Civic or an Accord, passengers would have to carry at least one or two luggage on their kneels. I am spoilt by the flexibility and the usable volume of this car.
On the issue side, the battery is weakening and has trouble keeping its load. I had to cable jump start a few times. A quick inspection suggest there is not enough water. I should add some and see if that improves. it is a YUASA (Japanese brand, made in China I guess) There is no reason such a battery would have such a short live would it ?
Just top it off, and be careful not to overfill because you might up with acid spills in your engine bay.
I use a turkey baster to add small amounts, works like a charm. Don't let the wife see you borrow it, though.
Advice above for filling very good.
This is a surprise with a Yuasa battery, but this could be the price of Honda's
'offshoring' production.
Note that it is very possible to have a bad battery on a newish vehicle. I got
1 year on brand new Volvo battery.
If you have time, I recommend a trip to the dealer. They have both load, and
charging, testers we do not have at home. If dealer replacement, it might not be
full value, but prorated value (a fraction of the life expectancy).
If you replace on your own, you may find later it is a very rare charging problem.
For what it is worth, I always pick the 2nd option, and take my chances.
Takes less time, and I know what quality battery I'm getting when I pick it out.
One more thing: I ALWAYS change out batteries on all vehicles on 3rd year. I
have never been stuck on the road, so it is worth the extra 25% value that I lose.
Currently, there is some type of lead shortage and I know this policy is going to
cost me more in the future.
Mike C.
you could be killing a battery with a marginal alternator.
the battery - does it have a warranty through Honda? it should.
I went to a local car repair center and had the battery filled with some kind of rose looking greasy feeling water. They swore it is designed for battery fill-up although it was the very first time I see something else than distilled water (and acid) for the battery. They helped refill the battery with it, using about half a liter. I came back home, letting the engine run a little to charge back.
regretfully I have no battery charger there and could not borrow any unless I left car at a service station.
2 days after, I wanted to pick up the car. Battery dead again. Jump start was surprisingly difficult, as if the car supplying the electricity did not have enough power to feed the starter. After many attempts, I could start again. Went to a restaurant. Generally, after a 10 minutes ride, I had enough juice to restart the engine once or twice. This time, it was dead again. My wife blew a fuse and I was pretty fed-up myself. After jumpstarting again, we drove to a car part selling store to have the battery exchanged with another Yuasa of exactly the same format but apparently 35AH capacity instead of an alleged 32AH capacity (not clearly written on the old battery). Car restarted instantly and no problem any more since, which may rule out the alternator issue.
It seems everybody we met in car service told us battery life expectancy is around 2 years, 30 months for good batteries. Everyone appeared quite amused to see me trying to refill a battery, where they would directly replace it with a new one instead.
Of course, I can't even dream of a warranty support from Honda for this kind of things. Even though the car warranty was 2 years, this kind of items are considered as consumables and would have a maximum coverage of 1 year. even replacing it under warranty would require quite a deal of arguing. Price of replacement = 340 RMB = about USD50
This was very frustrating because I wanted to show everybody that with proper maintenance, one can have a battery last at least 4 years. Not only for the $$ saved, but to avoid unnecessary burdening the environment with one more battery out. Generally in France, we change car batteries every 4-5 years and they need to bear with much colder winter time than over here...
Another issue I have is that the varnish on the alloy rims is getting loose from its support, like peeling. This is very ugly looking. Dealer claims because we are in coastal/humid/salty areas, they can't do anything about it. this can't be right after just 2 years. Hopefully this does not appear on the body paint.
2008 FIT Sport M5 < 200 miles
In the MPG thread there was mention of scanners to read real time MPG. Was wondering if a lap top solution has been used. ie cable and software. In any case if a user that has measure real time mpg using a scanner can help out with specific name brand and model that would be great.**************************************************************************- **********************
Also the INFO button on the radio. I'm wondering if it's even working. I live in SE Fla and I looked at ever FM station and none displayed anything. I also tried a number of CD including the most current Dave Mathews. Anyone seen there's work and if yes what should I expect. ********************************************************************************- ***************
Onet last quick one. What would you expect for miles (at the 1/2 fuel tank mark)when on the way to say a 40mpg run or any other mpg figure? Been taken it easy on tank one. I know from reading on here the fuel tank level gauge is not linear, but I'm at 3/4 tank and 140 miles just now.
********************************************************************************- ***************
Getting excited having just migrated from a 10 year relationship with a 1998 3/4 ton Suburban that got 14mpg
Thanks
Paul
When I worked at a certain Japanese auto manufacturer, I saw some of the assembled vehicles get on the ship within 48 hours of coming off the assembly line.
If your car misses the transport ship, your car can easily spend two weeks or more at the port to get on the next ship. Waiting for three weeks after being assembled to get on the ship is certainly not unheard of, since the car that is not going to make the soon-to-depart ship will not be inserted in the immediate-to-port queue and instead wait around at the factory motor pool for a while.
Sorry to answer in a muddled way. The honest answer to your question is: It depends.
Seriously, it's about 200% overpriced.
You can get a good battery for $60 or so.
Optima is sealed so you can mount it upside down, but outside of a race car, why would you need that for a street bound Honda Fit?
I'm sure racing fuel would boost HP, but it too costs 3 times what regular fuel costs. So it's not practical.
did you notice that they don't even make a battery for the fit?
I'll notify the hosts so the post gets deleted.
Edit: reported to pf_flyer.