getnfittywidit - what area of Virginia are you in? I just passed my first Fit in over a month and a half today in Midlothian, VA, and it was a Storm Silver Base... was that you?
LOL! so funny. might have been me! I live in Midlothian. But I've seen one other from Browns Honda in Charlottesville in Midlothian too. I stopped the woman in the parking lot of the gym when mine was still in transit from Japan and asked her about it. Hers and mine are exactly alike. Where are you?
yes, but ONLY from the driver's door. I can't pop all four from the hatchback lock. While I'm trying to put groceries or tennis gear in the back...I pop the hatchback, teh kid gets in while I'm tinkering with cargo...which I am in a 13 year old habit of doing. Seems silly...just one of those things.
Are you a "big" person? I have no problem with "thigh" support? Actually, I think there is plenty of room in this car and that the seats are VERY supportive.
What I meant was that in a car where you can tilt the bottom part of the seat, where your butt and legs go, I usually tilt the butt down and the front up, so my thighs are slighly elevated. The seats in the Fit put your thighs completely horizontal, which makes the legs a little longer and thus the pedals a little close for me.
I picked up my Fit yesterday, June 23, after placing my order mid May. It was worth the wait and I love every inch of it. I sold my 92 Accord so was wondering if this car would be a FIT for me as I am short (5'). I ordered the Taffeta White with beige/black interior and added the following accessories which I highly recommend - an armrest which was ordered from Quality Auto Interiors, prior to the delivery date of the FIT, and is something I am glad I did, and an exhaust pipe finisher (finishes the look of the car). The dealership installed the armrest with no charge. I am now in the process of looking for the window guards. I had the best experience with buying and got the FIT for what I wanted. The auto dealer is Flow Honda located in Winston-Salem, NC. I had previously bought our CRV through them using the Internet Manager (wonderful to work with) and was not disappointed this time either. In all my buying experiences he was one of the best I had and will continue to deal with. The only thing I have found that I miss is the front window tinting but I am on the trail of that also. This is a wonder car and I would recommend. Ziggy 6
The armrest will not interfere with the parking brake. When you want to use the brake just lift the armrest. Learned that yesterday . A must have! Ziggy6
Congratulations Ziggy6 on your new Fit! We're practically neighbors - I bought mine last month at Vann York Honda in High Point. I also ordered the armrest and am looking forward to installing it when I get back from vacation next week. I had my window tinting done in Greensboro but I'm sure there is one closer to you. The front strip + all the other windows was a total of $190. Don't go through your dealer because they usually mark it up quite a bit. Enjoy!
If you hit the unlock button twice on the key it will unlock everything. I understand you can't just use any door lock but use the key and everyone can get in everywhere.
moonchild...thanks for trying to help, but I think we're misunderstanding each other. I don't have remote entry...there are no buttons on my key. And if I have a bunch of groceries in my arms, I head for the hatchback to unload and can't open the rest of the doors.
I live in Powhatan, but work in Midlothian, at Waterford. I drive down 288 and hit Old Hundred Rd/Charter Colony Parkway from there. Mine is a Vivid Blue Sport... kinda hard to miss, once you see it.
Nice little car with lots of room inside. We had two 265lbs. in the front seats and had just enought shoulder room, but was in need of a center console armrest.
I found to car to be decent from a power standpoint, but, in the end, it's not tearing the asphalt off the ground....just enough pep to make the car fun to drive.
It does handle very well....very well. No body roll with a couple of spirited turns. I even did some really quick turns, ala the slalom set up and found the car to be VERY stable.
At 90 it's a rock....felt a lot better than my Scion xB.
Carpet...horrible...is that even carpet?
Magic seats....cool, but probably will never be used once the car seats are in for the kids.
I fit in the cargo area....try that with an xB.....nah.
Radio sucks, but it's decent for factory, but I do like the aux input down towards the bottom of the front of the car...nice.
Paddle shifters...lame...but, I did find that even in the DRIVE mode, I could downshift into 4th when passing only to have the car shift back to 5th automatically once the pass was made....kind of nice if you hate the lag of an automatic when you NEED to make a pass.
I love it. Needs a sunroof and some tint on the windows, but it's everything I've ever wanted in a little car.
Now if the dealer would drop the $1500 in options I'd consider it.....
Paddle shifters...lame...but, I did find that even in the DRIVE mode, I could downshift into 4th when passing only to have the car shift back to 5th automatically once the pass was made....kind of nice if you hate the lag of an automatic when you NEED to make a pass.
Hmm... but the paddle shifters can do more than just that.
I believe that if you pull the lever back from 'D' to 'S' ('Sport mode'), you then get to fully select the gears with the paddles. Meaning that, the car won't shift back to the gear the car decides is best, and you're basically making manual shifts but with the paddles. Your gear choices will 'stick'.
Sorry, I assumed that by saying "even in the Drive mode", would imply that I was aware of the Sport mode and all of the its features.
For me, the paddle shifters are just a gadget, but being able to drop a gear or two to make a pass, then have the "atuomatic" transmission go ahead and upshift seems kind of handy.
When in "D" and you shift the computer monitors the throttle, if you let up on the throttle after dropping into a lower gear then it shifts back to "D". Otherwise, it stays in the lower gear until you ease up on the throttle. "S" is fun but takes getting used to because you don't have a clutch and can forget it's in "S" mode and not shift from 1st to 2nd. You sound like you have more negatives about the car than positives. Maybe you shouldn't get it. "Radio sucks", "Paddle shifters lame".
While I do find the paddles handy for passing and such, it's almost impossible to shift while turning, because the paddles turn with the wheel, and you lift hand over hand while turning, so trying to find a paddle again in the middle of a turn is clumsy.
You sound like you have more negatives about the car than positives. Maybe you shouldn't get it. "Radio sucks", "Paddle shifters lame".
I would never base a purchasing decision based on the performance of a radio or componet of the car that can be totally ignored.
I've owned 4 Hondas in the past and consider them to be a terrific value, but the radio is indeed inferior to another vehicle in its class.. the Scion xB.
While the Fit may have aggresive styling, it doesn't have the performance to back it up.....it does handle very well, but straightline performance is almost laughable....0-60 in 11 second.
With all of that being said, I still consider the Fit to be a great choice for me, I just don't view things thru the "Honda Glasses".....there are things that could be better....sunroof, armrest, better carpet and less dealer gouging.
Amen on the carpet and armrest... Honda really should fix those things.
And yeah, the dealer gouging right now is pretty outrageous. :surprise: Hopefully supply will catch up with demand by the end of summer, and that will go away or at least lessen a lot.
If not, I bet a lot of people pre-sold on Honda will starting looking at the alternatives (Versa, Yaris) rather more closely. Having to swallow $500-1500 of dealer options of dubious value is simply not acceptable. :P
I think that the stereo in the Sport model is actually quite good. 200 watt 6 speakers, sounds great to me, surely not "lame". 11.0 seconds to 60? The MT does it in roughly 9.0. The XA is butt ugly!
The stereo in the Sport is markedly better than the stereo in my wife's 2004 Acura TSX. The high end in her car is really awful..big hole in the middle of the sound. The Fit's is pretty well balanced, with smooth high end.
Sorry, Motorweek must have received the Fit with less horseposer and fewer watts.
And I do agree, xA are butt ugly, one of the many reasons I didn't purchase an xA.
While the stereo is many steps up from a Kraco or Sparkomatic.....it's not a deal breaker for me. A big hole in the dash would be acceptable to me. Audio's a personal thing, everyboy's ears are different....nothing that $1000 a Circuit City couldn't fix.
Methinks Motor Trend didn't use the paddle shifters in their AT Fit.
Car and Driver did, and reported a 0-60 time of 10.4 seconds for their Fit Sport AT... still not great, but you'll keep up with traffic at least.
What's suprising to me is that the manual is SO much faster... I guess that taller gearing on the AT really takes a toll. Still, I'll take the lower revs at highway speeds.
"...still not great, but you'll keep up with traffic at least."
People think traffic accelerates so quickly that you need some 0-60 in 8 seconds car to keep up. However, traffic can take anywhere from 15-25 seconds to get up to 60 mph (on a road that allows it). Almost any car is perfectly capable of keeping up with traffic.
...as for the Fit's performance, I have found my 5MT to be very enjoyable to drive. I'm not thinking of it like a Civic Si, but for what it is the Fit is a fun car.
I've owned my silver Fit Sport M/T since May 2 and now have 4400 miles. I drive 40 miles each way to work 65% highway/35% city. Average mpg is 37. Worst was 34.9. I bought this car for commuting with good fuel economy and versatility but I have also discovered that this car is FUN to drive. I am a 51 year old male, 5' 11", 200 lbs. and I fit fine. Complaints - I miss a dead pedal, I can't see the radio and clock faces in certain sunlight conditions, and the ride is a bit choppy on concrete roads. What I like - snick-snick shifter, unreal steering response, versatility, fuel economy, standard safety stuff I might not have opted to buy but glad I have, ease of entry and exit, owning a 2007 car in early 2006, on & on.
The May Car & Driver did a test on the Fit Sport M/T and 6 similar cars and, of course, the Fit was number 1. Just got my August Motor Trend and they test the Fit Sport Automatic against the Yaris and the Versa and again, the Fit is numero uno. I thought about buying the automatic because of the city portion of my normal route and the fact that the rpms are much lower at highway speeds. But the Motor Trend shows that the acceleration penalty is high for the automatic. Even though the manual is pushing 3800 rpm at 80, it seems that the engine is happy living there and it doesn't penalize me with NVH. I'm glad I got the M/T.
I must admit, the major reason I went for the Sport model was the keyless entry but I do enjoy the cool stereo (what's WMA?), cruise control, and the nice looking alloy wheels. I can't believe the big ad in my August Motor Trend where it says "And the Fit Sport also adds ..." and they don't mention the keyless entry. Big oversight by Honda's marketing team.
Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary compressed audio file format developed by Microsoft. It was initially a competitor to the MP3 format, but with the introduction of Apple's iTunes Music Store, it has positioned itself as a competitor to the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)format used by Apple.
It is part of the Windows Media framework. An initial reason for the development of WMA might have been that MP3 technology is patented and has to be licensed from Thomson SA for inclusion in the Microsoft Windows operating system. WMA format can compress files much better than MP3 and if you use Windows XP you can download Windows Media Player 10 for free and use it to create/playback WMA files.
I vacuumed the car for the first time since my kids started eating pop tarts in it. I have to admit that despite its cheap appearance it makes it very easy to vacuum. It doesn't have a chance to get real deep and makes vacuuming a snap. Not to mention it's nice to be able to vacuum some things from the door fabric also. The mats are a little cheap since there is no hard backer. It's that cheap foam stuff that will disintegrate over time I'm sure. But all in all it's a quick clean process.
Yeah, but one problem with WMA files is that they can include a DRM (Digital Rights Management) scheme which may limit where you can copy your files to and how you use them. :sick:
MP3 has no such scheme. Also, both formats produce files of roughly the same size, and the audio quality difference between the two formats is not high (maybe if you're an audiophile and/or have a REALLY high-end pair of headphones).
I prefer MP3 for the reasons stated above, but WMA works for some folks as well. The iTunes AAC/MP4 format is a successor to MP3, except that it has a DRM scheme, and, also like WMA, sounds slightly better than MP3 (assuming the bit rate is the same), though again you have to be pretty picky and/or have good equipment to hear it.
We did this long, return trip and tested out our AT, LX fit. No complaints. none, zip, 0, as was previously mentioned. Saw less than half a dozen other fits, on the whole trip. We have 9500 kms, on the car and still have 30% oil life. Used the refresh mode twice, very handy. Had a load of luggage and approx. 500 lbs. of passengers. Sorry, I don't have a mileage report, too many brochures and receipts to deal with, not to mention, the California Hwy maps. Got a a few stares and had a few conversations about the car. Stereo serves the purpose well. Hubby thought the car was a little weak in the merge and pass roles, but had just enough power to handle both. I had no idea there were so many Hondas in the USA. If I had a dollar for every Civic I saw, I could buy another Fit!
which reminds me of a question I have. Will airbags deply ONLY if hit head on?
I had a 95 Accord Wagon with dual front airbags. It was severely rear ended while the car was parked one time. Over $5,000 in damage. Airbags never deployed. I hadn't even thought about it until this second, b/c naturally I wasn't worried about it since we weren't in the car when it was hit..
Is airbag deployment related to the tension on the seatbelt?
For the front airbags there are sensors in the front of the car that detect a collision and deploy the airbags over a certain threshhold. A DPS officer told me recently it's 12 mph. Newer cars have occupant sensors in the front passenger seat that turn off the airbag if there's no one in that seat or a light load in the seat.
Protect your face/neck from... what? Your seatbelt will keep you (should keep you) from hitting the wheel or dashboard on the rebound (most of the force will be directed to pushing you into your seat, not away from it). The headrest will protect your neck. More and more new cars have "active" headrests that move forward in a rear-end crash to better protect your head and neck from whiplash. I don't recall if the Fit has active front headrests.
Hmmm... makes me wonder. If active restraint headrests are added to the Fit with the next remodel, will we lose refresh mode, since the headrest has to come off?
I have to say I have NEVER had a car seat fit my body as well as this one does. After driving for nearly 4 hours on Sat. I was not sore one bit. My lower back is completely supported in a way it never has been before without adding a pillow or rolled towel or some such thing. My right hamstring ususally gets stretched and fatigued when there's no cruise, but not this trip. I was amazed how comfy I was. We used refresh mode for my daughter in the back and discovered you have to adjust the back seat back just a hair to make it happen. Didn't realize the back seat reclined a little bit. To date my only real problem with the Fit is the black interior. It's a crumb and lint magnet.
Yeah, I'm only 5'3" and its outstretched a tad. I could stand to pull the seat up a little more even, but having read the quick facts manual, I now realize that all these years I have been sitting too close to the steering wheel than what they recommend for the airbags.
I'm still not crazy about the steer wheel adjustment I have to make in order to see the mph dial, but I'm getting used to it.
We used refresh mode for my daughter in the back and discovered you have to adjust the back seat back just a hair to make it happen
Just went back to check the Quick Reference manual and it says nothing to indicate you have to move the back seat back a little to get the front seat into refresh mode. I wonder why they don't tell you that? Anywhere? I futzed with it for about 15 minutes the first week I got the car and couldn't make it happen. Didn't really need to use it so hastily moved on. But finally worked it out over the weekend.
I have to admit that I almost bought the Sport for the keyless entry, but couldn't fork over the extra $3K (even if my baby base has toy wheels ). Instead, I went and had an alarm installed from an electronics place for $200 and now have my keyless entry and -- for the first time in the near 20 years of driving -- can press a button and make *beep beep* sounds.
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What I meant was that in a car where you can tilt the bottom part of the seat, where your butt and legs go, I usually tilt the butt down and the front up, so my thighs are slighly elevated. The seats in the Fit put your thighs completely horizontal, which makes the legs a little longer and thus the pedals a little close for me.
I had the best experience with buying and got the FIT for what I wanted. The auto dealer is Flow Honda located in Winston-Salem, NC. I had previously bought our CRV through them using the Internet Manager (wonderful to work with) and was not disappointed this time either. In all my buying experiences he was one of the best I had and will continue to deal with.
The only thing I have found that I miss is the front window tinting but I am on the trail of that also. This is a wonder car and I would recommend.
No matter, I'm gonna get remote entry soon.
Nice little car with lots of room inside. We had two 265lbs. in the front seats and had just enought shoulder room, but was in need of a center console armrest.
I found to car to be decent from a power standpoint, but, in the end, it's not tearing the asphalt off the ground....just enough pep to make the car fun to drive.
It does handle very well....very well. No body roll with a couple of spirited turns. I even did some really quick turns, ala the slalom set up and found the car to be VERY stable.
At 90 it's a rock....felt a lot better than my Scion xB.
Carpet...horrible...is that even carpet?
Magic seats....cool, but probably will never be used once the car seats are in for the kids.
I fit in the cargo area....try that with an xB.....nah.
Radio sucks, but it's decent for factory, but I do like the aux input down towards the bottom of the front of the car...nice.
Paddle shifters...lame...but, I did find that even in the DRIVE mode, I could downshift into 4th when passing only to have the car shift back to 5th automatically once the pass was made....kind of nice if you hate the lag of an automatic when you NEED to make a pass.
I love it. Needs a sunroof and some tint on the windows, but it's everything I've ever wanted in a little car.
Now if the dealer would drop the $1500 in options I'd consider it.....
Hmm... but the paddle shifters can do more than just that.
I believe that if you pull the lever back from 'D' to 'S' ('Sport mode'), you then get to fully select the gears with the paddles. Meaning that, the car won't shift back to the gear the car decides is best, and you're basically making manual shifts but with the paddles. Your gear choices will 'stick'.
For me, the paddle shifters are just a gadget, but being able to drop a gear or two to make a pass, then have the "atuomatic" transmission go ahead and upshift seems kind of handy.
You sound like you have more negatives about the car than positives. Maybe you shouldn't get it. "Radio sucks", "Paddle shifters lame".
I would never base a purchasing decision based on the performance of a radio or componet of the car that can be totally ignored.
I've owned 4 Hondas in the past and consider them to be a terrific value, but the radio is indeed inferior to another vehicle in its class.. the Scion xB.
While the Fit may have aggresive styling, it doesn't have the performance to back it up.....it does handle very well, but straightline performance is almost laughable....0-60 in 11 second.
With all of that being said, I still consider the Fit to be a great choice for me, I just don't view things thru the "Honda Glasses".....there are things that could be better....sunroof, armrest, better carpet and less dealer gouging.
And yeah, the dealer gouging right now is pretty outrageous. :surprise: Hopefully supply will catch up with demand by the end of summer, and that will go away or at least lessen a lot.
If not, I bet a lot of people pre-sold on Honda will starting looking at the alternatives (Versa, Yaris) rather more closely. Having to swallow $500-1500 of dealer options of dubious value is simply not acceptable. :P
Sorry, Motorweek must have received the Fit with less horseposer and fewer watts.
And I do agree, xA are butt ugly, one of the many reasons I didn't purchase an xA.
While the stereo is many steps up from a Kraco or Sparkomatic.....it's not a deal breaker for me. A big hole in the dash would be acceptable to me. Audio's a personal thing, everyboy's ears are different....nothing that $1000 a Circuit City couldn't fix.
:shades:
Methinks Motor Trend didn't use the paddle shifters in their AT Fit.
Car and Driver did, and reported a 0-60 time of 10.4 seconds for their Fit Sport AT... still not great, but you'll keep up with traffic at least.
What's suprising to me is that the manual is SO much faster... I guess that taller gearing on the AT really takes a toll. Still, I'll take the lower revs at highway speeds.
People think traffic accelerates so quickly that you need some 0-60 in 8 seconds car to keep up. However, traffic can take anywhere from 15-25 seconds to get up to 60 mph (on a road that allows it). Almost any car is perfectly capable of keeping up with traffic.
...as for the Fit's performance, I have found my 5MT to be very enjoyable to drive. I'm not thinking of it like a Civic Si, but for what it is the Fit is a fun car.
The May Car & Driver did a test on the Fit Sport M/T and 6 similar cars and, of course, the Fit was number 1. Just got my August Motor Trend and they test the Fit Sport Automatic against the Yaris and the Versa and again, the Fit is numero uno. I thought about buying the automatic because of the city portion of my normal route and the fact that the rpms are much lower at highway speeds. But the Motor Trend shows that the acceleration penalty is high for the automatic. Even though the manual is pushing 3800 rpm at 80, it seems that the engine is happy living there and it doesn't penalize me with NVH. I'm glad I got the M/T.
I must admit, the major reason I went for the Sport model was the keyless entry but I do enjoy the cool stereo (what's WMA?), cruise control, and the nice looking alloy wheels. I can't believe the big ad in my August Motor Trend where it says "And the Fit Sport also adds ..." and they don't mention the keyless entry. Big oversight by Honda's marketing team.
Problems so far - none, zip, 0.
It is part of the Windows Media framework. An initial reason for the development of WMA might have been that MP3 technology is patented and has to be licensed from Thomson SA for inclusion in the Microsoft Windows operating system. WMA format can compress files much better than MP3 and if you use Windows XP you can download Windows Media Player 10 for free and use it to create/playback WMA files.
chris
MP3 has no such scheme. Also, both formats produce files of roughly the same size, and the audio quality difference between the two formats is not high (maybe if you're an audiophile and/or have a REALLY high-end pair of headphones).
I prefer MP3 for the reasons stated above, but WMA works for some folks as well. The iTunes AAC/MP4 format is a successor to MP3, except that it has a DRM scheme, and, also like WMA, sounds slightly better than MP3 (assuming the bit rate is the same), though again you have to be pretty picky and/or have good equipment to hear it.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14970219.htm
I had a 95 Accord Wagon with dual front airbags. It was severely rear ended while the car was parked one time. Over $5,000 in damage. Airbags never deployed. I hadn't even thought about it until this second, b/c naturally I wasn't worried about it since we weren't in the car when it was hit..
Is airbag deployment related to the tension on the seatbelt?
Even with only tall mode/cargo/long mode, it's still quite a bit ahead of the competition for now though.
I'm still not crazy about the steer wheel adjustment I have to make in order to see the mph dial, but I'm getting used to it.
Just went back to check the Quick Reference manual and it says nothing to indicate you have to move the back seat back a little to get the front seat into refresh mode. I wonder why they don't tell you that? Anywhere? I futzed with it for about 15 minutes the first week I got the car and couldn't make it happen. Didn't really need to use it so hastily moved on. But finally worked it out over the weekend.