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The REAL point of the whole post was that the MPG is up there on par wiith the best I have gotten with driving an Echo [45- 47 MPG] .....granted these are ideal conditions...didn't know if the car could do this thoughmy '03 civic could get low 40's easier and at faster speeds than the fit........
gas: is it an ethanol blend?
driving around town: is bad
I already posted about this in another forum. I owned a 1.3L Jazz in the country I am living in currently and had the same complaint and Honda actually did test the car from top to bottom. They even installed a factory computer and we ran th mileage real time with me driving like I always do. I never got better than 10.5 km/l. This is in pure city driving, and I had the manual shift.
In the end I sold the car as I was moving far enough away that I didn't want to ferry it. Oh and when the dealership drove it they got close to the same as I did only they shut the A/C completely off.
I know that no one listens, but some Fits/Jazz get great economy and others do not. It's the luck of the draw.
Believe me if you want or go to the Honda Jazz community and see Fits that get double the economy they should while others get horrible economy. Honda in the end will do nothing, because they really don't know why it's that way.
Oh and keep in mind I dealt with the dealership AND the Honda Factory itself! They sent guys down from Manila with equipment to test it.
I was hoping the problem had gone away but I was told that it will improve after 10,000km. But I doubt it. I had about that on it when I sold it and it was rock steady at 10.5km/l and that was the 1.3L manual not the 1.5. automatic.
Finally, when I took the car in for its second oil change, at 11,000 miles, they did some kind of computer update. This seemed to increase the mileage about 10%. But that was all. Overall, I like the car, but I am very disappointed by the gas mileage. It does seem vaguely fraudulent that Honda can make inflated gas mileage claims on the sticker and then you are stuck after buying the car.
My last car was a 1997 Hyundai Elantra stationwagon. The sticker for that one said 22 city and 31 highway. It amazed me with 22 city and 37 (regularly) on the highway.
I'm amazed at the low mileage being reported here by the Honda Fit. I average 26 MPG in strict city driving (as in Atlanta, GA), 29 MPG in my mixed driving commute, and 35-40 MPG on pure highway (the 40 MPG numbers come at 72 MPH or so with no A/C). Typically, around 80 MPH, I get about 36 MPG.
I think the trick is to try to get transmission shift to highest gear as early as possible. During acceleration, keeping the engine revolution between 2000-3000 rpm will help.
I had the 1.3L engine in the Jazz and at best in the city I could get was 24mpg.
Do you have a 4 or 6 cyl Accord? I'm hearing the new 6 cyls get great economy due to cylinder deactivation but cruise well on the highway. Oops mixed that up the 2008 is rumored to have cyl deactivation the 2007's seem to cruise better on the highway. My last Accord was back in 1995 and I hated it. I just couldn't get comfortable in it. The new ones of course will be much better.
The diesel should get great economy but not until 2009.
CITY mileage is a VERY hard thing to classify. My city driving is likely quite different than yours.
What do you get on the highway, and at what average speed? THAT will give you an idea of whether or not something is wrong with your car, and here's why.
My city commute, involves well-timed traffic lights, and post-rush hour traffic (busy, but not stopped). My folks' city commute is stopped a LOT more. Both, however, are city. For every minute you don't move, you're getting 0 MPG, remember that.
Nothing wrong with the Fit, Corolla or Civic all of which average in the upper 30s hwy and lower 30s city mpg. And if someone really can get really hight mpg with their Accord/Malibu/etc then they'd probably get in the mid-40s with the Fit. Plus there's more to the Fit then just MPG. If that's all someone cares about then look elsewhere. And when the EPA numbers and mpg.com of the Accord/Malibu/etc match the Fit let me know... And I find the upright seating of the Fit much more comfortable then the low seating of the Accord where your legs stick out in front of you like you're sitting in a kids chair.
article: Some Tips for Saving Gas in City Driving with an MT Honda Fit.
I also put up Citympg blog on urban fuel efficiency, which at the moment includes some notes on driving attitudes conducive to saving gas in addition to the above article with room for comments.
cheers! hope it helps
It's because when people get 40 MPG in their Accord (myself included), we aren't driving at 80 + MPH. A HUGE factor is much taller highway gearing allowable because of the higher torque engines. In my Accord (2.4L 4-cyl 2006 Accord, 5-speed auto), at 60 MPH, my car is right around 2,000 RPM. A Fit is going to be a lot closer to 3,000 RPM. As speeds build, the RPMs do too - my Accord has to be doing 90 MPH to hit 3,000 RPM - I imagine the Fit would be screaming around 4,000 RPM - which means it isn't running as efficiently as the Accord engine.
I wasn't trying to push anyone's buttons - in reality I think most people's problem is their idea of "city" driving is varied from their neighbors (a lot more stop in a stop and go commute can make a huge difference in mileage).
What do you get on the highway, and at what average speed? THAT will give you an idea of whether or not something is wrong with your car, and here's why.
My city commute, involves well-timed traffic lights, and post-rush hour traffic (busy, but not stopped). My folks' city commute is stopped a LOT more. Both, however, are city. For every minute you don't move, you're getting 0 MPG, remember that.
Hi Grad, first off I was not driving in the US and yes cities vary a lot. I was driving ALL city. That city is defined as stop and go traffic, very few lights, lots of traffic congestion, so not much need for traffic lights. max sustainable speed at say 2am would be about 40mph. During the day you might get a burst of that but not really. No highways, traffic congested 6-7 lanes into a 4 lane road 2 coming and going. Lots of pedestrians no one follows any rules except when the police were around. no average speed you cold not maintain any speed for more than a few hundred meters. We are talking real heavy city driving. Mostly stop and go. Of course the police change the traffic flow depending on their mood, so don't think you can count on taking a right or left turn on any given day or time of the week.
When I say NO highway I mean there weren't any highways in Cebu where I used to live. There was a long rural road called the South Road and it was congested for about 50km after that it was a lot more open and speeds of 100km could be maintained but don't blink or people and kids not looking would likely run out in the road or trykes a motorcycle with sidecar would just pull into your lane without looking. I took the jazz down the South road many times but reality was traffic was so bad the economy wasn't much better than in the city. You had to really gun it to pass slow moving trucks before a bus coming the other way would hit you.
The toyota techs from the factory fully tested my car but could find nothing wrong yet other people had the exact same car, drove in the city same as I and were getting 35+ mpg! Many people started complaining and Honda had no answers. We all drove in the same city under the same conditions. A/C on, I had it on low all the time. Most had it cranked wide open.
There is a variance in the Fit/Jazz between different cars and Honda knows it. Take a Fit that gets say 37mpg like some people claim and put a guy in it that is getting 23-24 mpg and he will get within 5 mpg of that 37mpg.
The Fit is a great car as are Hondas but economy fluctuates between individual cars and I've seen this with Civics and Accords.
Where i live now the city is more open except for the downtown and I can take the long way which has less traffic and I'm in a diesel Hi-Lux 4 door truck and I get the same or better economy than the Jazz ever did and I do not baby the truck I drive it pretty fast as it's just the way things are here. in traffic there is all stop and go downtown and the same general mess but there is only 1 traffic light in the entire area and no one pays much attention to it unless the cops are around. I have no traffic lights in my city at all. This other light is outside the city and serves no real purpose. The rest of the city has stop signs which are mostly ignored as well unless the cops are around and even the it's a rolling stop.
But we do have speed bumps everywhere and people build them right in the road in front of their houses. It's brutal if you don't know they are there. That's why i got rid of the Jazz the suspension could not handle the speed bumps and potholes and cracks in the open sewer systems they have here. Some areas a Fit would drop all the way in if a concrete tile is missing. The tiles are very thick and measure a bit over 2 feet square.
I saw a jazz get stuck in a smaller one where the tile was partly gone. It took 4 guys to lift the Jazz front wheel out of it. But he was blocking traffic so they had to help him.
Sorry to digress so much.
But a crowded city is not all the same. US crowded cites are still much faster unless you are stuck on Storrow drive in Boston from 3-5pm!
But it still doesn't explain why some cars got 15-16 km/l and others like mine got 10.5km/l.
Oh and with the A/C off the difference was 10.8km/l as measured by the dealership service dept.
Biggest factor on the road would pretty much have to be the the aerodynamics of the "slicker" Accord vs the CR-V's more upright wind pushing design. That includes the taller/flatter rear which tends to form more of a vacuum.
The Fit seems to fall more into the category of a small CR-V than a small Accord. On the road, at speeds above 60, the added wind resistance of the Fit design can definitely cut into mileage. Wonder what a "coupe" Fit could get on the road?
Kip
You can actually buy an Accord VP edition for about $18K, which is close to the price of a Fit, but I still would rather have my Fit at $16,500. The Fit has more cargo space, is more comfortable to me, fits in my garage a lot better, is funner to drive, and gets better MPG...even if just slightly so as compared to some folks, and it's cheaper than the cheapest Accord without a radio.
The Civic will get better MPG if that's what you're after because it's more aerodynamic. Driving right at 60mph on flat highway you could probably get in the mid-40s easily.
I understand how the fit manual can get better city mileage than the auto...but in a series of hiway test I always found the manual was runnig at 800-900 rpm higher for the same speed as the auto....how does this translate into better hiway mpg??
You aren't driving the Fit are you? My sport AT doesn't hit 3000 rpm until 80 mph. I still get 35MPG doing 80 with the AC on.
Got the Best Mileage Yet last tank. Almost all highway 65-75 mph with ac on coldest setting, blower at 2.
39.3 mpg. I got to 220 miles at the halfway point, about 30 more than normal, so I knew it would be a good tank. Shell gas that time. Dunno if that makes a huge difference.
Accelerate slowly, but not so slowly that you spend more of your time in second. Getting to fourth quickly enough you can spend time in it is more efficient than slowly creeping in second and third to the light.
" I also coast to stops in neutral. No jackrabbit starts, no high rpms, and I'm getting 37 mpg on average in my MT."
Coasting is perhaps the most important way to gain mileage. You get about 140 mpg coasting at 35 mph in a Honda Fit--this can offset a bunch of negative mileage occurrences like idling and stop and go.
I like the Fit, but it doesn't "fit" my 6'4" frame(it made me claustrophobic). Have nothing against it at all though (it seemed like you felt I did, and I really don't!
My basic point was that the Accord's torquier engine allows for much taller gearing. That taller gearing allows the car to get great highway mileage.
So a Corvette with its high torque probably gets the best highway MPG of any car...I didn't know that!
But, since you mention it, here's something interesting.
"This aluminum-block powerplant, standard in Corvette coupe and convertible, produces 400 horsepower @ 6000 rpm and 400 lb.-ft. of torque @ 4400 rpm. Yet the LS2 6.0L engine achieves a remarkable EPA estimated MPG 28 highway with the standard six-speed manual transmission. Even with its performance, the engine does not incur a federal government gas-guzzler penalty."
Not too bad for a 6.0L monster motor.
I understand what you are saying and agree! Friends with 300hp GT Mustang, 350 HP Corvette, and even a V8 Crown Victoria are getting in the upper 20s on the road with automatics.
To me it seems that by comparison of cubic inches, vehicle weight and HP, there should be a larger spread of MPG between the eccono boxes and performance boxes than there is!
Kip
Nice article there, Thanks.
Joe
Yep, it just takes a very small (relatively) amount of fuel to push those large-displacement engines down the road. The smaller ones as in the Fit, Yaris, etc... must work harder at highway speeds to overcome drag because of their lesser power. In town though, they don't have the drag to fight, and their MPG advantage becomes MUCH more obvious. The Fit seems designed as more of a "City car" anyways, isn't it?
My last tank of mixed hwy/suburb driving was 37mpg, and I keep the speed between 65-70mph on the hwy.
The Fit/Jazz was designed as a City car for Japan. Honda had that statement in one of their press releases.
Having owned one. I'd agree it gets pretty good in the city, not much difference on wide open roads (no highway driving for me tho, we don't have highways)
You have to drive it a certain way tho and if you don't, your economy is about the same as an SUV.
Great car and I might just buy one for my wife as she won't be driving outside the city much. For her it would be ok but I drive a LOT of highway and the Fit doesn't work well for that. I'm also considering the Scion xD as well. But that's about it for econoboxes.
Too bad the US hasn't gotten the new Suzuki Swift! It looks a bit like a Mini Cooper and drives really well too!
Cost here is $16,413 but all the cars here are over priced with NO negotiation at all on price.
I'll try and upload a link.
http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/Palakiro/?action=view¤t=swift_feature4.jpg
Let's see if that works as I've never posted an image on here before.
Can't help but wonder how a Fit would do with a Civic 1.8L or Accord 2.4L engine, in real world mileage, with a conservative driver!
Kip
Do you have any MPG figures, engine specs, etc.?
Kip
Do you have any MPG figures, engine specs, etc.?
Even better I have the website so you can scope it all out. For the price the current exchange rate is P46 to the $1 US. There is a dealer about 15km away from me and they have a few there. I had a friend in Cebu who WAS the dealer for these. He didn't tell me about it until after I had bought the Fit, but their showroom was still being built and they only had a demo car. It was not the Geo Metro of years ago. Why Chevy made the bone headed maneuver to not allow the new Swift into the US as the Aveo which is the old Suzuki Swift is a complete mystery to me. They'd sell a lot more of these than the old models.
Anyway here is the link.
http://www.suzuki.com.ph/
It competes very well with teh Fit and will surprise you how good it is. I only had a short test drive in one tho.
People might say it's the frequent stopping or weather or my driving style, but I got mileage nearly this good with my 11 year old Saturn SL1 that I just sold to get this - same driver, same road, same weather!
The only thing I've noticed that I could mention about the Fit is that it feels like it's engine braking when I ease off the brake in the low gears. But since I only notice it on parking lots and in low gears I thought it might be intentional (by design)... it feels more like a manual. :confuse: So my question is: is it too early to be disappointed or should I be taking it back to the dealer?
thanks,
Joot
I too filled up three times after averaging around 26-27 mpg
I am told by dealership FIT needs at least 4500-7500 miles to break-in. You should notice some improvement after you do your first oil change (kicks in around 3000-4500 miles depending on your driving habit)
I've posted this I don't know how many ties but this time is the last. Honda Fits do not usually get the mileage that they should. The Canadians figured this out and Honda does KNOW about it. I've dealt with Honda Technicians which were sent from the Factory! Honda does not know WHY the Fit/Jazz does not get the economy it should and not eery car has the problem,. But either you get one that is great on economy or you get one that is poor on economy. No middle ground. My car went through every test the Factory engineers could think of. They really have no idea why the car does this. This is why I am leery of buying another one since an Accord with the V6 can get the same economy as one of the low mpg Fit's.
If you find the answer millions of Fit owners will be overjoyed. The problem is far worse than people let on and some people really do get awesome economy in them but the cars do not all get good economy. I guess the Canadians got the low mpg ones eh?
I too filled up three times after averaging around 26-27 mpg
I am told by dealership FIT needs at least 4500-7500 miles to break-in. You should notice some improvement after you do your first oil change (kicks in around 3000-4500 miles depending on your driving habit)
My Fit Sport 5spd just hit 36K miles this morning. From the first tank to the last full tank I got, it still averages the same at 38mpg. I drive mostly highway and fill up when its about 340 to 370 miles and when the fuel light is on. Divide the miles driven on the last tank by the fuel gallons going in and then reset the trip meter back to 0 till to get the mpg then till the next fill up.
You are incorrect. I had factory techs all over my Jazz and loads of complaints from other customers and we were all driving in the same city! and some people did own 2 cars and one would get great economy and the other driven by the same person, same conditions would get poor economy. people don't have a lot to do in the service area waiting room so they talk and believe me it was a big problem with a lot of people. The good economy cars were getting around 15km/l and the bad ones averaged about 10.5 km/l! That's a big difference. Honda lost a lot of sales here because of that and there is a Jazz in the country that routinely gets 1100 km per tank!!! Petron uses it for advertising, now I'm sure the guy really drives it in a special way but still it has well over 100,000km on it and it gets awesome mileage yet no one else comes close. I'll get a Link for it since I know everyone needs proof.
So Fit/Jazz get great economy and others do not, period.
The Canadian Gov't couldn't get the Fit to beat the Mini Cooper's economy rating and that has a much larger engine.
People are not making this stuff up and it's not just driving habits. Although that certainly is a factor.
http://www.motioncars.com/autobuzz/articles46/petron_xtra.htm
I would say that people who don't have at least 1 oil change under their belts should not comment about gas mileage, let it break-in, then see what it does. This would explain situations where people have noticed seemingly excessive engine braking, poor miles, etc. Also keep in mind (not 100% on this) but that EPA numbers assume 100% gasoline and not the 10% blend that almost all gas stations now use.
Also, when I bought my Fit, I insisted on not getting a floor model that has been test driven because people have a tendency to drive the crap out of the test vehicles, this is obviously not good for the engine break as those first few miles are the most critical.
How do you explain all the problems and complaints that many people are having with one Jazz/Fit car and not another one?
All I keep hearing is drive it and keep it under 2,000 rpms. I did all that and it didn't help and I made damn sure I did it. My guess is it's a computer problem and the way it's handling the fuel or something. They won't find the problem because it's not going to show up like a bad motor, but if it's not easy to localize it then they just ignore it and blame it on your driving habits.
I also owned one, I owned one a full year before you got them in the US. I had the 1.3L.
I'm glad you are getting 40mpg now hopefully it will stay that way. I'm leaning more towards and Accord where I don't have to drive at 50mph on the highway to get good fuel economy.
The Fit is a great little car but it really needs to have the mileage be much better than what many of them are getting. Read some other forums and see the complaints about the fuel economy even here on Edmunds in the customer Reviews. biggest gripe on many posts is fuel economy is not as expected. The whole world can't be driving wrong except for a few people.