The night I got my fit it started snowing. I have driven in snow now for the past two days(6+ inches). Fit handles and drives alot better than my CL-S did in the snow. I'm amazed at this little car.

 

Our '09 Sport AT is "pretty good" in the snow now -- with the addition of Blizzak WS-60 snow tires from Tirerack... I am a pretty experienced snow driver, living in Michigan my entire life, and vacationing a lot in Colorado too... so the experience helps in the snow too.
Anyways -- I wouldn't call the Fit a great snow car... why ? There is too little ground clearance for starters.... and secondly, the car simply doesn't put enough weight on the driven wheels. It is tossable and fun in the snow, but is really hampered when the snow gets deep enough to hit the front spoiler, or on steep inclines. Still, in good hands, ithe Fit does well with snow tires.

Our previous '08 Fit Sport was horrible in the snow when shod with the stock Dunlop tires... I hated those Dunlops in the dry, in the wet, and most of all in the snow. We put Michelin X-ice2 on the '08 last November, and it transformed the car -- making it capable in the snow. I credit those tires for saving my kids from serious injury in an accident which totalled the car in December (which prompted us buying the '09).

FWIW, our '07 Honda Odyssey is now shod with Blizzak WS-60 snowtires, and it is awesome in the snow/ice. Much better than the Fit, and certainly feels much safer and more securely planted to the road than the Fit. The added ground clearance and weight of the Odyssey is a plus in snow...

If you really need to get around in snow... get snow tires ....

 

Three words; "use the paddles".
While not as intuitive as a stick (then again, I've been pushing clutch pedals for forty-four years), the sport setting serves well on slippery surfaces. It doesn't give you unwanted downshifts uphill (tho' the convertor will unlock), and in particular it doesn't give you those automatic downshifts that you get while braking in the straight auto position. If things are slippery, you don't want to disturb whatever grip there is between the rubber and the snow & ice.

When the wheel is cranked around, I sometimes lose track of my 'left for lower' paddle, but overall it seems like a really useful system.

Agreed that the Fit doesn't have the weight or ground clearance for really deep snow, but if it gets that bad, I'll go fire up the Jeep.
Moon

 

driving in snow,ain't too bad,i got my '09 on 15" Khumo I'ZEN KW17 .But the heater is total crap.Defenatly not a car for lower temperature.I have to let the engine warm up fir at least 15-20 minutes,before i go,and it's not even warm!!!!

 

my wife use to drive my legacywgn (AWD) running a/s tires. We sold
the pos subaru and put her in a new 09 FitSport (AT) running W60
snow tires.

she has not complained one bit about driving in the snow.

get snow tires, it makes a huge difference in the snow. my car running
the pos ziex912's requires technique to drive in deeper snow. i too will
be getting some W60's next season.

 

Something wrong, L n' S; really pleased with the heater in ours. We've been at 0*F here lately, and the little bugger would like to cook me out. What's more, it makes some heat in a quarter mile or so. You may find it actually warms quicker if you're driving.
Moon

 

ABSOLUTELY!

My wife and I work at the same office, and the last several days have been super-cold (-17 this morning). I'm not a believer in "warming up" a car, but at these temps, I do get the car going about 5 minutes before we all load in the car in the morning and it helps a little.

In the evening, I leave about 5 minutes ahead of my wife and immediately drive a couple laps of our campus (about 1.25 miles) before pulling up to the front doors to pick her up. By that time it's blowing warm air, and about a mile down the road it's fully warm. I'm very pleased with the heat. And I much prefer the fabric seats to the smooth leather heated seats in the Outback! Subaru seat heaters are pretty lousy (Audi's are much, much better.)

As far as snow handling, we have snow tires and it gets around just fine. It's light weight has pros and cons. It's not as planted as a heavier car is, but being so light, it doesn't carry momentum when sliding. I break the car loose all the time, but it always recovers nicely. But when the heavy deep snow comes, the Outback gets us around and the Fit takes a rest.

 

I agree that this car heats up fast. We just came off of almost 3 wks at 25-30 below with wind gusts between 60 and 100 mph and this car warmed up in no time in comparison to my 2002 Subaru Outback (we're having a terrible winter, yesterday was 50 and pouring rain). The fuel efficiency plummeted though, not just from warming the car up. The wind and cold temps just made it work that much harder.

 

Yes, the fuel efficiency drops off badly with cold temps with this car, as it does with our 2006 Outback XT (turbo).

All strange, because I never noticed such dramatic swings in MPG with cars like my Audi S4, Eclipse GSX, or other Subaru's. Something endemic to newer cars, possibly?

 

I have a stock 09 Fit Sport Manual - stock tires, stock everything. Just hit the roads before the plows and didn't slide once. If you really take advantage of the manual and don't drive like a psycho, you won't miss your SUV. I am coming from a Doge pickup and don't miss it a bit. Winter tires would be a plus, but not a neccessity (save your $$).

 

It has not been this cold in Wis for a while and driving in the snow doesn't help either. New car is not truly broken-in till past 5K+ miles. Even with my previous Civic, milage drops about 5 mpg when below freezing. Synthetic should help, since it flows better in the cold. Now that Mobile is bringing back 0W-20. That's what I'll be using next winter.

 

This car is great in the snow and living in the Snow Belt we always get the lake affect so I am used to really bad winters. Clear out your front wheel wells with your snow brush if they get packed with snow this helps eliminate that choppy feel when driving..

 

If your're not blessed with an above-freezing garage, you may have to take it to the carwash and blast out the frozen gunk. Had an old Scirocco, and it got so much ice in the wheelwells that I lost virtually all suspension movement.
Moon