I am 53 and when I bought the Fit I had never even tinted any of my former cars. However this import brought out the inner tuner in me and I Mugened and JDM the car which I love it even more. I ended up showing the car all summer long and won a Best Tuner award, Best of Show Post 1975, Top 20 Trophy and Best Paint/Presentation plus Best Display. Hope you can work something out with the seats. Swaping out seats will not void your warranty although it will remove the air bags. Hope you can find what you are looking for.

Cat :x

 

Wow, what a shame! It's good you gave it a good test drive though. I know what you mean about being 'perched'. I'm not sure it's the seat cushions though, although they are firm. It just sits up higher in general. I came from a '95 Cougar and after 13 + years the seats molded to my ass nicely and I was definitely seated differently altogether- a lower, sunk in feeling. Nice, yes. When I hopped in the Fit I was sittin up for sure! LOL! I'm just plain up now! But you know, you get used to it pretty quickly and now I prefer it- and I adjusted everything to taste. I don't feel lounged in the Fit. I feel like I'm sitting properly for driving. Frankly, I get too comfy and I'd fall asleep! Another upshot to the Fit's seats is how well they work for my wife, who has really bad back problems. She says the Fit is really great to get in and out of it. You don't have to climb up and out, nor do you fall in- just right actually. I have come to apperciate this too. We are getting older, are we not?!

I would recommend you still keep the Fit in mind. Seats break in. The car that surrounds them will be hard to beat in any number of other areas, such as purchase and operating cost, fuel economy, cargo space, and overall Honda quality to name only a few. Heck, people are investing about 500 bucks to get seriously NICE seat covers for the Fit and I've read that those folks report improved comfort. Search for the seat cover thread- a good one with pics.

I agree about the gas door though. It's boggles the mind how they didn't include an inside release. Although this is a bother, it's not something that should be a deal breaker, imo. Consider that you'll be concerned about it WAY less than you may have been in the past! I fuel up every two weeks- not one day shorter yet. Only twice a month do I deal with it.

Very best of luck narrowing down the field. I certainly don't wish to confuse things for you! But seats and a gas cap....I can't help feeling that's not quite enough for a right off! LOL! Let the Fit be the car that all others are judged by in your quest. Tough one....!



Dan

 

Dan,

These are all good points you make. I don't object to higher seats. Like you say, we are getting older and they make it easier in and out of the car. But in comparing the Fit seats, I am also comparing them to other new vehicles with higher seats as well. The Fit still seats me more upright than the others (or at least it feels that way). It's something I have a bad reaction to but maybe you're right that I would get used to it...or even like it. I will have to think on it.

I have not ruled it out yet. The operating costs are very attractive. Although, my wife I and don't commute (work from home) so they will not impact us as much as they would some other folks.

I've been thinking about the seat covers since they were mentioned here. I kinda don't like the idea but I have not decided. If I did get the Fit, I would most likely drive it stock for a period of time to see how it goes before considering the seat covers though.

The gas cap is definitely NOT a deal breaker at all. I was just commenting how annoying it was to discover it. I certainly hope Honda did it because of gas tank location and not due to cost because, I mean, what does a thing like that cost? Can't be all that much.

Not confusing at all. I truly appreciate all the comments and advice.

 

Know-nothin, I'm in your age bracket, and also evaluated cars pretty thoroughly before buying. One of my criteria was no major flaws in driving position. If the steering wheel of a car was just too far away (Kia Soul), the car was likely off the list. Same with seats. In that regard, the Yaris seats felt like little perches to me - no thigh support. My criterion was that the driving position didn't have to be perfect, but no major flaws that I would regret compromising on for years to come.

I actually like the Fits seats, but I've always preferred a high, straight seating position with little recline. Seats that you sink down into would likely be one of those "major flaws" for me. I wouldn't mind an extra inch of legroom and better arrangement of the instruments on the Fit, but those flaws fell into the minor category for me.

One observation I have from driving a lot of small rental cars is that it's unlikley to find a car where everything about the seating position seems just right. You might have to settle on some minor flaws that you judge can get used to.

FWIW - no regrets choosing the Fit after 4000 miles of ownership.

 

As we get older our fingers don't work as well so an inside gas cap release would be nice. Failing that sandwiching the locking gas cap between two 1/4"x2' x4' wood panels makes removing and installing the cap easy. (be sure to put one of the screws that clamp the panels together thru the locking gas cap key. Works great.
PS the locking gas caps that work are posted elsewhere some time ago.
cheers.

 

Dear "Freaks," hello again.

Well, I didn't give up on this car. Test drove it against the competition one more time and made sure the wife came along. I know I can rely on her to really help me sort out my thinking. She feels strongly that the Fit's seats will work for us (just need some getting used to coming from the lower, more laid back seat of the Accord). She's never steered me wrong and if she does now, it's curtains for her!

So it looks like I am ready to buy and I will e-mail some quote requests to nearby dealers. I would guess that a car like this has very little wiggle room in price but we'll see. BTW, I am going for the Fit Sport and having the dealer add OEM mats and wheel locks. So, I hope to join the Fit family very soon.

BTW, I took my iPod on the last test drive and the it was a huge disappointment because I could not get it to do anything but play my entire iTunes in order. Argh! I came back and read up on it so I will posting in that thread with my questions.

Once again, thank you all for your invaluable help through the process.

 

Have you test driven an Insight? You might like the front seats better (or not). The driver's seat is height-adjustable. I like high seats, and found the Fit seating to be "just right."

Apart from one hiccup initially, I have had no playback issues with a 3rd generation iPod Nano. Everything worked (although the user interface of the big knob on the Honda head unit took a bit of getting used to).

 

I did not test drive it because I am addicted to manual trannies.

I left my specific questions over in another section of this forum:

http://bit.ly/2KI902

 

being the cheapskate that Selden is, I chose the base, and have no USB connection. But the thing is, wouldn't it make more sense to just use a USB flash memory fob and store your songs there? I guess not if you bought them all using Itunes what with DRM and all. OK nevermind.

(I borrow my kids CDs and burn WMA disks that work quite nicely. At 128kbs they hold about 15 hours of music each. So far Red Hot Chili Peppers are my favorite, but I kinda like the emo music of the Smiths. Don't mock me.)

 

I'm also a fellow cheapskate but I splurged on the Sport because if you buy a new car only every 18 years, you don't want to skimp too much.

Out of the 3500 songs I have, only about 20 were bought through the iTunes store so DRM is not an issue. And yes, I could use a USB flash or burn CDs but I guess I don't see why Honda couldn't get this right and let me use the device I have...and keep it somewhat functional. Oh well.

 

Wait'll you get to 72.

 

I agree with the man being noisey at highway speeds-Our 08 civic feels like a luxury car when I switch over to it.I got the 5spd in the 09 fit sport for mere amusment-but it can be taxing above 75mph

 

I can randomly access any of the songs by title on disk in WMA format by folder (album) and title. By playlist and title should be enabled using an Ipod or there'd be little point to it. If you keep pressing the center "mother of all knobs" it cycles through the file structure options. Turning the knob selects. Hitting the up arrow ignores and goes back to what's playing. Hitting the bottom arrow plays the selection. It's not very intuitive (reading the manual doesn't help much) but it's there. Must work for Ipods too; Hondas seem more "mac" than "pc" (and I'm PC!).

 

I've always meant to do this, but never got around to it. If the dealer is willing, or if you have Zipcars near where you live, go for a 1-2 day rental. This would be much more informative about the real character of a car than a 15-minute test drive.

 

Thanks for help. I don't know why you'd say that a Honda is more mac than pc though. Seems computer-neutral to me.

 

The Fit is pretty quiet for city cars in its class, but above 70mph I think it's louder than my diesel truck (MT). Ride is suprisingly decent, much better than I was expecting, but there is a lot of load noise that comes through that sometimes gives me an impression of a rough ride. It does jiggle a little on new blacktop roads that my other vehicles go down like glass, but performs well over actual bumps (relative to 3/4 ton pickup).

The seats and driving position are a bit odd, but much more tolerable than the older Fits. Haven't noticed any pain from the short cushion (but I'm young), but it does make cornering odd. One of the first things I noticed taking corners is the seats felt like they have no lateral support for the torso. I found that odd... since none of my other cars have torso support yet they all didn't give me that same feeling of my body tipping that the Fit does. I'm 95% sure this feeling of my torso moving around is do to the fact the short seat cushions don't let me distribute corning loads on my legs to keep me upright. Since the forward part of my thighs are unsupported, my butt just kind of rolls on the seat during corning, taking the upper body with it.

Another odd thing is the car seems harder to get in and out of than other vehicles. It's a steering wheel, seat cusion, roofline, door sill relationship that just doesn't quite jive or something. Looking at the car, I thought it would be super easy to get in and out of, so I found it surprising.

 

So are you getting a sport with navi? I don't think the 2010 manual trans have navi, do they? About the only thing I sometimes regret is not getting navi in my sport. The darn thing seems so cool, but it was out of my price range at the time and I was hell bent on sticking to a strict purchasing budget. As it was, the sport Fit was at the upper limit for me. The navi was just out of reach. And would you believe, three months later now and I've run into several thousand bucks . Well, not run into it really, I earned it all by working non stop and building up a huge amount of vacation time- to which they paid me off to get the hours down. But, the navi would have been a no brainer had I had known, or at least been sure of the timing of those bucks. But then I get on here and read about the navi's short comings and I don't feel so bad. I certainly don't need it, that's for sure.

As far as the ipod, DL the manual and maybe sit in the car one more time and put it through it's paces. My daughter [18 yo] hooked up her ipod and was thrilled with the function. She looked at the manual and found the functions to be fine. I have an mp3 player and it does not get recognized via the usb hookup- to which I was not surprised as I knew this would probably be the case before hand. The aux does the trick though, which was a paramount function for me. In fact, a decent stereo is/was a deal breaker for me because I'm not one for pulling and installing an after market setup. The interesting thing is, now I'm back to burning cd's! LOL! In the end, compared to usb or the aux, cd's are actually less of a bother and concern. And frankly, it's a real treat to my ears to be listening to cd quality rather than mp3's. Yes folks, whether you can hear it or not, there is a tremendous difference- tremendous. I still use my mp3 player, but lots of times a cd wins. Burning is so quick and painless these days, it's no biggie.

Anyway, good for you with the Fit! Your wife is wise Your final challenge- don't let the dealer shit you around. Fits may be popular but they're not the second coming. Know your limit and buy on your terms, not theirs. Good luck!

Dan

 

well, if apple made a car it would be more Honda than not I think. Not sure what the PC car would be. Maybe something like this:

 

I will be 60 this month, am 6-feet but a (light-weight) also a little hard-of-hearing from too much exposure to diesels in the service...

Our '09 Fit Base Automatic is now pushing 3000 miles at 3 months. We drove a '09 Toyota Yaris 2-door before buying the Fit and felt the Yaris was a little more comfortable but even I could tell the Honda engine was much quieter... 75% of our driving is 40-55 MPH and engine noise is not an issue at those speeds for sure! As a mechanic I can tell you that Fit engine is awfully close to front seat passengers, if some find it noisy that is a factor for sure...
I have spent 4-5 hours on the road with the Fit in a day and find the driver's seat very comfortable. On the basis of a short test drive I did like the Yaris' seat better - we actually made a deposit on the Yaris with a Toyota dealer who could not navigate the "cash-4-clunkers" program so went for the Fit! I am very satisfied - also averaging (actual calculated!) 41+ MPG with the Fit, I think it is a better deal than the Civic as well. The rear seating is very nice and versatile, plenty of cargo room, not much power on hills, though - "no such thing as a free lunch"!

Good luck

 

I haven't tried a USB flash drive yet, but I have put a large swatch of loop Velcro on the back of my iPod, and hook velcro on the inside of the glove box to keep the iPod from moving about. If flash drive functionality is satisfactory, I'll do the same with it.