So I haven't posted on here in a while - because I bought a mazdaspeed3.

Turns out, I don't like it. Shifter isn't too smooth, handles oddly - superstiff at low speeds and too bouncy at high speeds (I notice it, and my wife complains - understandably). My S2000 feels more comfortable, but maybe I'm biased.

the reason I bought the MS3 was to replace my daily ('92 civic si) and my S2k, but it's not what I thought it'd be. My wife and I are looking to adopt a dog soon, and are trying to have kids, and I'm going to sell the Mazdaspeed.

Sooo, will a Fit handle both a kid + accouterments & a medium size dog, or am I asking too much of it? I'm assuming the stroller + stuff will take up the trunk, the kid would have to seated (ideally) in the middle of the backseat. Until we have two kids, can I squish the dog in there too, or should I go for an Element/CRV?

 

fit sounds like it would be perfect. cant go wrong with a element or crv either though.... but fit will have better handling, better mpg and cheaper than the other two.

 

I'm planning to drop by a honda dealership today to look at the size of the vehicles. Element wouldn't be bad, but I think the seat setup might be difficult with a babyseat. I really like the '05-06 CRV but the awd/ex seems expensive for what it is. Ridgelines are relatively cheap but are probably bigger than what I need. Guess I'll look today and figure out what's reasonable.

 

I'd own an element if it weren't for those wack suicide doors. There's nothing like parking in a parking lot and being trapped in a little 3' space with your passenger because nobody can shut the door.

The fit sounds like a perfect car for you. You'd be surprised at the amount of crap (not calling your dog or kid crap haha) you can stuff into the back. Your girl will be comfortable, your dog will be happy and your kid/baby will have plenty of room. Add a second kid into the equation and you might have some trouble with getting everybody in comfortably if there is still a stroller/baby seat involved.

 

I love the Fit, but would vote no on 2 adults + baby seat + dog. Sure it would Fit the 4 of you, but you'll be cramming other stuff in. Depending on the stroller you get, diaper bag, pack-n-play, etc, and it'll be tight at best, not to mention any clothes or sundries you and the wife need. I'd move a step up in size to a Mazda 5, Forester/Outback, etc. I'm sure you can make the Fit work but I think it would be smaller than ideal, especially if you're getting to choose the vehicle and not just making due with what you already own.

 

Sorry brother your minivan bound, the odessy is a very nice upsale van and if your going to have another child or dog ect. go ahead and get one. I would recommend a Honda what ever ya want, can't go wrong w/ an "H" in the grill. upscale it so you and the wife don't mind driving it.

 

Have to disagree with the "H" in the grill, biggest POS i owned was a hyundai :P But agreed, it sounds like the fit may be too small for your needs.

 

H in the grille is fine. what you had was an H in the grille.

OP, I love the element but go for a CR-V. My wife and I looked at an Element as our "family" vehicle before picking up the Ridgeline as we had a little one on the way. There were safety issues with a child in a baby seat smacking their head off of the side (in a side impact crash) pillar because of the positioning of the seats to the "b" pillar. Not sure if this has improved with the newer Es but it was an issue when we started shopping. Hence the Ridgeline. the other issue is in the US, there's no middle seat which is where a newborn/toddler should be. with the 60/40 rear seat, you may be able to seat the carseat in the middle, put the "40" side down and give the dog a little bit of room to move around. If we had a dog, our Ridge would work fine but with a dog, you can't have the seat in the middle and the dog in the same row.

I think a fit would be too small with the stroller/etc and the dog. If you are using one of those convertible systems, it'll definitely fill up the rear and might not even fit when folded. you'd have to have one of the sides down.

~SB

 

I just traded in my Element for my Fit (and I also own a '04 Mazda 3s). Me, my dog and girlfriend just did a 5 day weekend in the Fit. It fit all of our camping stuff just fine but if there was a child it wouldn't have worked for the extended weekend. Just doing weekend and day trips you won't have a problem. But in your case I would look for something with a little more room (you'll have to go a much larger vehicle though).

Now the Element would have a ton more room (but lose 10mpg or more) and would fit the 4 of you no problem. You'd would hate the suicide doors if there is a regular rear seat passenger though. My '04 Mazda 3s is by far the best car I've ever owned, sorry Fit but you'll have to earn it. I've put over 200k miles on it with zero problems and have averaged 32mpg, if they still used the 2.3L engine I would have bought another one.

 

Woah - lotsa good replies - thanks!

Odyssey - the dog isn't here quite yet (~6mo window is my guess - we saw a wonderful little golden retriever/sheltie mix puppy but thought another family would be better for the dog - and have regretted passing up on him so we're still looking), kid is not around for probably 1-2 years. 2nd kid we might adopt, but probably 1-2 yrs behind first kid, so it might be premature for an Odyssey - it is a great vehicle though.

Went to the dealership to look at vehicles -
1. Saw the CR-Z - it does look better in real life (obviously not a consideration for me, but was curious about it).
2. Pilot seemed too big for what i need. I don't like the front grille either.
3. CR-V - I really like the '05-'06, but the new ones still look odd. The overbite front look, the oddly down-sloping rear, and the interior seems to have lots of 'rounded' features (e.g., the where door handle attaches to the door frame is round). It is quite functional though
4. Element - I don't like the rounded roofline, but otherwise exterior looks...ok. I like the spartan interior that can be easily washed out. The rear seats seemed set pretty far back, and I could see getting car seats in and out, let alone the kid, a hassle. The functionality seemed very good.
5. Fit - like most of you are saying, with one kid, or just the dog, it'd be perfect. Add one component, and suddenly it becomes difficult. I can imagine myself, the wife in the front. Kid in a car seat + dog crammed in the middle. Rear holding the stroller + diaper bag & a few things. Perfect. But... if we go to the grocery store or costco, I suddenly need a roof rack or a tow hitch. I've driven one before, and it was a surprisingly well balanced, nimble vehicle - but you all know that.

Interestingly, I liked the ridgeline. It's smaller than I thought, and seemed to have a decent amount of room inside (I like how the rear seats fold 'up' like the Fit's does), and could easily see having two kids inside, the dog in the back with gear. While it's not a true truck, I don't really need one (Camping/climbing/mtn biking I can see, even ski trips and home depot runs but not really offroading or anything). I don't think I'd tow anything either. Used ones are slightly cheaper than same year CRVs, so it might be the way to go. MPG isn't great, but not overly horrible.

next: test drive of the Fit & Ridgeline. Maybe tomorrow. Thanks again!

 

I have a 90lb dog. My wife and I plus my son sit just fine in the Fit. No problems at all and we regularly take the car long distances 1500+ kms. I'm not sure why people are saying it's a tight fit. I don't know about some of you but I only take what we need. The Fit has more than enough room for all of us.

 

I agree. My wife and I take our two dogs back to PA often with our luggage and two dogs cages and there is plenty of room. Given our dogs are 30lbs but the cages are 24"x36" each.

 

BMXman,

You can see easily fitting a dog + infant, + stroller & other needed kid supplies in the car with room to spare? As in, I can grab the family and go food shopping or go on a wkend trip without a problem?

 

Do you often bring your dog to Costco or the grocery store? Otherwise this is seems like a non-issue.

Couple things to remember:
#1: The middle is the "best" seat for the kid. It's not the only seat. What do people with 2 kids do? Most of them put one on each side since taking 2 cars with each kid in the middle of one is a bit impractical.

Which is to say, keep the kid in the middle as much as possible but there's really nothing wrong with putting the kid in the side at times. Heck, my wife always puts our daughter on the side in our coupe b/c it's just too difficult for my wife to haul her all the way into the middle.

Once we went to a produce wholesaler that also sells plants and trees and saw a shrub I wanted...move the baby seat to the side, plenty of room for the shurb in tall mode.

#2: You can get compact baby stuff. Forget the ginormous (and expensive and heavy) "travel system". Get a stroller "frame" that fits the baby seat and then when baby is old enough for a real stroller there are real strollers that fold up very compactly. My baby seat is a Graco Snugride 33 with a "Snap n Go" frame (13 lbs!), and then I've got a Combi stroller that actually takes up even less space than the Snap n Go frame.

#3: You really don't need all that much baby stuff with you most of the time. Seriously. If I'm going to the grocery store for an hour, I don't need 10 extra diapers, 32 toys, 3 changes of clothes, etc. If I bring a "diaper bag" at all, it can fit on the seat next to the baby seat or on the floor. Some backup stuff is nice to have, but all I REALLY need to survive a one hour trip to grovery store is just 2 pacifiers and a stuffed animal. Yeah if I'm going to be at grandmom's house all day I need some extra stuff but then again I also don't come home from grandmom's with a trunk full of groceries so it all still fits without difficulty.

#4: You can make anything work. My dog is only 20 lbs but I had no trouble taking wife, 6-month-old daugher + dog + kayak on a weeklong vacation. I just had to be resourceful and very organized in packing. The Combi stroller went across the floor in the back, and I stashed some small items under the seats. Everything else fit in the "trunk" (the kayak on the roof rack), but I could have folded a seat down if I was really in a jam. I bought a $10 inflatable bathtub instead of trying to bring my hard plastic tub. You can often rent strollers, cribs, pack n plays - anything if you really need to...get them delivered right to your hotel or rental house.

With the exception of something oversize like a case of water bottles or a case of toilet paper (which go on the back seat or on the floor beneath), I have never had any trouble bringing home a week's worth of groceries or whatever, even with the stroller and the diaper bag.

In conclusion (applause), the Fit is a great small family car. You can pretty much do anything in it, but you may have to plan ahead and adjust to accommodate things. You might not be able to take the wife, the kid and the dog to the dog park and then decide spur-of-the-moment you want to stop by the hardware store on the way home and pick up 20 bags of mulch. Would it be easier with a bigger car? Maybe...but anytime I find myself wondering if I should have bought a bigger car, I think how much cheaper the Fit was than, say, the Element that I have lusted after since it appeared as Model X at the 2001 NAIAS. Well worth it to have saved $8k (not to mention the fuel savings).

Good luck in your search!

 

60lbs. Husky here, I can't speak for the kid, but we'll be trying in 2-3 years ourselves and see no reason to get rid of the Fit unless she tires of it. It's a great car for all of us and the Husky loves it.

I also look at ride height too, as he ages in the next 5+ years (he's almost 6) I don't want him straining himself or my girl getting in and out of a car.

 

if u dnt have problems with the power then get the fit, if u want more power and space get the honda pilot

 

I have had my Fit for about 6 months now and have been trolling since then.
I need to give some advice on this topic though.

I do not have a child of my own but the wife and I borrow our 5 month old niece a couple times a month.

When we have her we always end up using the old 94 accord to run around because in the Fit, yes it does feel like there is more room in it than my 16 yr old accord but when I drive I have the seat about notch from being fully slid back and a couple clicks past 90 degrees for the recline.

The damn car seat will not fit behind my seat nor in the middle because it won't sit flat enough to be considered properly installed when I am driving with my seat as is.

If I slide it forward a notch or 2 and sit too vertical for my liking it will then fit. Kind of sucks that in my accord I can have the drivers seat all the way slid back and reclined enough for me to barely touch the steering wheel, the car seats fits fine in the middle with out rubbing the back of my seat.


We will be getting a CRV or Odyssey when the time comes.


It may just be the particular model of baby seat but you may want to test fit one even if you don't have kids but plan to cart them around one day.


Clay

 

[quote=naMtiF;926664The damn car seat will not fit behind my seat nor in the middle because it won't sit flat enough to be considered properly installed when I am driving with my seat as is.

If I slide it forward a notch or 2 and sit too vertical for my liking it will then fit. [/quote]

This is a good point, depending on how tall you are/how you like to sit, and the size of a particular rear-facing baby seat, you might not be able to fit the baby seat without adjusting the front seat(s). Some baby seats are more compact then others (there are some threads about different models and how they fit). I think the Babies R Us type places will let you test fit seats in your car so if you go with the Fit, be sure to keep it in mind when it comes time to shop for the baby seat.

 

This is the reason we bought an altima in 2007. We looked at cars that fit a rear-facing car seat and the Civic wouldn't work. The fit wasn't really on our Radar at the time. The Accord was in it's last year of that gen, and the Altima was in it's 1st year of the new Gen so it was a better deal. Fast forward 2 years and the car seat was facing forward, we didn't need as much room, there was a desire to lower our monthly payments, and I missed having a manual trans. Voila!!! The fit arrived. $120 less per month (Payments & Insurance), and about $800 less annually on fuel & Oil/Services.

~SB

 

I'm 5'8", my wife is 5'4", so we might be ok for size. Talked with an acquaintance at the honda dealership who has a kid too. He was said given that we will be keeping a 4-door sedan (wife's BMW E46 - a 330i), it might be better to go bigger than smaller in the long run. His suggestions:
1. Buy a Fit, knowing that if we have another kid we'd have to get a new car, and that long road trips, while possible in the Fit would require 'thoughtful' packing.
2. Element isn't the best family car, but would be serviceable. He wouldn't want it for his family.
3. CRV is ideal, but the last gen (the one I like) is underpowered and more interior noise than the current. Also buying a used one is expensive as they hold their value (approx cost of a new EX, awd is $24k).
4. Ridgeline - not ideal, poor gas.