I will agree that the Fit is quite noisy. I actually don't mind the engine noise, but the road noise is quite loud especially at highway speeds. My wife's Civic is considerably quieter under identical driving conditions.

I'd expect the Yaris to be quieter as well, Krimson. Toyota generally tunes all of their cars to provide isolation from the road.

 

And to be beige...

 

My first 'showroom new' car was a beige 1972 Corolla. It was also a very economical car - 32mpg average as I remember. Had to have been the color.

The Yaris is silver... hence the 39MPG.

 

After how loud my Ford Focus was, I am not complaining about the Fit.

But of course, I've only owned mine for three days and it only has 250 miles on it! I will get back to you in five years I guess!

 

I have no complaints about noise in the Fit... to me it is quiet
compared to my 2001 Neon and actually comparable to a 1999
Toyota Camry I used to own.

This from the article...

"If it offered spectacular value for the money, that might excuse its shortcomings"

That comment is in conflict with Consumer Reports who have rated
the Fit a top value.

...and every vehicle has shortcomings.

 

OK... my take on all of this:

1. Thanks to Google, online publishing, and the sheer size of the internet, you can find a good or bad review on any car, product, restaurant, place, etc. SOMEONE is bound to like it, someone is bound to hate it. It's almost like rule 34 of the internet. There's a Toyota Sienna forum for chrissake!!! With threads looking for lowering springs and CAI. Seriuosly.

2. I once started a thread on here asking "What was your previous car, and how does it color your impression of your Fit?" The reason? The car you drove immediately before will color your impressions. I drove around in a Honda Accord for 5 years (first car). When I got my Civic, after a month driving it, I ended up driving the old Accord briefly (my girlfriend bought it). It felt so WEIRD!

3. People have different priorities. I shopped around and figured out that the Scion tC was the best fit for me. A huge part of that is the front legroom. I don't care if the Civic has better plastics - it doesn't have as much legroom, and the seat doesn't go as low. I don't care if the Mustang offers real RWD and a sportier experience for just a bit more... I have two kids, who are both growing up long-legged like me, and while they aren't with me all the time, I still need to be able to fit them in the back behind me.

4. People have different tastes. For some drivers, kick-in-the-seat-of-the-pants torque is a must. Much like smokers rating the flavor of a cigarette with almost perfect correlation to its nicotine content, a power-junkie will drive an underpowered car and that annoyance will carry over.

5. Some reviewers have a real axe to grind with a company. With Honda, the cars have become less and less engaging over the years, with McPherson struts and cheapo-twist beams in place of the famous 4-wheel double-wishbone suspension. I4 engineering seems to have fallen to the wayside as engineers devote their efforts to the more profitable V6 engines. For example: Toyota is none-to-popular with the automotive press - The interior in the Scion tC is a good bit nicer than the one in the Fit - better carpet (not exactly hard), more solid feel to panels, far better seat construction. It has been slammed by more than one journalist for being cheap and low rent, while a Kia at a similar price-point gets a pass for the same interior quality. The reason? Kia is an underdog that has climbed by leaps and bounds, while Toyota is now the big boy, and has suffered quite a bit of bad press for slipping perceived quality in recent years. Which, by the way, leads me to....

6. Lets face it - cars are reviewed against the competition, and the competition is far better now. Hyundai and Kia used to be jokes. The Yugo is no more. Like or dislike the Fiesta, it's no Festiva/Aspire. Step from B-segment to C-segment, and the lowly Cavalier has been replaced by the Cobalt, and now the Cruze. The Focus is about to step up to the Ford Global C1 chassis (finally!). Just because the small Hondas and Toyotas are no longer rave-worthy doesn't make them any worse as cars, and the increased competition will ensure that the Japanese Big-3 will not rest on their bums and sell cars on reputation alone.

7. You read the magazines long enough, and you start to see patterns. With the Big-3, there's a real sense of underdog-cheering. "Finally, a car from GM that will blow away the Japanese" (a year later) "The ____ competes nicely with it's Asian competitors" (a year later) "The ___ is worth considering, given the sizeable rebates compared to the Asian competitors" (a year later). "The long in tooth ____ will finally be replaced next year, and the upcoming [insert new model name] will blow away the Asian competition."

It is what it is.

 

Nice post Occam - All I can think of for #7 is the dying throws of the domestic auto producers self promotion. It's got to be really tough for the big three to be struggling so hard under the ill-advice of their financial planners. They really seem to be missing the boat. Personally I would have preferred to buy US, but nothing matches the Fit. Nothing.

 

Not a rating from an expert. Any tester that does know the difference between torque and power or that both the coparison cars are much bigger and heavier makes a difference. And failing to do a road course evaluation by time and mpg merely states the obvious: when you compare cars you need to compare equivalent cars. In this case the comparison should be with a Yaris.