2011 Honda Fit Base Model in the Snow - YouTube

I created this video to demonstrate the 2011 Honda Fit snow capability. The best car in the snow I have driven is a 4 wheel drive Ford Explorer. The worst is a Ford Mustang 5.0. The Honda Fit is no 4 wheel drive car, but it did very well in the snow.

This video was taken after 3-4 inches of snow were on the ground. This was a mild storm for this area and wasnt really the best test, but it demonstrates the Honda Fit is capable in the snow. At no time did I get stuck or lose traction. There were no wheel spin or rock back and forth moments. The streets I drove on were not plowed and I did the driveway test at the end....uphill driveway unshoveled.

The tires on this car are the Yokohama Avid ENVigor on the original steel wheels.

 

Awsome. I agree the fit is a very capable snow car. The first time I had it out in the snow (there has been almost non here this year) was on my drive up to canada at the beginning of this month. It was snowing from PA to Buffalo NY. I-90 in upstate NY had a thin layre of snow and crosswinds gusting to 40mph. The fit was planted, though being blown arround. Narry a slip nore slide the entier trip doing 70-75mph. That said, I run dedicated snows, studded General Altimax Arctic, and even my 97 civic was good with those. I have yet to have a chance to try deep snow yet.

 

Amazing, glad I made the right choice of buying the FIT.
We don't have too much snow this year in our area
but I like your video, great work!!!

 

What, No Hills?

 

The first time I drove my Fit in the snow, well it was all ice. I was very impressed, handled great, climbed hills just fine. This was on the stock tires.

 

Missouri has hills?

 

In your video comments you said the traction control system and stability assist helped.

So are you saying the car was at the limit and these systems engaged and helped?

I don't have these on my 2009, but usually these beep at you or at least flash lights or an indicator when they are in use...
I didn't really hear that, so I'd assume your car was actually within the limits of traction/stability, so those systems weren't really in play.

Not saying it's a bad thing, but just wondering if credit is just due to the car or the traction systems.

 

If you look behind my CR-V you will see a slight hill that is my street, my Fit could not start in the middle of that slight hill and make it up. Oh yeah the yellow light would come on and it would lurch forward a few inches, it would have eventually made it but that wouldn't have proven a thing, the snow was on top of black ice, my AWD CR-V had trouble at times, AWD and Nokian WRG2's don't do a bit of good if the snow you are gripping is on black ice. Any piece of crap front wheel drive with summer tires can get around on the level, show me a video of a Fit with summer tires going up a steep hill consisting of compact snow on black ice and I will sell my CR-V.

If your a flatlander and you have that dry, blow around snow, yeah the Fit works well in that. If I would have pointed my Fit down hill and got on the main arterial it would have worked OK, problem is Seattle is built on 7 hills, all steep and covered with snow as slick as snot. I actually don't live in Seattle anymore...but that really doesn't change anything because Washington State as a whole is not flat. I could have driven my Fit into work, I haven't missed a day of work because of snow in 40 years, but if I have to make a maneuver and get around somebody that's crossed up on a hill..a Fit with summer tires is not a good choice in my book. Now add studs and I'm pretty happy with front wheel drive then. If you think I'm joking, bring your fit and your summer tires to Seattle next time we have snow...2-4 inches is all it takes, once a car drives over it, you now have "Compact Snot" however awesome you think your snow driving powers are you will be schooled.

People think we can't drive here in Seattle, that's not the case...you can't get traction on snot. Don't get me wrong, the OP's video shows you can get around on the flat in the snow, not a great feat really, point a Fit up a hill alongside a '62 Volkswagen and see who makes it to the top first...the VW, why? Because the weight transfer going uphill works to the VW's advantage. Point a front wheel drive car up the same hill and the weight transfer is all wrong. This is not my opinion, it's a fact.

Car Crashing Queen Anne Ave First Snow Nov 2010 - YouTube



A little background....

Critics of Seattle in snow: Shut the hell up | Sportspress Northwest

"As a multiple-time winter visitor/driver to New York, Boston, Philly, Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Spokane, Pullman and lots of smaller burgs, I will declare my credentials regarding meteorological comparables second to none.

Take it from me: There is no metro area as treacherous as Seattle in snow.

Besides the topography, there’s the brand of snow — wet, gloppy flakes known locally as Seattle cement. Rarely is the snow dry enough to drift, as is often often the case in the Midwest, Plains and parts of the Northeast and even Eastern Washington. I remember driving in a semi-blizzard in Salt Lake City where the highway road surface and its edges were plainly visible throughout the white-knuckle, 45-minute drive, thanks to the wind that cleared the dry flakes. Not fun, but manageable."

 

The Fit is capable in the snow, no doubt. It handled winter 2010- severe NY storms. I was able to get through in some absolutely horrid conditions and deep, unplowed snow. But the open style rims can make it difficult for sure- and dangerous. Snow easily gets in the rims in deep snow and you'll get an out-of-balance type shimmy- a really bad one depending. And it doesn't clear quickly. It's not advised to plow the Fit through deep snow, even though it may get through. After the snow was plowed and conditions became more ice overnight, I really came to depend on the paddles- down shifting to aid braking and avoid skidding. I think I got the most use of the paddles in that scenario more than any other. Our 2011 NY winter was the killer of all winters in more than a decade. I did not venture my Fit out in any of those storms until days later and the roads were cleared. I had vacation days- I used them for sure. I learned that even though the Fit can get through some bad snow conditions, it's not advised to do so. It does not like deep snow. Best to keep it off the road whenever possible in serious snow storms.

This year has been fantastic thus far. Hopefully the next six weeks will be as easy as the previous six.

 

Six weeks and counting! It's 52f right now - outside!!

YouKant I feel for you, getting a dump of snow like you guys did is a killer. Crazy thing is though, that even in the great NE, when the first snow of the year comes everyone is driving like it's the first time. This year it happened back in October. That has turned out to be the most snow on the ground at one time so far for many towns.

Little to no local ice fishing to speak of, even then the ice is starting to get punky on the top.

 

Snow in Seattle?

You don't know what real winter is like. The couple of inches you might get in one winter are slush almost immediately.

Yeah you have hills. Stay off them for a few hours until they're safe.


full disclosure:

Lived 12 years in Seattle, 11 in Laurelhurst and 1 on Queen Anne Hill. (5 Spot Cafe still there?)

Lived 4 Years in the Banana Belt snow region of Ontario (Stratford). Talk about snot. Your snot would freeze. The roads would be a pure sheet of ice at times. No one stopped driving or they'd stay home from November to April.

Lived 6 years in SLC. Had some hills there too. You either stayed off them until they were safe, or used chains to get up to the ski resorts. I had 2 VWs (front wheel drive), a Celica and a CJ7. The jeep was fun, but really unnecessary to get around in snow (It had its uses in Canyonlands).

Denver for 1 year. It's actually quite nice there in winter. NY State is by far more snowy.

the LA times has it right.

See that hill behind the Toyota? I had to back my Fit into the driveway to get around it to avoid sliding into it. Streets pure ice. And this is Georgia. We get more snow here than Seattle ya chump.



Even the wife's pontiac had a good time (She's from Boston, people here thought she was crazy going to work).

 

Let me begin by saying that I grew up and learned to drive in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York and western Connecticut. Even though I don't live there now, the winter-driving lessons learned from the yearly encounters with the white stuff have been retained and still get put to use.


Look up the weather statistics for Bellingham WA and you'll see that we get an average of 8 inches of snow annually out of our yearly average of 36” total precipitation. That 8 inches usually comes in one or two “big” snowfalls each year; the snow hangs around for about a week and then gets rained away. Because of the scarcity of significant snowfall, the city concentrates on clearing major roads; residential streets are last on the list. The result is that, until the rain arrives, residential streets usually remain uncleared, rutted, and icy. Add some serious hills to climb and descend and driving off the major roads can be a challenge.


We're close enough to Seattle that two weeks ago, we got hit with the same storm they did, which left at least 8 inches of snow on the ground and the street in front of the house – actually closer to 10-12”. It was certainly enough that the front airdam on Jadzia (my 2009 Base GE8) was contacting the snow and pushing some of it aside.


We live on the top of one of those hills mentioned above; that plus the condition of the roads going to and from the house during a snow event means that Jadzia runs 185/60-15 Toyo Observe winter tires from Thanksgiving to the end of February. I'm pleased to report that I had no problems getting moving uphill from a standing start, climbing or descending hills. The biggest problem was coming to a stop where traffic plus the lack of snow clearing had turned all the accumulation into polished ice, but that was a problem everyone was having & I'm certain the Toyos were outperforming my summer tires at that task.


While I'm satisfied with Jadzia's performance in the snow, I've also driven many different vehicles in winter conditions. All in all, I don't think it's significantly better or worse than other front-drive cars I've had. The biggest advantage seems to be those winter tires, which have a surprising amount of grip on packed snow.

 

As you know some years Seattle gets no snow at all, I do remember it getting cold enough in the 60's to make drifts, and I also remember leaving my CJ5 in 4 HI for a week and a half in the 80's. For measurable accumulation just about anywhere beats Seattle and I'm sure there are regions in the country that get the same wet/heavy snow we get here also. My main point was front wheel drive here in Western Washington when it snows is just about useless, for me anyway after owning 3 CJ5's, a couple of Power Wagon's, a VW Baja. Front wheel drive never impressed me one bit in the snow, unless I stayed away from the hills. So in that sense I guess I am a snow-weenie. Now I have logged many winters driving up in the Cascade Mountain Range where you actually get better traction than in Seattle.

 

Yes, Missouri has hills. not extremely big hills, but big enough to give you problems at times. We don't really have bad winters anymore. This year we didn't even get anymore than 2inches of anything and that is counting snow drifts. Last year we had a couple ice storms, that was the only real experience I had with the Fit in the snowy/icy conditions.

 

mmmm guess you never had the pleasure of rear-wheel drive in snow. Outside of rear-engined cars, FWD is vastly superior to the extent of making 4WD an unnecessary luxury outside of the Aspen set.

The greater ground clearance 4WD normally affords is a benefit. That said, the worst I've ever been stuck was on mining roads in the Wasatch Mountains in the spring. 4WD would get you in the damnedest places. Getting high centered on crusty snow was not my finest jeeping hour.

During the January '11 GA SnowStorm o' Doom (hey, we had at least 4 inches on top of freezing rain) my wife commandeered my Fit to shuttle her fellow nurses to and from Kennestone Hospital. It was either my Fit, or the sheriff's SUVs. We had wall to wall nurses staying with us one night. The stock dunlops and FWD did just fine. The only casualty was my battery; she left the lights on. Her car turns them off automatically.

Kudo's to SevereService for reminding us why we don't live up north. Every now and then I get nostalgic.

 

Being from Salt Lake City, I wanted to cry "bull." But honestly --- I've never spun a car in Utah, but I have in Portland (which is somewhat similar to Seattle).

I genuinely think SLC, Denver, and others get worse snow, but those cities are flatter and much better equipped to proactively salt and clear the roads. Seattle is hilly and often does not salt the roads for environmental reasons ("oh no, the salt could make it into the ocean" )

 

I drove RWD's exclusively for about 10 years before I ever bought a 4WD for hunting (1980?). With RWD in the snow, if I wanted to get from Rainier Valley to Georgetown you had to drive south on Empire Way down to the Boeing Access Rd then take Airport Way into Georgetown. Same trip in a 4WD is straight over the top of Beacon Hill via Graham ST. Once you get use to not having to go 10 miles out of your way to get somewhere, it's hard to put the Genie back into the bottle and deal with the limitations of 2WD, weather its FWD or RWD.



Are you making this stuff up as you go along?? FWD will NEVER make 4WD/AWD an "unnecessary luxury" in the snow or the rain for that matter. Take your FWD into a fast sweeping corner in the rain, now drive aggressively enough for the front tires to break traction. If you have never done that, lemme tell you what happens...from the point you break traction your FWD car continues to go the last direction it was going before it broke traction, depending on weather your going left or right you either drive into oncoming traffic or leave the road (ask me how I figured that one out) If you can get around with FWD and it does what you want and it makes you happy...great. FWD in snow is only slightly better than RWD and that's on the level, if I had to drive FWD only, I would still have to use the same snow route I would have used with a RWD, granted it's an improvement but there still isn't enough traction available to climb up something like Graham St in the snow.

My CR-V got hit in lasts years pre X-mas snowfall, guess what....it was a guy in a FWD car that didn't have enough control to keep his car in his own lane, and all we had was enough snow to turn the road white, about 1 inch of the usual snot, I made the turn, he was in the lane next to me and didn't. Lucky for me he had insurance and they fixed my door. Did I mention FWD does not impress me one bit in the snow? If I had to have only one car...it would be a new CR-V, point and drive not point and slide.



I'm gunna retire possibly in May? There isn't a whole lot about 2WD, 4WD, FWD, RWD that I haven't already figured out on my own over the decades. Sorry...I'm an Old Fart that's set in my ways, and everything I do is right....right for me

 

Personally speaking, unless I've got a lot of steep hills to climb, I'd rather have FWD and winter tires than 4WD/AWD on summer or “all-season” tires. 4WD/AWD launches and climbs hills better because all four wheels are providing “go”, but 2WD stops better even on summer tires 'cause there's less mass to deal with. Cornering is about equal with or without winter tires. That's not just personal opinion: it was tested and proven by Car and Driver magazine over a decade ago. Here's the link: Winter-Traction Test: What Price Traction? - Feature - Car and Driver. 4WD/AWD costs more to buy up front, and continues to cost more in maintenance and fuel consumption down the road than buying winter tires every few years.


The driver that hit your CR-V just didn't know how to control his car once it got beyond “normal behavior”, most likely due to sheer inexperience with the conditions at the time – it's probably par-for-the-course for most drivers, unfortunately. Me, I'm different: I have enough years behind the wheel in winter conditions, plus competitive driving experience in autocross/Solo II, to understand what a car's going to do “beyond normal”, be prepared for it, and hopefully deal with it when it happens.


In snow, I'd rather have FWD over RWD because of the stability it provides in most circumstances; in my experience FWD will climb hills better than pure RWD and I haven't yet encountered any hills here in Bellingham which exceed the ability of FWD with winter tires. If the front-end starts to plow, that's when I use the handbrake (rally-style) to flick the rear end around (left-foot braking just doesn't work properly when you're dealing with anti-lock brakes).


I'll end with saying that AWD won't save your butt all the time: A co-worker who drives a Subaru Forester bent a tie-rod when he hit a curb after sliding across a patch of ice during that last snow event.

 

What really matters is the tires first and foremost. Look at the Tireracks test. They took two BMW 3 series and stopped them on a snow packed road. The BMW equipped with the snow tires stopped from 30 mph in 59 feet where as the one equipped without took 89 feet. The BMW with snows took 8 seconds to travel from a stop to 200 feet whereas the one with all seasons took 11 seconds.

All-Season vs. Winter / Snow Tires

If I lived in a place like North Dakota or Alaska then maybe I might choose a different car like a 4wd Subaru and keep a set of snow tires around. However, the Honda Fit is above average in my opinion for winter driving and will do a good job for the weather around here.

When I traveled on the snow filled roads and went up the driveway, I did not once get stuck. My car is equipped with the traction control/VSA, has the Yokohama ENVigors which folks rater better in snow then the stock dunlops and rides on steel wheels. When I was driving, the VSA and traction control kicked in quite a few times therefore those Honda Fits without it (pre-2011 base models) would probably have more trouble. A Honda Fit sport with alloy wheels, stiffer suspension and performance oriented tires may not do as well.

Actually, I specifically wanted the base model because it has a softer suspension, steel wheels and smaller tires which usually do better in the snow/rain.

I could probably handle the Seattle weather in the fit with a good set of snow tires, but if I lived in a place where snow was a serious concern like Alaska then a 4wd drive car would have to be my choice.

 

I miss my 1987 Brougham... The FIT does acceptably well in the snow and tires make all the difference. I remember meeting some folks in Vermont one winter. It was a snowy February, and one of the first questions they asked this NY'er was what kinda tires you got, not what kind of car I drove.