Hey everyone

I live in Winnipeg, Canada, and our roads are junk. We have temperatures ranging from -40C to +40C and we're not as wealthy as some other Canadian cities - so our roads are in pretty bad shape.

On my testdrive of the Fit I did find the ride harsher, and this almost made me not choose the Fit, but I really liked everything else so I got the Fit last December.

My question is - do others find the Fit is quite harsh going over bumps/potholes? I don't know much about suspensions, but is there work you can get done to improve the ride if your city's roads are bad?

I've driven the Fit in other cities with nice roads and boy I loved my Fit that much more.

I should mention, I have a M/T Fit LX, so I'm on the smaller tires so have plenty of rubber which I understand should help absorb shock.

It just sucks a bit to take someone for a ride in my new car and for them to find it, well, a bumpy ride.

 

I can only compare the Fit to what I know. My previous car was a 97 Dodge Neon. My Fit takes rough roads much better than my old Neon. i was pleasantly surprised. My other (my wife's) car is a 2001 Chrysler 300M. The Fit doesn't do quite as well as our 300.

 

Its not too bad, but it is stiff...

 

I came from an 02 WRX, which had a harder ride over the little stuff, but the car itself was less thrown around by the bumps, and it seemed to ride better over the larger bumps. I am reasonably happy with my fit's ride

 

I've found my new Fit to be quite harsh when running down the streets in my area, which are tar & rock chips, I can feel all the little bumps. But it may take a while to get the suspension worn in. It's good on the big bumps though, such as train tracks and potholes.

 

I've been to Winnipeg, and I thought the roads were ok, but I guess I was just on the main ones Before I bought my Fit Sport, I owned a 1998 Nissan Frontier XE King Cab. I have to say that my Fit rides much better than my old truck, on good roads and bad, although it does not have nearly as much ground clearance (which I miss). Of course, with the short wheelbase, the ride is a little more choppy, but not enough to be a problem for me. Also, the road noise is much more pronounced in the Fit, but from what I have read, I guess Honda's are known for that. All in all, my Honda is a Perfect Fit

 

They need to fix St James street! I saw a truck going along there and appeared to not have any shock absorbers in the front.. just springs.. looked like he was doing one of those car jumping contests at 50kph.

The ride is a bit stiff though... but all small cars are like that I think.

 

My FIT is in the middle. My DC5 is harsher on my crappy roads but my Civic hybrid is softer. The FIT was softer when I was on 15's but defiantly noticed a difference when I moved to the 16's on 45's less rubber harsher ride

 

I do find that the poor streets of Winnipeg make the Honda Fit seem to ride a bit harsh. However, the Fit is a light vehicle and as such, it will ride harsher than a heavier vehicle.

While St. James is bad, I think certain stretches of Inkster and McPhillips are far worse.