OK I'll be the first to admit that I probably don't have a good pulse on the current online car culture (and was too involved in the early 00's online car forums). For the number of cars sold, it just feels minuscule for the number of people contributing.... And it's not just that, I spend a minimum of 3 hours a day driving, I also just do not see the percentage divergence from stock on the road.

Am I wrong or what are the factors that have separated us from the make/models that have taken off in the car scene?

 

Agree! I come from the RSX forum, S2KI, NASIOC and corvette forum. Loads of stuff with vendors and people. Here there's a few guys doing stuff but it's a pretty slow forum.

I'd imagine that's due to the type of people that are buying fits, mainly just the average non car enthusiast person looking for a cheap commuter car.

 

I love searching around the dsm and d-series forums cause there is always so much information and automotive theory floating around them. No one is interested in pulling apart the little l15a motor and playing around.

We need more guys interested in making power from these tiny motors.

Or at least more threads popping up then "my fit is stuttering and I don't know why" or "how will my fit look with (insert wheel brand/ spring drop here)"

 

I would vote for the factors being, in no particular order:
1. Customizability isn't there; starting with the engine. There just aren't many engine options that can be affordably (or even unaffordably) crammed in our little engine bay. There is no B18 versus mini-me versus H22 etc. discussion for the Fit. And granted, you can do a few things, but more options = better from a tuner perspective because most folks don't want to do the exact same thing they read someone else did (or that 100 other people did). Even seats are tough to customize because of the gas tank/short seat thing.
2. There are other platforms that give a little better road performance. The Fit handles well, especially stock/with sway bars, but is kind of unaerodynamic. Other platforms are just better in this regard. We have too much space in our cars to haul stuff (I'm not complaining really; I'll take that tradeoff; I know many others will not).
3. Too many soccer mom/commuter Fits erodes the brand as a tuner brand. The reasons there aren't more tuner-Fit's is a more mild form of the reason there aren't more tuner-Priuses, or tuner-Corollas. Our car is a kind of signal to other folks; mainly to other folks who like cars the way that we do, that signals that we think about cars a certain way; that we have a certain aesthetic to our automobiles. And that draws us into community with like-minded folks, and the community we find psychologically rewarding. And we try fit in/impress folks in that community. The Fit is generally not considered an uncool car, but its cool factor from a tuner-cool perspective is muted by all the commuter-Fits.

Really, these reasons are kind of interrelated. In the interest of full disclosure, my Fit (my wife's car really) is very stock. We're those commuter folks eroding the tuner-cool of the Fit brand ;-).

 

I would tend to agree with the previous poster's comments.
Though I would love to see more of a community especially me coming from a k-series motor to this little puppy, I just doubt that manufactures would tend to invest time and money into making products that would yield very little profits.
I never would have thought it would be so hard to find certain products for customization and nothing frustrates me more when looking for items and get "universal" items back in my search results. I enjoy it when items are made for that vehicle and do not have to be made to work with any application because that usually means it either will not fit right or need other items to make it work.
Regardless, I love this little car, just got my 07 early this year as a winter beater but ended up keeping it.
Especially in Canada it is tough to find anything for this car as I was looking to get some nice seats installed but after looking through the options, I just have to hope that someone parts their setups out for me to find something that will work.

just my two cents.