Honda offers ‘Fit’ for pricey gas

Sat., June 24, 2006

Don Adair Marketing Department Columnist

A new battle is brewing among Japan’s Big Three automakers.

Honda, Toyota and Nissan have come to market this year — or soon will — with models slotted below their traditional entry-level offerings.

Honda and Toyota have already introduced their competitors, the Fit and the Yaris, respectively, with Nissan’s Versa expected by mid-July. The Versa is the only all-new model; the other two have seen duty in Europe and Asia.

The Fit is the most expensive and best equipped of the three. With its base price of $14,400, including destination, it’s priced just a few hundred dollars under its larger sibling, the Civic.

The base Civic is a stripper, though, while the five-door Fit hatchback is anything but. Standard features include anti-lock brakes with brake-force distribution; air conditioning; power mirrors, windows and door locks; CD player; and a full set of airbags, including curtain-style bags.

Order the up-level Sport trim (from $15,720) and you also get MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) CD playback capabilities, an input jack for MP3 devices; 15-inch wheels and tires, cruise control, fog lamps, rear spoiler, underbody kit and a 200-watt sound system with six speakers.

The Fit is cleverly packaged, with legitimate four-person seating and surprisingly versatile cargo capabilities.

At 90.1 cubic-feet, passenger volume is just less than that of the midsize Accord, although rear-seat passengers will find less hip and shoulder room than in the larger car.

Thanks to its unique, 60/40-split rear “Magic Seat,” the Fit’s interior can be configured numerous ways, accommodating everything from tall plants to bicycles and surfboards. By moving the gas tank forward to a location under the front seats, Honda designers created an extraordinarily deep — and useful — well between the front and rear seats.

The front seatbacks can be fully reclined to form a contiguous, nearly flat surface clear to the rear seatbacks, creating a chaise lounge-like setup. It’s not long enough for a good night’s sleep but would do for a nice nap.

Even tall people say they feel at home in the Fit’s front seats, where there’s ample head, leg and shoulder room for even the 6-foot-plus set, while a tilting steering wheel makes easy work of finding a comfortable driving position. I would have appreciated a telescoping function, as the steering wheel felt a smidge distant.

The seats are terrifically supportive and far superior to those found in most subcompacts.

Honda went to great lengths to minimize in-cabin noise and vibration; consequently, the Fit is among the most quiet and smooth-riding of all the entry-level subcompacts.

Available in two trims, base and Sport, the Fit is powered by a 109-horsepower VTEC four-cylinder engine. Granted, 109-hp doesn’t sound like much these days – and it’s not – but it is adequate to the task of motivating the 2,500-pound Fit, although at 9.3-seconds, the 0-60 sprint isn’t much of an adrenaline rush.

Honda’s celebrated VTEC variable lift-and-timing valve technology is tuned here for a broad and powerful midrange. Peak torque of 105 foot-pounds is widely available, enhancing responsiveness in a wide variety of situations.

The engine can be hooked up with either a five-speed manual or a five-speed automatic.

Although it doesn’t get fancy wheels or a sport suspension, the Sport trim adds a manual shift mode to the automatic, with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. In an innovative touch unexpected at this level, the driver can activate the manual-shift mode by touching one of the paddles (right for up-shifts, left for down-shifts). After 15 seconds of inactivity, the transmission returns to fully automatic mode.

Want to keep it in manual mode? No problem; move the floor-mounted shift lever to the “S” (for Sport) position and shift to your heart’s content.

Though it’s not positioned as a sport-hatch, the Fit is nimble and fun to drive. Our tester was equipped with the standard transmission, which offered clean gates and a comfortable, easily engaged clutch action.

The rack-and-pinion steering system is electrically assisted, offering fuel savings over hydraulic systems. Unlike many electrically assisted systems, the Fit’s is communicative and responsive and both versions of the car are fitted with a front sway bar to minimize body lean in corners.

To enhance rear cargo space, Honda uses a torsion-bar rear suspension, which works nearly as well as an independent setup would have, both in terms of managing rough surfaces and negotiating quick corners.

Rear drum brakes hold costs down without imposing much negative affect on stopping distance or fade-resistance.

Honda expects the Fit to receive a five-star rating from the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and good (the highest) ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Like the Yaris and the Versa, the Fit belongs to a class of car that’s been incredibly successful abroad, but less so here. However, its fuel-economy ratings of 33 city/38 highway will earn it lots of fans while gas prices stay high, while its high levels of comfort, utility and responsiveness should also position it well for the long run.