Honda’s feisty new ‘Fit Sport’

This week, we’re testing Honda’s new 2007 Fit 5-door Sport, a compact model featuring interior roominess, great fuel mileage and low price as its major appeal. Our automatic equipped tester came with no options, with only the additional $550 for destination and handling pushing the car to its final tally. Thus, for only $15,200 retail, Honda is poised to attract a wide demographic consumer base, from first-time buyer to those looking for a great little second car.

Most notable is that every front-drive Fit built comes standard with all the powers, anti-lock brakes with electronic brake distribution, driver and front passenger dual stage airbags, side airbags, side-curtain air bags and Halogen headlights. Add a well built MacPherson front strut and rear torsion beam suspension, and you’re receiving a lot of car for a little money.

Our Sport equipped tester adds exterior badging, 15-inch tires and alloy wheels, a 200-watt, 6-speaker audio CD/AM/FM stereo system, keyless remote entry, and cruise control. Numerous other standard features make this car a one-price “out the door” with few if any peers.

Fit is a small car, but you’ll be surprised when you enter the cockpit in either front- or rear-seat positioning. Honda’s engineers designed a roomy cabin that comfortably sits four full-size adults. It has excellent head and legroom, great visibility front and aft, nice dashboard with blue hue lighting, and Honda quality materials and fit throughout.

Notable, too, is the fact that Fit’s fuel tank is located under the front seat instead of the rear, making for even more room when the rear seats fold down. The result is Honda’s “Magic Seat” formula, offering a huge cargo area that also converts when the rear seat bases fold upward, allowing 50 inches of vertical room, easily accommodating a near 4-foot high TV or stereo carton. All this happens thanks to a slide forward seat design your Honda dealer will happily explain.

On the road, EPA fuel mileage numbers of 31-city and 37-highway are high priorities. This all comes from a 109-horse, 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine that performs well in most all highway situations. Granted, 109-horses isn’t much, and the car does accelerate slower once out of its engine’s peak torque range, but we must admit when combined with the weight and size of the car, it all works fairly well. You’ll notice with each additional passenger a slow down in acceleration, but the return is excellent fuel mileage and a road-worthy compact car. The automatic transmission is responsive, and it even features paddle shifters and grade control, features usually found in more expensive sportsters. You can expect peppier performance if the manual transmission is your selection, and a bump to 33 and 38 EPA numbers.

As for looks, we really like Fit’s overall stature. The front end is aerodynamic; especially around the flared back headlights with color-coordinated bezels. However, we want to emphasize that Honda’s true styling wizardry comes from Fit’s interior. If you stand over 6-feet tall, don’t worry, there’s more than enough room in the front seats.

Important numbers include 21 cubic feet of cargo space with seats up, 10.8-gallon fuel tank, 2,551-pound curb weight, and a 96.5-inch wheelbase.

The novel Honda Fit competes against some stiff competition, like Chevy Aveo, Hyundai Accent and Toyota Yaris, but we expect it to do very well. We rate Fit a near perfect 9.5 on a scale of one to 10.

Likes: True versatility, great roominess, wonderful EPA numbers, low price.

Dislikes: A little bit of road and engine noise in the cabin, but nothing serious. Rear seat legroom just a tad tight for the taller adults.