Web produced by: Megan WasmundBY ANN M. JOB
Associated PressEnough already. I've heard enough Fit witticisms to last a lifetime — from "I Fit, so you will, too," and "It Fits like a glove" to "Skip the gym, get a Fit."
Fit is Honda's smallest and least expensive car, with a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price of $14,585 for a base model with 109-hp four cylinder and five-speed manual transmission and $15,385 for a base model with automatic transmission.
But somehow, for several of my friends, the 2008 Fit was a perfect excuse to verbalize every sentence they could think of with the word "Fit" in it. If you don't have wordsmith friends, perhaps you'll avoid this tiresome exercise and simply enjoy the Fit for what it is: a Honda that's compact, nimble, peppy, amazingly practical and fuel efficient. Honda also will like that Consumer Reports magazine's predicted reliability of the Fit is "excellent."
While small enough to fit snugly in some of the smallest parking spots in big cities, the Fit has a surprising 90.1 cubic feet of passenger space. The Fit interior also has practical features, such as rear seat cushions that can fold up against the backrests of the second-row seats. Rear-seat backrests also can fold down flat.
The only Fit engine is a compact 1.5-liter Honda four cylinder. While the 109 hp doesn't sound like much, it's enough to give the lightweight Fit a perky personality, particularly in city traffic. The test car, a Fit Sport with a five-speed automatic and paddle shifters on the steering wheel, even bounded energetically up mountain roads.
Not to be overlooked is the Fit's fuel economy. The test car was rated at 27 mpg in city driving and 33 mpg on the highway. The big issue was engine and road noise. The Fit doesn't seem to have a lot of sound insulation. At less than 2,600 pounds, it's easily buffeted on windy days. Three people sit closely in the back, and the driver struggles to see around trucks, vans and other large vehicles.
But many amenities are there in every Fit as standard equipment, including air conditioning with an air-filtration system, power door locks, power windows and adjustable steering column.
All safety equipment is standard, including curtain air bags and anti-lock brakes. But electronic stability control is not offered. The Fit earned five out of five stars in frontal crash testing by the federal government. It got five out of five stars in side crash testing for front-seat passenger protection but only four out of five stars for rear-seat passenger protection during a side crash.
Last November, 34,300 Fits from the 2007 and 2008 model years that were sold in or registered in 22 states and the District of Colombia where road salt is used were recalled, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Officials said a wiring harness for a system in the cars, designed to automatically detect if an out-of-position passenger or child seat is in the front passenger seat and tailor air bag deployment accordingly, might corrode from salt and become inoperative.
