Honda Fit

flimflam man said:

Silver..

couldn't you have just put on a slightly wider better quality performance tire to remedy the grip issue? Also a set of light weight Enkei aluminum wheels at only 10-12 pounds each would have further improved things at a very reasonable cost....

How about the "nimbleness" factor ....how do the Mini and Fit compare on that aspect?
Which one feels lighter and quicker on its heels? Mini or Fit? Also the steering feel and response? Which is better?

Cheers,

Tom

Click to expand...

I had a 2007, so the new version may be improved somewhat, but from what I've read, they're very similar in behavior. In my younger years I used to be heavily into AutoX and still like to toss my cars around a bit on the immense choices of twisty backwoods PA roads, so I usually take care to replace the wheels with something light and the tires with something sticky, but I just didn't have this car long enough to start having fun with it. That being said, the tires on this car were not the biggest issue (although they did contribute, they were not the worst they could have used). It was structural rigidity and a suspension tuning that was heavily geared to understeer near the easily approachable limits. Steering feel was very light, and was designed for someone with small forearms, but the ratio was quick, making it enjoyable nonetheless. The rear twist beam was not an ideal setup for when the roads get bumpy, but I'm curious to see how the Fiesta does with the same setup.

The MINI is in a different class altogether from the fit when it comes to handling as it is 4 wheel independent with a much more rigid chassis and beefier suspension components. The steering feedback is top notch and is very heavily weighted in a very bavarian kind of way. The ratios are quick and the wheelbase is short, making it much more tossable than the Fit. The body roll in the MINI is MINImal. The body roll in the Fit... Excessive.

The Fit has an advantage (like the MINI) of being very lightweight. That's what helps make it fun zipping around town, but there's a clear choice of which one you want to be in if your plan is to storm some back roads for the next 10 hours. The MINI just has better hardware for it all around; better brakes, better accelerating engine (yet with similar mpg), better steering.... the list goes on and on, but you pay $5-10K more for one. And get all the headaches of maintaining a BMW, with BMW maintanence costs. Ultimately why I got rid of the MINI - I saw the bills for the items covered under the 4 year 48K mile warranty, YIKES. I literally could have bought a new Fit for the price of my 4 years of maintanence and warranty claims.Luckily all of that stuff was covered under warranty, but my closest dealer was 1.5 hours away, I had to take a day off of work everytime to get my car repaired, and sometimes they had to keep it overnight and were out of loaners, so I got a hotel... NOT cool. I sold it when the ODO hit 45K. Unless they build a dealer near my house, not a chance I'll buy another one. But if they do build one by my house... Who knows - it's still on the top of my list. I'm hoping the Fiesta proves to be the poor-mans-MINI as the nearest Ford dealership is 1.5 MILES from my house.

And to show that it's more than just butt-meter readings. I had a G-Meter that I used. In the MINI - frequently hitting .96. In the Fit, .84... Granted, tires were a lot of that, but the MINI demanded that you tried to break that record time and time again. When you hit the peak in the fit it was more of a "geeze, I probably shouldn't do that again"

To sum it up, Driving everyday around town, darting in and out of traffic, stop and go, both the Fit and the MINI were enjoyable drives. But when you turn up the heat, the MINI really sizzles.

Heheh, I love cliches.

P.S. To let you know how hard I am on tires. I never had a set of tires last more than 8K miles in the MINI, even with proper inflation and rotation. I had 5 sets of rims and Tires for the MINI, one for each occasion, 1 for AutoX, 1 set of Winter Only, the original runflats and super-heavy rims, 1 set for daily driving and one set for Rallys and backwoods blast days.

I am considering the Honda Fit and the Ford Fiesta. I have no problems with the way the Fit looks, although I agree it could be viewed as "odd" or even ugly by some people, but I am not here to please those people. What makes it odd also gives it really good cargo space and headroom.

I keep reading here how the Fiesta is more of a "drivers car". How so? I mean, I am buying the car for commutes and some long distance road trips for two and I have a BMW with aftermarket coilovers and roll-bars to get my "drivers car" fix, but still I am wondering what makes people think one is anymore a drivers car then the other. I am sure the Fiesta handles slightly better just because it doesn't have such a high roofline, but it's not like either one has any power or weighs more or less then the other. In either case, I'd be getting the sports model, probably 5-speed manual and I think suspension wise they'll be very similar as well as weigh in @2500lbs.

Right now my biggest pro's for the Fiesta is better gas milage and somewhat better looking. And my biggest pro's for the Fit is larger cargo space, the back seats fold down flat and dealers actually have em.

I haven't actually driven a Fiesta yet, but I've read nearly every review linked to in this thread. They describe the car as handling really well (crisp turns, good recovery coming out of a turn, the feeling that you're still in control when you do sharp turns with some speed), with a lot of zip. The Fiesta sounds like it still gets a lot of power after you've hit 50 mph, so you can still accelerate to merge into traffic and pass other cars on the highway.

My impression of the Fit when I drove it was that going from 50 to 60 would be more of a casual meander. Instead of a lunge from the torque and a quick hop from 50 to 60, it would have just cruised along until it got to the speed. I was worried about getting it up fast enough to get myself out of the merge lane on the highway I take to work.

The Fit wasn't uncomfortable, but you can't tell from a 20 minute test drive how you're going to feel after a 3-hour-post-blizzard-commute-from-hell. Maybe no car can make something like that okay.

But Fiesta Movement people were encouraged to roadtrip and Agent @*********** on Twitter even slept in his car when he traveled. They all swore it was really comfy on long trips. I didn't think Fit was a car I'd rave about when it came to long-term comfort.

But if you're doing a short commute with no highways, you might not notice a big difference between the cars. Personally, when fighting it out on my evening commute home, I'd rather have Ford's 30 additional horsepower.

I bought a 2010 Fit about 2-3 months ago. I traded in an '07 Hyundai Accent (gogo sub-compact "upgrade"). I test drove 2, and had no problems. Pretty peppy car for the class. I was going to wait for the Fiesta, but I thought that it would be better to go for a car that had been around for awhile and let Ford work out any kinks with the Fiesta before looking to purchase.

Thoughts after 3 months:

The interior is VERY loud. When you go over bumps your teeth chatter and so does the rest of the car. Maybe I got a funky model or something, but my a-pillar/dash started rattling at 100 miles. I've taken it to 2 different shops a total of 4 times. They replaced my a-pillar (defective) but it still makes noise. It's not super loud, but annoying enough to actually make me consider selling it off within a year.

Limited options. No trunk cover - I bought one for $100 off e-bay. I have the sport version, there's no bluetooth. The glovebox usb isn't that bad - you can hide your mp3 player and all the controls work through the main dash console.

It does kind of look like a block of cheese in styling. It grows on you though. I got the Blackberry color and I've gotten many compliments.

Lots of complaints about seat comfort. The driver and passenger seats kind of bulge out at your lower back - forces you to have good posture, but many have said it gives them back pain. You feel it when you first sit down, but you get used to it after awhile (I'm 5'4").

The steering is pretty smooth. The brakes were a little strange at first (it does have a long break time). I LIKE how it drives, a lot, but I just can't get over the interior noise and cheapness (dash is just a huge piece of black ugly plastic). Honda really did not take much time bothering with the interior - several places in the dash don't meet correctly, and the glovebox is slightly misaligned.

Magic seats are amazing - I fit a 5" cat tree/condo in the back and didn't have the move up the front seats.

A/C is VERY weak. If you live in a hot climate definitely test it out before purchasing. It tends to cycle on/off, especially at high RPMs and sometimes just blows hot air at you for a couple minutes -.-

It feels solid on the highway - 75+ with no issues (my Hyundai would literally shake at those speeds). Sometimes it has trouble over inclines (I live in the DC Metro area), but usually does pretty well. I pass people without trouble and it has a decent amount of "go" when you need it.


In summary: good car, decent price, nice ride normally. Can be loud on the highway and cheap interior makes a lot of noise - squeaks, rattles, gurggles, whatever. Fiesta really has it beat in that department. Maybe I should have waited :/