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All-new 2009 Honda Fit priced from $14,550
Click above for our high-res gallery of the 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Honda has announced that its all-new 2009 Fit, which we just drove for the first time, will go on sale next week with a MSRP starting at $14,550 (plus $670 destination), while the more premium Honda Fit Sport will start at $16,060 (plus destination). The standard powerplant will be a 1.5-liter i-VTEC 4-cylinder rated at 117 hp mated to either a 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic (with steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters on the Fit Sport). The five-passenger Fit also earned EPA fuel economy ratings of 28/35 (city/highway) with the automatic transmission, and 27/33 with the 5-speed manual or automatic in the Fit Sport. All models feature standard air conditioning, AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA audio system with four speakers, power windows, power mirrors, and power door locks. The Fit Sport (shown above) adds alloy wheels, aero kit, alarm, keyless entry, and an upgraded audio system. In fact, the top shelf Fit Sport with navigation and a 5-speed automatic starts at $18,760, which makes it one of the greatest bangs for your buck in our book.
Gallery: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
[Source: Honda]
All-New 2009 Honda Fit Big on Style and Refinement, Small on Price and Fuel Consumption
8/19/2008 - The completely-redesigned 2009 Honda Fit is set to go on sale August 26 with a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) starting at $14,550, plus a destination and handling charge of $670, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. The Fit Sport, equipped with additional premium features, is also set to debut with a starting MSRP2 of $16,060, plus destination and handling.
The Fit is designed to lead the subcompact segment with a quality feel and a multi-functional interior. The Fit has become more refined for 2009 with a sportier demeanor through improved suspension, steering and body rigidity enhancements; an improved rear Magic Seat®; and a high level of standard safety equipment, including the addition of the Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure and front seat active head restraints. A new, more powerful 117-horsepower, 1.5-liter i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine further improves the Fit's high-revving, fun-to-drive character.
"With the all-new Fit, Honda is offering premium features and advanced technology within a high-function, small vehicle package," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda. "Customers who choose the Fit are choosing superior refinement and premium quality, along with value and economy."
Dimensionally compact on the outside with an overall length of 161.6 inches, the interior provides a surprisingly spacious passenger volume of 90.8 cubic feet and a rear cargo volume of 20.6 cubic feet. The seats offer multiple seating and cargo-carrying configurations - tall object mode, long object mode and utility mode - in addition to the standard five-passenger mode.
An improved rear Magic Seat provides one-motion dive-down functionality without having to remove the rear seat head restraints to folds flat into the floor, creating a rear cargo volume of 57.3 cubic feet. Dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags, dual front-side airbags with passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS) and side-curtain airbags are standard equipment on all models.
The engine produces 117 horsepower at 6600 rpm and 106 lb-ft. of torque at 4800 rpm. A 5-speed manual transmission is standard and a 5-speed automatic transmission is available. Steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters allow for manual gear selection on the Fit Sport equipped with the available automatic transmission. The Fit equipped with the available automatic transmission achieves an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) city/highway fuel economy rating1 of 28/35 miles per gallon. The Fit with a manual transmission and Fit Sport with either a manual or the available automatic transmission achieve an EPA city/highway fuel economy rating1 of 27/33 miles per gallon.
The Fit comes with standard amenities such as air conditioning, an AM/FM/CD audio system with four speakers, MP3/WMA playback capability, Radio Data System (RDS), auxiliary audio input jack, power windows, power mirrors and power door locks. The Fit Sport adds alloy wheels, an underbody aero kit, rear roofline spoiler, fog lights, security system with keyless remote entry and cruise control. The Fit Sport audio system provides six speakers, a five-mode equalizer and a USB Audio Interface .
For the first time, the Fit is available with the Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System with Voice Recognition on the Fit Sport, featuring a 6.5-inch screen and more than 7 million points of interest. Models equipped with the navigation system also include Vehicle Stability Assist™ (VSA®), also known as electronic stability control.
The front MacPherson strut suspension and torsion beam rear suspension settings are tuned to provide a sporty, solid and dynamic driving experience. Upgraded by 1-inch on each model, larger 15- and 16-inch wheels (Fit and Fit Sport respectively) are shod with 175/65 R15 84S (Fit) and 185/55 R16 83H (Fit Sport) tires. The standard anti-lock braking system (ABS) with electronic brake distribution (EBD) uses 10.3-inch ventilated discs in the front and 7.9-inch drums in the rear.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
bob 1:34PM (8/20/2008)
I don't get it. My new Civic EX gets 32mpg mixed driving, over 35 highway, and it's rated something like 30city/40highway. Why is the Fit so much less mpg efficient? Why bother with it when a Civic can be had for $16k and with equal-or-better fuel economy and more car?
Reply
Jared 1:47PM (8/20/2008)
The Fit has a larger cross-sectional area than Civic. Aerodynamic drag is a function of the drag coefficient times the cross-sectional area.
mike 1:43PM (8/20/2008)
Well EX starts at 20Gs and for 16 you can get a DX---no A/C. Unless you live in Canada you can not have a car w/o an ac.
Which leads me to ask, what % of vehicles in USA are sold without an a/c?
0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
?
BoneHeadOtto 2:40PM (8/20/2008)
"I don't get it. My new Civic EX gets 32mpg mixed driving, over 35 highway, and it's rated something like 30city/40highway. Why is the Fit so much less mpg efficient? ... blah blah blah"
I DONT GET IT. Why does every owner of a civic think their car gets some astronomical mpg number. Seriously this is the complaint of every civic owner. The civic gets 26/34 with a manual and 25/36 with an auto according the the EPA ratings. That is the SAME as the fit. If you look at what owners are reporting the fit gets 35 combined and the civic gets 32 combined.
The fit costs significantly le$$ that the civic. If you are going to compare base prices compare the $14500 of the fit to the $16000 of the civic.
But the fit is also more practical. try getting a bike inside your civic or moving an apartment. That is where the fit shines. Plus for $16k the fit has way more standard features than the civic. So more features, more practical, better mpg, and it doesnt look like every other car on the road. That is why people purchase the fit over the civic.
Judyz 2:40PM (8/20/2008)
Even in Canada few cars are sold without A/C. Contrary to popular belief in the states summer doesn't end at the border.
Red 2:48PM (8/20/2008)
In addition to what Jared said, the 2009 Fit is also still using the same L15A motor as the 2008, which is has been around for years now (2001, I believe?). There are obvious improvements, most notably the addition of i-VTEC, but unlike the L15A, the Civic has a completely new engine designed for economy first, performance a close, but still distant second. The addition of i-VTEC to the Fit really just makes the engines torque more plentiful, which gives the impression of a more powerful engine than it really is, though that is not to say it's not. It's meant to feel like a performance version of VTEC versus the economy version of VTEC.
I'm curious as to why Honda didn't choose to use the Civic's R16 engine over the old L15A. The R16 is only available in Turkey and maybe in one other Asian country, I believe. Perhaps it was a decision based on weight and cost?
MikeW 7:03PM (8/20/2008)
Honda would have to either: reconfigure the Fit so that the engine exhaust goes out the front, or develop a new cylinder head for the R16.
How does the new i-vtec improve torque? Seems unchanged
Old Fit: 105ft-lbs@4800, new Fit 106ft-lbs@4800
Old Fit 109hp@5800, new Fit: 117hp@6600
i-VTEC does nothing for performance in the R18, it is purely an economy thing.
tekdemon 1:43AM (8/21/2008)
BoneHeadOtto:
Actually this is because Honda has sometimes posted their own non-EPA mileage numbers on their website claiming these insane numbers. I only found this out after my friend told me about how he was shopping for a new car and told me that the new Civic had "much better" mileage than the Corolla. When I checked it out I realized that Honda had put the EPA numbers in some places, but also put their own mileage estimates in many places (in large text no less). Toyota on the other hand had only posted EPA numbers on their website, so to less vigilant buyers it would have seemed that the Civic was the more efficient car.
Personally I found the entire thing rather shady of Honda to do. I used to own a Civic btw, so I don't have any particular bias against Honda but it was definitely very lame that they were posting their own MPG estimates when their competitors were using the new EPA #'s.
Pacman 1:35PM (8/20/2008)
"most biggest bangs for your buck in our book."
Really, I bet it is 'funner' than the competition as well. :)
Reply
LMBVette 2:59PM (8/20/2008)
I read over on Edmunds that it's possible to option the car up over 19k. Could you imagine spending 20k on a Honda Fit?
If you did....would the Civic owners look at you like you were crazy?
mike 1:37PM (8/20/2008)
"In fact, the top shelf Fit Sport with navigation and a 5-speed automatic starts at $18,760, which makes it one of the most biggest bangs for your buck in our book."----This the biggest issue Fit has, it is now in Honda Civic LX territory.
LX is the second trim level for Civic, the most popular as well. It offers everything one wants in a car.
Sure Fit is great, but is it really as good as a Civic?
Honda should sell this car for about 1,000 less.
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Pat 1:56PM (8/20/2008)
Yes. I actually think the Fit is better than the civic because of the utility of the hatch. Maybe it's easier to consider the Fit the replacement to the Civic hatch, not as a competitor to the Civic.
Matt 1:42PM (8/20/2008)
117hp. lol.
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Jared 1:48PM (8/20/2008)
117 hp is more than enough for a Fit.
Aprime 1:52PM (8/20/2008)
And somehow that's a bad thing?
spdracerut 1:54PM (8/20/2008)
A 70hp Mazda 2 diesel got me around some mountain passes in France just fine with four guys in the car.
Pat 2:02PM (8/20/2008)
Really, you don't need that much hp to drive around town. I doubt more than 1% of American's have seen redline on their vehicles and are therefore not using remotely the amount of hp their car provides. Most Corvette owners (read old-man cruisers) probably only use 117 of their hp.
lumbarn 2:26PM (8/20/2008)
Like others said 117hp is adequate for this car. The old fit only has 109hp and when I drove one it felt lively. In fact the base mini cooper has 118hp and it is fun as heck.
Matt 2:43PM (8/20/2008)
It's not a shot at the car, guys. It's just that 117hp sounds so...insignificant...especially on a car 'enthusiast' blog.
Markus 3:30PM (8/20/2008)
Just to chime in with the rest of the crowd: The (first-gen) Honda Fit/Jazz comes with a 1.4l/84hp gasoline here in Germany. And you know what? That is considered pretty decent power for a subcompact. And you know what? It's more than enough to tackle any part of the Autobahn here in Germany, including onramps uphill into unlimited traffic.
I used to drive a '96 Ford Fiesta with 1.3l/60hp Duratec engine. The car was a piece of crap, admittedly, but even that was enough power to savely merge onto and travel on any part of our famed Autobahn ;).
All it takes is a manual transmission and rudimentary driving skills :).