Cars service manual

2007 Honda Fit Preview

The Fit is Hondas answer to the Nissan Versa and the Toyota Yaris, which are also brand-new this year: its small and cheap, with a base price pegged at between $13,000 and $14,000. The five-door is, unfortunately, not as cute as the three-door model sold elsewhere in the world. At least its well equipped, with six air bags, ABS, air conditioning, power windows, locks, and mirrors, and a CD stereo all standard.




Inside the car, it immediately became apparent that even the recently released all-new subcompacts made by rival brands needed to step up their game before April, if they expect to be seen in the same light as Hondas Fit when it debuts. Aptly, fit and finish is superb, and the cars plastics quality, on the dash, console, armrest, door sills, and pretty well everywhere else, is similar to that inside the larger, more expensive Civic - that car one of the best in the more upscale compact class.

Switchgear is also impressive, with tightly fitting buttons and knobs that dont wiggle sloppily back and forth at all, unlike some premium cars. The Fits seats are impressive too, both comfortable and seemingly supportive, although a long drive will be needed in order to make certain of this first impression. One thing that was immediately clear, however, was rear seat spaciousness. The Fits tall roofline wont make rear seat passengers suffer, and with that expands its usability among subcompact buyers.

Cargo room is also generous at 603 litres (21.3 cu-ft) of volume when the rear seatbacks are upright, which is just a bit less than Hondas Element offers aft of the rear seats and well over twice as much as Toyotas five-door Yaris at 228 L (8.1 cu ft) of cargo area. How do they do it? Ingeniously, Honda located the fuel tank in a central location towards the middle of the vehicle, rather than in back where it causes the floor space to be raised. The Fits floor is lower than average, allowing for the extra room. Additional space can be had by dropping the 60/40 split folding rear seatbacks forward, although Honda hasnt come forward with any exact specifications.

But thats not all it can do. Hondas rear seating system is so flexible that it has given it a name, "Magic Seat", and thanks to seatbacks that not only fold down to open up the cargo area, but also allow the lower cushions to pop up and expose a cavernous mid-section that looks fabulous for bikes (youve really got to see all of the photos in the gallery as my description hardly does it justice), as well as front seats that fold rearward and butt up against the rear cushions to form a bed or rear seat lounge area, resulting in four individual passenger and cargo configurations that Honda dubs refresh mode, tall object mode, long object mode and utility mode. Cool.

On the Road

Engine isnt latest and greatest, but its still very goodChanges were made to the European Jazz to fine-tune the Honda Fit for the North American market. The independent front suspension (with stabilizer bar) and torsion beam rear suspension have been softened somewhat to fit American and Canadian driving patterns and roads better. And rather than the CVT offered in Japan and Europe here the only automatic transmission offered is a 5-speed.

And while we get an aluminum alloy 1.5L inline-4, with VTEC technology and drive-by-wire throttle, Europe, Japan and other markets (including South Africa, for heavens sake) get Hondas brilliant new hi-tech 1.3L I-DSI engine. Even though the 1.5L is not the latest to come out of Hondas miracle engine shop, its still pretty darn good, especially the 38 MPG EPA highway figure for both manual and automatic Fits.

The Fit is a blast to drive. At the media introduction, we journalists were taken on a high speed run along the deserted roads of the Coast Mountain foothills east of Vancouver, Canada. Even though it was pouring rain and I was unfamiliar with the Fit, I felt completely secure behind the wheel. Later, we were allowed to drive as fast and as hard as we dared on the closed-off runways of a local airstrip. Im still here, so all went well.


Preliminary Specifications:

Price Range (estimated MSRP): $14,000 - $18,500
Body Type: 5-door hatchback
Layout: front engine, FWD
Engine: 109-hp, 105 lb-ft of torque, 1.5L, 16-valve, DOHC I-4
Transmission: 5-spd manual (optional 5-spd automatic, optional 5-spd automatic with paddle-shifters)
Performance (estimated 0-100 km/h): 8.3 seconds
Brakes (front/rear): disc/drum, ABS, EBD
Curb Weight (min/max): 1,091 / 1,162 kg (2,405 / 2,561 lbs)
Exterior Dimensions (L/W/H/WB): 3,999 / 1,682 / 1,524 / 2,450 mm (157.4 / 66.2 / 60.0 / 96.5 in)
Seating Capacity: 5
Passenger Volume: 2,551 L (90.1 cu-ft)
Cargo Volume (seats up/folded): 603 / TBA L (21.3 / TBA cu-ft)
Fuel Economy (estimated city/hwy): 6.5 / 5.2 L/100 km
Direct Competitors: Chevrolet Aveo5, Kia Rio5, Pontiac Wave, Suzuki Sprint+, Toyota Yaris 5-Door

Web Site: www.honda.ca or www.honda.ca/fit