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The homely, lowly Honda Fit.
But now in its third generation, a little less homely.
And judging by the cabin tech, a little less lowly.
Let's drive this third gen 2015 top of the line.
EXL with nav and check the deck.
In a nutshell, I would describe the styling of this third generation Fit as no longer looking like the cheapest possible way to build a car.
It's got all kind of nuance and sculpting and better integration of things like trim pieces with body metal.
Very different look.
Although I kinda preferred the previous generation's.
Just slightly cleaner, little sportier look.
That's just my opinion.
One thing I noticed right away when you open the door here.
On the previous fit there was always this ugly unfinished weld.
They got rid of that.
It kind of tells you about the overall.
Mission of the redesign.
Now, even if the Fit no longer looks like the cheapest way to build a car, it still is about the cheapest way to build a car.
I pushed this one hard and could barely get over 22 grand, about 21.8 for the top model, the EX.
L-trim with navigation that comes with a CVT transmission.
About all I could add CNET style is a remote start for four hundred bucks, and we're just over twenty two.
Let's see what you get.
Getting inside tells you everything you've gotta know about the new Fit.
It's dramatically new.
There's a whole lotta nice, new finishes, this kinda liquid metal bezel.
Trim.
Different types of surfaces, many of which are hard and some are soft, which gives you some texture.
New head unit going on here.
Kind of the new trend which is this all-glass surface, all touch.
And notice the buttons on the left, the virtual buttons, change depending on your mode.
What I'm not crazy about is you've got nothing but click volume controls, either here or on the wheel.
Give me a knob any day.
This just takes too many taps- Or swipes, or things that are just not easy.
Your main home choices, you've seen before, just about everything is in here.
Audio sources are quite expansive.
You're not really missing anything.
There's even an HDMI port down here to play audio and video if you're parked.
And of course we have two USB ports for charging, or for media integration.
Thumb drives, smartphones, iPod.
Optical disk still carries on in this vehicle and for apps, you basically have two media apps, Aha and Pandora.
There's not much of an apps platform beyond that.
Bluetooth calling and Bluetooth streaming are not standard on a Fit.
It was missing that before as standard equipment, which was making it feel pretty old.
And that button on the end of the turn signal, as well as doing a right turn signal, will activate the far right camera in the mirror housing, look down the side of the car, give you some distance indications, beginning with a red one that shows the **** of the car, and also.
So show you what is basically about four foot tunnel of space down the side of the vehicle.
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Now when Honda says you can get a bike in this thing easily, they're not kidding.
Look how simple the big second row load in converts.
You just pick up the base of the seat, lock down its little legs, and it's there.
The other one goes up the same way, and you can just slide a bike right in.
Same thing goes for the back.
It's just about the easiest lay flat load floor you can convert to in any car we've had in.
Under the hood, U.S. market fits will get one a half liter direct injection side saddle in line for driving front wheels only, of course.
130 horse power.
100 and 14 near pound bead of torque.
It's not a lot but the car doesn't weigh much.
It's a little over 2,600 pounds.
We don't get in anything that weighs 2,600 pounds around here.
Zero to 60 is also leisurely.
8.8 seconds but it pays off.
In the MPG.
32/38 for this high trim EXL with, of course, the one choice only CVT.
If you get a low trim fit, you can get a six speed manual, but you take a hit of several MPG in the city and one on the highway.
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Now, the first thing I notice.
This car is.
No matter what, at around $20,000, you don't ever get a really smooth engine note.
The only really dissonant thing in this nicely fitted Fit, it just makes a grinding sound.
The power, as you can imagine, is not overwhelming, as you can tell from the numbers, but it's well-balanced across the.
Range and across the rev range.
You've got a sport mode you've got paddles on the wheel.
There's not really a sport mode in this car.
It just holds shift points a little higher one way or the other.
But the ride quality's quite good you might be surprised at something this small and it.
Expensive rides this compliantly.
I would kill for some home run buttons on this head unit.
I just get tired of digging through menus to do simple things.
Things that should be one button press on less ambitious head units are now two button presses.
Oh, by the way, this car has good crash ratings.
It's an IIHS top safety pick.
Which in it's class of many cars, there's only one other, the Chevy Spark.
This is a big improvement from the last Fit that you may have heard had some crappy crash ratings, especially in this new test that call, the small overlap frontal impact test.
And that one the Fit did not do well in before.
This is a whole new platform, and this car, according to the IIHS, is quite Fit.
