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Photos: 2009 Honda Fit Sport

Honda made many positive changes for the 2009 version of the Fit, ending up with a car featuring excellent fuel economy and some decent cabin tech.

Wayne Cunningham
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Wayne Cunningham
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1 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

2009 Honda Fit Sport

Honda updated its Honda Fit for the 2009 model year, making significant improvements in the powertrain and in cabin tech.
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2 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Angular hood

A new hood design includes a central bulge with angled edges, running down into the grille.
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3 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Sport or base

The top trim level of the Honda Fit is the Sport model with navigation. The base model is just called the Honda Fit, and lacks some of the styling cues and has smaller wheels.
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4 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Grille

The Fit's new grille continues the angular rise that starts at the hood. The polyhedral shape reminds us of Transformers toys.
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5 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Tiny, efficient engine

This 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine puts out 117 horsepower, adequate to move the car and more powerful than the engine in the previous model. But we still got it up to 40 mpg with some careful driving.
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6 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Rough rider

Although a small, inexpensive car, the Fit seats four comfortably. But the ride can be strenuous over rough pavement.
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Road-holding tech

Antilocks brakes are standard on the Fit, but traction and stability control only come with the very top trim.
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Voluminous cargo space

The Fit is very flexible with its cargo area. There is room for seven grocery bags with the rear seats up, many more with the seats down.
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9 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Interior materials

The interior of the Fit has a good-quality feel, especially nice in an inexpensive car. Navigation is available, but not present in our test car.
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10 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Steering wheel buttons

We would have liked audio control buttons on the steering wheel, and Bluetooth hands-free cell phone integration isn't available at all.
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11 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

MPG meter

The best part about the instrument cluster is the display that shows instant fuel economy. Using that meter, we got our average economy over 40 mpg while maintaining freeway speeds.
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12 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Five-speed shifter

You can get the Fit with an automatic, but we were very happy with this five-speed manual transmission. Shifts were quick and precise, and we were able to better modulate our fuel economy using it.
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13 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Sound system

The stereo head unit is limited, with no satellite radio and controls that aren't terribly intuitive. We also weren't impressed with the audio quality.
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14 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

USB drive

The upper glove compartment contains a standard USB port. You can plug in a USB drive and play MP3s off of it.
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iPod connectivity

The USB port also works as an iPod connector, letting you browse music by artist, genre, and album.
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16 of 16 Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive

Track display

You can set the stereo to show artist, song, or album name, whether playing music from an iPod, USB drive, or MP3 CD.

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