The paid option is only for people who want access to the results without having to participate in the survey. I'm happy to provide free memberships to anyone willing to participate.

 

Have an updated results for you--with 17 successful repair trips per 100 cars per year, the 2009 remains better than average.

Everyone who has been participating--thanks, I certainly appreciate it. The more owners participate, the better the information we can provide. We'll have further updates in November and February.

Honda Fit reliability comparisons

 

It's silly to say that the test is wrong. It's just a standard test. Each car is tested the same way. Change the test and it changes for all cars and all cars get different ratings.
The reason the EPA changed the test recently was because people were getting worse mileage than the EPA tested. Now that people are getting better mileage people are complaining... still/again.

The whole point of the test is to compare different cars.

 

Well, at least fewer people complain when they outdo the EPA test. Looking at it from the perspective of a car buyer, not a car owner, you'd rather have your expectations exceeded.

 

We'll have updated results again next month. The more owners participate, the better the information we can provide.

Car reliability research

 

Have you actually seen how the EPA tests cars? I read an entire article about it in some car magazine when I was at the book store (Car and Driver or Motortrend or one of those, can't remember which) and the article said the EPA doesn't have the resources to test every car on the market. It's a very small group of people. I think everyone believes the EPA has some huge facility to test thousands of cars with hundreds of employees working round the clock, wrong! There is something like 10 or fewer employees and they test no more than a couple of hundred cars a year. The rest of the EPA values are guestimates. Yes, you read that right, there are EPA gas mileage ratings on cars that have not been tested with EPA equipment. The car is simply rated against others in the segment, which is also why there is such a big range with the ratings when the say your mileage may vary.

Manufactures know this and have accepted it. So, it's very, very possible the 2009 Fit was not hooked up to single machine and simply had its mileage based on the mileage from the 07-08 model. We'll never know for sure, but with so many owers beating the ratings significantly (including myself) I would hazard a guess the car hasn't been tested. Honda made a lot of improvements to the breathing of the car which not only gave it more power, but very well could have increased it's fuel efficiency over the 07-08 model.

No one is complaining about getting better mileage than the EPA. What people are complaining about is the 27/33 rating is short changing the true ability of the car. It's no skin off my teeth, I don't sell the Honda Fit, but if I were Honda I would be a little upset that potential sales are being lost to someone saying "well damn, I can get that kind of mileage in a Honda Civic, so if I'm going to buy a small car I might as well buy a Yaris, Aveo, Corolla, Smart (heaven forbid, but people are buying them)" etc.

 

The EPA figures are never guesstimates. They're all based on tests. I have heard that sometimes the test numbers are provided by the manufacturer based on their own tests using EPA procedures. But all cars are tested on actual machines using the same procedures.

 

Interesting. Either I forgot what I read or the article was incorrect. That is good to know however. Which means the 09 Fit was hooked up to machine, but I still don't understand how the numbers came in so low when so many people do better?

 

Even the highway test includes some acceleration and braking. If someone drives on the highway at a steady speed, they should beat the EPA number.

 

We'll have updated results next month. We'll also have two new stats, indicating your odds of getting a car with no repairs and your odds of getting a lemon. These require larger sample sizes--so additional participants are needed.

Car reliability research

 

I just joined, only had the car for a little over a month, 2100 miles so far and running strong. Filled up several times, averaging 33mpg for 80% city / 20% highway mileage, a/c on all the time. Already hit a bad pothole in the road (couldn't dodge it as there was a curb to my left, and a car to my right, at about 40mph), and my alignment is ever so slightly off (there are crappy ass roads here in houston)

 

Five 2010s so far. A good start, but we'll need more, soon, for an initial result in February.

Details here:

Car reliability research

 

Another update, now covering through the end of September 2009--with 14 successful repair trips per 100 cars per year, the 2009 Fit remains better than average.

Everyone who has been participating--thanks, I certainly appreciate it. The more owners participate, the better the information we can provide. We'll have further updates in February and May.

Honda Fit reliability comparisons

 

Source: How Vehicles Are Tested

 

Another update, now covering through December 31, 2009--with 12 repair trips per 100 cars per year, the 2009 Fit remains better than average.

Everyone who has been participating--thanks, I certainly appreciate it. The more owners participate, the better the information we can provide. We'll have further updates in May and August.

Have I mentioned that we very much need more 2010s?

Honda Fit reliability comparisons

 

Now 189 2009s and 23 2010s signed up. Continue to especially need more of the latter.

Not yet signed up? Details here:

Car reliability research

 

Just enhanced the related repair history survey so that it can (optionally) be used as a personal car maintenance record.

As always, more participants would be helpful. Updated Car Reliability Survey results in May, with a preview for participants next month.

Car reliability research

 

Just signed in. How will this be able to keep track of my car's reliability? Will it be automatically updated everytime I go to a dealer?

 

Just signed up my '10 myself. I imagine that the website will email you a quarterly reminder to update info. Don't lose your login info ( the pin # and email address is your login)

 

An email goes out months, but unless there's a repair to report a response is only needed every third month, following the end of each quarter.