Hi all,
I've had my 2015 EX 6MT for a week now and got plenty of drive time in (1200 mi+) so I figured it's time to do a quick write-up of my experiences.

This is my first Fit, I'm coming from a 2005 Civic EX 5MT that died in May (and unfortunately a bunch of rentals in between).

I had a lot of trouble finding an MT in the greater NYC area and had a few deposits at different dealers but was unable to get a firm delivery date and the dealers were having issues even locating a trade due to issues with Honda's inventory system, so I started calling around to dealers within 600 miles of the house. I finally located one near Schnectady, NY, about 125 miles from my house. I went up on 7/3 to purchase the car, but a massive storm knocked out the power at the dealer and they were unable to complete the sale. They did give me a loaner Insight for the weekend which was an interesting experience, to say the least. On Monday morning I returned to purchase the car (they had offered to deliver it for free, but I wanted to drive it as I had waited long enough) and snagged #707631 (Silver EX MT) for list ($19726.59 OTD).

Since then I've driven a bunch ranging from my 9 mile commute to the train, to an 80 mile highway trip to my company's remote office to a bunch of fun on back roads culminating in a 400+ mile trip around all of NYC's Catskill-Delaware reservoirs (nice fun curvy semi-mountainous roads). Here are my impressions.

Exterior
I really like the styling. I think the car is quite attractive and really like the body lines. My only issue is that the hatch, like many others, is a dirt magnet thanks to physics. The headlights are adequate, not really amazing, but do their job well enough, especially for a single fixture dual-filament bulb. Haven't really got to try out the fogs in fog but did notice they have a very wide throw.

Interior
The flexibility and utility of the interior is amazing. As small as the car is, it doesn't feel small at all. The cockpit is not cramped at all and the rear and cargo areas are simply massive. The magic seats are a lot of fun and really quick and easy to use. Everyone who's seen the car (and I've gotten a lot of inquisitive friends and co-workers) have remarked how big the interior is and how well layed out it is. Visibility is quite good even without the cameras.

Electronics/Technology
I'm really liking the 7" touchscreen. I was slightly worried that I'd miss physical controls and also had read a number of reviews that the touchscreen wasn't responsive enough, but found that with a firm touch, I've had no real issues with responsiveness. There are some quirky issues with the GUI from the user experience perspective on the screen, for example, changing audio sources seems inconsistent and slightly illogical, but no show-stoppers. Also the info modes are odd. I can't quite figure out the "Info Top"/"Info Menu" options. I also was lead to believe there'd be more trip info available than just Trip A history and current/previous average MPG.

I have an iPhone 5 and the integration seems mostly quite good. I love having full screen Pandora and being able to thumbs up/down songs without fumbling for the phone. I really like that I can now have the phone mounted and running Google Maps and have Pandora onscreen at the same time and Google's audio ducking still works (I was slightly worried that Pandora lived in the head unit and would block external audio, but it is just acting as a remote for the phone and streaming audio off the phone). Having full phonebook access for hands-free is making colleagues jealous. And for the most part, the BT integration is pretty seamless. Have had a few issues after using eyes-free Siri, where the audio switches to low-quality Bluetooth after getting a result, or weirder, presents as an incoming-call from myself with the streamed audio. I'd actually seen this on a rental Toyota I had as well so I'm wondering if it's more an issue with the iPhone's BT implementation then anything.

I did find that you cannot have two iPhones or an iPhone and an iPod plugged into both USB jacks and have access to both of them (if you have a phone and a pod, if the pod is plugged in first, it will block the phone). I have not tried just plugging in a HD or stick yet with the phone. I was attempting to put an iPod classic in the console as a "backup" jukebox for when I was tired of Pandora or in a no-signal area. I do, however, like that I can switch back and forth pretty easily from Pandora to the iPhone's music app just by using the source button (it appears as an iPod) which is great when driving in the middle of nowhere.

I'm hoping Carplay is just a firmware update sometime in the near future as it would be great to have some form of iOS on the screen, however, I'm not unhappy with the current setup.

The rearview camera is nice and reasonably useful, however I'm having trouble looking at the center stack while moving backwards. LaneWatch is pretty cool too, but I still check my mirrors out of habit. I do find it useful for really awkward angled intersections.

I was worried that the SmartEntry/Push-button start would be awkward to use, but I'm finding it's very intuitive. I even did a test and attempted to lock my fob in the car and found out that the system won't let you.

The dashboard is easy to read (I prefer analog style dials to digital readouts, at least for the speedometer and this works nicely) although it's taking a little bit to get used to the ambient meters (they're essentially shift suggestions on the MT).

The trip computer is a little optimistic on fuel economy (about 2MPG over right now) although I'm hoping that will improve with time.

I've found the A/C to be reasonably good. We had some 90+ days last week and it was comfortable in the car. That said, I don't like things that cold.

Handling/Performance/Efficiency/Noise
The car is definitely a Honda and performs as expected; this isn't a bad thing as I generally like how Hondas perform. I really do like the handling overall; it can be fun or efficient depending on how I drive. The steering, to me, feels comfortable and there is an adequate amount of feedback. I was a little worried as a lot of reviews mentioned that the EPS was kind of isolating, but I don't feel that. The suspension is reasonably sharp without being too harsh and deals with crappy roads pretty well. Driving on the Westchester Gravel Speedway (I-684), I did find the car liked to play a little in the really rough sections, but there wasn't any tramlining apparent and I wasn't getting bounced into other lanes as certain rentals I drove did (I'm looking at you, Chrysler) and I did feel firmly in control of the car regardless.

Curvy hilly country roads are a lot of fun, especially with the stick. I was constantly flinging the car through curves and never felt like I was hitting any sort of limits.

The clutch is a bit softer than I'm used to and for the first day or so, I'd overcompensate for not being able to feel the bite getting into first and get the engine a little angry at me. That said, it's a very smooth shifting transmission with no real kick if you don't shift gracefully (unless you do something stupid like go from 6 to 3 at 65). The hill assist feature is pretty cool although I keep forgetting I have it until it kicks in. It's becoming a nice anxiety reducer at lights on steep hills.

I'm slowly getting used to the change in gearing coming from the Civic. I've found that 1-2-3 are about the same as the Civic while 4-5-6 are much closer to each other. Also, I'm kind of baffled that the recommended shift points are so low for 4-5-6 (if I remember 5 and 6 are 2 or 3 mph apart). Essentially, I'm finding for best economy, the car wants you in 6th at 40mph (according to the ambient meters anyway). Now, all that said, there's plenty of headroom in the gears so if you want to shift much higher than recommended and get all your power and torque and have a little more fun, you can with no issue. The biggest challenge for me really is just remembering I have 6 gears and not 5 and trying to develop the muscle memory for the extra non-sequential shift combinations (6-4, 6-3, 4-6, etc).

As for the debate about the final drive ratio in 6th, while it would be nice to have a lower engine speed at 75mph, I do like that I still have a little spare power available without a downshift.

As for noise, I've found the car to be much quieter than the Civic. That's not saying much as that car was rather loud, especially at highway speed (I think it ran about 3500-4000 at 75). The Fit's engine is more growly at times and sometimes a bit buzzier (I think a review I read mentioned a swarm of wasps.... not a bad comparison). I've noticed that the timbre of the engine really changes independent of the RPM; the growl is more apparent under higher load. I'm thinking this is probably due to the continuous iVTEC profile changes on the intake side changing dependent on, I'm guessing, engine loading, although I don't know enough about the intricacies of iVTEC to be positive.

There is a little bit of wind noise on the highway, but nothing intolerable. There is also a little more wind interference than I'm used to, but the Fit has a higher profile so that would be expected.

Rain performance is pretty good. I've gotten caught in 3 ridiculously heavy thunderstorms the past week and while I had close to zero visibility (just due to the sheer volume of rain), the car performed well with no real loss of control even when performing evasive maneuvers around fallen debris.

Economy seems pretty good. My first two tanks were crappy but I was idling excessively with the A/C on to play with all the features so I've discounted them. The best I've done so far is 41mpg, that was rural highways, averaging 55-65, A/C on about 80% of the time. Discounting the crappy tanks, I've averaged 38.94, most of the time not completely focusing on economy and more focusing on having fun. As mentioned above, the CPU is reporting slightly higher, around 2MPG more or so. I'll keep watching it to see if it stabilizes. I haven't had a true highway tank yet with higher speeds and I'm curious what that will bring. I will update this post when I do.

My biggest surprise with the car so far is how amazing everyone I've talked to thinks it is and what a great value it is. I've had conversations with several friends and colleagues that turned into demos. I told my barber about it and he starts talking about how awesome it looked in the commercials and then wanted to come see and was quite impressed when he got his hands on. I already even got one colleague considering buying one.


-Mike

 

nice review; thanks for sharing that. I just picked up my 6spd LX yesterday. This definitely feels like a fun little do-it-all car.

 

Great pics and review.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

 

Excellent review!

I think that coming from a 2005 Civic 5MT, you were the right candidate to find the fit appealing in many ways.

 

Can you describe what the hill assist does? I can't seem to get mine to work! The car always seems to roll back!

Great review.

 

Great read. Can you comment on the pedal layout? How is heel-toe'ing?

 

Excellent review! I can't wait until Cincinnati starts getting some manuals. I'm dying for a test drive.

 

Brake pedal is a little higher than the accelerator, but still in a good position for it.

 

Thank you for that pic, the pedal placement looks decent.

I ordered my 6MT blindly since i was unable to find a local manual car to test drive. Still waiting to receive mine.

 

Completely agree. I was kind of jealous when the first Fits came to the US not that long after I bought my Civic. The current Civics are too large for my taste, so the Fit is the logical successor to my old car.

 

I'm with you. I grew up (and learned stick) in Cincy.

 

It keeps the brake engaged after you lift your foot off the brake pedal until you have enough power to move forward without rolling back. There is a minimum incline though and I'm not exactly sure what it is as I found some smaller hills didn't trigger it. Also if you don't completely stop, it doesn't appear to come on. There's no real way to tell it's working until you've lifted your foot off the brake and notice that the car is not rolling. It apparently also works in reverse with the car facing downhill although I haven't been in a situation where that would kick in yet.

I'm curious if it causes any extra brake pad wear.

 

Oh good... now I can finally learn how. I have a strange technique that gets a similar effect, but I still want to get the hang of doing it the proper way.

 

Awesome review--thanks for taking the time to write up such comprehensive impressions. I still haven't settled on a Fit, but if I get one, I'll be choosing between the EX MT and the EX-L, so this is very helpful.

What do you think of the audio quality from the stock speakers? We haven't seen too many reviews yet on how good/bad it is.

 

I just wanted to let you know that after rereading your review, it solidified my decision to go ahead and seek out an EX manual without taking a test drive. Now I'm just seeing if local dealers can locate a blue one and offer me a good trade in.

 

Goodness, this is a brilliant review. Makes one feel what is almost like to drive a GK M/T. Nothing better than an actual owner giving his views after having significant drive time.

My favorite fact - 38.94 MPG in everyday real-life driving!!!!

 

Audio is really a matter of taste. I found the system to be pretty good. Actually for a sub-$20k car it's really good. Now, I have a background in audio production, and it's by no means studio quality, but it's well suited for its purpose. There's enough clarity in the system that running Pandora in high-quality (and PandoraOne) mode, I could still hear the encoding which I wouldn't call a positive, however it just illustrates the quality of the system (I tend to tune out compression when I'm driving anyway).

A couple things I observed (well... heard).

The stereo imaging is really damn good for a car. This is probably related to the tweeter placement on the dash pointed up at the windshield (which bounces the sound right to almost ear level).

With the EQ flat the sound was a little lacking. Just a few clicks up on the bass and treble do wonders. Unfortunately there's only two bands of EQ and it would be nice to knock down the low-mids a little as the resonant frequency of the car is a little higher than what sounds good.

 

Thanks! Glad to help.

 

Glad to hear it! Good luck! I test drove the CVT and liked everything but the transmission and made a blind leap of faith to the MT just based on press reviews comparing the two and just a general sense that even a bad Honda MT would be better than the CVT.

 

Real quick, forgot these. All minor nit-picky things:

-Can't switch the screen to info from the steering wheel, only audio and phone. Someone else mentioned this in another thread.
-Would like more info on the info screen.
-The key fob for smart entry is slightly larger than it seems like it should be.
-The armrest height.
-(This is totally an adaption to driving a hatch issue) Everyone seems to be tailgating me.... I realized this is because I'm not used to the back window being the back of the car so a following vehicle will appear closer to me than in a sedan with a trunk.
-Auto A/C would be nice.
-The gas fill door is too high to hold the pump handle comfortably.
-An actual engine temp gauge instead of a hi and lo dash light.