Upgraded 2015 Honda Fit gets best crash score in class

By Eric Evarts 1 hour ago

• After undergoing updates to improve its performance, the new 2015 Honda Fit has earned a Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). That’s a big improvement over the previous Fit, but it didn’t come easily.

After starting production early this year, Honda stopped deliveries to dealerships a few weeks later after the IIHS crash tested the new model and found its performance lacking. (Honda spokesman Chris Naughton says there were other “quality issues” with early Fits, and that none were shipped to dealers that didn’t meet Honda standards.) The brand new 2015 model earned only a Marginal rating in the IIHS’s tough new small-overlap crash test. With a Poor rating for the old model, Honda wanted to do better. So it slowed deliveries of the new car to its dealers while it engineered a fix.

According to Honda and IIHS, welds on the far end of the bumper failed in this initial test, causing more of the force of the crash to be concentrated on the drivers’ side of the car. Honda strengthened the bumper welds on new Fits and then restarted shipping the cars to its dealers for sale.
Check our guide to car safety for information on the latest technology and driving tips.

Now the IIHS has retested updated the Fit with the strengthened bumper and found it delivered an Acceptable performance in the difficult small-overlap test. This is the second highest rating from the IIHS, behind Good. Still, the performance for the new Fit is the highest of any Minicar (in a tie with the Chevrolet Spark) that the Institute has evaluated thus far.
The small-overlap test measures the car’s body integrity and injuries to a dummy in the driver’s seat in a 40 mph crash into a rigid barrier. Unlike the other IIHS front crash test, the small-overlap crash only hits the left quarter of the front end, representing a crash into a pole or a tree, or narrowly clipping an oncoming car.
Only Fits built since June get the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick designation. In late September, Honda will notify owners of about 12,000 2015 Fits built before June 6 that they can bring their cars into a Honda dealership to have a voluntary “product update” performed to install the updated bumper beam on their cars. Honda is not calling this update a recall, because it is not related to any government testing or legal requirements.
Consumer Reports typically buys new cars to test as soon as they’re available, and we took delivery of a 2015 Fit last month. But checking when our car was built, we found it is (as usual) a very early production car, built in March 2014. That means our Fit does not yet have the upgrade, and we’ll take it back for the work just like other owners to make sure it’s as safe as it can be.
—Eric Evarts

 

Well, I've gotten one of the death-trap versions then as my car was built in May and delivered in August. Should I just park it until the update occurs?

 

So now we know why there was a delay. Mine is #4,623, so I'll be in the "update" pool. Only too happy to get this fix. Thanks for the post!

 

How do we determine when our car was built?

 

What I am getting from this story is the cars passed the IIHS but dint do great. Honda said we can do better and they did.

 

My car has a built date of 7/14... should I be ok?

 

Here's other articles about Honda's second chance:

2015 Honda Fit Nabs Top Safety Pick Rating from IIHS - Motor Trend WOT

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/au...test.html?_r=0

Honda Fit re-test yields top safety score

The Motor Trend article claims that Honda said that the safety fix was not the reason for the production delays. Go figure.

The Fit went from "marginal" to "acceptable" on the small overlap, but it didn't get the "good" that Honda claimed it would after the 2013 was tested. Honda has therefore matched the safety performance of the Chevy Spark!

 

2013 Fit had identical grade except "poor" in small front overlap test.
Honda redesigned Fit and said they expect it to ace tests. But the first attempt only resulted in "marginal" grade. After bumper redesign, it is now "acceptable".

I most likely will buy this car but am a little disappointed that they didn't get "acceptable" in first few cars of 2015 or tried for "good".

 

I wonder if it's feasible for any car in this class to get better than acceptable. Only the 2015 Fit and the Spark have. It might be too expensive and/or weighty to do it.

 

Look on the drivers door pillar of the chasis, there should be a sticker giving the manufacture date. Might post what your vin # is if you don't find the date.

I will have to take mine in but I am not going to let it sit due to that.

 

I would say you are. What is your Vin#, the article George posted says the first 12,000 were affected and a notification will be mailed in September.

 

That seems a little rash but only you can decide. There are millions of cars on the road and probably whatever you drove before would not pass this fairly new test. As always, drive defensively and pay attention and when the update comes out get it done. Once again, only YOU can make that call.

 

Not near my car, but I have my VIN 3HXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Look inside the door pillar on the tag and see what the date of manufacture is. You may very well be affected. My vin is 701832 and it was made in March of this year.

 

Mine is #610 built Feb 14. Glad to hear Honda is making good on this.

 

I'm right on the cusp and unable to tell if affected, date of 6/14 and vin of 12550. Called honda but no info yet. Will find out in September is suppose, could go either way, 12550 might be when they first started welding and my vehicle may have been built after June 6. Interesting.

 

Mines a death trap car!

I look forward to the letter... As well as asking about getting the windshield fixed since it has the bubble defect...

 

Same boat here, I'm VIN 12087, built June 2014. I called Honda and they can't tell yet if it's being recalled. She did say mine is recalled for the A pillar trim. I thought those were only recalled if the A pillar doesn't say "SRS Airbag" on it. Mine does say that. Maybe it has to be in that VIN range and not say that on the A pillar to be affected.

 

Mine is 12,080, Blue EX M/T. I hope our cars were friends on the assembly line!

My A pillar also says SRS, and I too was under the impression that only cars that DIDN'T say it were subject to recall.

I'll wait to see if we made the cutoff. Honestly though, IDGAF. I love this thing. No bumper replacement will change that and in the meantime, Ill be sure to overlap any rigid barriers by no less the 30% when I collide into them...

 

Mine is this but not sure what month it was build: 715038