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Our New Fit Overview: MPG, Price, Dealer Experience, Wait Time, Mountain Driving
Here is the comprehensive overview of our Fit experience.
Basics:
- Storm Silver Metallic Sport Manual Transmission
- Paid MSRP + $349 dealer handling
- Replaces an 1987 Ford Taurus
- I am 6'0" and my wife is 5'4" and we both have no comfort issues.
- Using 87 octane gas.
Dealer Story:
My wife and I visited Markley Motors in Fort Collins in Colorado on our way out of state on a road trip. They were the only dealership that had a car to test drive and everyone else in the Denver area was marking the cars up a minimum of $1000. That Friday night we ended up placing a deposit on a SSM manual Fit (June 3rd). After reading all the posts about the poor supply of fits we had grown to expect the commit date to slip into October or November from the original "end of September" timeframe. After 2 1/2 monts I called the dealer in August to see when they would have a build date and VIN#. The dealer said they would call me back within a week with a build date. One week later I got a call on Tuesday and said our car would be ready on that Friday. I told our salesman that I though he had the wrong person b/c we didn't even have a build date yet but he assured me the car would be in. That weekend we picked up the car a full 6 weeks earlier than their original commit date. When we picked up the car I asked asked the dealer how they gotten not only a fit but a manual fit in the exact color we wanted so quickly. He told me honestly he didn't know. They had gotten a notice from Honda right after we placed our deposit that any orders could be delayed so he said he was just as surprised that it came in so early. He mentioned they gave our order to their regional manager for him to work on but had not heard anything back. No complaints at all from us and Markley Motors was great b/c they truly were low pressure. They didn't tryp to push any accessories or "packages". (I did tell our salesman that if we bought another Honda we would come back to Markley but I would refuse to pay a dealer handling charge. I my mind buying a Fit was a unique situation due to the supply/demand.)
Mileage:
Here are our first 4 tanks.
Dealer tank: 70%hyw, 36.3 mpg, full fillup (Highway speeds upto 75mph)
2nd tank:95%hyw (flat), 36.6 mpg, half tank (Highway speeds upto 75mph)
3rd tank: 60%hwy, 41.3 mpg, full fillup (highway speeds <65mph)
4th tank: 98%hwy (CO mountains), 39.7 mpg, full fillup (highway speed <75mph)
I am glad I have a manual! In my opinion driver habits do affect mileage. It seems that if you keep the car below 3500rpm or equivalent to ~70mph (which from other posts coincides with the VTEC kicking in) your mileage will be much better. A lot of the 2nd tank was above 3500rpm and I was initially disappointed. The 4th tank was pure Colorado mountains where the speed limit is typically 65mph or lower and our mileage surprised me for the altitude and uphill/downhill driving. (I did keep it mostly under 3500rpm.) Basically, I filled up and got on the highway at 5280ft in Denver and headed into the mountains. This was real mountain driving as I went through the Eisenhower Tunnel @11,000 ft elev. and over Vail Pass @ 10,000 ft elev. Then I came back a day later the same way on the same tank for a total of 372 miles & 9.375 gal. Am I happy? Yes.
Mountains:
The car was a little underpowered (as expected) going over the passes but overall with a little bit of downshifting I still was going 55-60mph at the crest of the passes. Overall it impressed me driving through the mountains but will admit I won't be taking it in the mountains during the winter. Of course a 190hp car would perform better but I prefer the Fit's well rounded design and price.
Oh yeah, it was a frugal trip so I slept in the back of the Fit at a campsite. It was a little short but with the passenger seat pushed forward and a bag of clothes placed in the void (to build it up level with the rest) I was able to stretch out diagonally and be decently comfortable.
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Linear Mode
