Fit in the snow
 

Ok so I've had my 2007 honda fit for 2 years now got about 16K miles on it due to I had a company vechile I drove almost everywhere. Had to get rid of the company vechile. I'm curious how does the fit handle snow I live in DC so we tend to get alittle snow like 3-6 inches max.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9694/img2595tg5.jpg
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/6108/img0340eh8.jpg

S'OK.

Not a huge amount of ground clearance - I wouldn't even think of lowering mine.

With the fuel tank under the front seats there isn't much weight in the back so I find you have to be careful the back end doesn't get away from you if you're driving aggressively in slippery conditions (not that I would recommend driving aggressively in slippery conditions). But the ABS works well when braking.

I've driven on the stock wheels the last two winters, but I think I'll be getting some snow tires this year. Snow tires are like night and day on my wife's Echo, so I expect my rating of the Fit in the snow will get upgraded from "OK" to "Good" once I get some.

took my fit up to tahoe...ran into the first snow of the year. Not fun.
My car is stock - fit sport 08, 4K miles 3 months.
Did not grip in snow, did not handle in snow. I should note the snow was light and not very thick.
Had 1/2 tank. I was glad we had an SUV too. Basically we took it as far to the cabin as we could get and found a place to park it temporarily and loaded up the stuff in the suv to take up. The rear end WILL swing out EASILY, even with cargo. Not a vehicle to be driven in the snow without proper preparation and equiptment. Starting in 2nd gear is highly recommended (if you have an AT use the paddles!).
The next morning when the roads were literally icy...i just had to stand on the brakes (w/abs going off like no other) and let it just slide down most of the road.
Although that morning was just bad for all cars w/out chains.

If you've got a sport, clearance will be even more of an issue with the underbody kit.

If i had more time while i was there...i would have loved to get it into an empty parking lot and see what i could do with it.

wow that's neat haha I can't wait to drive my soon-to-be-lowered Fit in the snow ;/

One more thing that just came to mind - I have an LX which has the 175/65R14 tires. These are probably noticeably better in winter driving conditions then the 195/55R15s that the Sports have.

i dont want to take my fit in the snow. this winter is going to kill me. :[ ahaha

Driving in the winter on anything other than winter tires is a fool's game. I believe driving on winter tires is needed when the temp. is below 7 degrees C, as the rubber on the summer tires starts to freeze. Get with the cold zone dudes, is crashing and killing someone worth the stupidity? Forewarned.

Handles like crap! Get winter tires and save an accident or life, not to mention the summer rubber on your warm weather ride. Check Tire Rack - Your performance experts for tires and wheels and at least get the cheapest winter tires, five times better than the crap you ride on in the warm seasons. Really, you are asking cause you know the right thing to do is to spend a few hundred and save a bag of grief later.

i have taken my fit to just about every mountain ski resort in wa and i love how well it handles. you just have to use that thing located in your skull and not be mario andretti around the corners. fit is the perfect snowboard hauler

those of you who drive in the snow and say the Fit is good/bad/indifferent...
how fast are you driving? Hills/mountains, curves or straightaways?

I have one or two days a year when I drive home from work in snow, and I did typically 40-50 on the highway, depending on how my civic felt. I typically drive in the left lane when it snows because people in the right lane were either going absurdly slow, or I just prefer not to be following anyone and at their mercy.

Also when the snow is bad I will take back roads as I'm more willing to brave unplowed roads than stop and go heavy traffic on the hilly main route. I have ended up up sliding through some stop signs and barely making it up some hills going this route tho. Don't really know what's better- the possibility of someone else hitting you on busier roads, or worse roads where you could slip and hit something.
I have only been driving regularly a couple of years, so I don't have as much experience as many of you elders.

Thoughts?

mine did sort of okay last year... but i think im going to need snow tires
if my wife's going to be using my legacywgn this winter...

All types of driving last winter on all seasons was grief and I am a safe driver. Going up major un-sanded hills in Calgary was a mess, had to take a five minute work around route everyday. If I tried to take a run at the hill, there was another car stuck and spinning sideways at the top area. They too had the worst tire of all, the "all season". The only reason I used avoided winter tires was the strong possibility of a transfer to the snow free west coast of Canada (Victoria).

I was at Lake Louise just after a major dump of powdery snow, the parking lot was a graveyard full of all season tire wearing cars. The winter tire crowd got out with ease, as did MOST of the four wheel drives. Even having 4WD or AWD is no free pass in winter, they too have the idiot tire all season.

I am scheduled for my winters with steelies on the 3rd of November and will be getting summer tires for the summer/fall. All seasons are not great for any season, like an all spice for cooking....does nothing well really. If I was on the west coast I would go back to a rain tire like I had in 2001 on my Bimmer, here in the dry mountain area I will seek something different.

Every geographical area is different, snow is different from area to area, ask a snowboarder. Snow on the west coast compared to that of the Banff or Regina (central) areas all very different. Ask a tire expert about the local conditions, go with the latest tire as the technology of rubber compounds has changed greatly from the past few years. Some provinces in Canada require winter tires by law during specific times of the year. Ontario is still stuck using a study from the 70's which outlaws studded tires. Tires and studs have changes greatly since then. Sweden, Finland, Norway all require winter tires in by law at certain times of the year. Stockholm has the same weather as Calgary, yet I would say only 30 percent of all vehicles in this area have winter tires compared to Stockholm which will have 100 percent winter tire use. Think of that next time some truck is skidding into your rear view mirror. We all pay for higher insurance rates due to accidents, winter tires in Canada and many areas of NA ought to be the law. Too cheap to buy winters....get off the road until the snow and frost are gone.

Perhaps another topic? A rant but now I am done.

Get winters, be happy and safe.

good information, thanks for the rant.
what's the difference besides winter and summer tires, is it mostly in the tread depth?
Do you know how much winter tires affect gas mileage?

Oh, also, do most people pick up a cheap set of wheels to go along with their winter tires, so both the stock tires and rims are unused entirely?

On second thought I really don't look forward to driving in the snow lol plus NJ roads are pockmarked all over the place with bumps and dips and manholes sticking out of the ground and such. I miss Florida roads already. This will be murder on my Fit for sure.

Your info. shows you in FL, have you left yet?

Tread, material, it is all different. Fuel economy will take a hit, I am not certain of the amount though. I kind of stopped thinking about fuel when I bought the Fit, although I noticed it cost me $12 less to fill up yesterday than a couple of weeks ago. Might start smoking with all the extra cash at hand. Just looking over my list of future vices, will need to select one with a small weekly fee.

naw man I'm in NJ on leave til early november. I'm driving around my dad's Acura MDX and I've been noticing how shitty the roads are, and my Fit's alignment is going to get thrown off hardcore...

I always put winter tires on separate rims. It saves the mounting/dismounting wear and tear twice a year. Plus if you break one of your TPMS sensors you're out $100. And you can just change between summers/winters yourself easily.

The stock steel rims work perfectly for winter tires. If you use aftermarket steel wheels keep in mind our hub bore is 56.1mm.

Between winter and summer? Tread compound is probably one of the most important differences - tread compound in summer tires becomes overly hard/stiff below freezing, whereas the tread compound in winter tires is designed to remain soft/flexible down to -40.

A lot of winter tires have deeper treads. But the tread design is also different - often in all-seasons the snow will get stuck/packed between the tread blocks (making it basically a bald tire), whereas a correctly designed winter tire will clear the tread blocks as it rotates.

Winter tires also have "sipes" - little cuts/grooves all over the tread blocks. When you're driving on ice it's the corners of the tread blocks that actually grip the ice, so all these little sipes act as little "ice grippers".

These are what we have on my wife's Echo (Goodyear Nordic in Canada aka UltraGrip 500 in Scandinavia):
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/5787/gynordicpj7.jpg
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2875/img2394iq5.jpg

You can see the aggressive tread blocks, as well as all the sipes.

Note that different winter tire designs will perform better in different conditions. Some will do better in snow (like the Goodyear Nordics) and some will do better on ice (Like the Michelin X-Ices). But any winter tire will do much better then any all-season tire.

There are so many different factors that it is really hard to determine exact fuel economy changes. Colder temps = more fuel burned. Driving though snow = more drag = more fuel burned. Slightly different tire sizes, etc. For the Echo I'd say it burns ~3% more fuel running with winter tires.

kamakurakid- you should go back to japan. lol (your name). ;)

another note...get some good windshield washer spray...mine completely froze...haha.
It dropped to 16 degrees over night.