Remember the auto also has paddle shifters

 

Eating on the go: french fries per mile is higher with the a/t!

 

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a MT tranny with an extra "auto" position?

I faced the same choices (AT/MT)at the above posters, I ended up going w/ the AT, I guess at the end of the day, I'm a lazy SOB..

The paddle shifters do help with that however. I was surprised, on my test drive of a sport at, that when I shifted into "sport mode", and used the paddle, from then on(until I went back into "drive"), I HAD to shift. Smart, makes sense; if I wanna redline it in 1st I can, but if I just want a quicker shift auto, don't touch the paddles...

 

Yeah, that's why I decided to go with the AT Sport...it's a little of both! Indeed, I feel lazy sometimes and want an automatic to do work for me. I played with the paddles a bit today driving home from work. When it's in drive mode, the transmission usually beats me to the shift! It's really good about shifting before the RPMs get too high. They are really useful for engine breaking, though. I can also report that on the highway, going 65 on a level surface, the RPMs were at precisely 2400. I didn't push it much harder than that, still 'breaking it in'. In general I was really pleased with how it felt on the highway; completely effortless maintaining 65mph. I have yet to figure out how to set the trip meter and figure out average mpg...that's my assignment for tomorrow.

I went with the Blue Sensation Pearl! For the longest time I thought I wanted a Blackberry Pearl, but then I saw photos of the BSP and liked how it's a deeper blue than the Vivid Blue Pearl and fell in love. It reminds me of the ocean, and in Massachusetts we have a special (pricier) license plate with a whale tail and the ocean and two Roseate Terns flying above. I'm a wildlife biologist and in the summers I work on the coast with those birds, so of course I had to get those plates and now I have a Massachusetts coast-themed car! Here are a couple photos I took today in the parking lot at work...it was a dreary day and I hope to get better ones tomorrow when the sun is out. There is another Fit owner who parks in the same lot as me...I've been admiring his car for months and today saw he'd pulled in next to me, admiring my car now no doubt!

 

Congrats on your new baby! Thanks for including pics.

To reset the tripodometer simply have the tripodometer selected and push the knob for 2 secs until it reads 0.0.

Then push the knob again to switch to the avg. mpg gauge. It automatically resets when you reset the odometer.

Happy Fitting!

 

on the ride home today from work i got 46mpg.
this is what the avg was reading.
looked like it would of kept going higher if i drove longer.
my car is a auto also.

 

Very, very nice! I like the TWB and the BSP next to each other! Great that you got the ocean-themed plates with that color.

Funny, down here, our "ocean" (Gulf of Mexico) isn't blue at all, but brownish-grey...

Enjoy your new baby!! Great job you have, too...

 

Ok, took me a while to get around to it, but here are a few more pics of my car in better lighting, as promised. I took her to Cape Cod this weekend; we acquired a lot of sand inside.




The doggies standing guard


Just got my all season mats today, the installation wasn't too much trouble and they look great. Now sand will sit on the mats instead of being ground into the carpet.

With about 800 miles on the trip meter, I'm averaging around 44-45 mpg. I couldn't be more pleased with this car.

 

Thats some seriously good mileage your getting

 

USD$64 question -- did they do something to improve real-world 2009 Fit A/T mpg (forget about "EPA" numbers)

 

This is totally true. My on-board computer told me I got 43.8mpg. But when I divided the miles-per-trip by the gallons-per-next-fill-up, it worked out to 39mpg (btw 95% hwy driving, and "granny-style" in an '09 AT Sport)

 

I'm loving the fact that AT's are getting close to 40 without a problem.

 

Right...I haven't forgotten that the dash calculator might be inaccurate. I will get around to calculating it myself one of these days! And in my opinion, 39 is still fantastic.

 

As I mentioned somewhere here, I've been tracking the computer and manual calculation #s here from all new 09 owners including myself and it seems to be pretty consistent that there's a 4 mpg difference between the 2 methods. At least it's consistent. Anyway, despite the disparity the manual (i.e. lower) calculated #s are still excellent and seemingly higher than the GD3s'.

 

I dont look at the on-board computer. MPG= miles divided by gal. Four tanks and I'm getting over 40 mpg. 09 Sport AT. I drive like a old, old school teacher. Gas here is $4.09 a gal.

 

I got about 36 on my first tank and calculated 32.5 (50/50 hwy/city). Since filling the 2nd tank I am getting getting low 40's. I've noticed a huge improvement in mileage with the 2nd tank.

M/T by the way.

 

Absolutely! Especially when it was advertised as being much lower (33mpg hwy for the Fit Sport?!?).

 

I just had my first fill up on an MT. The trip computer read 38.3 and my computed was 37.9. I was surprised to see my computer was as close to my actual as that based on what I've been seeing from others. That was with 60/40 hwy/city. Currently, my trip computer is saying 40.3 a quarter thru this tank.

I was excited if i got 30 (since the combined epa is 29 for an MT), but with these numbers, I'm blown away. On the gas (premium at that) that my 03 Evo went thru... its almost enough to pay my monthly note on the Fit by my calculations!

Res

 

okay here is what i got
i did 400.4 miles on this tank and put
9.191 gallons in. which is 43.564...MPG

on the other hand my dash AVG said 46MPG
so i have a diff of about 2.5 MPG

 

The 2 to 3-mpg difference between manual and automatic transmissions is negligible. What can't be ignored is the (upwards of) $1000 price premium you'll pay to get the automatic, plus interest on that money if you're financing.

How many years will it take to get your money back in saved fuel?

How many years do you intend to keep the car before trading it in?

Is the manual Fit really that tiresome to drive in stop-and-go traffic? Actually, it's not. The required clutch pedal pressure is very low. Unless your legs are very weak you won't find this to be a problem.

These cars aren't exactly the quickest off the line under acceleration, the price we pay for fuel economy is and always has been horsepower. Do you really want to compromise that even further by going with the taller gearing of an automatic?

Sometimes we need that extra umph--- like when you're passing an extreme slowpoke on a two-lane, only to have the idiot speed up to prevent you from passing. (ask me how I know. This is why I always keep a few pebbles to toss after passing them in my center console). If you're 3/4ths of the way past before he floors it you're often too far committed to slam on the brakes and fall back behind if (when) you run out of room or oncoming traffic appears. If he chickens out when you do, you're dead. That extra punch with a manual and lower gearing might have made the difference.

There's also traditionally a difference in durability of manual transmissions/clutches vs. automatics, with manuals lasting longer. Repair costs are lower for the manual as well. And resale value tends to be higher, especially when (since Honda intends to equip only 15% of Fits in North America with manual transmissions) there are fewer of them, and especially when (as they age) automatic transmissions tend to become even more sluggish than they were when new.

I think I'll stick to my manuals....