Hello ,

I live in the New England area. I am considering buying a Fit but don't want to load the car up to the top model just to get VSA.

I am willing to get a set of snow tires.

Anyone have experience driving a Fit Sport model with 5 speed manual in snow.

I know the car doesn't come with a differential. Of course, it doesn't have VSA.

I wonder how good/bad the Fit handle in snow or bad wintry weather in general.

Feel free to share your experience here.

 

If you can't drive a Fit in the snow....you shouldn't have a driver's license.

 

Interesting comment........

Now, please read my post again and try to concentrate.... You can do it.

 

ZOMG the car isn't 15 ft off the ground with 4 wheel drive. Driving in the snow is not a difficult task no matter what you drive.

 

If you can wait for the 2011 models due out in Dec or early Jan (it'll cost more, of course than the 2010's), VSA is supposed to be standard on all models.

 

Thank you Susan

 

It has a differential, but it is integrated into the transaxle rather than being a seperate unit in the rear axle. If it didn't, the driveline would fail when the wheels were at different speeds. (Or are you asking about something different?)

I owned a RWD truck, as well as two 4WD vehilces (a CR-V and an Element) whil I lived in Nebraska. My wife had a FWD car. The car performed better than the truck, easily. However, the CR_V was the best, hands-down. If I lived in a place with long, icy winters, I'd buy another CR-V without hesitation. A bit of extra ground clearance for dealing with heavy snow when the plows haven't come through, AWD to assist with starts on hills, and the more even F/R weight balance made it less likely to understeer and plow nose-first into a snow bank.

 

OP, I'll take pity on you since it seems that no one who has driven a Fit Sport MT in the snow has posted yet. Yes, I live in Arkansas, but we got a couple of snowstorms last year and we get ice regularly, plus I'm a native northerner and only moved out of snow country a couple of years ago so I know how to drive in snow. The Fit is okay in snow but with the stock tires it's not something to write home about. It slides around a little just like every other FWD car I've driven, but it can get around. Of course AWD would help - we had a CR-V for seven years and it was unstoppable - but if you can wait until the roads are plowed I think the Fit is fine. It's not like you live in western MA. I'm sure snow tires would help, although I've never had them. I've also never had a car with VSA so I wouldn't know the difference.

 

Honda's Real Time 4WD in the CR-V and Element will make you the champ in your local uphill ice-sludge-road dragraces. My ex had a Mazda5, and with the wide performance tires, it was NOT so great.

(Seriously, I could floor it with the nose pointed uphill, and after a momentary slip, it would claw its way up like a Kennedy after a whiskey truck.)

 

The Toyos on the Mazda5 stink, period. You could breathe on the pavement and the tires would slide.

In January 2000, central North Carolina got 21+ inches of snow and the entire region shut down for a week. After I got out of 45 hours straight in the hospital (and some sleep), I volunteered the CR-V for transporting hospital employees. It kept up just fine with the hulking F-150s and Silverados.

I do think the Fit is fine in urban/suburban snow country. I had no problem getting it up my street's icy and steep hill this past winter. Unlike central North Carolina - and Arkansas - there are many snowplows and plenty of road salt in Massachusetts.