About the only option I miss from previous recent cars I have owned , is the Traction Control / Stability , have not driven for more that a few blocks in snow yet though .I will have to test its handling soon , on my 10 Sport

 

It became standard on all trims in 2011 I believe but was available in 2010 with the navigation trim only.

 

Yeah I know that now ,but after having an 08 Element ,a 10 Prius and a 02 Jetta which all had it , I stupidly expected the 10 Fit sport would have it also. I was buying the Fit to save a substantial amt of money ,vs. buying the 12 mdl. & was not paying close enough attention to that feature ,missing on dash.

 

I think it's a light and nimble enough car not to need stability control, but the gov is starting to mandate it on all new cars - even econo-boxes. Kinda like airbags and abs have been pretty standard now. I wish it had a 6th or taller final gear.

I just drove my new 2012 MT sport in the snow n slush for the first time today and it was fine. VSC and ABS never came on, but then again I wasn't gonna risk really pushing my new car in crappy conditions. I need to find a very empty parking lot for that...

 

I have driven one car with traction control, a 99 Grand Am GT and I HATED IT! Its much easier to drive in snow with out a computer constantly cutting power because it feels the wheels are slipping. I think its rediculase that newer cars are now all going to have to have some sort of traction control. like RevToTheRedline said, people are getting less and less familiar with how there car works and how to properly operate a car because more and more is computerized.

 

I've never had (nor needed) a car that can parallel park itself, but I understand they aren't that good at it (they can't get into small spaces that a good driver can).

BUT- for electronic stability control- that's a safety feature, and nobody's a perfect driver. I had an incident a couple of years ago when I had to swerve super-fast to avoid an accident and I over-swerved, I swerved back the other way, and it took a couple of iterations to get back to normal driving. I was amazed I lived through it because it was absolutely at the limits.

I'm not a trained high-performance driver, I just got lucky.

But I was maybe 1% away from not being so lucky. I'd trust a computer over my skill in that sort of situation (unless it's running Windows). We can gripe all we want about government nannies, but a lot of this stuff will save a lot of lives.

 

traction control is for rain and dry roads only, snow your supposed to turn it off i thought.

 

VSA doesn't work real well starting off from a dead stop in slippery conditions. So you should turn it off to get moving. It still works once you are underway.

 

Hill Start Assist is awesome. I have it in my Lexus, it is very useful when parked on a hill facing up and the person in back of you parked really close. No need to time it where you step on the gas and release the brake at the same time or else you either slam the car in front of you or roll back to hit the car in back of you. I never had a problem with it but I can see how if you are not skilled enough, it will save your butt and with the hill start assist, it's so easy, why stress. Just slam the brake to start it, and get out of that parking spot.

 

Not many people know how to do this now. Of course on some cars its damn near impossible cause the make the e brake a kick pedal so unless you have four legs your effed. But I ebrake hill start all the time in a relatively flat area just because of parking garage ramps, my drive way, etc...

 

You turn it off when you're stuck in snow, not on slick roads. Otherwise, leave it enabled, unless you happen to be driving a manual and interested in a burnout... not that you'll be able to do much of a burnout with the Fit though.

 

We don't get much snow in SC but when I used to travel I would get cars without the traction control from the rental place, all it did was screw me up.

 

Snow? What's that?

 

Just drove my Fit in a bit of snow today around 4" and I'm surprised at how well it handled. My Fit does not have VSA as it is a 2009 but I didn't slip once. This was on the OEM Dunlop A/S tires too.

 

Last Wknd drove the Fit a few times ,for a short distance in the snow , ice, & slush , & was generally pleased with the handling with the factory tires. I had no problems ,will update ,after driving it longer in slippery conditions.

 

I read that ESC/VSC is now required on 2012+ passenger cars in the US.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...-cars-9-06.htm

 

I sometimes forget this car doesn't have traction control haha...
My tsx i would always shut the vsa off for snow get it going then turn it back on.

 

My last car, a 97 civic ex, had none of these fancy systems and was an MT. Loved driving it. The VSA/traction control on my fit (2011 base) has done nothing but drive me nuts. What is worse is I kept the snow tires from my civic and use those on the fit and, since they are lacking TPMS sensors, I can't turn the VSA or Traction control off. I got so use to having to take care of myself in the civic that I will actually fix whatever is going on before the VSA kicks on, net result being, woops, sliding, fixed, car slams on the breaks and cuts the power....