Hi Everybody,

I am considering buying both a 2012 Fit Sport manual and a CR-V EX AWD (the woman wants a small SUV with a sunroof ).

Currently I am driving a G37 Sedan Sport 6MT. I am pleased with it, get decent efficiency (22city, 28 hiway, 25combined). It handles wonderfully. But I can only have so much fun with 330hp on public roads, and it has 0 storage space. And even with snow tires, because of those fat tires and 150hp to each wheel....it sucks in the winter.

Prior to the G, I had a 99 civic HX for 10+yrs.

So, while test driving a Fit Sport (and a base), I noticed a tremendous amount of body roll and a relatively soft suspension (seemed softer than my old civic). What I would like to know is, what would be a good route to go to solve this? Is it as simple as sway bars, or coilovers? I wouldn't be so interested in lowering it much, just firming it up. I don't need the car to go 150mph, just want something fun I can throw into corners.

(And FWIW, the new CR-Vs are very nice IMO).

Appreciate whatever advice people here have to offer.

 

I bolted the Progress RSB (anti-sway bar) to my '12 MT base. It seems to help, albeit now the tires want to slide out. But it's 100x better than my old mid-90s Subaru Legacy wagon. But the Fit is still not a WRX, either.

 

Swift springs

 

Also useful to know would be what size tires people are running?

I'd probably keep the stock rims to throw my snows on (want those nice and narrow), but get a bigger rim size and wider tires for the summer.

Does the fit require anything special for wider tires so they don't stick out the side, or can the fit handle, say 215's without sticking out or rubbing?

Any advice people have on spring/coilover installation would be useful. Used to do my own maintenance on my old civic (exhaust, pads, rotors, calipers, etc) so I can do the relatively simple stuff on my own. But I'm guessing for suspension work I'd want to have a shop do it?

 

Suspention work isn't any harder, just get a pring compressor and be careful.

I went from a 97 civic ex coupe 5mt to the fit myself. The civic was more fun to drive, but that may have been the fact that it sounded/smelled/felt like it would blow up at any given moment. Still miss that car, but it is nice to not have to wrench every weekend.

Anyway, body roll. The stock tires are the worst pieces of crap I have ever had to drive on, any time I went arround a corner it felt like it was about to roll over on it's headlight. When I switched over to my snows (185/75r14 altimax arctic with studs, carried over from the civic) everything improved (well appart from road noise with the studs), traction, handling, acceleration (smaller diamiter tire by ~5% though)m breaking. For the summer I bought some 16x6.5 rims and put on 205/50r16 gmax as-03 uhp all seasons. The fit is like a whole new car with these. From what I have read, 205's should be more than enough for these cars. Any wider is added weight and I have to be trying very hard to break the 205's loose. I need to put on the progress rear swaybar though, since I bought a base, which doesn't come with a rear sway bar.

If better tires arn't enough there are the swift springs, and endless number of tune bits (tien and all those) and bilstien makes a set of coilovers for the fit as well.

 

Man, those studded snows must be tough to talk over. Used to run studded nokians on my civic, couldn't hear a damn thing over the noise they made. after a few years switched to michelin x-ices...made me sooooo happy.

pretty sad that you got better performance with STUDDED snows on. That is weak.

Thanks for the tips!

 

Actually, in the fit they weren't that bad. For everyone saying the fits are noisy, the studded snows were relativly quiet on the fit. When I had them on the civic though, you had to almost shout over them.

 

My friend likened the noise of my old studs on the civic to a pod racer from star wars while accelerating. Of course, he had to shout at me 3 or 4 times before i could understand what he was saying.

 

I just came to a Fit (20120 though if that makes a difference) after dailying a stiffened up E36 M3 for the last year an a half and was actually impressed with the minimal body roll. I have an 06 scion tc as well and that thing rocks like a boat compared to the fit!

i havent done anything yet but plan to do at least springs to stiffen things up a bit more, or go adjustable coilovers so i can go full race mode alone and then soften the ride for the wife on roadtrips

 

I thought the Progress bar wasn't compatible with the 2012--at least 2012 Fit is not listed as comp on Progress' site. Where'd you get your bar?

Edit: Sent a note to Progress and they confirmed the 2012 Fit base is compatible with their bar. Nothing to see here folks.

 

Let it roll, doesn't bother us at all, wheels stay on the ground. We have 2 Fit Sports, an 08' & 2012. great cars. Wanna race.