Hi everyone,

I'm completely new to the forum and I would really appreciate any input or advice.

I'm living in the Bay Area and I've researched a lot into the 2012 FIT Base A/T. I've read nothing but glowing and fantastic reviews of the car. However, given that I'm in the Bay Area and there's also the occasional trip to San Francisco, I'm somewhat concerned about how the FIT would perform on the San Francisco hills and also the Bay Area highways? Specifically, would anyone please comment on:
1. With an A/T FIT, how well does the car perform on the steep San Francisco hills?
2. How well does the car perform on the vast and long Bay Area and Californian highways?

Thank you in advance for all comments!

 

I've only made a couple trips into SF since I purchased my car, and she did okay on the hills. The Fits are kind of gutless wonders, so they do lack a little on the get up and go. I do have a Sport with the paddle shifters, and I did make use of them on the SF hills to help my Fit handle them a little better. I still have some room to learn on how to put them to the best use on the hills though, but I haven't found myself over in SF as much as I anticipated so less practice on that front than I'd like.

Generally, I get in the neighborhood of 32mpg in my '09. Most of my driving is along Mission Blvd from Hayward to Fremont during peak commute hours. When I get the chance to let her go on a the freeway when there isn't traffic, her mpg gets much much better.

 

It works fine. At the lower city street speeds the gearing is plenty to get up the hills, so it shouldn't be a problem there. You just need to not be afraid to give it some gas or drop down in gears to rev up the engine if need be.

Where it will show more is needing to climb hills at higher speeds at elevation.

I have taken my 2009 sport A/T up to Tahoe about 20times. Once you get hit by the elevation around 5000feet, the lack of power starts to show during those highway speed hill climbs (5th gear) forcing you to downshift perhaps all the way to 3rd to accelerate up, or you have to be a more precision driver and build some momentum through downslopes to cash in on the next climb (if you want to stay in the higher gear). At sea level around bay area it will be fine even like on 92 between 101 to 280.


If you truly purely looking at MPG though and only at cruising at highway speeds, a camry or avalon or bigger car with a bigger engine that can hum along at a more efficient RPM and can match or beat out the FiT's real-world highway MPG (given you need to keep up with traffic and accelerate and brake, and climb and go down hills).
But the FiT is far more versatile.

 

OP here. Thanks for the comments and advice above!

 

I was just their, and although I have a mt fit it tore up the hills. I wouldn't think the at would be that different!? It sucked in the HEAVY traffic however.

 

I have a MT sport and as mremaximus states the Fit eats up the hills. The mpg suffers when one does a lot of hills and city driving though. The AT should be able to handle it I stride as well.

Freeway speeds are no problem either but the Fit is susceptible to being blown around a bit in high wind, especially over the Bay Bridge.

 

I have a 2009 Fit Sport (Manual). I commuted from San Jose to San Mateo via 280 for about 18 months. I could get 38-40 mpg pretty easily by driving 65mph.

The car preforms decently on smooth freeways but will be pretty bouncy on rougher roads. Overall this is an economy car and it performs as such. If you want something that will cruise more like a bank vault on wheels get something else. Although I've heard the 2012 has a bit less road noise then the 09-11's.

 

not sure how fast you would like to climb hills but it will do just fine

 

Its got enough power if you know how to use it.

 

For what it's worth, I'm a pretty new owner of a 2012 Fit Sport with manual transmission in the Denver area in Colorado. This last Saturday I did my first mountain drive with the Fit to go hiking. I had one passenger and about 20 pounds of gear in the back. So, that's going from around 5,280ft in Denver up to the trailhead at 11,600ft over around 50+ miles. The Fit did fine. Sure, I got passed by people with much larger engines, but I didn't feel like I was having trouble with the hills. Just gotta keep that momentum up and downshift to 4th as soon as your speed gets down near 60mph. Going up I saw low mpg of but of course coming back down it was great. Overall with about 110 miles round trip I got an average of like 36mpg.

When the hills are in town and your speeds are under 55 then the Fit does great as far as power is concerned.