When I've loaded up the car with that much weight, it drove way way better than expected. Best of any small car I've owned. The brakes suffer a bit more than acceleration, so keep your distance. The main thing though, is that the car will practically be slammed to the ground. I tuck the rear pretty good when hauling. Just a side note.

 

My 2 cents worth: Don't know about 5 "normal" sized people, but a few weeks ago I drove 2 friends and myself around with no trouble, including a relatively steep local highway grade, and we each weigh about 250. So that was about 750 pounds not counting the full tank of gas and some stuff in the back.

As usual these guys were making fun of my pechant for tiny underpowered cars...I used to modify and hard core 4 wheel 1980s Suzuki Samurais, while they like 1960's Detroit Iron.

Their jeers changed as the Fit pulled up the Dublin Grade from Dublin to Castro Valley in the East Bay area...at 70 mph on cruise control, with no slowdowns or adverse effects. It will never win a drag race, but when the revs get up and the VTEC takes hold it does just fine. I think the trans did drop into 4th, but other than a little more engine noise you wouldn't have known.

 

People in India seem to have no problem putting 5 people on a scooter.

 

1970's Detroit iron was pathetic. How can anyone complain that 117hp is underpowered in a Fit, when a late-'70's Chevy Caprice 9-passenger station wagon had a 145hp 5liter V-8, and, wait for it, a 2.56:1 final drive ratio. The 6-passenger sedan had a 90hp I-6 standard in California.

 

How about a 84hp Chevy Spark ^-^

 

Well, my friends are advocates of 1960s Detroit, not 1970s. For perspective, until a dozen years ago I had a 1961 Chrysler Newport, that was marketed as "the full sized economy car." That's because instead of a 383 ci, it had the "economy" 361ci, rated at only 325 horsepower. (hp was however calculated differently back then, it was taken at the flywheel with no hp sucking drawbacks like radiator fans or alternators.)

The Fit certainly has a lot more power than my mid 80s Samurais, 1300cc and about 67hp.

 

Honda still sells a lot of 1.4 i-DSI Fit in Brazil. I live in Sao Paulo where the terrain is similar to San Francisco (steep hills) and the car is doing ok carrying a family of 5 (or more sometimes). In fact, the 1.4 is the "medium" size engine here and there are a lot of 1.0 Chevy/VW subcompact on the road.