Since my 2009 has been stored for 3 months( air bag issue) I installed orange Koni's on all 4 points with the stock springs. Today I brought it to get it aligned to a place that does the local performance cars and race cars. SO I had a better chance to get a feel for how the Koni's performed with a proper alignment. I no longer autocross and most of my driving is hwy to work and back and delivering stuff for work. So any aggressive sport alignment is out. I went with the .2 to .3 neg camber and zero toe. The toe was out bad.

So the characteristics of the new Koni's are better for the driver who wants a softer, less harsh ride and the sport driver will want the OEM shock valving or MORE for handling. I found the quick fast lane changes are not as good with the Koni's because they reduced the compression dampening and you get more body roll now with the Koni's on quick turn ins and fast lane changes then the OEM. But the car is a lot more comfortable to ride in if you are not wanting "the sport" ride. It is still a stiff car, but just less pounding or jarring. I went on a hwy road where I would bounce up and down in my seat like I was the nut in the spray paint can and that was reduced by 50% plus with the Koni's. This was on a badly laid hwy that was done wrong from day one and always been a great place to test your cars shock damping personality.

Well worth the change I was looking for now that I am keeping my 2009 and not getting a new Fit because of the GDI issues and CVT issues I don't want to get stuck with. I see great weak points with those two items that I don't want my wallet to come in contact with. I will wait it out for the new body style in 2020 or go Hyundai if the Fit is not up to snuff then.

I really don't see how people that put in these orange Koni's and stock springs "review" them as a waste of money and are just like the OEM valving. I did not see that at all. But then again I have a 2009 first year of that body style and Honda may have reduced the valving on later years that I don't know about. I love the OEM valving on 2015 and later. Old man valving I call it. (I am 53)


This is kind of funny to me NOW, my street car when I was younger was a VW Scirocco gutted, 12 point roll cage, Bilstein race coil overs, fuel cell, Weber side drafts, detuned, stroker Bertil's Super-Vee motor with nitrous oxide.

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Maybe some of us want a more sport suspension. The soft dampening rate is not what I would be looking for. Thank you for the review, I was looking at these, I will now be looking for something else... :/
-bix

 

Then you want the Koni yellows where you can adjust them.

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^Those are not offered for the Fit.

I'm going to pair STR.T with Swift springs when the time comes, just waiting until I've sorted my other car to mess with my daily driver.

 

Mania you put these on a sport? Are the shocks on sport the same as non sport?

 

No idea, call Honda for part # match

 

Base & Sport are same suspension, Sport just has an anti-roll bar in the rear IIRC.

 

Thanks for the review as well.

So, the short of it is less performance, not more, with the ST.R.

So, where does this leave us with an inexpensive shock with better performance than stock? I'm having difficulting getting an idea if the KYB are a better performance shock or if Tokico even make an inexpensive shock for the Fit (we used to call it the Tokiko Blue).

Nothing?

 

2 months into my new Koni's and I am SO GLAD I installed these. I took a 1,000 mile road trip and it was a dream with these shocks. I would guess they are 10 to 15% softer but I feel in many cases I can go faster in the corners then OEMs because on some roads the tires stay on the road and don't get deflected by the unrefined OEM valving.

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