Hi, I'm looking to replace my 2012 Civic (Automatic Sedan) with a newer vehicle with a manual transmission, thought this was a good place to ask about Fits (Obviously!)
I actually had my mind set on a 3rd gen Fit after seeing some YouTube reviews with how fun it is to drive and how much cargo room it has, especially compared to my Civic.
but I'm kind of scared of the rust and water leaking problems I've been reading about, especially since I live in Buffalo NY which gets crazy amounts of lake effect snow and weather, road salt etc.
Anyway could any of you 2015-2020 Fit owners chime in about this, and if a 3rd gen fit is actually worth buying as a daily driver, years I should avoid, etc.
Also was looking at 10th gen Civic Hatchbacks but the 1.5 turbo oil dilution problems I've read about scares me even more than the water leaking issues these Fits seem to have.
Anyways thanks!

 

We have a '15 LX manual, I think a January '15 build, iirc, bought CPO. Has been perfectly reliable and is indeed a fun lil car, for what it is. Rust, etc, has not been an issue, we live south of Knoxville TN and our cars are garage kept, I understand your concerns there - we used to live just outside of Detroit, which apparently is built on a salt mine, so they used road salt like it was going out of style.....when the salt truck would be at a stop sign waiting to turn, it would keep churning out salt, you could walk up after it pulled away and scoop up a bucketful to use on the front walk/steps. I've read of the various problems folks have had, and have had none here, I wonder if the original owner had "the problems," got them rectified, and unloaded the car. Mine's been fine........AAAAAAND, I probably just jinxed myself.......LOL

 

Since you're in Buffalo any vehicle you buy will get eaten alive by the rust. Ideally you'd want something which doesn't have rust to begin with to give you a good starting point.

Yes, unfortunately I think Civics with turbos should be avoid because of the oil dilution problem, especially since you live in a cold winter area. Honda claims to have resolved this with with software updates and the like - but the fact that they are still telling many customers to change their oil frequently tarnishes their credibility. Personally I would not buy any vehicle with a turbo anyways because I believe a small engine being force fed by a turbo will not have a long life.

As for the 2015 Fit, I wouldn't recommend it because of the many problems. This was the first year of this redesigned series out of the new Mexican plant and although some people were lucky and had virtually no problems, and some people have fixed virtually all their problems, there's too much risk with this model year.

 

If rust is a huge concern, look into getting your car undercoated. The 2015-2016 Fits have fuel injector rail trouble that can be expensive to fix, and some break out of warranty. Push button start models occasionally see issues too. The water leaking seems to be worse on the 2018-2020 models. Watch out for carbon buildup on valves. The Fits are better than Spark/Sonic/Fiesta/Accent/Rio models. I haven't had any issues at all with my 2020 LX 6 speed.

The manuals rev at a high rpm on the highway, 3100 rpm at 65, 3600 rpm at 75. There's no discernable difference between 5th and 6th gear, which is kind of a bummer, but they still get 40 mpg though. I get better mpg in city than highway. The 6 speed gearbox and shifter itself is really good, but there is a lot of rev hang that makes hustling the car a chore. Driving leisurely is no problem though. You really have to upshift slowly in order to get the timing right and make those butter smooth gear changes. The cargo carrying capacity is really good, as you point out.

I'd be concerned about 1.5 turbo oil dilution too, but it's not as much of a problem if you drive long distances with a warm engine. It's the cars that only make short trips that really suffer from oil dilution. I drive less than 20 miles/day so I would be borderline, however the 2.0 engines in the Civic sedan are bulletproof.

 

I've had a 2015 for the last three years, had to replace the starter and I'm getting the vtec solenoid noise every once in a while on cold days. Other than that, no problems. Fewer problems than anything else I've owned, actually.

The injectors are definitely expensive if they go bad, but if you spend a lot of time reading forums you'll see all the problem cases and think they're way more common than they are. Not too many people bother to post when nothing is wrong, after all. Despite that, I'll be selling the Fit in a few months because the wife feels better with the kids in a larger car. Which actually, is a 10th gen Civic- if they had an Si hatch it would have been my first choice, had to settle for the sedan.

Go for a test drive and see what you think of the car, if you don't like it then it's not worth worrying. If you do, and you're really worried about the injectors, then consider an extended warranty or talk to some local independent mechanics and see what kind of bill you'd be looking at. If you're basing the worry off dealer repair cost, it could be way worse.

 

Just to throw in my $.02, I just picked up a 2018 Sport a few weeks ago. I chose to go no earlier than 2018 due to the injector issues seen in 15-16, as well as the improved crash scores and road noise from the 2018 refresh. Though I won't lie. I picked up an extended warranty essentially giving me bumper to bumper for 7/100,000 miles. It gives me some peace of mind between the direct injection carbon issues, as well as the whole "are CVTs reliable?"

I've always preferred driving smaller, light weight vehicles, and the Fit doesn't disappoint. It may not do 10 seconds in the quarter mile, or pull 1G on the skid pad, but I find the car very nimble and tossable. The car responds immediately to any little input. The 40+ MPG I'm getting on each tank isn't bad either. I also find when I put the CVT in "sport", it reacts quite well to throttle input, as it keeps the RPMs noticeably higher than "drive".

While it's only been a short few weeks, I'm very pleased with the car.

 

My early 2015 EX has been perfect. I wouldn't trade it for the world.