Found this today. Little snippet of Motorweek's review of the all-new 2015 Fit. It's not the full, comprehensive review that will likely be available April 9th. It gives you a little taste of what they were thinking of the car.


2015 Honda Fit |*MotorWeek


Looks really sharp in red!

 

"The manual transmission is more dreamy, gaining a badly needed sixth gear"

MotorWeek is gonna have a bad week when they find out ...

 

As usual, your on top of the news and sharing with the FF community.

Good show!!!

Looking forward to watching the show on Velocity in 3 weeks. Fit fans in Texas and CA will be driving them by that time!!!!

 

Huh? They've already test driven the the car and apparently love the new 6-speed manual. They're gonna have a great week when they drive it again just for shits and giggles!

 

For the majority of us Fit owners who have'nt DRIVEN the new car, am sure the rest of the above sentence was meant to be...................
THAT THE NEW CVT AUTO HAS ONLY 1 GEAR!!!!!!!

6th gear has the same ratio as the GE's 5th. Will it drive exactly the same cause it will cruise at the same rpm? Doubt it.
Drive better? Most likely due to improved insulation and a different engine (DI, DOHC).
The fact remains, unless one has done an actual DRIVE, then its all conjecture!!!!

 

I thought we were hoping for slightly reduced cruising RPMs. Carry on, and don't dispute the car industry publications of perfection.

If GK 6th == GE 5th, then it wasn't 6th that was needed. It already had that final ratio. I guess it needed a super low first to pull a boat?

It needed a 6th ratio after the GE's 5th ratio, but that's not what we got.

 

No dispute here!!!!

A 6th using the GE's 117 hp @ 6600 rpm is different from using the same on the GK's 128 hp at 6500 rpm.

But first, gotta drive it. In the meantime, would rather trust that Honda engineers did their job in making this choice.

 

Thanks for the heads up . We watch it every week .

 

Exactly this. Jeez, what were the engineers thinking? My GD-MT operates perfectly well as a 3-speed already, going from 1st to 3rd to 5th. Driven as a 3-speed, I don't have to over-rev it, or lug it, even a little bit. 2nd and 4th are occasionally useful under load or on grades, but hardly ever what you would call vital. The only problem in the drivetrain is it needs an overdrive, to cut the RPM/whine at freeway speed. Another gear just to get me to the exact same final gear ratio is a completely useless redundancy. Very disappointing.

 

Delay that complaint -- the other thread claims improved #s for the 6MT.
Specifically, this page: http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=394618
Says 6.9% longer legs in 6th, which if correct is nice, though I was hoping for more.
At 72 mph, rpms should drop from 3384 to 3166, not sure how noticeable that will be.
Probably why AccordIntakeGuy said it didn't change, because it's such a minor drop.
Was hoping for something more like 2700-2800 rpms.

Rats, below PaleMelanesian says Car and Driver is correct, 5th == 6th.

 

Sadly that's not true. Those numbers were typo'd and I've corrected it. 6th is the same as last year's 5th. Here's the authoritative source:
http://hondanews.com/channels/honda-...f-d9b92df4f0a5

 

MotorWeek broadcasted a "Quick-spin" driving impression review of the 2015 fit in this week's episode. Comments included, "handling is much more spirited thanks to noticeably quicker steering. Impressed with the CVT... but is noisy until you reach cruising speed and the 6 speed manual is really dialed in"

They will have a full road test in two weeks on their April 26 episode.

 

Reading a John Davis review is not nearly as much fun as watching one, with his voice inflections going all over the place.

Yeah, the "car keys" segment was a good start. Looking forward to the full review on Saturday at 10:30AM.

The show really needs a redo, btw. Pat Goss' segment has been just awful for years.

 

Hopefully they'll do a Long Term test drive of it .

 

Yeah, 25 years+ and they haven't changed a thing. Every now and then, Pat Goss teaches me something new, but I always am left thinking, if everyone did all the maintenance that Pat recommends, we would spend twice as much money on maintenance than we do on buying our cars.

 

Motorweek has just posted their full test drive report on their website
2015 Honda Fit | MotorWeek

And they will broadcast their show on April 26 with their full video review.

 

That statement is actually mostly the opposite of what I've been reading as of late, although I have read that ride comfort has been a higher priority. It's interesting too that the CVT is touted as being noisy, and yet the cabin is touted as being much quieter. How do those two line up, I don't know. I do know that when I test drove my 2012, it was noticeably quieter than my 2009. I guess there's no way to know until I sit in one for a test drive.

Why is it I can't read motorweek reviews without hearing John's voice!

 

I think I know what reviewers mean when they talk about the CVT being noisy. It is what I really hate most about CVTs. When you step on it, in second or so, they wind up to a higher RPM and then just sit there droning at that same RPM until you let off the gas.

Compared to a manual or regular auto, where the revs will rise as as the car accelerates, and ultimately hit an even louder volume as the revs approach redline, but then the shift comes and it quiets down to another rev, while the CVT, sitting at. That same RPM starts causing everything in the car to begin to vibrate at the same frequency.

I think what needs to be done with CVTs is that they need to put in a noise canceling sound to quell the continuing droan of the engine.

Kind of like John Davis' constantly variable intonation vs the droning monotone of Ben Stein.

 

Motorwek surprised us by broadcasting their Honda Fit road test this week, instead of next as originally planned. It was word for word what was published in the link above. It was only a test drive review from the San Diego press event and not a full road test when they bring the car to their test track for instrumented tests.

 

What's wrong with changing every fluid, filter and replaceable part monthly to help your car last longer His segment is stuck in the mid 70's