Yesterday I went to hike Blood Mountain along the Appalachian Trail, which meant a 204 mile round trip. This was my first time driving the fit for more than an hour at a time and I'm happy to report that the car remained very comfortable over the four hours of driving yesterday.

Additionally, I'm fascinated by how well the CVT smoothes out the ride on the freeway, with cruise control the transmission really seamlessly shifts gear ratios so that the engine never struggles to maintain speed. And it's surprisingly quiet at 70-80MPH. My average speed was probably around 63mph for the trip.


Gas milage was a very reasonable 38.8 mpg overall. It was in the low thirties in the morning and I had the defroster on for some time which I believe runs the AC compressor. The return trip produced 42mpg. This figure also included some spirited driving in the mountains, more on that later.

The rear hatch easily swallowed up my fully-loaded 80 liter pack with plenty of room to spare (I was planning to do an overnight trip but decided against it after reaching the summit).


Back on the topic of winding roads, I found a wonderful mountain road on the way that was deeply cambered (doesn't really show on the video but each corner was banked like a freeway on-ramp) and all of the corners were long fast sweepers, not the usual switchbacks. I have to say that for an economy car the, Fit is a whole bunch of fun on this kind of road and the CVT's sport mode is quite good even without using the paddle shifters.


The view from the top was nice as well and the trip was a great success overall and I'm looking forward to many more in my little Fit.

 

That color is Beautiful!!!

 

Great writeup! I *literally* just stepped out of the car from a 17 hour trip (including stops and getting stuck at a complete standstill for an hour on I-24 North of Chattanooga due to a bad accident that closed down the whole EB side).

Can't say I feel "fresh as a daisy," but I can echo your observations. More later after I recuperate!

es

 

defroster uses A/C?

 

My favorite music for this type of driving. Trance keeps the speed up as if the car was listening too. The CVT does make offensive sounds like in a Nissan but I'd miss not hearing VTEC engage like in a manual or conventional automatic. Great vid/music. Was the perfect marriage for this. The ride probably had your pulse as fast as the normal 120 beats/min this genre is normally played.

 

Most vehicles do, at least above a certain temperature. On my truck, it's 50ºF.

The cold AC coil gets some moisture out of the air along with the heater warming it up and lowering its relative humidity. Results in drier air hitting your windshield.

 

Wonderful report! Were you a Communications/Visual Arts double major?

I LOVE that road! Would like to take the Fit on the Dragon's Tail.

Thanks!

 

more trips

 

I spent some time driving a Fit EX-L CVT at work yesterday and I agree, the CVT really is awesome with cruise control engaged. I loved not hearing the car "downshift" but just increase engine speed to maintain set speed.

Great review!

 

That road does look like a ton of fun! Just wait until someone comes out with a bolt on rear sway bar that you can slap on. Then you'll be able to really attack those corners! Nice video.

-Dustin

 

Thanks to the original poster for the thread, pictures, and esp the video.
The video seems to indicate (still) an awful lot of road noise (even on a smooth surface). This is the main reason I sold my first gen Fit years ago - the highway road noise was terrible.
Can the OP comment on the road noise?

 

Out of curiosity, is there a previous vehicle you drove before a 1st gen Fit that you compared it to?

My '15 Fit replaced a '97 Corolla 3-Speed AT, so the road noise is unbelievably quieter. Any speed over 55 MPH and I could no longer hear the person on my visor mounted speakerphone. Our '13 Fit replaced a '03 Forester which had a good amount of road noise from the window gussets - back when Subaru didn't have a door frame around the window. It was terrible for wind noise.

In both cases we came from much noiser cars and couldn't be happier, but my SO says the '15 with CVT is noticeably quieter than the '13 AT. I would expect a more expensive car, like an Accord, to have less noise. But I'm happy with the Fit.

 

Yes, it was an '89 Civic - and the Civic seemed much quieter than the Fit above 55mph - weird - honestly, it seemed Honda put absolutely no sound deadening in the Fit's wheel wells.

 

I don't find the road noise to be too bad (coming from a '13 Beetle TDi convertible and a '00 New Beetle TDI before that). However, if there's a crosswind, the A pillars do have quite a bit of wind noise…

es

 

Road noise is not a problem at all for me. It's all relative to what you're used to. Why not go for an extended test drive and find out for yourself.

 

If you're having an issue with road noise and really like your fit I'd suggest looking into different tires. There are some varieties that are quieter than others (marketed that way). I know the performance tires I got for my impreza absolutely destroyed any peaces and quiet while driving. So I know there are tires that are significantly worse than others. If I keep that care much longer I will invest in much quieter tires no matter the cost.

 

Great video and pictures. Thanks for posting. More pics of the Fit!!!