My daughter is going to buy her first new car and is wanting a Fit LX CVT.


I noticed that the LX has smaller tires and gets better fuel economy. Surprising to see highway fuel economy is +3 mpg compared to the EX.


Are the tires on the LX, low rolling resistance type tires?


The improved fuel economy is nice, however I want to make sure the tires still offer good wet weather performance and that the braking performance is OK.


Has anyone with a LX had any concerns with the overall performance with the tires?

 

They are not LRRs

 

I think the better fuel economy has to do with the weight savings aswell. There is less sound insulation and no moonroof so having less weight to lug around will take less fuel

The tires probably also help with the smaller profile.

But I have an EX myself so I can't help with the tire question. So I'm sure another fellow GK owner will help

 

I've been through a lot of rain in the first 6 months in my LX and I would say performance is decent for normal driving. Braking is good too compared to other cars I have had.

 

There are MPG threads floating about, but my wife and I just picked up an Ex with the manual transmission. Honda calls it 33/36 for the manual and 33/37 for the auto. However we have put 3,000 miles on our since purchase and have an overall average of 37.


On my daily commute (50% city/highway travel) I usually average 41-43 mpg with just me in the car. My wife just went from Chicago to Tennessee and had that Fit loaded to the roof! (it was really surprising how much we were able to fit in that thing!!) I joked that I could see the car squatting when she pulled out of the drive, but she still averaged 39 mpg for the trip with highway speeds of around 75mph and steep mountain roads when she slowed down. However when she runs around town on short trips, I see average trip mpg of as low as 20mpg. (still beats my big truck by a considerable amount)


As for tires, I don't know if the smaller tires help mpg, but my mother has the 2013 Lx in automatic and she can haul a$$ in the snow. The narrow tires really cut through the snow and get to the pavement for traction. The only time she had problems in the last two Chicago winters, was when the snow built up under the car enough to lift the frame.


We let my mother try our car, and she thought it felt better with the larger tires, but that could also be the changes they made to the suspension between the 13 and 15 models.


Bit of personal advice, pickup an LED light kit like the one linked below and replace the standard interior bulbs with LED. Cost like $9 with shipping and makes the car feel much nicer after dark.




She is selecting a great car Lx or Ex, and should love it.

 

The EX and LX both have 185 for the tire width, for 2015, the difference is the aspect ratio and the rim size. So I don't think that should make much difference for traction. Previously the base model had 175 for tire width. The last couple months I've been seeing 40-41 mpg on the the EX's reported fuel efficiency. I'm trying econ mode again to see if it makes much of a difference, besides acceleration. Most of my driving is rural roads.

 

Looking at actual experiences it seems the gap between LX and EX mileage is more in Honda's marketing imagination than in reality.

Honda desperately wanted to break the 40MPG barrier after lagging behind the competition for years. They also noted the problems experienced by Hyundai and Kia with their owner communities figuring out that their mileage was overstated.

Inflating the MPG of only one trim level minimizes Honda's liability while allowing them to advertise the number they want.

 

Anyone can achieve 40mpg, just slow down.

 

You are correct, but the issue today is that everyone always seems to be in a hurry and they don't want to slow down. On top of that, we just increased our freeway speeds to 70mph here, which is nice if you want to get somewhere faster but it doesn't help with the fuel efficiency.

 

I remember when gas hit just over $4 per gallon here, everyone suddenly discovered 60mph again. When the price dropped, speeds increased.

 

Yep, the difference between 60 and 75-80mph is pretty significant in terms of fuel efficiency.