No, same design as the 2016. It has a 90 degree bend on either side of the backup camera and the rear windshield wiper arm. The issue is pushing on the plastic, flexing it and then breaking it in the middle. Wife and family have been warned the plastic is fragile. We just push on the door and get our hands dirty. Sorry for my dirty Fit. It is winter.


2016 Honda Fit, hatch release cover, black plastic

 

You all know there is a little cutout on the bottom of the door that works great and you don't have to get your hands dirty? Give it a good swing and the door closes without touching the weak plastic piece or the outside of the car...

 

I wish they had a cutout on the left side ...

 

Let me help. Push on the license plate of near the bottom of the tailgate, which gives you more leverage anyway than pushing on the trim piece. Get it? It a trim piece, ie, it is not structurally sound.

 

I long for the days when one could sit on a fender or push on a trunk without damaging the car. Maybe weak spots on modern cars should be labeled like airplanes.

 

Would you use your roof to support sheets of 4x8 and the mirrors to secure them? Sorry for being so logical, but there are people stupid enough to do so, and get away for it. Warning signs are not necessary from one doing something obviously so stupid. If the trim piece is flexible, don't apply force.

 

delete delete. I need at least 10 letters to delete message.

 

Yeah, mine broke the first month I had the car. Lightly closed the hatch and it cracked. Dealer refused to replace it.

 

The same exact thing happened to me. I haven't looked at how much it costs to replace. It's sad that it breaks that easily... I feel your pain.

 

Just made an appointment with my dealer. Cheap part has a crack under the "H".

Think they will take care of it. I'm well within 3/36 Warranty.

 

Good Luck. I tried with my local dealer and they refused to fix it.

But, I do have a friend who works at Honda and he told me that if enough of us complain about this part they (Honda) will look into the matter.

 

Both replacements broke!
Upon owning my 3rd Fit from the same dealer after only 10 months, with 11,000 miles, the rear hatch "trim" broke in the exact center, while opening the hatch latch handle. This has never happened on my previous year Fits.
No other handles are provided on the outside of the rear hatch to open a closed or locked hatch. You must squeeze the latch while simultaneously pulling on the latch to open the hatch. The trim flexes at this point. It flexed for a fraction of a second before snapping.
I am a 5' female and weigh 115 lbs, so don't give me any baloney about using gorilla strength as that's not the case. I can lift only about 30 lbs off of the ground. The trim, latch handle-less opening process was poorly designed and the service writers know about it. The same piece of plastic is breaking all over north america. There is not a place to gently push on when securing the hatch to lock either. You must pull down the hatch with a slam, if you use the "interior handle". Try to go out and shut your door so as not to wake the neighborhood.
The local dealer's service writer at Jay Wolfe of Kansas City tried to accuse me of hitting it with a hammer? He also said that the "trim" is NOT covered in the bumper to bumper warranty and that it was a good faith gesture on their part ?? They charged me $45 (as a deductible in the bumper to bumper) for the "goodwill gesture" and the new replacement broke AGAIN at 30,000 miles and the same guy accuses me of abusing it as they have never had another customer come in for that problem. I bought all 3 Fits from them and I am so disappointed that I am looking at other brands from another dealer. I think that a piece of metal, either epoxied or attached to the blind side of the trim piece would be sufficient to keep it from flexing or cracking. I am going to cc this note to Honda Japan & Honda America.

 

Wasserball,
What help can you give on OPENING a 2015 Fit hatch? If you own a 2015, try to open the hatch by pulling on the latch provided, and see if your latch doesn't draw right up against the trim piece under the "H"
until the trim flexes outward and breaks.

Get it? it breaks ... when the latch is opened.
Does any other year Fit have this problem?

Then go see my dealer after it breaks .....
keep smiling after he accuses you of abusing your 3rd babied car,

the rest of the car is great

 

Others have had this problem, so yes, I believe it to be a defect. If you have the replacement, or if the replacement broke, you could remove it and reinforce that area with a thin bit of metal and fiberglass, from the inside.

I'm sure that repeated door closings, slamming, as it is a hatch, does stress the plastic, so they should have made the part thicker and stronger.

The other defect is the engine splash shield underneath the car, held on with very flimsy plastic screws. What were they thinking?

 

Today I opened my hatch, paying attention to what I do and what flexes. My fingers go under the latch and I pull. The door latch releases. I pull with my fingers to assist the door to open. I never need to touch the garnish to open. I do not need to press the garnish with my thumb. I use the door open cubby or simply press on the outside of the door to close the hatch.

I never need to touch the hatch garnish to either open or close the door, which accounts for why there are no fingerprints on the garnish. Maybe the Canadian model is different?

 

No, that's exactly the way I operate the hatch. I've owned the car for two years and opened/closed the hatch countless times without breaking the trim molding. That's probably because I treat it as a trim
molding (which it is), and not as a handle (which it isn't).

 

I have no problems at all here, on our LX....as stated just above, no reason to touch the trim piece ever.....just unlatch and pull a few inches, hatch opens. Pull down on the hatch (in whatever wy), you'll reach a "tipping point" several inches before closed, and the hatch pulls itself closed. I don't understand the "problem," unless there were sone Fits with substandard trim. Mine's fine, expecting it always will be

 

That is a possibility. Without removing and examining the trim piece, I cannot be sure, but, depending on how the trim piece is molded, if the mold is filled from two separate points (likely, due to the size and shape), there will be a "knit line" where the plastic flows together and meets. If the mold temperature or flow pressure isn't quite right, there can be a weakness at this "knit line". This could explain why some pieces break and some don't.


Wow, some of my 39 years of experience in tool design is still useful.

 

Of course, those cars weighed nearly 4,000 pounds and got maybe 15-18 MPG, too. Everything's a trade-off.

 

Yup, I open and close the same way. My garage is underneath my 13 month old daughters bedroom. I open and close the HB every morning without waking her so it really doesn't need much force to close.

Age and weight doesn't mean anything with how hard or soft doors are closed. I had to tell my mother-in-law when we took a road trip to visit my wife's grandmother, to watch how hard she shuts the door in my SUV. She would slam the door and sometimes wake the baby in the car seat. When her grandmother would ride with us, she too would slam the door. When I first started dating my wife, she would also slam the door and I had to say something to her. Must be an Indiana or mid-west thing...

43K and 2 years on the Fit, and I'm still on the original trim piece.