As of March 2016, Fit sales are significantly lower compared to last year. I figure this is the trend for the year following the debut of a redesigned model, but a 30% drop seems drastic.

 

Well, Uncle Gary bought a Fit in March 2015, but not this year, so there's part of the reason.

I also believe tight supplies of certain models/colors (EX models, manual transmissions and colors besides black, silver and white) can't be helping.

 

With low gas prices, car sales are still taking a bit hit, with CUV and SUV sales making larger sales increases. I'm not surprised that the Fit is not doing well. When last did you see a Fit advertisement, or even rarer, a Fit incentive (hint: never)? Throw in supply problems and you have a dull picture.

The drop in Fit sales, while it is 33% down from last year, accounts for a difference of only 1,869 cars. The 12.7% Civic increase accounts for 5,870 cars, and this year's Civic is a new model year.

Honda has done a terrible job of supply for the Fit, so it is unsurprising that sales are disappointing. When people have to wait 2-3 months for a manual shift, or a specific colour, come on here, and we recommend looking at another brand, this must take its toll on Honda Fit sales. There are the smaller recalls that also affect members here. They may not be major for the majority, but when others see that many recalls, is it 4 so far, this cannot help sales. Honda has only themselves to blame.

Apart from the Fit, Honda's CVT and other transmissions as well as their terrible infotainment system dropped them 4 places in the Consumer's Reports 2016 Reliability Survey. This must also hit sales hard. Less reliable cars, less cars available means lower sales.

 

IIRC, there was a huge pent-up demand for '15s due to the mysterious "factory delays" that postponed the official roll-out.

OTOH, in '16 production has leveled out, and many buyers are being diverted to the HRV. Honda isn't pushing the Fit very hard. It's pretty much back to the niche vehicle status it had in '13 and before.

 

I agree with torontoboy. There are different factors. People now like more suv than anything else. So hrv when 6k while fit decrease 2k. There you go. Also fit as the first year car in celaya had a lot of problems and recalls. Thus being the same car and platform they should have fixed all the recalls for that car.
Other issue I'll think is reliability in honda brand.

 

Here in Toronto we are Civic Nation. I see very few HRVs and fewer still 2015/2016 Fits. The Fits are certainly a niche car, and so is the HRV. It is as if Honda has only one car here: The 2016 Honda Civic. And they are pushing hard. Advertising for the HRV has subsided, and there was none for the Fit to begin with.

There are excellent alternatives to the Fit, no doubt. Honda overall is struggling against competitors in marketing and product quality. They've changed their Chairman, so we'll see if he can change the somewhat sluggish culture.

 

In upstate NY, it's the CRV that seems to be the most popular. For some reason everybody thinks they NEED all- wheel drive.

 

I found the Fit to have more interior leg room in the driver's seat than the HRV. I refused to even test drive the HRV after struggling to get comfortable. The subcompact/compact SUV market is the next big thing.

 

The bad quality issues and CVT problems have me on the ropes for replacing my 2009 Fit. It would of been a no brainier otherwise. Now, I have to question do I want to go Hyundai for overall quality jump up from Honda, but get crap mileage of the Elantra GT. We also own a 2013 Elantra GT with 1.8 that gets bad mileage compared with the Fit, then they put a 2.0 liter in the 2015 and up that gets worse. Nice faster car with 175hp though, at least it can get out of it's own way, unlike the Fit.

I own a lot of Honda stuff. Honda of late is REALLY screwing up on quality, big time. They redid their 2 stage snowblowers and really failed on testing their new design and are having clogging issues. They look nicer, but they just are not going the extra yard in robustness. It is like they "skimp" on going the extra yard on design of performance, when you are paying high dollar Honda pricing. I just find Honda to set a point to achieve. and do the absolute minimum to get there as far as design of robustness or then back it DOWN because it would cost $8 more per unit.


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I rented an Elatra last summer and got pretty bad gas mileage. Also the rear window is so small we decided it was unsafe. The beltline really swoops down at the rear and makes the car look fast, but fast it is not, and handling is not that great either. You could consider a Mazda3 hatch.

A Consumers Reports TV article reviewed gas lawnmowers and rated the Honda least reliable. I was pretty shocked. Honda's forte has always been small engines, so what is happening...

 

I'll echo TorontoBoy about Hyundai and poor visibility.

My GD3 was totaled a couple months ago. Rental was a Veloster. Visibility was perhaps the worst I've seen in a modern vehicle. Tiny hatch window, split by a horizontal bar, with rear headrests blocking the window from each side, leaving a peep slit for a rear view. Not fun. High door sills didn't help matters.

I was astounded that I was getting 35+ mpg with conservative driving - I believe this was the dual clutch auto model. But that kind of fuel economy didn't make up for the complete lack of outside visibility. Form over function.

 

Yeah, the new CEO was a mid-level Honda engineer coming from the same crap corporate culture that the previous CEO came froum. What's the legal term? Oh yeah, poisonous fruit from the poisonous tree. Expect real innovation and quality improvement. Makes perfect horse sense to Honda.

 

They really need to reinvigorate the motorsport appreciation for the Fit. The Civic is doing that this year, the Accord has somewhat always had that, but not so with the Fit. Pretty sure they could stuff a mileage refined, detuned version of the 1.5 turbo in the Civic. Maybe once they ramp up production of the turbo engines they can offer something for the 2018 refresh.

 

[QUOTE=TorontoBoy;1341534 You could consider a Mazda3 hatch.

A Consumers Reports TV article reviewed gas lawnmowers and rated the Honda least reliable. I was pretty shocked. Honda's forte has always been small engines, so what is happening...[/QUOTE]

I agree. Mazda 3 hb it a beauty of a car, with nice handling. Economy according to fuelly is 32 compared to 35 from the fit. My first option was always the mazda 3 but I could not afford it. Buy I would change it without question. The only downsize is the size interior too small(at least compared to the fit).

 

I love Mazdas, but I don't like how Mazda decided to mount the infotainment screen on top of the Mazda3 dashboard instead of making it flush like the Fit.

Yeah, I know that some other luxury cars like Mercedes are like this, but I still don't care for this design choice.

 

Agreed. The first time I saw it, I thought was that an afterthought?

 

Butt ugly, and the Toyota Mazda2 has the same design. It does look like someone bought a Garmin and stuck it on the dash with a suction cup.