I want to thank everyone here for posting their tips and experiences with their Fits over the course of my ownership. Some were helpful and others were great for saying ‘I’m not alone’ with my issues. Let me say that as a long time Honda fan, I am no more. I started my Honda experiences with an 04 Accord and, based on that positive experience, bought the wife an 04 CRV. Both stellar cars and not a problem with either short of routine maintenance. My daughters both bought Civics 07 and 08 and convinced me to do the same for my daily commute. I bought an 08 as well and still have it to this day. Mechanically great, but all 3 of the Civics exhibited what I’d call sloppy design/build. One daughter sold her 07, but the 2 08s are still in the family. Both have been repainted at Honda’s expense as the clear on both simply failed. Aside from other oddities in fit/finish, they have been great cars. In our stable I also have a 10 Camry, base car, stick shift (yes, stick shift, all 6 of them). Bought it in late 2010 as a leftover and paid a paltry $16.1k for that car, brand new. It is still in the family and has almost 180k, trouble free and I mean trouble free miles. It still looks brand new, save the numerous paint chips in the front bumper, but otherwise it’s been a star. In May of 15 I bought the Fit, EX-CVT. Loved the way it drove, but what seemed like Honda’s attention to detail in our 08 Civics has simply gone downhill in the Fit. Here is a short list of the issues I had in the Fit:

- Paint – I swear my car was painted during a clear coat shortage in Mexico. I had 2.5 panels completely re-cleared, something you don’t want on a brand new car. The rest of the car’s clear is especially thin and will not hold up over time. Honda better prepare for their next re-clear campaign on the Fit as it seems they didn’t learn much from the Civic fiasco.
- Dents… seriously? Simply leaning on the roof rail area caused a dent? Not good. I suffered just one, but that was enough.
- Sloppy build – I had to reseat many interior panels along the way as they became loose. Even on delivery the rear hatch interior panel was just hanging there. Seriously?
- Misaligned bumper… no fix and looks like crap
- Misaligned hood, doors, and hatch… Hood and hatch realigned, but nothing can be done about the doors.
- Brakes. Warped rotors already? Seriously? I’m hardly rough on my brakes. Then again, the same thing happened on my Civics.
- Underbody splash shields… I never had an issue with the FRONT one, but the rear was lost on the New Jersey turnpike… yes, the rear. I couldn’t avoid a piece of truck tire and tried to straddle it at 75 mph. Clunk. When I got home, the front was intact (the screws held it in place), but much to my surprise the rear was completely gone. $70 later I had a new one.
- My dash extension panels (near the front side windows) always sat flat for the first 10 months I owned it, then suddenly this Spring, they started to rise where they meet the rest of the dash. Not a good sign.
- Carpet… I’ve ranted about this to others here, and also to 2 different dealers. Apparently defects are to be ‘accepted’ as within tolerance.
- Door handle replacement campaign… Had it done but could never get the damned grease off the windows, even after repeated visits to the dealer.
- Water intrusion… seriously, Honda, work on better weather stripping. Hood, doors, hatch… all had water after a rain where it shouldn’t be.
- Wind noise… yep, a small car, but a $19k sticker for a subcompact, Honda should have worked better on that.

You guys are simply going to say “I don’t have those problems’ or ‘why are you complaining about stupid sh!t?’. Look, Honda got nearly $19 grand out of me and while I do think mechanically the Fit will survive a couple hundred thousand miles, appearance wise it will not. For $19k, especially for a sub-compact from HONDA you should expect more.

Why the long rant? Well it’s because I wanted to bid a fond farewell to all of you. The Fit is no longer part of my family. After 50 weeks, yep just 50 weeks and 23k miles of ownership I am no longer a Fit fan. She’ll become someone else’s problem. I am so relieved, yet so disgusted in Honda.

Believe it or not I did get a great trade in value for the car, much to my surprise. I’m now a 2 Toyota/2 Honda family. While I bought the milquetoast Corolla, it’s a more comfortable, quieter car… sure it doesn’t have the road manners of the Fit (the Fit was ‘fun’ to a point in that it drove like a go cart, in a good way), but stepping up a class sure does make a difference and build quality. Nice to see things fit together the way they should. The kicker? I paid, almost to the dollar for the Corolla what I paid for the Fit. The sticker was $21.3k, after rebate and dealer discount I was at $18.8. Toyota and their dealers want to move them apparently.

I just want to let you all know that I appreciate all the sharing you’ve done on this site; it’s really been helpful in many cases. Maybe when Honda gets their crap together, if they ever do again, I might be back, but lately, Honda’s been disappointing me.

 

Glad you're moving onto something better. I've echoed a lot of the same complaints you have. The Fit was my first Honda, and will probably be my last. I've owned mostly Toyotas and will probably be going back to that brand after the Fit.

 

We all pay our money and take our chances. Sorry you had so many problems with your FIT. Good Luck. Sounds like a good choice for replacement.

James

 

Your post reads much like the one I posted over at the Volkswagen TDI forum when I got so fed up with my '13 Beetle TDi convertible that I traded it after only 18 months (and bought my Fit, which I'm still happy with after 37k miles and 20 months). Brand loyalty will only stretch so far (I had been been a continuous VW owner for over 25 years), and I'd probably have made the same choice you did if my Fit had experienced all those problems.

Out of curiosity, what was the build number of your car? Was it fairly early (say, under 15,000)? It seems the early cars had the most problems, but I know some of the later build cars have seen them, too.

es

 

Once I can unload my EX at a reasonable price I'm done with Honda, too.

I had fleetingly considered the CR-Z, but . . . no. Bye, Felicia (Honda).

 

offhand don't have the build number, but production date was 1/15. The first Fit on the lot that I wanted had a dead battery, go figure. If I had gotten that one things might have been different.

 

Your observations can be substantiated by many owners here. It really is luck of the draw and it should not be. I hope you have better luck with Toyota. My neighbour just bought a Corolla and they just love it. Maybe better build quality, but not as good driveability fun.

 

Thanks TorontoBoy, yes, it is the luck of the draw for sure. So far so good with the Corolla. It's been only a week, but the difference is like night and day, especially the quietness. Built by your friends and neighbors no doubt in Cambridge. What really impresses me about the Corolla is that it's almost like a 2/3 scale of my '10 Camry. A lot of the design may be on the older side, but its incremental improvements on tried and true designs used in Camrys of years past. The shape's the same, the doors thunk with the same noise, the seats feel the same, and under the hood it even has that old 'I'm familiar with this' feel to it. Sure, it may not be cutting edge, then again, that sometimes leads automakers to produce some initial junk. It is true that the Fit was more spirited to drive, but then again, it rode like the 99" wheelbase it was on and it also was the noisiest car I ever drove. Getting up to speed you had to deal with some not so familiar to Honda droning of the engine. Cruising on the interstates was ok, but the non stop wind noise and unforgiving suspension jolts from time to time really wore me out. I do miss the smart key however. Like I said before, I have no doubts mechanically the car would make a couple hundred thousand miles or kms to you, but the rest of it was a disappointment. And oh yeah 2Rismo2 that dang window rattle drove me nuts as well. Only ever had it when the weather was warm. And the dealers heard it, but never could resolve it.

 

Certainly it was luck of the draw with '15s, but it seems that the JEM '16s are having far fewer fit-and-finish issues. One wonders whether the new HR-Vs are experiencing the same issues as the Fits that rolled down the same line in Celaya last year?

 

I will admit that after a year of ownership, I've never felt so conflicted about any car I've owned. On the one hand, I love the styling, the room inside, the fuel economy and I just love the way it drives. In that respect I like it better than any car I've owned. On the other hand, there's the unfixable dashboard misalignment, the sagging front bumper, and the ill-fitting rear fender liners. Then there is the badly misaligned rear axle (that can't be aligned), that wore out the right rear tire in 12,000 miles. Not to mention the recall for the door handle brackets and the consequential damage (dents and paint chips) the dealer inflicted on the car replacing them.


What really grinds my gears is not so much the issues I've mentioned, after all, nothing is perfect, and that's what warranties are for. It's the idea that the dealer can't fix the issues, and Honda won't. I guess Honda is so used to building "perfect" cars that they're clueless when confronted with defects and disappointed customers.


Every time I drive the car, I fall in love with it all over again. Then I look over to the left, see the ugly gap in the fit of the dashboard pieces and regret buying the car. And so it goes.


Rooster, I'm glad you got a car you like. The Corolla is a great car. My niece had one for a few years and loved it.

 

Funny you say that GeorgeL, on numerous occasions when I had the Fit in for fixing, I saw many a JEMs sitting inside and outside the showroom. Funny thing is that they are simply a better car all around. The paint on the ones I saw was flawless and the clear coat was substantially thicker, simply by a visual inspection. I looked over the body panel gaps, typical Honda quality. Even the doors had a more substantial sound to them when closing them. I think I would have had a better outcome if I had waited and gotten one assembled in Japan. Maybe, maybe not, but the JEMs just seemed like a Honda, while mine, after living with it, seemed, well, like a 90s Hyundai Elantra.

Uncle Gary, I too had the conflicting feelings. The last wash I gave her sealed her fate though, as I stood back and admired my work, she didn't smile back with that gleam she should have and then the rest of the issues simply piled on top of one another. It didn't help that I could throw a stone over my neighbors house and hit a Toyota dealer. In a matter of hours from the time I dried her she was relegated to the dealer's lot. Luckily, I feel like all I did was to lease her in that although I paid for her and she was mine, I ended up only having to fork out a minimal amount of money, money I now attribute as 'rental' payments for the 23k miles I used her. The trade value is something I simply can't complain about.

 

Problem is, had I waited, I'd have had to settle for a CVT transmission, since that's all Honda is building now. No thanks.

 

Good luck with your next car.

Meanwhile at 4 Years old and 60k miles my GE is doing great. Hopefully the switch back to Japan is helping things.

 

I look forward to seeing Consumer Reports repair/reliability data (the only car thing that CR does well) for the Fit over the next few years. I bet that the '15 will have more black circles than the '16.

 

True Delta is all smiley faces. So no.

 

I think the main problem is that long time Honda buyers are spoiled. After owning a 1976 Dodge Charger, a 1977 Chevy PU, a 1980ish Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport, an early 90's Ford Ranger PU, a mid 90's American built Nissan PU, an early 2000's Ford Taurus, and a 2009 Ford Mustang GT ragtop I can say I am extremely pleased with the build quality of my 2016 Mexican built Honda Fit EX-L CVT.

 

Too early to tell. Statistics collected by soliciting enthusiast forums aren't terribly relevant and even with that there only 85 '15 Fits in their database.

 

Bladhmadh, I agree with you. I am one of those long time Honda fans expecting better of the Fit than I got. My disappointments began with my family's 07/08 Civics. While I can't say anything bad about Honda's powertrains, they have been the bright spot, the fit and finish, you know, the look, touch, and feel, have certainly been a downer for me. I realize there are lemons among the oranges, but for Honda to have let mine slip through their stringent quality control is simply unacceptable. Mechanically, even with the fit/finish flaws, I'm sure it's headed for a couple hundred thousand miles, easily. Of course, the rest of it may look like the junkyard dog. As a comparison, my wife's 04 CRV still shines like a penny despite it being left outside for the last 12 years. Seriously, it's a beauty, paint wise. My 08 Civic still shines, but that's because the entire car, every panel, was repainted after the clear came off in sheets. Then to have the Fit, at only a few months old need to be re-cleared... well, shake my faith. There are quite a few stories of bad clear coats on the Fits on this board. That is even unacceptable to a Chrysler fan. I've attached a pic of the bad clear coat, just a month after I bought it and the misaligned doors that they promised were fixable, yet were not. Definitely not Honda quality.

 

How can I tell if my clear come has issues or comes off?

 

borolla's are a step up? hahaha, didnt know dat.

why didnt u go for something like an IS350? those are cool and a step up. i was very close to getting one a few months ago.
i still might.