I have a 2015 and a 2012 fit. My 2015 is a manual trans and at 70 mph I am at about 3500 rpm. On the 2012 fit, an automatic, at 70 it is at about 2500 rpm. Is this gearing difference on the year models or difference due to auto vs manual transmission?


Jim

 

The RPM difference is due to CVT vs manual. On a 2016 Fit 6MT, 70mph is about 3,500rpm, same as your 2015. 2016 CVT will be about 2,500rpm. Nothing has changed except that the 2016 has 6MT vs your 5MT, the top 2 gears are very close together.

 

AT vs MT difference. no worries there. my GD, one of the GE's were MT's and dey all rev'ed high. GE vs GE big difference in rpm.
and i also read the GK's 6th gear is not much different dan the 5th gear on GE's as far as gear ratio.

not a big deal but torontoboy- GE were planetary gears btw, not CVT..

 

Top top two gears are identical.

Gear ratios, 2013 Fit 5-speed manual
1st: 3.308
2nd: 1.870
3rd: 1.303
4th: 0.949
5th: 0.727

Gear ratios, 2015 Fit 6-speed manual
1st: 3.462
2nd: 1.870
3rd: 1.235
4th: 0.949
5th: 0.810
6th: 0.727

 

Is it fair then to deduce that fuel economy at 70mph is better with a CVT?

 

I don't believe it requires deduction.

The manual is EPA rated at 36mpg and the CVT at 40mpg.

 

Correct, Sherlock. But the price premium for the CVT means it will take awhile to really save anything. When I bought my Fit I calculated it would take about eight years or 96K on the odometer before the CVT began to pay for itself, based on gas at $3/gallon. Since I seem to have been a bit pessimistic on gas futures so far, that time/mileage reading has gone up.

 

At $3 per gallon, the difference between 36mpg and 40mpg is less than a penny per mile.

That doesn't include the potential cost of CVT problems as total mileage approaches six figures.

 

It's loud. It's buzzy. It's fine!

 

What problems? Raced mine since taking it off the showroom floor. It's approaching six figures. 0 issues!

 

Problems with inadequate durability.

I believe there was a recall over some problems and some revision to the design. When I first started reading here, some poor fellow posted about being on his third CVT transmission.

 

Care to post the thread, first I heard that someone is on their 3rd CVT. As far as I know Honda has been using CVT for about 10 years now so you would have heard of catastrophic failures by now.

The only CVT recall on the fit that I know if was a software reflash. I had it done and there was no perceptible performance or mileage change.

 

Anecdotal evidence is not a good indicator. Our clutches might start burning out at 50K too. It's all a crapshoot. We early adopters are all lab rats for Honda, taking different paths in a maze to find the cheese in the middle. One guy hit a dead end with CVT reliability. Another poor bastard just out of warranty has a thread trending in this forum on how he just forked out $1300 to replace fuel injectors; no cheese for him either.

 

Closer to 20 years. Honda introduced a CVT back in 1996-2003 in the Civic HX trim. Also the early Insight from 2001-2006. And all Civic Hybrids since 2001. If anyone knows about CVT's, it's Honda.

 

BenQuick - I stand corrected. I'm not too concerned with the CVT transmission's perceived reliability personally.

Since the Fit is my commuter car I was looking for best gas mileage and the CVT had it. Upon further research, I learned the manual runs at higher RPMs than the CVT on the highway. Since my commute is mostly highway type driving, I wanted the quieter car and lets be honest the fit isn't a quiet car. Those two things nudged me to a CVT over a manual even though I've driven many manual cars in my driving career and ride a motorcycle.

 

If the manual weren't important to me, the CVT would be the choice for making the Fit a reasonable highway car. If you spend a lot of time driving over 80mph, the CVT is the difference between merely on the loud side and too loud for a modern car.

 

i rock a new (to me) 2012 MT Sport. I test drove it around the town i bought it in, but there was no interstate nearby. Now that I'm driving much more up and down the 95 corridor, I'm realizing how loud it REALLY is.

I'm to the point where I might try to deaden sound.

 

Turn up the sound system???

 

Funny, my GD auto isn't that loud at 70,, of course my other daily driver is a jeep ,, so my level of pain is much much higher.

 

Or an exhaust. Repaired loud car with louder exhaust lol