This is the response to my Android Auto inquiry:

@schnapster It was determined that CarPlay & Android won't be backward compatible. We'll announce 2016 models with these features soon. ^CB

 

My tweet to them:

@HondaCustSvc When will Honda have Android Auto (and Apple Carplay) in their cars?

 

This might be the saddest news in the history of mankind :l

Guess all I can do is hope the 2016 fit radio has the same dimensions, and maybe I can buy one to replace mine...

 

Shows big businesses don't care about rollouts of their advertised features. Its always a rush to market, and advertise the hell out of features, and when they cannot deliver on certain features, its oh well, wait till next year. I blame the directors, managers, project managers, and other high level management that ignore these issues and only care about sales unit volume and revenue.

Unless one has an effective way of hitting them where it hurts in the wallet, they won't listen.

 

Sorry I was just excited for the Android Auto for the 2016 (hopefully it will be one of the models). I almost ended buying a 2015 but glad I am I waited. If they didn't offer it in the 2016, I was probably going to go with a VW Golf (and I still might if they don't offer it).

Having a 2008 Fit, I just missed the standard Bluetooth.....I wasn't going to miss this.

 

Sadly, you're right. It reminds me a lot of the company I just left (ironcically in the auto industry)....at one point they were the leaders in their industry, but they were never about change and pleasing customers. They start making a product and sell it before it's finished...then they scrap it and want their customers to buy into the next idea.

Unfortunately I didn't have a choice. I was previously driving a PT Cruiser that broke down on the freeway and needed something stat. Fortunately I'd been shopping around and narrowed it down to the Nissan Versa and the Fit. If the Versa gets Android Auto, I'm gonna be really mad haha...

 

I see it too. Its called Department Silo-ing. Various projects are deployed, such as features of the HU, and through various setbacks pushing the deployment date of that sub-project, regardless, executive & director level have a set date in which the vehicle will be available to market.

If the project managers's and managers do not deliver on the sub-project, if its deemed non critical for vehicle market deployment, then it gets scraped essentially. Unfortunately such a decision is usually not communicated (IE no internal communication between departments, thus the term silo) to say marketing, PR, and thus the dealer network. Even if it is communicated, its too late. Likely there are flyers, posters, websites, sell sheets, commercials etc promoting the feature. The customer base then gets pissed that the feature doesn't exist.

Some effort may be put forth early on in the production run like a firmware update or dealer fix the problem, however, cost and time are factored in, and if it goes beyond a certain threshold, all efforts are ceased on that model year and focused upon the next model year. I just described a basic manufacturing "process" practiced by nearly all companies. Its even harder to control when its outsourced to other countries. When one does root cause analysis (part of my day job) I find that its usually a small group of people who drop the ball, and the high level management either doesn't know or doesn't care long as it doesn't hurt the bottom line of sales volume to the point it makes a large enough impact.

Thats why we on the forums who are power users, guru's and otherwise independent informed consumers wanting to stick it up the asses of big businesses, find ways to get those features that we paid for, and if at all possible, at the expense of revenue erosion of said business as payback. I'm all for that!

 

That sucks for you 2015 Fit owners, one would think that your current stereo is essentially just a tablet and could/should be able to be upgraded but again that would hurt Honda's bottom line. I truly believe the only reason they might offer it in the 2016 Fit is because everyone else is starting to offer it. The Pioneer aftermarket head units might be a viable solution for you but with stereos being so complicated, you might lose some of the functionality of the OEM units.

As for me, I will not be buying a 2016 Fit until they definitively state that it will have Android Auto. Hopefully they won't just throw it into "luxury" models. I am hoping the new Fit comes out in September or October.......my 2008 Fit is over 150k miles and has some major repairs coming up soon.

Also I was reading up on the HRV (an alternative to the Fit) and Consumer Reports had this to say this about Honda's "Infotainment" (which is why they should update all older model touch screens with Android Auto and Carplay):

Unfortunately, high-end models come with Honda’s lousy touchscreen-only radio. We hated this in the last CR-V we tested, calling it one of the most frustrating designs we've seen in a while.

You can work around some of its idiosyncrasies with the steering-wheel controls, or you can wrestle with Honda’s typically hard-to-use voice commands.

Source: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/n...hr-v/index.htm

It is pretty bad when Consumer Reports calls it "one of the most frustrating designs we've seen". This is why Honda needs Android Auto (and Carplay).

 

2016 Civics and Accords will have Android Auto and Carplay support. Unfortunately it looks like they have a different head unit. Only chance they will ever add it to the Fit is during the mid-cycle refresh.

Hondas marketing strategy in the US is to "upsell" you to a more expensive car with more features. Fortunately they are bringing the Civic hatch and Type-R back. Once my lease is up I'll probably have no choice.