Takeo Fukui, President and CEO of Honda officially anounced that the Japan-made Honda Fit will be released in the US and Canada in Spring 2006.

Honda will introduce the fuel efficient Fit as an entry level model in North America. Fit models manufactured in Brazil will be introduced to Mexico in October of this year, and the Japan-made Fit will be introduced to the U.S. and Canada next spring. Honda will further expand its product lineup in order to respond to increasing customer demands for vehicles with high fuel efficiency.

By: Honda News
July 20, 2005

 

Many thanks to mav who first posted this news article here.

Thanks mav!

 

Its good news we will be getting the Japan Made Fit.

btw that Photo of Takeo Fukui make the news look very official.

 

What will be the 2007 Honda Fit (NA market model) be like? Will it be derived from the current model? Will it be a placeholder model sourced from Japan until the second-generation model arrives, where it's likely that Honda will use one of its US or Canadian factories to assemble the second-generation version?

An interesting prospect is what drivetrain will be used. My guess is that the NA market Fit will get either the L15 1.5-liter I-4 VTEC engine rated at around 110 bhp SAE (similar to the engine sold on high-end Fits sold in Japan and southeast Asia) or maybe a unique-to-NA market 1.5-liter version of the 1.3-liter I-4 i-DSI engine; the 1.5-liter version will be rated at around 100-105 bhp SAE and sport very high fuel efficiency. If Honda wants to keep the costs down the 1.5-liter i-DSI variant could be the logical choice.

 

around 15k is a very good price for this car.

look how much the fuel econ this car is getting... a lot better than getting the hybrid that are out now days... and you never know how fix it when hybrid come in problems.

 

I hope they offer the smaller, DSI engine as an option. That would really make this car a working class competitor with the hybrids.

 

I doubt they'll sell the Fit with the L13A i-DSI engine in the US market. Remember, the US-market car will be somewhat heavier than Fit/Jazz models sold elsewhere (due to more safety equipment installed and NHTSA-mandatory 2.5 mph bumpers), so the fuel efficiency of the L13A engine will be lost because you'll have to rev the engine quite a bit to get decent performance.

I think Honda will probably offer the L15A i-DSI engine (probably rated at circa 95-100 bhp SAE 08/04 net) and a new 1.5-liter engine derived from the 1.3-liter SOHC i-VTEC engine used as part of the Integrated Motor Assist hybrid drivetrain on the 2006 Civic Hybrid sedan (probably rated at around 110-115 bhp SAE 08/04 net).