I just have to coment on the power of the 1.3L. I had it out for it's first real run out of the city and unless you actually live here I don't really know a way to classify this road. A Zoo perhaps with almost everyone overtaking and buses passing at high speed, tricycles and habal-habal drivers all blocking up traffic while they weave in and out. I think the Jazz is a great city car and for areas where you don't really need urgent power. But if you need it to spool up right away it doesn't have the juice to do it you will be hurting. I had a habal-habal driver edge into my car and of course he didn't look, do they ever? and he whacked the mirror fairly hard with his handle bar and it messed up the mirror which looks popped out of the housing. Overall the Jazz is an excellent car but the 1.3L would not sell in America, it simply doesn't have enough power for American roads. I was stopped on a good sized hill at the cemetary today and had to rev fairly high to get it going from a dead stop. Once it was going it was ok. I might see how much the loss is and trade up to a 1.5L as I just can't see driving outside the city with the car and that's only with 3 people. Does anyone else see the lack of power on hills or do you just stay in the city or where it's flat? I'm just curious.
Thanks...
Steve

 

No problem going up steep hills with 4 people on board in the 1.5L CVT VTEC. You can drop it into 7speed, S or even L mode but fine in D.

 

I drove the 1.5L VTec with the CVT and had no problem on very steep hills and I do mean steep. The 1.5L would accelerate right up them. I really should have waited and bought the 1.5L. Ah well live and learn. I'm getting 12k/l in the city with the A/C on and it's not past the break-in point. So I expect it will be getting 13-15k/l soon enough. Great car the 1.3L just down on power once outside the city.

 

nice post up. i guess in CA if you don't live in SF you wouldn't have a steep hill that that steep!!

 

The issue of power with the Fit/Jazz will be one that Honda mulls over before they bring the car to the USA.

Honda sells mostly two engine types for the Fit/Jazz, the L13A 1.3-liter i-DSI engine and the L15A 1.5-liter VTEC engine. The i-DSI engine offers excellent fuel economy but its lack of power might not suit American drivers, while the 1.5-liter VTEC engine might not have the fuel economy Honda wants for the American market. As such, I can see Honda offering a 1.5-liter version of the new SOHC i-VTEC engine found in 1.3-liter form on the 2006 Civic Hybrid, an engine that offers performance almost identical to the current L15A engine but with fuel economy close to that of the L13A engine.

 

so 1.5 vtec gets about how much miles per gal?

 

In my country, only 1.5 iDsi and 1.5 V-Tech models available now, but I owned 1.4 iDsi imported model from Japan which I bought last year. The fuel comsumption is great compare to my previous car, around 39 to 40 mpg in city driving.

 

Maths and imperial measurements are not my strong suit.

A US gallon is 3.785 litres.
1 mile = 1.609344 kilometers.

Open road real world fuel economy 5litres per 100km
City real world fuel economy 6.8litres per 100km
Economy doesn't get to this until after about 12,000kms with inital consumption about a litre higher on average both highway and city.

That converts to highway 20 kilometers per litre and city 14.7 kilometers per litre

Which is
highway 47.8 miles to the US gallon and
city 35 miles to the US gallon

Regular unleaded fuel is A$1.40 a litre at the moment in Australia
or A$5.30 per US Gallon.
This is US$4 per US Gallon.
Using exchange rate of $1.30 Australian = 1 US$

Petrol is cheaper in Australia than most of Asia and Europe.

 

I am currently getting about 12k/l with the aircon on 24/7 and I have under 1,000k on the clock. I can see it getting better but all consumption figures that I have seen are with the aircon off. Here we need it on even at night due to the pollution. During the day the heat and the Jeepneys make all kinds of crap to breathe in. I'd hate to see what my lungs look like now. :-(
I can't see the 1.3L in any place that has any real hills your consumption would go way up and even more if you have passengers. Mostly it's just me and my GF and she only weighs 36 kilos so we aren't hauling a lot of weight.

The first time you get to a hill and you have to rev the piss out of it to make it up or pass without a lot of room to spare the 1.5L will prove to have been the better choice IMO.

 

The consumption figures I quoted are what I'm personally getting with my 1.5L VTEC Jazz. I've got the aircon on too all the time. One of those great things about air quality in big cities around the world isn't it. Sydney temperature wise we need aircon about half to 2 thirds of the year.

 

I have to use a conversion chart to do the math but essentially 12k/l is not bad and I expect better but teh aircon being on does drain the 1.3l and yes you can feel the power loss if you engage the aircon at times. Still it's a great city car and I drive it quite a bit everyday. It will be at least a year before I could possibly have 12K on the odometer.

 

um... 5.30 a gal.? what kind of fuel are you using?? 5.30 i can go buy 100 octane fuel. damn, i thought our gas is expensive.....

 

stupid US is the only country that use gal, lbs, miles, etc...

 

US is pretty much the cheapest country for petrol. Most of the rest of the world hasn't been able to afford to drive large SUVs for a long time.

Unleaded fuel in Australia is 91, 95 and 98 RON. This is a different rating system to the US. The price I quoted in just the most basic 91 RON unleaded.

 

I found all these posts to be interesting, especially yours, as I think it would be about the same for the Fit they will sell in the US (1.5 motor, etc). I live also in a hot climate (Phoenix, Arizona) and we drive with the aircon on about 9 months of the year. So, I'd be looking for gas mileage figures with the air on most of the time. We also have pollution problems, with smog and all that great stuff. Phoenix wasn't so bad 20 years ago, but the city has doubled in population, and that brought more cars, more pollution, blah blah. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and came to Arizona to get away from all that. Now it's come back! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HH :-)

 

Fuel economy in hot climates is generally a bit worse than in cold regardless of air con. The Australian / Asian figures should be a fair comparison rather than figures from most of Europe / UK.

It gets to a point where you have to drive like a grandpa to get much better fuel economy out of the Jazz. I'm not prepared to do that because I still want to enjoy the car.

I'd love to know how they get those official consumption figures as they are just impossible to obtain.

 

In the US, the federal government does the "official" gas mileage testing. It's not "real world", so the figures are optimistic (I don't want to say they're lying, heh heh). The tests are run with the car "in place", and the tests simulate real world driving...except they don't account for wind, rain, hot/cold conditions, etc. Some of the web sites having to do with cars (like www.thecarconnection.com) have been warning consumers that gov't testing is not accurate and that sometimes the figures are quite a bit lower. The mileage you're getting now is "real world" and that's what I would expect for Phoenix. Still, if I could get 35 MPG in town and 40 plus on the hiway, I'd be happy about that! :-)

 

Well on poor roads, zero highway driving, and the A/C blasting, not to mention the rain that can really pour down heavily, especially this past week. I think I'm getting close to what should be expected, however, I do think I can get better economy once the car breaks in. My friend has a Hyundai Matrix Diesel and he is getting 15k/l in the city. He measures his in the same way I do and has noticed a progressive increase in economy.

 

Consumer Reports just had a nice little article regarding fuel economy and which cars get the worst mileage compared to advertised ratings.

The Jeep Wrangler got 50% of the advertised mileage (22 adv, 11 real world), and the Honda Civic Hybrid was rated at 46% (~45 compared to ~25).

Consumer Reports claims that they put a fuel meter right in the line to see how much gasoline is actually being consumed by the engine (while driving), which seems like a much more accurate test than how manufacturers currently derive their mileage.

It was interesting.

 

Consumer Reports has been sued a few times by car manufacturers when they weren't able back up their test results. Frankly I think they published those numbers in order to get a rep on all the major news shows and push their magazine. CR claimed the Prius was getting 35mpg. At the same time owners are reporting 48mpg for the prius and 46 for the Civic hybrid.
http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/
Take everything with a grain of salt. For me a small gas only car like the Fit still makes more sense than a $20k+ hybrid.