We have the steering wheel on the other side of the car in Australia, Japan and the rest of Asia. So the 60 split is on the passenger side for us.

 

The above pics are from an Austian Fit forum.

 

Since the car originates in Japan, the designers probably made the decision where to split the bench based on a left-traffic country, and the design was not completely localized for the right-traffic countries, leaving the split where it is. However, it seems to make it somehow less practical for those countries. Too bad for us bassists...[img]images/icons/icon9.gif[/img]

 

If you have a baby capsule or child seat you can still fold down the 40 section and use long mode which I can't do with the split the other way around.

 

World record for the number of people that can be squeezed into a Honda Jazz currently stands at 17.

 

I would say so, and definitely if you have no passengers.

 

Hi,

In those photos, what is that black compartment on the side of the passangers seat? Map holder, drink holder, beer holder? What is that?

 

Side airbag.

 

dimensions in this pic:

http://www.honda.co.jp/dog/honda-car.../fit-p-004.jpg

This seems to be about as much cargo room as in my Matrix, even though the fit is a lot shorter. I think a lot of the difference is in the length of the hood. The Fit hood is much shorter. For the Fit, overall length comparisons are not telling us much about interior room.

 

When I got my Forester I thought it had all best tradeoffs of any vehicle anywhere for price/cargo/economy/comfort/handling. It can tow 2000 lbs and still get close to 30 mpg highway. Comfy enuf to drive long trips. And AWD. And reliable.
Fit seems to have similar balance on a smaller physical scale. I am considering Fit for same reasons I liked Forester, all around balance and value.