Does any one plan to use their Fit all year round as a daily driver?

I've benefitted in the past come resell time and in longevity from engine block heaters, heated windshield antifreeze units, winter wiper blades, snow tires and steelie package, heavy duty rubber car mats and oil-undercoating for the chasis.

The biggest benefit I found was the winter tire steelie package benefitting from the saved abuse of the OEM alloys, extra traction from the softer tire compound and tread design.

Any thoughts or opinions

 

I'll be driving mine year round as well, I have a 1992 GS-R as a summer toy. I'm a big believer in winter tires on another set of rims. I've never had a need for a block heater, heated washer fluid or winter wiper blades. Undercoating is by far the best investment around.

I'm not sure where you live in Canada, but in Ottawa, only cars that aren't maintained lack the cranking power to start without a block heater, and condisering the number of high mileage Hondas I have owned, the cold oil at start up isn't an issue for me.

I've never tried heated washer fluid. Seems like a cool way to crack a windshield on a cold morning.

I replace my wipers every season. I can't stand winter blades, they are too thick and float on the windshield, especially at highway speeds and even with helper springs. I just keep my all season wipers clean, and free of ice.

 

I always forget where I live- in Saskatchewan most cars come off the lot with winterization, and you can't buy a car here without a block heater. Point is though- winterizing a vehicle is worth it if you live anywhere with substantial weather shifts.

Our roads here take such a beating from the extreme conditions that in the summer anything too low profile is impractical (pot holes, dicey asphalt, etc) and in the winter snow tires are a necessity outside of the city. They're also invaluable in the spring/fall when we get freeze & thaw regularily- the roads are ice most of the time.

That's one of the reasons there's virtually no tuning crowd on the plains .

 

When I was 9, we drove to Vancouver island. I couldn't believe how flat the praries were. The windchill must be deadly there.

 

I will be driving the Fit as a DD and Racing Fit.

Raise the car up and use the OEM wheels...

 

Ummm yeah, down to -40c here in the 'Peg is normal. Block heater here for sure, it's not an option.

 

I'll probably roll the windows up...

 

Hey, does the Fit come with a real element type block heater or one of those useless strap block heaters?

 

I'll have a steelie/tire package, and likely the undercoating as well.

Otherwise, not as much. The car will only be parked in garages in the winter, never outdoors, and it won't really get driven in very much actual snow.

Anyone considering any other reliability modifcations? I'll probably install a beefy B&M auto tranny fluid cooler (I'm going AT w/paddles), and also possibly an oil cooler. I imagine that Spoon will produce a baffled oil pan as well, which might be a good investment depending on how much you'll be tracking the car.

 

The primary weakness of cars like the Honda FIT and SMART Cars is that their wheels are simply too small to manuever around in or get traction on deep winter snow.

And yes, the wind chill on the prairies is deadly, both figuratively and literally. I've been stuck in ditches out in the country twice in the past three years. Once it was about -30 C and the wind was howling so hard that we had a snow bank around us within 30 minutes. A passerby picked us up- couldn't tow us though (hopeless), the next day I rolled back with CAA to pull my little FWD Mitsu out of the ditch only to discover we were forty yards from a farm house. The wind and snow was so bad we couldn't even see it past the hedgeline beside the car. We had a feeling it might be there, but when you grow up here you learn young not to leave the vehicle- it's real easy to get lost in a white out (especially when your footsteps are gone in only minutes and freezing to death is a real risk when you're lost on an open plain in a snow storm. [For the record- we had phones both times, but the first we were in an area with no coverage].