Glade I didn't buy the manual transmission. I indend to do cross country driving w/EZ Pass and I like to cruise at 60 m.p.h. I can always engage the paddles if I want the retro 'in-control' feeling. Just by dropping the shift to 'S' forces it to downshift 'in-advance' when slowing just as I would with a manual box. By adding a little braking, you can modulate the slowing rate without having to row thru the gears.

After 3 full days, milage on the first tank of gas is 28 m.p.g. in city driving. Miss an arm rest, a map light, and being able to adjust the seat height, but the economy, and the fun-to-drive enjoyment more than make-up for what I miss. I especially like the I-Pod jack. I changed the metal shifter for the color-matched leather one as this is the only place I can rest my arm (never could do that with a manual.)

I hear the r.p.m. on a manual Fit at 60 m.p.h. is higher- can someone let me know what it is?

 

its not that much higher. i wanna say at 60mph its like 2,700rpms. im not 100% on that though.

 

Somewhere around 3000 RPMs. I'll take a closer look later.

 

At 100km/h my Fit sits dead on 3000. 100km/h = 62.5mp/h

 

Mine is 3,000 on the money at 60 mph

 

Just curious for the manual owners, is the sound from the engine annoying at 60 mph or above?

 

I am jealous of the lower revving automatic, but not enough to buy one.

 

Annoying? No, annoying is the nasty sidewind the Fit can't deal with. The engine is sweet sounding.

 

I figured that might be the case. I drove a Matrix in a strong side wind and it was the same way. Can't really be helped I guess. I was following a friend in a large truck one (in my Integra) and he commented on how my car was not moving in the wind while his was. Being real low helps. Even the heavy (3/4 ton diesel) truck was moving around because it was tall.

 

Yeah, I have never owned a car and tall as the Fit. I guess I'm not used to it. Living here on the prairies it's always windy, and I'm sure SD is the same. I was down there last summer. Hate to drive a full sized van.

 

At 60, it's just under 3000. I'd say about 2900.

Tall cars will get blown around. So will light ones. Try not to get caught between big semis or else you will really feel the air moving around them.

 

Not noisy at all, the engine is incredibly quiet - feels like the Insight with Autostop at a light , you do not even know it is running and not much worse at speed, 65 is the highest I have taken it and it is still pretty quiet.

 

For my taste, it's way too quiet. For an auto it may be ok, but since I have a manual I prefer having more feedback from the engine to make shifting/rev-matching a bit easier. On the plus side though, the engine feels butter-smooth.

 

I have been hearing about the disparity of RPM at highway speed in AT vs. MT for a while. How is it that the two trans. options are so closely rated in EPA highway milage?

 

I am thinking any actual advantage the auto has in lower r.p.m. is lost in the changing of gears where power is wasted (vs. a manual.)

 

4th w/auto @ 60 mph = 3100 rpm (+/- 50)

 

stick is geared approx 20mph/1000rpm. auto is geared approx 26mph/1000rpm. The auto is going to rev far less and feel much more relaxed in high speed cruising

 

My friend and I test-drove both an automatic and a manual Fit Sport back-to-back yesterday, and these are the approximate RPM readings we observed:

Manual at 60 mph: 2900 RPM
Manual at 70 mph: 3500 RPM
Manual at 80 mph: 3900 RPM

Auto at 60 mph: 2300 RPM
Auto at 70 mph: 2600 RPM
Auto at 80 mph: 2900 RPM

As I mentioned when I included these figures in my review of the Fit in another thread, actual owners will certainly be able to supply more accurate readings as they spend time with their cars, but I think these are pretty close to accurate -- not off by more than maybe 100 RPMs at most.