I was reading through some of the gripes about the Fit but couldn't read them all (that thread is 133 pages long!). I came across one from October where Milano Pink said one gripe is that that, with A/C on, the Fit slows driving uphill. Is this common? My mother-in-law's Kia does this and it drives me nuts!

 

The car has a 1.5L engine, it does not have an overabundance of power to spare when ascending a grade.

Push the gas pedal down as needed to maintain speed.
Most of the cars are programmed to turn the AC compressor off while the throttle is close to fully depressed (approx. 75% and greater), as the compressor does require a significant amount of power to operate.

If driving a manual trans car, downshifting may also be necessary to maintain a given speed.


HTH

 

^^ This, and explains it all. We have some uphill here but doesn't an issue with our Fit.

 

Yes it's f-n slow up hills. Car doesn't have much torque.
And A/C is not very cold.
The car gets good milage and has a ton of cargo space.
If abundant power and good A/C is your priority, skip the Fit.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. The uphill thing aggravates me when driving my mother-in-law's Kia but it's not a deal breaker. I just feel like I'd rather know about it before I buy the car than be surprised by it later.

The A/C not getting very cold, though... I don't know. That might be a deal breaker. I live in Georgia and we see high heat + high humidity for more than half the year.

 

YOu might invest in a AC service gauge kit and make sure the pressure is DEAD on, R134 efficiency gets really bad if its running even a lb low on pressure.

 

Not to sound like a dummy but what is an AC service gauge kit? Is that an extra kit to optimize AC performance? I'm about anything that'll maximize air conditioning!

 

Pressure (service) gauges are used for service and repair of refrigeration systems.....The average user has no need for them. A service tech is the one who would have and use them.

That said, the AC systems are quite small with little reserve capacity so any loss of refrigerant (leakage) can cause a noticeable loss of performance (cold).

 

Thanks for the reply ezone. Gosh, I really wanted a Fit but I just don't know about driving a car that's known to have less than stellar a/c performance. I guess I should probably wait until summer to test drive if I'm still gonna try to go forward with purchasing. At least that way I can see what it can do when the weather is at its worst here...

 

Something else (I've noticed) they have been doing in the small cars is make the AC system cycle the compressor at a slightly higher evaporator temp than they used to, surely in the interest of better gas mileage.

I'd guess they bumped up the compressor cycling temps by about 3*, from mid 30s to high 30s.

I think the coldest I've ever seen from my dash vents is 42 F (I drive a 12 Civic), but bigger Hondas like the Accord/Odyssey/Pilot can often produce dash vent temps that will dip into the high 30s.
(YES I drive around with a digital thermometer stuck in my vent all the time LOL)

 

The AC works just fine for me, and WI has many days around 90 with high humidity in late summer.

As far as climbing hills goes...I turn off the AC when I'm about to go uphill, generally by the time I'm at the top of the hill the air coming out is still ice cold so I just turn it back on when going back down.

My 5MT Fit is perfectly fine at maintaining speed, automatics definitely less so.

 

Fit has a very large cabin for a sub compact car. The car has a small engine with an A/C designed for max MPG. So it takes a long time to cool the interior after it has been parked in the sun. The large windows lets a lot of sun in and the A/C cannot keep up if you don't have the gangster tint on the windows.

I have taken my Fit to Colorado and I could not pass a Toyota Tundra towing a camper up the steep hills. The power is just not there even with the 5 speed manual. I went up some of the passes at 6000 RPM at 3rd gear. Car never overheated or used any oil, but it's just not fun to have to flog a car that much on a lot of the mountain passes.

I have been to Georgia with the Fit. Everyone down there seems like they are driving NASCAR style. I felt like I was going to be run over by all the fast drivers down there. It's a lot of work to keep up with traffic.

I have gone trough Wisconsin a lot with the Fit. The terrain there is relatively flat so I had no problems whatsoever going up the gently rolling hills. Summer was humid there but not too hot and A/C kept up just fine.

Other than the crappy power and the weak A/C & heater, it's a pretty good car. It really depends on where and how you drive the car.

 

I'll just echo what the other guys have said. I live in Alabama, so I get to have the same hot humid summers you have in Georgia. Getting really good window tint as dark as possible and making sure the A/C system is fully charged with refrigerant is key. Mine along with a lot of other guys on here was just a little low on refrigerant from the factory. I used one of the ~$35 recharge kits from Walmart to top mine off and it made a big difference in cooling performance.