Due to recent stupidity I was forced to replace the battery in my Honda Fit Fob. I have push button start and keyless entry.

Now listen. Replacing the battery isn't hard. If you have descent eyesight, no arthritis or other condition. It's is much more an easier task, than harder. BUT...

Not just the Fit, but other vehicles I have owned. Why not make it easier?
With the Fit, I still had to remove the metal key portion, carefully pry around the edge, with a coin or flat edge, and carefully separate the cover. Then I had to "pop" the battery out, which is held by some very small and what look like easily breakable tabs. All this while hoping I don't slip or damage any nearby electronics.

While if I go to The Dollar Tree, and buy almost any $1.00 battery powered gadget, I'll usually get something with a direct battery cover, that you simply open, remove the battery and close.

As expensive as fob replacement can be? Couldn't they be designed better. To make battery replacement a direct intrinsic part of the design, instead of an operation of partial disassembly?

Please, don't bother posting to tell me how easy you think it is, I get it's NOT that hard, it just seems to me, it's more complicated than it needs to be. And that's the point. Every fob I have owned, seems like battery replacement was a secondary thought in the fob design.
Almost nothing else I own that is battery powered do I need to remove the cover like I was in laboratory conditions, then surgically remove the battery, like a malignant tumor. Seems like just a tweak in design would make it a lot easier for everyone. Especially those that might be farsighted or suffer from conditions that make minute precise movements challenging.

 

I do not own a keyless-entry-and-start Fit, but two of my other cars are - an MDX and an Odyssey. I took the Ody remote apart once to replace the battery and all those little plates that indicate "unlock," "lock," "right side door," "left side door," etc fell out. That is pretty silly in my mind.

 

im glad i have a plain jane lx regular key

 

The fit should have in the accessory catalog the world's smallest violin in case anyone wants to order it...

 

I agree with you in terms of replacing the battery, sometimes a pocket screw driver is needed to pop it out of its slot when trying to find the gap below or to the side of the battery. I feel that it would have been a better idea to have a designated slot with a charge port as well as have a rechargeable and serviceable battery within the Smart Key itself would have been a better choice. BMW & MINI have done similar in the past with their Comfort Access feature but on the other hand, those batteries were integrated with the key, not serviceable and not cheap to replace... So that could be Honda's reasoning for not having such a system.

Opening the case is absurdly easy for most people and don't require ANY tools... Just use the Smart Key's blade in the little "valley" of its storage slot. There's a slight plastic reduction with a gap large enough for the key blade. Insert, slight twist of both and the case splits, taking all of maybe 5 seconds. If you look at the 0:38 second mark of the video below, you can see the "valley" I refer to as the slot to insert the key blade and open the fob up.