Honda Fit: Light is Right
- June 2014
- Hi Steph Simple Living
Hi Steph
A few weeks back I saw you hustling out of Gearheads with a pile of gear slings (presumably for your crack climbing clinic friends) and noticed you’re a fellow Honda Fit driver. I’ve been something of a Southwest Colorado/Southeast Utah resident (read: gypsy) for a couple years and I’ve found the climber culture of driving massive gas guzzling trucks just to get that extra quarter mile closer to the crags is kind of ridiculous. While there’s certainly a place for the 4WD in the desert/mountains and definitely some climbing spots that would be utterly inaccessible without a truck, it just seems confounding to me that a group of people that professes to love the wild places can have an ethic so close to the jeep safari types. As a long time Moab resident and simple living advocate I was just curious what your thoughts are on the matter.David
PS Thanks for dispelling the myth that vegans can’t crush and love your instagram, provides endless entertainment at work
Hi David,
I do have a Honda Fit, and I LOVE IT. Since I traveled in a Ford Ranger for a decade and lived out of a gas-guzzling Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera before that (yes, a truly ideal climber vehicle), I never experienced the thrill of filling up a tank for less than $40 until I got the Fit. It gets about 40 mpg on the high end, and I love that. It’s also super easy to flip the back seats up and down, and I can sleep in it if it’s just Cajun and me.
The downside of the Fit is that certain places I want to go are completely inaccessible. For some reason, it seems to have about .5 inches of clearance. I really want to know why cars can’t have a decent amount of clearance ?!?!!!???! Usually it’s not so much that you need 4wd to get places, but that you need clearance. I want to know why some dang clearance is so much to ask for.
So the Fit is not always the answer–what I did was keep my old Ranger when I got the Fit, since I probably would have got about nothing for it anyway if I tried to sell it, and every once in a while I do need to deploy it to get somewhere remote, though I drive it as little as possible due to the outrageous fuel cost. This seems to be what a lot of people end up doing, if they live in Moab long enough. When you live in Moab, sometimes you do need a beat-up old truck.
Some people have been asking recently to see my sleeping setup in the Fit. So far I have done nothing whatsoever in terms of building it out, though I do have a great idea for a small removable stove shelf that will clamp onto one of those metal bars that the back seats flip up and clip into (you can see one just right of Cajun). I just fold down the back seats, and slide the front seats all the way forward and tip them forward. I fill the space behind the front seats with a rope bag and my climbing pack, and then I put down a twin size mini-futon top (from Ikea). I’m 5’6″ and by doing this I can sleep diagonalish with Cajun curled up next to me. I do cook in there too–I just sit up in bed against the back of the driver’s seat and put my campstove on a very small cooler or tupperware box next to me. Yes, it is slightly sketchy and the cooking I do in the Fit is not very elaborate.
This sleeping setup is good for me + medium/small dog. It would not work for 2 humans (I don’t think) or more than one dog, especially bigger ones. Still, I love the Fit. Maybe it just needs a lift kit and some really big tires…
Hey Steph, greetings from Hong Kong… I follow your blog from time to time and have used a few of your ideas for teaching my climbing students – thanks for the great ideas! (e.g. Taping up) Anyway, I just thought to mention the low clearance is a big reason why your car gets such good gas milage. Aerodynamics and weight are the two major factors that determine your overall milage – weight is the main factor during acceleration, as the car speeds up, aerodynamic drag becomes an exponentially increasing issue. The thing is, the underbelly of your car produces a lot of drag – there are hoses, the exhaust pipe, and other things that cause drag, and entrain the air as it flows underneath. The greater the height under your car, the greater the volume (and mass) of the air that gets pulled along with the car. So, higher car = more gas guzzling. Also, it might be worth mentioning that the more drag a car has, the more impact driving slow will have on improving your milage. So, if you can handle the mental boredom and perhaps social ridicule of driving at “grandma” speeds (45-55mph) in your Ranger, you’ll find milage improves a bit.
Cheers,
James
I was just daydreaming about owning a fit and wondered if I could fit me and a dog in there for the night! Wooot, thanks for answering my question.
Thanks James 🙂 🙂 Yes, you are so right. But I am still thinking, if we send people to the moon and replace hearts, can it be so impossible to make vehicles that get 100 mpg??
yes you can 🙂
Just the entry I needed to see! I was wondering how the Fit did in these exact circumstances. I’ve been driving the same Honda Civic hatchback for 23 years and want something similar. It’s hard to beat the space and the mpg. I remove the front passenger seat- which is easy to do- for road trips and have a platform to level it out and for storage. That gives enough room from glove box to rear for someone who is 6′ 3″ or 4″ and enough for a large dog. (Jericho). Can this be done with a Fit? Mine is the same on clearance and it’s taken some hard hits (holes) in the bottom. I’m with you that it seems we could find a solution for that in this day and age. Thanks for the post. This my be my next car/home for sometime. Always love reading your informative, fun and insightful posts!
Ralph and Jericho
I read an article two or three months ago about how Volkswagen created an engine that boasted 200+ mpg. Which is ironic since they were aiming for 100mpg and just shattered expectations. Even more ironic is that it’s slated to be banned in America for being; of all things, too efficient…..
FYI there is a 4X4 Fit (it’s called the Jazz everywhere else), but only in Japan.
I love my GD3 Fit (’07-’08). It replaced my ’91 Civic Hatchback that I drove into the ground. After 108000 miles on the Fit only then did I need to replace the clutch. Other than that, it has been a fun car to own and super efficient and reliable. I can fit 2 bikes, upright with front tires removed, my dog, all my gear, and a cooler in the back with room to spare. The seat configuration is great! Like yours, it’s time to polish the headlamp lenses.
I use studded Hakkas in the winter and pass trucks on the freeway with ease. I also have a beater truck for the big snows or high-clearance roads, but I use it less and less as I take my Fit deeper into the woods and back trails. It’s all about proper tire placement. You can still get some beefy tires on there (you can get BFG AT tires for the Fit), add a skid guard, beefier shocks and you are good to go. You’ll still be able to get 32-35mpg on average, no less loss than using a roof rack- which I don’t do. The Fit is also the perfect car for getting into rally, if you are into that kind of thing. Hooray for Fit fans!
I so love that you post vehicle stuff…. one thing you (or your taller readers) might find useful: sometimes you can put the front passenger seat or seatback on wingnuts, so it’s easily removable for solo trips. You can then extend the rear platform up into the front passenger space. Good for those of us who can’t quite fit in a Fit 🙂
This is why most semi trucks have front bumpers close to the road and sometimes side skirting under the trailer as well. Class 8 trucks actually have lots of ground clearance without that stuff, but it can yield 2 or 3 mpg, which, at 80-100,000 miles a year adds up fast.
Methane 🙂 (if you live in EU…)
Thanks so much for posting about your Fit and what you can do with it. It would be wonderful if you’d post more about or more photos of it. Although you say you cannot do as much with it as you’d like, I have a weakness for Honda Fits myself. It’d be great to see a view of it from the ground level. Thanks.
I will work on that 🙂 It does do pretty well, it’s just not a 4×4
I will admit: While shopping for a new car last month, I somehow came across the Fit online. Google led me to this article, and finding out you had one sealed the deal 🙂
Steph, I have a fit and love the little guy. I have a proposition for a superior sleeping set up. The way I set up mine is by sliding the front seats all the way forward, removing the head rests, and laying the seats back horizontal as far as they can go. Obviously the rear seats are in the flat mode with head rests removed. The average medium crash pad will fit perfectly in the back flat area and is about the thickness of your front seats laid horizontal. With your head towards the tailgate, your torso and butt rest on the crash pad and just the very bottoms of your legs/feet rest on the front seat backs. By doing this you can sleep two very comfortably without having to lay diagonal and I am 5-8. My buddy who is 6 ft laid down beside me and we still had enough room to not have to cuddle. If it’s just going to be one person sleeping you can leave the drivers seat in the upright position and just leave the front passenger seat laid back to not have to rearrange your sleep set up before you drive around.
great idea! I’m going to try that!
[…] case you need more convincing Fits are the best for gear stuffing, i also used Steph Davis’s post on her fit and two posts from a test drive session honda had with 4 outdoors bloggers including Modern Hiker […]