The Honda Fit has always been an appealing urban runabout, with its tidy size, voluminous interior, amazing versatility, and good fuel economy. Fortunately, the redesigned third-generation Fit carries on these qualities, while adding a lot more creature comforts, better crash-test performance, and a new engine and transmission to improve fuel economy.
As good as the Fit is, though, it's still limited by many of the same shortcomings as most subcompacts. Ultimately, it's not a good fit for everybody.
If you're looking for a long-distance commuter, it's not hard to find a larger, more comfortable compact sedan or hatchback priced similarly to what we paid for our mid-trim Fit EX. The Fit's loud cabin noise, rough ride, and slow acceleration may make this little Honda too taxing for long trips. Even compared to some other subcompacts, the Fit feels undeniably tinny.
The new continuously variable transmission boosts fuel economy to a competitive 33 mpg overall, but it also makes acceleration feel like you're hitting a wall of sound. This might be an acceptable trade off for efficiency if the Fit were more fun to drive.
It's nice that the Fit offers luxury features such as a sunroof, seat heaters, Bluetooth, and a backup camera. Unfortunately, opting for a Fit EX to get some of these features also brings a frustrating touch-screen system that doesn't always respond as expected. All told, given its $19,000 price tag with the automatic, we would opt for the less expensive LX version that includes everything you need for about $2,000 less.
Keep in mind that Fits built in the first few months did not perform well in the difficult Insurance Institute for Highway Safety small-overlap front crash test. Cars built after June 2014 have reinforcements for better crash performance; these upgrades can be retrofitted to earlier 2015 Fits at no charge.