by Michael GolubiewskiProduction Editor
‘Fit’ to be driven
When gas prices went up to nearly $5 a gallon, Allison Bevan from Mountain Top knew she had to do something.
“I was driving my dad’s old Ford Explorer, and it was just killing me with gas money,” she said. “I decided to go with something that was more gas-friendly, more environmentally friendly, so I bought my first car ever: a Honda Fit.”
Bevan’s Fit is from the 2007 model year. The Fit has been around since 2001 but has only been available in the United States since 2006. (Called Fit in Japan, China and the U.S., the car is known elsewhere as the Jazz.) The Fit replaced the Civic as Honda’s subcompact entry in the U.S. when the Civic was redesigned and made larger. Nearly 3 million Fits have been sold worldwide. The car was originally supposed to be called the “Fitta,” but after learning that was slang for a naughty word in several Nordic languages, Honda shortened the name to Fit.
The car features a 1.5-liter L15A VTEC engine. The inline 4-cylinder engine is a straight 4-cylinder engine that has all of the cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase, and all of the pistons drive a common crankshaft. The fuel tank on the Fit is located under the front, rather than the rear seats. That, along with a semi-independent H-shaped torsion beam rear suspension, allows the Fit to be surprisingly roomy. According to Honda, the Fit offers twice the storage space behind the rear seat than the Fit’s nearest competitor, the Toyota Yaris.
Bevan is thrilled with her choice.
“I can’t say enough about my Fit, I just love it,” she said. “I get about 40 miles to the gallon.”
When choosing her car, she was considering the Fit and a Dodge Caliber.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t think the Caliber was well made,” she explained. “It seemed cheesy. I’ve had my Fit for more than a year, and it hasn’t caused any problems at all. It’s even good in the snow.”
The Fit is capable of delivering about 105 pounds per feet of torque at 4800 rpm, and Bevan said she’s got it to go in a 0-60-mph sprint in about 10 seconds.
“I don’t think I need it to go any quicker than that,” she added, laughing.
Bevan plans to save her money to buy a new 2010 or 2011 Fit sometime this year.
“It works for me,” she said.
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