Video: 2015 Honda Fit Review
By Cars.com Editors
September 12, 2014
Share
About the video
Honda's compact hatchback, the Fit, is back for 2015 with a redesign & a host of new entry-level features. Cars.com reviewer Kelsey Mays says that "if the last Fit was already a solid effort, this one is a must-drive for anyone shopping small cars."
Transcript
(car hood slamming) (rock music) (tires screeching) (light rock) We're here with the 2015 Honda fit, a familiar name plate that's been redesigned with a lot of features and attributes that should apply to entry-level car shoppers.
If the last Fit was already a solid effort, this one is a must drive for anyone shopping small cars, we'll show you why. For a couple of generations now, the Fit has had sort of a big bug-eyed look, didn't really fit in that well with the rest of Honda's lineup, this Fit actually looks a lot more similar to cars like the Civic, thanks to things like its really narrow headlights up here. The cabin loses some of the prior Fit's kind of ubiquitous storage, nooks, and crannies, but it retains a pretty open layout here. Some more modern shapes, plenty of room to stretch out, and pretty good visibility, thanks to tall windows, narrow pillars, and a big rear window with head restraints in back there that really nest out of the way in the seats. Speaking of seats, heated leather upholstery available for the first time in the Fit. The leather in our test car, actually pretty good stuff, especially for kind of a subcompact segment car. My only concern is how far back the seat goes. I'm six feet tall. I sit about one click ahead of all the way back here. So if you're much more than six feet, you're gonna want to look at a different car. Overall cabin quality is kind of interesting. Honda invested in some low gloss padded stuff here along the passenger side section of the dash, but the upper doors here, even the door armrests, those don't have any padding at all. I don't know why Honda didn't invest there instead of up here, because these are areas where your arms and your elbows actually fall. Standard multimedia includes a backup camera and Bluetooth streaming audio. Pretty good for a subcompact class kind of car here. Most trims have a seven inch screen right here in the center of the dashboard with the available factory navigation. It's got things like swiping to scroll the map and pinching to zoom. It's pretty quick, works actually almost as quick as most smartphones, which is not something you find in a lot of in-car factory navigation that even has those abilities. Our only complaint here are the capacitive touch buttons to the left of the screen. There's a volume kind of thing. You have to swipe your finger up and down. Not really intuitive to use, not easy to use, and there's no tuning knob to really adjust the radio either. Now Honda claims nearly five inches of additional rear leg room in the redesigned Fit. It's not quite as generous as it sounds. The seat does sit higher off the floor than it did before, a nice high seating position, good thigh support here, but you do lose some headroom in exchange for it. It used to be exceptional in the Fit in the back seat. Now it's just merely, okay. Cargo space down from the last Honda Fit, which had nearly twenty-one cubic feet behind the rear seats. That was about as much as you can get in some small SUV's. This is down to about sixteen and a half cubic feet. So down a bit, but still enough for a lot of gear. Now Honda's magic seat back in action here for 2015, it folds all the way down. It also folds up from the second row, So you can fit taller objects there along the floor. All the way down here, no ledges to go over, a very flat large load floor. Overall space, you're about fifty-three cubic feet, still quite a bit of room, more than double what you get in a Ford Fiesta hatchback. The last Honda Fit sold a lot of its acceleration upfront, kind of very peppy off the line, but not a ton of extra power and reserve, as you needed to kind of merge with faster moving traffic on the highway. Thanks to a new direct injection four cylinder engine, there's more horsepower, but more importantly, more torque in the redesigned Fit. And what that gives you, is a lot more kind of mid-range passing power. It gets you up to those on-ramps without feeling like you're just overtaxing the engine. Part of the benefit comes from a new continuously variable automatic transmission. Pretty good response here, not a lot of kind of CVT drone that you'd expect, almost as good as last year's excellent five speed automatic transmission. Ride quality also improves a little bit. Overall the wheel base has increased a little bit and there's a reworked suspension underneath. And the sum of the parts equals a more comfortable ride, that's not quite as choppy as the last Honda Fit. The new Fit isn't the perfect car, but it blends a lot of refinement utility features for the money, and must have technology in a pretty good package. And so if you're shopping for a small hatchback, this is definitely one you gotta put on your list.
Featured stories

Best Car of 2025
By Cars.com Editors
February 6, 2025

Best SUV of 2025
By Cars.com Editors
February 6, 2025

By Jennifer Geiger and Jennifer Newman
February 5, 2025