There seems to be a big marketing push right now aimed at convincing consumers that the Honda Fit is actually cool. While the argument is dubious, the ads are pretty entertaining. This one I actually find mildly offputting, with its implications that cool 60′s cars should be "killed off" in favor of jellybeans like the Fit. But hell, like I always say, the more people the advertisers can get into tiny anonymous road pods, the more gas’ll be left for the rest of us. Enjoy the video!

Last week we showed you the Tjin Edition Pontiac G8, designed by Neil Tjin. Well here’s Neil’s brother Gene Tjin’s Honda Fit, which is also being built for SEMA. Mods include a custom PPG blue/gray one-off paint job, a full custom re-wrapped and stitched interior, audio upgrades by Realm Audio, Magnaflow exhaust, Function & Form fully adjustable coilovers, and matte black 16” 100-spoke wire wheels. Check out his Honda Fit ride page to see how the build is progressing so far, and of course we’ll keep you posted as the car nears completion.

Continue reading "Honda Jazz/Fit" »

Apparently, 80% of Honda Fit owners are female (making it #1 by a wide margin on this list of the Top Ten Cars Driven by Women), but I had a hard time finding a female-owned Fit on CarDomain. So I decided to just use this cool pic of Paulo’s car.

Whoops, somehow I totally missed the 2009 Honda Fit unveil at NYIAS. I guess I was eating lunch. Or writing about something with a little more horsepower. Anyway, my friend, who hates cars, has determined that the Fit offers the best combination of low price, interior space and fuel economy, while fighting off depreciation in that Honda kind of way. In fact, Car & Driver‘s long term Fit had an operating cost of just ten cents per mile. Too bad it’s so homely. And did market research indicate that the politically correct crowd likes cars with fugly, view-obstructing A-pillars?

Anyway, this car-hating friend of mine is buying a 2008 model–he doesn’t feel like waiting for the 2009 model, which looks marginally better, has marginally more hp, is marginally bigger, safer and marginally more high tech. More pics over at Jalopnik, who were a little more on the ball than me.

With gas approaching $4 per gallon a lot of folks are starting to think about getting an econobox for their daily driver. There are a lot of cool options out there. My buddy keeps threatening to buy a Honda Fit. I kind of like the looks of the Yaris–I loved this one at SEMA. And the new Fiat 500 really needs to come to the US. How about old school econoboxes? Of course Jen loves her Escort. And I have a soft spot for Mark 1 Ford Fiestas. But if I had to pick I’d probably go with the Mark 1 Rabbit or the original Mini.

What’s your favorite econobox?