8th Generation Honda Civic Forum - View Single Post

arisenfury · 04-14-2007, 08:43 AM

Seems there was some interest in a write up between the two cars comparing them so I'll do a quick one for those who are interested.

First the Civic: I loved the Civic, the styling is great, the engine is wonderful and the highway MPG was pretty nice. However in basic suburban driving I never saw anything near 30 after the first few months of owning the car. On average I would usually get about 25 with conservative driving, dealer kept telling me it was fine. Which brings me to another point, on the Civic I had the 5 speed auto. I'll never get an automatic transmission in a new car again. The ECU "learns" your driving style and if you drive it spiritedly enough it tends to cruise in 3rd or 4th gear, instead of 5th and downshifting when you need to accelerate. I'm guessing this was a major cause of the gas mileage. The interior of the Civic looks nice, I definitely miss the two tier output and the digital speed readout. However the interior quality, like many know, is pretty crappy. Back seats in the Coupe sucked for anyone other than my nieces and sisters. Another factor of me changing out were the two doors, as i was sick of the interior getting torn up with people crawling into the back. Decent sized trunk, hard to get some items in there, and the seats don't fold perfectly flat. The Civic was Honda's entry level car, it used to be priced cheaply with a good deal of standard equipment, however to get a Civic with auto, a/c, power door locks/mirrors, a radio, center armrest, etc. is in the 18k range MSRP. But you still get the entry level quality. So there is the DX which I opted for, and I would have kept the car if it had any of the basic features that it should. Or even if they brought a DX-G model stateside. I priced it out to add on the features myself its astronomical.

Honda Fit: I really like the styling of this car, it's not as sleek and sporty as the Civic, but I don't want a sports car anyways. The motor is on the weak side on paper, but surprisingly the car is quick. I think it was Motortrend that did a write up on the car vs the other new 4 and 5 door sub compacts... The Fit had the second smallest engine, and the best acceleration to 62mph at around 8.7 seconds and the 1/4 in the mid 16s. That's about on par with my Civic. In addition the car is getting better gas mpg than the Civic, which is expected due to the smaller engine. Many people say the Fit and Civic have about the same MPG, which isn't the case. There's a big difference between 30 city and 33 city. On a 10 gallon tank, that's an extra 30 miles. Where it hurts is the highway, with the 5 speed manual to cruise at 70 is in the mid 3,000rpm range. If you go up to 80 you'll be cruising in VTEC. For this the Fit only gets about 38 on the highway to my Civic Auto's 40. The interior of the Fit is much more durable so far than the Civic's. Although I miss the gauges of the Civic as well the Fit's still look pretty nice. Interior space is huge compared to the Civic, despite it being much more narrow. The rear seats are closer to the space provided by an Accord. The trunk it's self is pretty small and my subwoofer takes up most of that room. However the 60/40 seat can fold completely flat to the ground as the gas tank is under the front seats instead of under the rear seats. This provides a loading space on par with my old Chevy Blazer. The hatchback is nice as well, so much easier than working with a trunk. The 6 speaker 200 watt radio is nice as well. Built in equalizer, mp3 jack, mp3 cd support, etc. Also there is TONS of aftermarket support for this car. Price wise you can't go wrong. The Sport models are pretty much the same as DX pricing was. The Fit Sport 5MT is cheaper than my old Civic DX Coupe 5AT, and it comes with keyless entry, power everything, alarm and radio. This was a huge factor as I was actually pricing to upgrade to an LX, I considered a Fit but I couldn't find them, just so happened to find one hiding while looking at LXs. And for everything that's in a Civic LX, you can get for 2,000 cheaper in the Fit.

If anyone has any other questions between the two that I didn't answer, feel free to ask.

04-14-2007, 08:43 AM	#1 (permalink)
arisenfury Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Central CT Age: 21 Posts: 1,817 Nikon & dSLR squad #6 iTrader: 0 / 0%	Fit Sport vs Honda Civic (DX) Seems there was some interest in a write up between the two cars comparing them so I'll do a quick one for those who are interested. First the Civic: I loved the Civic, the styling is great, the engine is wonderful and the highway MPG was pretty nice. However in basic suburban driving I never saw anything near 30 after the first few months of owning the car. On average I would usually get about 25 with conservative driving, dealer kept telling me it was fine. Which brings me to another point, on the Civic I had the 5 speed auto. I'll never get an automatic transmission in a new car again. The ECU "learns" your driving style and if you drive it spiritedly enough it tends to cruise in 3rd or 4th gear, instead of 5th and downshifting when you need to accelerate. I'm guessing this was a major cause of the gas mileage. The interior of the Civic looks nice, I definitely miss the two tier output and the digital speed readout. However the interior quality, like many know, is pretty crappy. Back seats in the Coupe sucked for anyone other than my nieces and sisters. Another factor of me changing out were the two doors, as i was sick of the interior getting torn up with people crawling into the back. Decent sized trunk, hard to get some items in there, and the seats don't fold perfectly flat. The Civic was Honda's entry level car, it used to be priced cheaply with a good deal of standard equipment, however to get a Civic with auto, a/c, power door locks/mirrors, a radio, center armrest, etc. is in the 18k range MSRP. But you still get the entry level quality. So there is the DX which I opted for, and I would have kept the car if it had any of the basic features that it should. Or even if they brought a DX-G model stateside. I priced it out to add on the features myself its astronomical. Honda Fit: I really like the styling of this car, it's not as sleek and sporty as the Civic, but I don't want a sports car anyways. The motor is on the weak side on paper, but surprisingly the car is quick. I think it was Motortrend that did a write up on the car vs the other new 4 and 5 door sub compacts... The Fit had the second smallest engine, and the best acceleration to 62mph at around 8.7 seconds and the 1/4 in the mid 16s. That's about on par with my Civic. In addition the car is getting better gas mpg than the Civic, which is expected due to the smaller engine. Many people say the Fit and Civic have about the same MPG, which isn't the case. There's a big difference between 30 city and 33 city. On a 10 gallon tank, that's an extra 30 miles. Where it hurts is the highway, with the 5 speed manual to cruise at 70 is in the mid 3,000rpm range. If you go up to 80 you'll be cruising in VTEC. For this the Fit only gets about 38 on the highway to my Civic Auto's 40. The interior of the Fit is much more durable so far than the Civic's. Although I miss the gauges of the Civic as well the Fit's still look pretty nice. Interior space is huge compared to the Civic, despite it being much more narrow. The rear seats are closer to the space provided by an Accord. The trunk it's self is pretty small and my subwoofer takes up most of that room. However the 60/40 seat can fold completely flat to the ground as the gas tank is under the front seats instead of under the rear seats. This provides a loading space on par with my old Chevy Blazer. The hatchback is nice as well, so much easier than working with a trunk. The 6 speaker 200 watt radio is nice as well. Built in equalizer, mp3 jack, mp3 cd support, etc. Also there is TONS of aftermarket support for this car. Price wise you can't go wrong. The Sport models are pretty much the same as DX pricing was. The Fit Sport 5MT is cheaper than my old Civic DX Coupe 5AT, and it comes with keyless entry, power everything, alarm and radio. This was a huge factor as I was actually pricing to upgrade to an LX, I considered a Fit but I couldn't find them, just so happened to find one hiding while looking at LXs. And for everything that's in a Civic LX, you can get for 2,000 cheaper in the Fit. If anyone has any other questions between the two that I didn't answer, feel free to ask.