2008 Honda Fit EX CVT from Brazil - Comments

Nothing.

Positive observations of my 2008 Honda Fit EX CVT:

1) I like the continuously variable transmission and the light steering.

2) I like the size and form of the interior space.

3) Pleasant drive on well-paved open road. Miles go by comfortably.

My observations as a result of my experience in driving my 2008 Honda Fit EX CVT:

1) Far too low on the ground. Even at crawling speed, the car frequently bottoms on normal roads (not speed humps).

2) Impossible to see or to judge where the front is (because of shape).

3) Extremely difficult to judge where the near side is (again, because of shape).

4) It is impossible to see traffic lights from the stop line without having to bend forward and crane my neck in order to look upwards at the lights (potentially dangerous).

5) I cannot adjust the driver's seat sufficiently low to improve problem 4.

6) To make the above tolerable I have to recline the back of the driver's seat to an awkwardly low angle but this makes even worse my ability to estimate where the front and sides of the vehicle are.

I really wish I had not bought it, but unfortunately I do not have the money to be able to change it for another car. It is the most difficult car I have ever driven.

Move up to the front seat. The only possible way you could have visibility issues with this car is to drive it from the cargo area in the back!

Where do you live? I might be interested in buying it from you.

I see lots of comments on everything from Buick LeSabres to the FIT about "poor visibility". I'm wondering if the complaints come from 3 foot tall people. I have had no visibility problems in ANY car I've driven in the past 20 years!!

We have a lovely 2001 Toyota Corolla and is it far more difficult to see out of than a Jazz. The Jazz is almost as good as my old Toyota van to see from.

This reviewer lives in Brazil, where I currently live.

A) The roads here are generally very poor: low cars with a hard ride are unsuited to severely pot-holed roads with poor foundations and a tendency to sag due to soil erosion. Readers of this site will often live in countries with better constructed and maintained roads than those of Brazil.

B) Brazil's traffic lights are poorly placed, being on the same side of the junction as the respective cars watching them for permission to cross said junction: either suspended above the road (obscured by the car's roof) or immediately beside the car (obscured by the light's cowl). In Brazil one cannot use the line marked on the road at a junction as the point at which one stops, otherwise one is not be able to see the traffic lights in ANY car. Readers of this site will usually find that their respective Departments of Transport have not made the obvious errors that the Brazilian one has repeated all over this country.

Thus, this comment is more a criticism of the state of Brazilian roads, and their furnishings, than it is of the Honda Fit/Jazz.

Is the original post from US? Cos I drive a Fit Sport, and the Fit doesn't come with a CVT. It's either 5 speed manual or 5 speed Auto. I am not aware of a CVT in any Honda vehicle. Please fill me in.

I agree with the visibility issues. My fiancee has a Fit and although it's a great little car to ride in, I dislike driving it compared to my older Civic. I find myself double checking the mirrors all the time, and parallel parking it is a matter of spacial reasoning ala minivan maneuvering.

"Is the original post from US? Cos I drive a Fit Sport, and the Fit doesn't come with a CVT. It's either 5 speed manual or 5 speed Auto. I am not aware of a CVT in any Honda vehicle. Please fill me in."

If you read their title in the list of postings, it says they are from Brazil.