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- Honda FIT Hybrid uses so little fuel, petrol garage visits are a rare occasion.
- It is ideally suited to cityscapes as it can run on electricity most of the time.
- Not the cheapest hybrid you can buy, but it comes with lots of worthwhile tech.
- For motoring news, go to Wheels24
We spent three months living with the Honda FIT Hybrid, and we have to say it's been a tremendous experience. Despite atrocious petrol prices across the country, we didn't have to worry about filling up because it used so little fuel for our purpose of commuting and daily driving that it has firmly etched itself at the top of our family want-list for 2022.
This FIT Hybrid isn't Honda's first take when it comes to new energy mobility in SA as it sold the previous Jazz here as a battery/electric hybrid, and it offered the Insight and CR-Z here too. What makes our test car and this FIT special is that it's able to turn off its petrol engine to run solely on a compact battery that powers an electric motor situated on its CVT gearbox. They call it an e-CVT setup.
Like the Corolla Cross the team tested in Cape Town, you can drive for an average commute, in our case 15km a day, mainly using battery power. We rarely had to top up the fuel tank around town for the past month. In fact, despite paying R21 plus for a litre of petrol in Johannesburg, R400 was enough to see me make a month's worth of school drop-offs and collections and a trip to the local mall a few times last month. If you need a commuter that will use very little fuel daily, this and the Corolla Cross are the cars for you.
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Just the right blend of features and tech
You're looking at spending close to R500 000 for the Honda FIT Hybrid, but the car's packed with comfort and safety features, and new energy technology that make it worth the money.
Let's start on the comfort side of things. We enjoyed its outstanding ride and predictable handling. The car runs on 185/55R16 eco-focused rubber, so it's not going to win any awards for handling, but rest assured, this vehicle feels sure-footed, with some meat to it in your hands from the light and easy to turn power steering.
The seats are comfortable front and rear, and there's more than enough head, shoulder, hip, knee and legroom here for four, maybe five adults, if you have to squeeze the fifth in the middle on the rear bench.
Incidentally, that rear bench seat folds upwards to give you more flexibility to transport small bikes or boxes. From the driver's seat, we always have a good view from out of the cabin thanks to large windows and a decent seating position, and a proper reversing camera system; it's a cinch to park and move about it regardless of confines.
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Safety-wise, the FIT Hybrid comes with plenty to keep you and your family secure on the road. In the event of a collision, six airbags will deploy to protect you. However, it's the raft of safety features that work to prevent accidents that stand out.
The car is constantly monitoring traffic ahead of you, so if your closing speed to the vehicle in front is cause for concern, the vehicle will alert you that you're coming up on slower-moving traffic too fast. If you use its active cruise control and lane-keep assist, it will comfortably maintain speed and distance and help you steer the vehicle. I made good use of the dynamic cruise control and self-steer system on our run to and from Durban in the car, and the vehicle performed flawlessly.
It's nice having the torque from the e-CVT motor to keep the momentum on the road, as the car doesn't have to hunt for lower ratios to speed up - you simply let it ride on a wave of torque that comes from both the petrol engine and the e-motor.
The brakes on the vehicle are also fantastic, as there were a few instances in Johannesburg traffic where drivers cut in front of us to take gaps that didn't exist. It is not just about having a solid bite to bring the car to a predictable, safe stop; it is more regarding the realistic feel of the brake pedal. Often, vehicles with regeneration technology tend to feel spongey on the braking side of things, but these brakes feel good, and they're easy to modulate at all speeds.
Ideal for SA motorists, pity it's pricey
R484 000 is the exact asking price for this car, and that's a lot of money for any vehicle, but when you look beyond the price, you'll see that you're getting tech and features that would cost you more than a million bucks if you shopped in the premium segment. A petrol engine that cuts off is a massive boon in times like these, particularly as fuel cost is expected to escalate to R40 per litre in the coming months.
We put the FIT through its paces, with long eight hour drives, and it never skipped a beat or threw up any warnings or told us that there was an issue with the battery or CVT. We also drove it in congested traffic, making full use of its ECO setting to maximise fuel consumption. Honda says it will use 3.7-litres/100km in a combined cycle, and we managed to achieve that during our first week with the car, but it's just so much fun to drive that we tended to be a little heavy with our right foot sometimes.
It was also so much fun to quickly scamper away from a standstill at the traffic lights from hot hatches and sporty sedans with internal combustion engines. Overall, the feeling this car gave us was so reassuring as it helped us save petrol money, and it never felt like it lacked features or space (as a family of three).
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At the end of the three-month test, we had used around R1 500 to travel more than 2 000km. We would have done even better if we had just stuck to city driving as that's where this car thrives. We reckon with the right approach to driving it in ECO mode and using its regenerative capabilities, you can easily achieve around 4.0-litres/100km in a combined cycle. That should give you around 1 081km from its 40L fuel tank.
As the fuel cost rises in SA, this is an ideal choice, and it makes sense if you're in a premium car but in need of a change. You can use less fuel, still have all the tech you would want or need, and have that solid Honda engineering to give you peace of mind for many years to come. The car comes with a five-year or 200 000km mechanical warranty and an eight-year or 200 000km warranty for the battery pack.
We'd love to see Honda SA introduce a more affordable version of this FIT Hybrid in SA, perhaps without driver assistance systems or fancy leather and touchscreens. A simplified version, say for around R350 000, will definitely hit a sweet spot. In fact, we think all the Honda FIT models sold in SA should be hybrid as they offer so much value in terms of fuel savings that paying a bit more upfront for a petrol/electric version of the car could make financial sense depending on your needs.
It might not look like a supermodel or have the legs to chase Usain Bolt, but this car is an excellent choice for anyone fortunate enough to have around half a bar to spend on something new in 2022. Would you consider a hybrid like this Honda FIT or a Corolla Cross for your garage? We certainly would, as it's one of the nicest compact hatchbacks on sale in SA at the moment.
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