I have read about the Honda Fit on these pages in the past,i didn't know it was a Jazz with a name change.

According the release I read, a new sports car based on the CR-Z show car would also go hybrid. News to me, anyway.

thats great! how much mpg? if its not in the 60's DONT MAKE IT!

Honda will make a killing with this piece. God bless 'em.

[citroen.cars.free.fr] If you want great mpg,then buy a Citroen AX 1.4,they do 105 mpg.Not the best looking car though.

@brandegee:
That would be great. I'd love to see a new version of the CRX HF but alas, consumers of new vehicles seem to need utility and space. I hoped they are not turned off by the lack of success of the Insight (and even the Accord Hybrid).

I wish I could say I don't understand the thought processes surrounding making a "Hybrid" that's $15K more expensive but gets maybe 5 miles per gallon better than my little Civic. Unfortunately, these cars are sold just as much for the impact on the driver's psyche than on the environment. Simply because it makes you feel like you're making a difference, you buy it. What a dumb world. Running on emotions rather than logic? Super. Just super. It's no wonder this country's going down the tubes.

I'm just mesmerized by Honda's new corporate "alien fallopians" steering wheel.

@Unevolved: Whoop!:
Well if they get it down to $5k and 15mpg then it's not such a bad deal. And since when did Americans make decisions based on anything but their emotions?

@Ash78: Ummm. Fried "alien fallopians." Oops, from a green car...better broil them.

@Unevolved: Whoop!: People have bought things, cars especially, on emotion rather than logic for as long as they've been buying things.

A cheap plastic poncho keeps you just as dry as a Burberry raincoat. It's all about the image you project and the way it makes you feel.

@anaxomander:
@Gavin082:

That's exactly what I'm getting at. It's kind of a shame, and a little depressing, that Americans dote so much on image and emotion. Don't get me wrong, a sports car is a completely emotional purchase. No one needs a sports car. But that's completely a guilty investment, and the buyer knows that. But the fact that Hybrids are bought under almost-false pretenses about being ages and eons better for than the environment than a "normal" car? Yuck.

There's a rash of complaints about the AC systems sucking down the MPGs to mid 20's. Good little car if you live up in Yankee land I suppose. I get 32 MPG in my 97 Civic though and stay frosty.

@Gavin082: nah, cheap ponchos suck and are for emergency (stashed in the trunk) use only. gimme a yellow flagman's slicker anyday.

fuck burberry, though, and the horse it rode in on

You also have to keep in mind that any new car from Honda or Toyota is far safer now than it was even just 10 years ago. You could get a 25 year old CRX that gets this kind of mileage, but you have very high odds of dying in a 25-30mph crash with a stationary object (as a friend of mine almost did. Spent 6 months in traction.) ...whereas in a new Civic or Fit, you might only spill your coffee. The cost is not pure waste, it's just not all going towoards fuel economy.

As people have pointed out, anyone could make a 100mpg car right now, but no Americans would buy it after seeing the crash ratings. So what good is it?

@Unevolved: Whoop!: I don't know about you, but I need a sports car. Bad.

Hell, if people are paying $7k+ for mid 90's Geos, this Fit Hybrid should sell for, what, $100k? [consumerist.com]

I will never give up my fuel addiction,if the world goes tits up,i will still be burning fuel Mad Max style.

Consumer traits seem to have taken an interesting turn. For nearly 100 years the "consumerist" was someone who bought items to show their prosperity, keep up with the Joneses style. Nowadays, that seems to be shifting (albeit gradually) to staying greener than the Joneses. This seems to defy logic. Being a consumerist and being green are directly at odds. The more crap you buy, the less green you are. Yes, there are things you can buy that are more environmentally friendly than others, but ultimately, its been proven that buying a new Prius is more damaging to the environment than driving a 20- year old buick. But, I guess if you're gonna buy some new piece of crap anyway, you might as well buy the "most green" you can, though its even debateable if hybrids are even all that. So then we're back to stroking Al Gore sized egosand acting holier than thou.

Why is it so hot and why are we all in this handbasket?

I'm holding out for a Metro with a couple of D cells.

@layabout: They wanted to combine the names, maybe call it Fat or Jizz, neither one tested well in beta.

"...starting to make sense." Starting!? Crapsticks, if I could make the thing run on sunbeams I'd do that! I don't want to pay for my mobility at all. Buy it once and be done with it.

Where's that guy with the add-on panels for the Prius?

@Elhigh: Haha,the Honda fat jizz, nice!

@mechimike: I agree with the first part of your post. We seems to be skipping over the step that asks if we need this crap in the first place, and just moving directly to the "green" equation.

I disagree with the second part of the post. The studies that have been thrown out there regarding materials costs and energy required are crap. They assume the worst case scenario for the Prius and the best case scenario for the truck. One study assumed a Hummer would last 225k miles and the Prius would only last 75k miles(by the way, they're find that the battery packs are lasting 100-125k miles in real world use). They also often fail to put a measure on the reduced pollution over the lifetime of the car. With any consumer issue, there is a cutoff. Is it better to drive an old truck for one or two years compared to a Prius? Yes, of course. The key is to look at long term materials costs, gas savings, reduced pollution, etc.

Finally, as others have posted, its not entirely logic based. Some of it is emotional and thinking you're doing better for the planet...and in many cases, you are doing better.

Did ANYONE read the end of this post? The hybrid option is only supposed to add $2k to the price. That's the cost of a navigation system in most cars, and I'd much rather have the hybrid drivetrain.

Of course, that'll probably be more like $7k once the dealer tax is added on.

@ARP: Actually, the second part of his comment is also at least partly right, depending on how you look at it.

His example of a 20-year-old Buick is, in the near and mid term, more 'green' than ordering a new hybrid, because it already exists, and therefore the energy consumed and pollution that would released making a new car is foregone and doesn't count.

The fuel savings of new hybrid aren't enough to make up the difference, except over the very long term. So where his argument falls apart is over the long term, wherein at some point the 20 year old Buick is going to have to be replaced by something. May as well be a hybrid/econobox.

gimme it!

And I never actually said that the Tahoe was more "green" than the prius, cited any of those studies about lifetime C)2 emissions, or anything. I merely positted that it was _debatable_ how much greener a Prius is than any other new car. I certainly think a standard Fit, even at _only_ 38mpg, is probably going to exhibit less of a carbon footprint than the hybrid, unless Honda can bend Physics and get 80 mpg out of the bugger

And again, I did say, if you're going to buy some "piece of crap", at least "buy the most green that you can".

Though it'll be easier to make that Buick last 20 years than a Prius, I suggest.

@weconway: Hell yeah.

Fuck being green, my next car's going to have injectors like kitchen faucets.

I don't know about the rest of you, but this green trend is having the opposite effect on me. I want to use as much gas for as long as I can.

You can have my V8, but you'll have to shoot out my tires at 95 mph first.

As long as it is not slow as balls, I kind of want one. If I could get a hybrid with nav that gets 40 - 50 mpg for $20k, I would seriously consider it.

This is a nice start, in theory, but until there is a diesel-electric hybrid tipping the scales at under 1,500 lbs., then it's just playing around.

Hybrid = feel good for egotistical geeks (not all of them, of course)

high MPG = low weight, low(er) performance, fewer 'luxury' goodies = no sales

Good luck to Honda. I thought the Insight was damned near the perfect commuter car for 85% of the population, but 98% of Americans will continue to plow along in 12 MPG Excursions/Suburbans until they're walking. Had I been in the position to need a replacement ride, while they were new, I'd have bought one. As it stands, the Fit is #1 on the list.

Hell, I've managed to get my wife's paid-for-so-it-stays-around-indefinitely '02 RX300 AWD up to about 23 MPG, in the city. 25.5, or so, on the highway. You just gotta drive like you barely have a pulse, though not stupidly, i.e. 'hypermiling' morons, and plan far, far ahead. Brake pads should last pretty much forever, driving like this.

Coming to a stop on an uphill grade, at the crosswalk, without touching the gas or brake, is a feeling of accomplishment I never thought I'd enjoy to the degree I do.

If my career gets kicked off this year, the Fit is currently at the top of my car list. I'm not sure I'll wait around for the hybrid though, I'm not so much concerned with being green as I am with saving money on transportation.

I'd be interested in this...if they can do it for around 16k...hopefully you'd see something like 40/50 mpg.

@Kelly: Yeah I tried to buy an Insight shortly after they came out. It was ridiculous what the dealers wanted. (Hint I could get a new Passat for less.) This was near San Francisco so maybe there were more nuts around there.

@Kelly: Responsible hypermilers don't clog the roads - if it looks like I'm causing any kind of complications for the leave-late-drive-fast types, I'll get off the I-state and take surface streets. It's easier to mask your hypermiling there. A smooth, unruffled pace and lots of forward-looking as you described will produce a euphoria-inducing relaxed float from green light to green light.

Once I had a guy starting to look pretty incensed behind me, tooling along at 5mph below the limit. Then we breezed up to the light just as it turned green. Then the next one. He calmed down.

No ones cares that if all cars are hybrid manual transmission go bye bye? This is what concerns me the most

@layabout:

I'm pretty sure the Jazz is a Fit with a name change. (It's called the Fit in Japan)

@Elhigh:

I like that that's becoming fashionable now. I learned to do that because it was faster than spinning your wheels at stop lights in winter.

My local paper reported on this yesterday. They said Honda officials are trying to get the hybrid system down to a $1,900 premium over the standard model. They feel very strongly about that price point. Here's hoping they succeed! I first heard rumors of a Fit Hybrid a year or two ago, since it reportedly has the identical wheelbase as the Insight.