The Honda Fit is comfortable front and back and the interior can be quickly configured to carry big boxes or tall items. All in all, it's a great cabin.
The front seats are supportive, even sporty, far better than what's usually found in subcompacts. The front seats have lots of seat travel, so short and tall people fit in the Fit. All models have the same fabric upholstery and it's nice. The seats are done up in an attractive two-tone design that cleverly matches up when the seats are fully reclined. The fabric itself appears nicer and more durable than that of the Nissan Versa though not quite as nice as that of the xA. The driver gets lots of headroom, 40.6 inches, which is as good or better than the other cars in this class, lots of legroom, nearly 42 inches, and hip room, both comparable to the other cars in the class, though the Versa is a standout in hip room with its giant front seats.
The back seats are impressively roomy, given the size of the car, and surprisingly comfortable. We put three adults back there for a short drive to lunch and all three were quite content. There's lots of headroom front and rear.
Even more impressive are the cargo-carrying options. With the seats in place and ready to take on five people, the Fit offers 21.3 cubic feet of cargo space, more than the Versa (17.8) and Yaris (13.7 for the sedan, 9.5 for the liftback).
Flip the seatbacks down and the Honda Fit offers a low, perfectly flat cargo floor with nearly 42 cubic feet of cargo space. By comparison, the Toyota Yaris offers less than 26 cubic feet in the three-door Liftback, a huge difference, while the Yaris four-door sedan trunk holds less than 14 cubic feet. The Nissan Versa offers just over 50 cubic feet of space, but the back seats don't fold down nice and flat the way they do in the Fit. This makes the Fit better for a dog or anything else that benefits from a flat floor without pitfalls. The Kia Rio5 is also impressive with nearly 50 cubic feet. The Fit's rear seats can even be folded down without removing the headrests, but you'll likely have to scoot the front seats forward to make that happen; or you can easily pull the headrests off, which is what we did. Now, recline the front passenger seat and you can load long objects down the right side of the cabin, which is quite handy.
But wait! There's more: Fold the rear seatbacks down, then lift the seatbottoms up again. Voila! The trunk area is back to the way it was with the seats up, but a big cargo area is now revealed behind the front seats. This is perfect for hauling tall objects, like that Renoir you just inherited from your great aunt or maybe a plant or a bicycle. This area measures 50 inches from floor to ceiling.
The back seats are split 60/40, so you can also have one down, one in place. Leaving the seat behind the driver in this position might be quite useful for grabbing groceries and running errands.
And that's not all! Starting with put the rear seats in their normal position, you can also recline the front seatbacks until they are flush with the rear seatbottoms. Essentially, this turns your Fit into a couch that's sheltered from the elements. Honda calls this the relaxation mode. You (and a friend) can slide back and lean against the rear seatback with your feet on the front seat bottoms, sort of like a chaise lounge. Relaxing, indeed. It would work well at a drive-in theater, if they still existed. It would also be useful when stopping in a rest area for snooze on a long drive, much safer than trying to drive when sleepy.
Visibility from the driver's seat is good, with good mirrors and a panoramic windshield, though there's a bit of a blindspot. The Honda Fit has a comfortable steering-wheel. All of the switchgear (headlights, wipers, power windows, etc.) works well. The center dash is logical.
Audio controls are easy to operate. We liked the giant volume knob and the big buttons for selecting AM/FM, CD, and sound quality as well as the big buttons for pre-set stations. Unfortunately, the pre-sets cannot jump across bands like those in GM cars, more efficient when switching from an FM music station to an AM talk radio station. Also, satellite radio is not available. But we liked the 200-watt, six-speaker stereo that comes on the Honda Fit Sport. A mini auxiliary jack is provided for the Apple iPod and other MP3 players, and the Honda Apple iPod Music Link allows an iPod to be controlled through the main audio interface. With the accessory kit, toss your iPod in the glovebox and it will read out on the dash. Pritti kewel.
Heating and ventilation is controlled with three big knobs, though they're not as easy to grab as it first appears. Neither a sunroof nor a navigation system is available, but the Fit comes with a high level of standard equipment.
The driver gets a big speedometer flanked by a tachometer on the left and a giant fuel gauge on the right, all ringed in silver trim. At night the instruments are backlit in blue. The cruise control switches on the steering-wheel are backlit to match the rest of the interior. At night, blue interior lighting comes on when the doors are unlocked and fades when the ignition is switched on. Honda offers accessory footwell lighting kits to add ambient light. The cup holders work well. Cubbies of varying sizes are scattered about and the glovebox is a decent size. Cargo nets and a tonneau cover are available as accessories. In short, this is a friendly, easygoing car.
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