I’ve been doing unpaid promotional work for the Honda Fit (I own one) for a while now, even though Honda can get fucked since it hasn’t brought the new generation to the U.S. Still, Honda’s early returns on the fourth-generation Fit are very, very good.
Via a Bloomberg wire report, not online that I can see for some reason:
Sales of the small passenger car, sold as the Honda Jazz in Europe, Australia and parts of Asia, climbed 37% in the carmaker’s domestic market of Japan in March to 14,845 units. That compares with a projected decline of 36% for U.S. auto sales in March, according to Edmunds.
That number for the U.S. appears to be for car sales in total, so it’s a bit of an odd comparison, as Honda Fit sales actually dove even more in the U.S.—down 40 per cent in March, according to Honda, compared to last year—surely in large part because of coronavirus.
But, having access to zero market research and acting purely on my own educated guesswork, I’m going to also speculate that the U.S. number is down because the 2020 Fit is the old third-generation Fit. It’s good but is not the new fourth-generation Fit, which is what’s selling in Japan and eventually Europe and seems better.
If you offer an update on a practical, well-made car people seem to like it! And the Fit is still the king of its segment here in the States. Its main competitor is the Toyota Yaris since the Ford Fiesta and Chevy Sonic are dead and no one really thinks about the Nissan Versa or Kia Rio or Mini Hardtop.
Gas may be cheap right now, so perhaps we won’t see a rush toward small cars like we did back in 2008 and 2009, but the Fit is close to the perfect recession car. It’s certainly much better than the expensive truck you think you need. Bring the new Fit to the States, Honda! If you don’t do it now you never will.