Driving the 2015 Honda Fit, made smaller to get bigger

If you think the Accord sedan is a big deal to Honda here in the U.S., you’re right. Ditto the compact, economical Civic. But at a global level, those cars may not necessarily be what Honda considers its most important car. For the future of the Honda brand, think small.

Honda has been gone on record saying that its future rests on its small cars, which explains why Honda has made the new 2015 Fit so good at its job. As ever, the 2015 Fit’s mantra is “small on the outside, big on the inside.” And so the wheelbase has grown 1.2 inches to 99.6, but length has shrunk 1.6 inches to 160 inches.

Since such stubby proportions tend to make cars look about as sexy as Danny DeVito in a chaise lounge, Honda designers tried to make the new Fit look longer and wider than it is, starting with a higher beltline and narrower windows. New horizontal headlamps replace last year’s triangular assemblies and are connected by a chunky, three-dimensional black grille underscored a thin band of chrome.

The Fit’s new upside-down question mark LED taillamp shape is cool, mimicking those found on new Volvos, though unlike their Swedish lookalikes, the upper portions in the pillar are just red plastic and do not light up. That minor gripe aside, the Fit projects some bona fide coolness, especially next to some of its dowdy competitors like the Scion xB and Toyota Yaris.

However little the Fit’s overall size and profile have changed, some beneficial redecorating has occurred inside. Refined design replaces the last model’s low-rent décor, with more metallic trim, soft touch materials and a dashboard that is as sensible as ever but more aesthetically pleasing.

Under the hood is a heavily reworked, direct injected 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine bumped in horsepower from 117 hp to 130 hp at 6600 rpm, with torque gathering another eight lb-ft, to 114 lb.-ft. at a reasonably accessible 4600 rpm.

Even bigger changes have occurred in the transmission department, starting with a new six-speed manual transmission that replaces the last model’s ancient five-speed unit. The old Fit’s five-speed automatic has also gone away in favor of a new continuously variable transmission, which features a sport mode that keeps the engine revving at higher rpms and seven simulated gear ratios through which one can manually shift via shift paddles on EX and EX-L models.

Alas, in terms of weight, the Fit remains pretty fit: much of the body structure and suspension pieces were lightened, which allowing the fitment of many new features without adding much to the curb weight. More remarkable is the jump in fuel economy, from 27 mpg city / 33 mph highway and 28/35 for last year’s manual and automatic transmission models, respectively, to an impressive 29/37 city/highway mpg for the manual, and 33/41 mpg for the CVT.