2009 Honda Fit

I'm trying to make up for the lack of a single review last month. This time a Honda.


Introduction: The Honda Fit has been around in the North American market since 2006. The first generation despite being outdated when it was first introduced ended up being one of the most popular subcompact cars. Doing well against its competition the Nissan Versa, the Toyota Yaris, the Hyundai Accent, and Kia Rio. In 2009 a brand new version was introduced, being larger than the outgoing model. Honda hopes to continue its success with this new Fit that the old one managed to accomplish.

I was eager to try this car out as I quite liked the older Fit. The older one was easily my favourite among the subcompact cars so I was holding this car up to that standard.


Performance: The Fit gets a newer 1.5L engine that comes with i-VTEC which boosts its power now to 117 hp and 106 lb.ft of torque. Since the car gained a bit of weight due to its increased size this power increase does not translate into a quicker car. It takes about 10.7 seconds to accelerate from 0-100 km/h which is about a second slower than the older car. Fuel economy is still very good and due to how few changes were made to the engine overall over the old one not all that different.

My Score: 7/10 - Has the same good points as the old engine...unfortunately its a bit slower this time.

Handling: I absolutely enjoyed how sharp the old Fit handled in corners despite its so so ride comfort. In this car, I believe the weight has changed the way this car handles. The steering feel is somehow not as capable of producing feel like the old one. Both are electric power steering systems, but somehow this new Fit doesn't seemed tuned to the level of sharpness the old one had. Taking this into corners, because of the larger size I started to feel the high center of gravity and the added bulk. It corners somewhat flat, but definitely not to the standards of the older one. This one had the same feeling of driving a minivan I'm afraid. This car does ride a bit better than the older car, but I feel in this case it doesn't justify losing what I felt made the Fit a good car.

My Score: 6/10 - Disappointing, the Fit lost its nimbleness in favour of becoming a tiny van.


Interior: I had no qualms about the older car's interior despite being mostly plastic. All cars in this segment will have mostly plastic interiors. In the case of the new Fit, unfortunately its a bit easy to see that Honda cut items. The carpet for instance is very thin, the door pouches are made of thin plastic and the wheel is much like the cheap Civic wheel where if you don't buy the options you get very thin plastic with enough holes to be a cheese grater. Honda advertises this car has 8 cup holders...but I don't care, plus how many drinks do you need for a car that carries only 5 passengers? A few of them were cheaply thrown in making them unpleasant. Honda placed the climate controls in a fashion closer to the steering wheel...but filled the center of the console with a ugly stereo. As it is with Honda, this stereo doesn't redeem itself being a low quality sounding system. The good news is due to the Fit's larger size, head room isn't much of an issue for a smaller car and the seats fold flat better allowing a decent amount of cargo room. Fortunately it doesn't have any build quality issues, the Honda Fit is built in Suzuka, Mie, Japan.

My Score: 6/10 - Lots of room considering its size, but it shows a lot more cheapness than before and has a ugly stereo.

Styling: I always thought the old Fit was a rather conservative looking car for Honda. This new one doesn't really change this, the rear is a tad bit different but overall it doesn't look all that different from the old one. Its more round and bigger for certain but no other noticeable changes. It still looks like a pretty decent hatchback.

My Score: 7/10 - Much like the old one not much has changed.

Value for money: This issue was the biggest failing of the older car. I scored the older car a 4 due to its price. This new one sadly does not change this at all. I consider this car to be worse than the older one and due to the changes particularly to the interior is not even justified. Worse yet, it no longer has an outdated Toyota Yaris to push around now with the new Ford Fiesta and Mazda2 arriving. I'm interested in seeing how the Mazda2 fares, it may take the mantle of most fun subcompact that I believed was true of the old Fit. Already the Mazda2 is cheaper, but this Fit at a disadvantage. The cheap interior is not going to help against a re-energized Ford, Hyundai is coming with a new Accent which is certain to have a better interior.

My Score: 2/10 - Even worse value than the old car as its still expensive but feels much cheaper, its competition is better too.

Overall: 28/50 - A disappointment, one of my favourite Hondas has become soft and driver unfriendly vehicle full of nasty cheapness.

2007-2009 Pontiac G6

I didn't intend to skip July...with a busy schedule it wasn't possible to update until today. Hopefully I can make up for that.


Introduction: The Pontiac G6 is the replacement for Pontiac's Grand Am. Its often considered the 6th Grand Am due to it following a similar path as the later Grand Ams being platform mates particularly with the Malibu. The G6 is no different being built on the Epsilon platform which the previous generation Malibu used. Due to GM discontinuing the Pontiac brand and the Saturn brand, both the G6 and Saturn Aura were discontinued by the 2010 model year while the newer seventh Malibu would continue.

The G6 is one of those cars that hid under the radar for the common driver. GM didn't advertise it nearly to the extent that the 2008 Malibu got. The Saturn Aura was also often not even considered because nobody knew about it. The G6 and Aura showed the problem of splitting budget money on 3 cars which are very similar but forced to compete against one another. By splitting the money evenly GM might have ended up with 3 weak cars in the same segment, in this case they spent most of the money on the Malibu leaving the G6 and Aura to fend for themselves. As a result I didn't know what to think about the G6 as I've never thought about them before.


Performance: The standard Pontiac G6 is equipped with a 2.4L 4-cylinder Ecotec engine that produces 169 hp and 162 lb.ft of torque. This engine isn't all that different in character to the 2.2L that comes from the Cobalt/G5. Due to how much bigger and heavier the G6 is, its not as quick as the G5. Despite this, the G6 isn't exactly a slow car. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h takes about 9 seconds which isn't bad considering the ho hum numbers. Fuel economy on this car is also decent. Its not the most refined engine but it does its job well enough that its not a drawback.

My Score: 7/10 - A decent engine, nothing special but crucially nothing nasty

Handling: Taking the G6 in the corners isn't nearly as exciting as certain cars. Its not that the suspension is terrible in the case of the Grand Prix nor is it that the steering feel is totally wrong. Somehow the car doesn't seem to inspire confidence. In this sense the car feels so average that it becomes rather boring. Ride quality from the G6 is also average, its not as plushy as a Buick but certainly not as hard as some Hondas.

My Score: 5/10 - Its not terrible, but its rather joyless.


Interior: Once again there's nothing very special about the interior of the G6. Its a rather dark interior being mostly black. Nothing in this interior grabs your eye, everything is extremely conventional with absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. The plastic is of mediocre quality, most feel rather hard and some are pretty cheap. The rear seats do fold down, I guess that's the most interesting thing to describe about this interior. As for the build quality its medicore, some are properly made others aren't. The G6 is assembled in the United States at the Lake Orion in Michigan.

My Score: 5/10 - Rather uninspired and as a result bland.

Styling: Aside from the Pontiac grille, the G6 is not all that extraordinary on the outside either. The rear is very bland and uninteresting and if it weren't for the Pontiac grille likely wouldn't look any different from any generic car. Due to how uninspired and the lack of passion that went into styling this car I can't give it a good mark.

My Score: 2/10 - You can tell nobody really cared to style this car.

Value for money: Due to how little money was spent in advertising this car and giving it recognition the G6 often is sold at a rather low price. While its very difficult to find a brand new unsold 2010 G6, a used one is very inexpensive to acquire. Many G6s were used as rental cars and as a result resale value is pretty low for a car in this segment. The G6 is also one of the few cars in this segment to offer a convertible rooftop, its competition being the Chrysler Sebring which is truly awful and the not very interesting Toyota Solara. Its not a particularly unreliable car but be aware of minor electrical issues. So long as you don't pay very much for this car it can be of good value.

My Score: 6/10 - Offers a convertible option, resale is very low meaning its great to buy used but terrible to sell from new.

Overall: 26/50 - Its not a terrible car, but you can tell GM put little effort into making it beyond a 4-door sedan. This car still features the old GM mentality of "good enough".