Honda Fit: the small car with the folding magic seats

The Honda Fit, or Honda Jazz, is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda since 2001 over four generations. With a five-door hatchback body, it is a supermini in the United Kingdom, a subcompact in the United States and a light car in Australia.

Honda Fit at a glance

Based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on the Fit.

History of the Honda Fit

A one-box small car

Sharing Honda’s global small car platform with the City, Airwave, first-generation Mobilio, Freed and HR-V/Vezel, the Fit is noted for its one-box or monospace design, a fuel tank located forward under the front seats, and configurable seats that fold in several ways to create boot space of different shapes and sizes, with volume competitive with larger vehicles.

Markets and names

The first-generation Fit debuted in June 2001 in Japan and reached Europe in early 2002, Australia in late 2002, South America in early 2003, South Africa and Southeast Asia in 2003, China in September 2004 and Mexico in late 2005. Honda uses the Jazz name in Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, Africa, Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia and India, and Fit in Japan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan and the Americas. The car is built at ten plants in eight countries, and sales reached almost 5 million by mid-2013.

Hybrid and electric

Honda released hybrid petrol-electric versions of the Fit in Japan in October 2010 and in Europe in early 2011. In 2012 it launched the Fit EV in the United States and Japan, a limited-production all-electric version based on the second generation and widely regarded as a compliance car.

Fourth generation

The fourth-generation model, released in 2019, is sold in Japan, Europe, China, Taiwan, South Africa, Brunei and Singapore. From 2020 it was phased out in most Southeast Asian and Latin American markets in favour of the larger City Hatchback and withdrawn from North America because of falling demand.

Design and features

• One-box packaging: small outside, roomy inside.
• Forward fuel tank: the basis of the folding-seat layout.
• Configurable seats: several folding patterns for cargo.
• Hybrid and EV versions: from 2010 and 2012.

Honda Fit versions

• First generation (2001): the original Fit/Jazz.
• Hybrid (2010–2011): petrol-electric version.
• Fit EV (2012): limited-production electric car.
• Fourth generation (2019): the current model.

The Fit shares its platform with the Honda City and HR-V, and sits below the Civic. More Hondas are in the Honda collection.

Sources

• Honda Fit, English Wikipedia: generations, packaging, markets, hybrid and EV