Mechanics Say the Darnedest Things

I had an amusing moment at the tire store this morning when the guy says, "You're gonna make fun of us, but...can you bring your car into the bay? Neither of us can drive a stick."

This May Not "Fit" My LIfestyle, But It's Intriguing

As has been noted in these pages, I'm very happy with Kevmobile 2.0, which is a 2008 Honda Fit. And since I tend to drive cars a long time (I had the original Kevmobile for 11 years and 338,000 miles and its pre-owned successor for five), I won't be in the market for a new one anytime soon. Still, I'm intrigued by the electric version of my car that Honda is developing, the Fit EV Concept, which the company introduced me last week in an email. There's more info about it here and here, including lots of pictures.

But besides the fact that I have miles and miles to go before even thinking about a new car, there's another reason why I'm not sure that one of these could be Kevmobile 3.0, and it's found in this paragraph from the company announcement:

The Fit EV will achieve an estimated 100 miles driving range per charge using the US EPA LA4 City cycle (70 miles when applying EPA's adjustment factor), well more than the average number of miles driven daily by most commuters.

And while I don't usually drive that much in a given workday, there are certainly times where I'd surpass the 100-mile range (especially when visiting one of my far-flung fraternity chapters), and the EPA-adjusted 70-miles wouldn't even get me to Denton and back (so when I visited UNT, I'd have to find a good parking place and a plug for the car? Not likely...). Still, the technology is intriguing to me, and I'll be following this car as it prepares to hit this country in 2012.

Will Honda's Newest Be a Good Fit?

I've been very happy with Kevmobile 2.0 since I made the purchase in January of this year. As you probably know, it's an '08 Honda Fit, and they seem to have been flying off the lots recently, as gas has gotten more expensive. I received an email from Honda a while back with a link to the 2009 Fit's site, and tonight, I read a preliminary review of the new Fit tonight, from Car and Driver magazine, Here's an excerpt:

We love the Honda Fit. Roomy inside and more fun to drive than a team of coked-up sled dogs, we’ve awarded it a place on our 10Best Cars list two straight years, and it decimated the competition in a seven-car comparison test. Of course, that was the old Fit. There’s now a new model, completely redesigned for 2009, and a few of us in the office have had a chance to take a spin behind the wheel.

And here’s where the problems start. After nearly every drive of a new car, we tend to gather and discuss our individual impressions. More often than not they jibe. When they don’t, though—whoo, boy—expect some fireworks. Regarding this new Fit, we agree on its character—more refined, slightly less frenetic—but we don’t all share a similar outlook on the vehicle’s appeal. West Coast bureau chief Steve Siler, for example, bemoans the car’s newfound maturity and loss of ultimate tossability. On the other hand, associate editor Erik Johnson is more than happy with the changes, finding value in showing people that affordable, fuel-efficient small cars don’t have to be refrigerator boxes with Radio Flyer stickers on the sides and dashboards made of string cheese.

Read the whole thing; it sounds like the jury's still out on whether the improvements are all for the better. (My favorite quote from the review: "The new Fit has 10 cup holders, man.")

Hat tip: Mickey Kaus at Slate, who tries to read between the lines of the review and comes out with the opinion that Honda messed the Fit up. (Of course, he also thinks the "old" Fit--a.k.a. mine--is ugly, so maybe we have to take his opinions with a grain of salt. The Fit's not ugly; this is ugly.

UPDATE: When talking about the review with my Fit Brother, Coop, the next day, we both realized that, despite the hoopla over the new Fit, the next new one that would really interest either one of us was the one that came out when the calendar said "2015" or something like that.