10 Reasons the 2018 Honda Fit is the AutoWeb Buyer’s Choice Best Hatchback

2018 Honda Fit Sport hero ・ Photo by Honda

The Honda Fit is a popular hatchback among the AutoWeb staff. We love its practicality, its cute styling, and it's fun- and easy-to-drive manner. And apparently, we are not alone: The 2018 Honda Fit won the AutoWeb Buyer's Choice Best Hatchback Award — proving that consumers, too, see the advantages of this useful little car.

Why did the 2018 Fit take home the award? Let's take a closer look.

10) The 2018 Honda Fit is a good long-term investment.

Honda has a reputation for excellent build quality, and it's entirely deserved. The Fit is built to last, and if you drive it carefully and follow the service intervals religiously, chances are it'll last just as long as you want to keep it. We have staffers with Hondas that are still going strong well past 100,000 miles, and we've heard stories of Hondas going well past the quarter-million mark.

If you're the type who likes to buy a car and drive it until the wheels fall off, the Fit is a great choice — and once the wheels do fall off, you can bolt 'em on again and drive another 100,000 miles!

Photo by Honda

9) The 2018 Honda Fit puts smaller SUVs to shame.

Compare the Honda Fit's cargo capacity — 16.6 cubic feet with the rear seat in place and 52.7 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down — to some of today's subcompact and compact crossovers and SUVs. You'll figure out in a jiffy that the Fit is just as useful for hauling cargo than many of them.

But let's look at what the Fit does that those SUVs don't: They don't fit in tiny parking spots, then don't get fuel economy of up to 40 mpg, and most of them don't cost less than $20,000. True, the Fit doesn't have the all-weather ability of an all-wheel drive SUV (though with front-wheel drive, it's still pretty good in the snow). But if you're buying an SUV purely for its hauling abilities, you ought to consider the Honda Fit, which does the same job at a much lower cost.

Photo by Honda

8) You get a lot of 2018 Honda Fit for your money.

The Fit's starting price of $16,190 is higher than some of its subcompact competitors, but Honda gives you a lot of equipment for your money, including air conditioning, power windows and locks, cruise control, and a rearview camera. Some small cars charge a steep premium for an automatic transmission, but the Fit's is reasonably priced at $800. 

Also, automatic Fits can be had with a full complement of active safety equipment, including forward-collision warning with automatic braking, lane-departure warning and intervention, and adaptive cruise control. It's rare to find this advanced safety hardware on a car this small and inexpensive, and we applaud Honda for making this package so accessible and affordable.

Photo by Honda

7) The 2018 Honda Fit is incredibly easy to park.

The Fit is less than 13.5 feet long. To put that in perspective, it's more than a foot and a half shorter than Honda's compact Civic sedan and two-and-a-half feet shorter than a typical mid-size sedan. That means it can squeeze into the smallest of parking spots without breaking a sweat.

Meanwhile, its big windows and unobstructed sightlines make the Fit a breeze to steer into and out of those three-quarter-size spots.

Photo by Honda

6) The 2018 Honda Fit is incredibly frugal.

You expect a small car to be good on gas, and the Honda Fit indeed delivers great fuel economy: EPA estimates range from 29 mpg city/36 mpg highway for Fits with a manual transmission up to 33 mpg city/40 mpg highway for the LX model with an automatic. (Other models with the automatic use a bit more fuel, but not much.)

Better still, we've found that the Fit's real-world fuel economy numbers are excellent — we've had no problem meeting or exceeding the EPA estimates with a light foot on the accelerator.

Photo by Honda

5) The 2018 Honda Fit is good to drive.

Small cars tend to have an inherent fun-to-drive factor; their small size makes them nimble and quick to change direction. The Honda Fit is no exception, and in fact its sharp steering, eager engine and quick responses make it more fun than most on a curvy road.

No good curves nearby? Well, you can always enjoy yourself by nipping in and out of traffic, squeezing into space that big cars and SUVs have to let go. (Sometimes you have to take your enjoyment wherever it comes!)

Photo by Honda

4) The 2018 Honda Fit's back seat does more than just seat people.

Honda calls the Fit's second row the “Magic Seat,” and it's an apt title. As you fold the seat backs down, the seat bottom cushions drop down as well, forming a load floor that is not only flat but also lower than it would be with an ordinary fold-down seat.

Need to carry something tall, like a big potted plant or a bicycle? No problem — the Fit's rear seat bottom cushions also flip up, turning the back seat into a giant storage area. Planning an Ikea run? You can recline the passenger's seat to a vertical position, then fold down the back seat to accommodate items up to 7 feet 9 inches long. Best yet, the rear seat is split, so you can fold one side down while keeping the other side up. No other hatchback, large or small, offers this sort of versatility.

Photo by Honda

3) The 2018 Honda Fit has more back seat space than you would believe.

One would expect a car as small as the Honda Fit to have a cramped rear seat, and in fact most subcompacts have back seats that are a real squeeze for adults. But the Fit's back seat has to be sat in to be believed. There's an incredible amount of leg and head room back there, and doors that open wide to provide easy access.

Now, we're not saying the Fit is a limousine; it has nowhere near the back seat space of a mid-size sedan. But it can accommodate two adults in comfort, even for a long drive, and that is a trait nearly unheard of among subcompact hatchbacks.

Photo by Honda

2) The 2018 Honda Fit has a massive cargo area.

The Honda Fit offers 16.6 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat, a number that many larger hatchbacks (and even some station wagons) cannot match. Fold the backseat down, and the Fit opens up to a massive 52.7 cubic feet of space — that's more than two-thirds of the volume offered by much larger SUVs like the Toyota RAV4 and Honda's own CR-V. Compared to other cars in the same size and price class, the Fit's cargo capacity is simply massive.

Photo by Honda

1) The 2018 Honda Fit is the most useful small hatchback you can buy. Period.

If you've ever seen the British sci-fi show Doctor Who, you're familiar with the Doctor's spaceship, the Tardis. It's the size of a phone booth on the outside — and the size of a house on the inside. The Honda Fit is a bit like the Tardis, in that it's compact on the outside but massive on the inside.

Thanks to some clever engineering by the Honda folks, the Fit has managed to cram its mechanical bits into the tiniest space possible, freeing up lots of space for people and stuff. The cargo area is huge and passenger space is surprisingly abundant, and the Fit will in fact carry just as much cargo as some small suvs. Many people who shop for a hatchback are looking for a car that provides maximum utility and flexiblity — and no car delivers that better than the Honda Fit.

Photo by Honda