2018 Honda Fit – Rock Honda | iDSC048

2018 Honda Fit – Rock Honda Thinking of a smaller car that delivers great versatility and value with plenty of creature comforts? Then Honda’s Fit is “go” for you! Hear “The Professor,” Clinton Quan’s, analysis of the 2018 Honda Fit after he picked one up from our friends at Rock Honda in Fontana for a test drive and this review. ***Transcript*** Recording date – March 20, 2018 Clinton Quan: For a compact car, it's got a 1.5 liter inline for developing 120 horsepower, 113 pound feet of torque--it's pretty zippy. It redlines around I think it's around 6800 RPMs. Pretty smooth. I took it on the highway. No problem getting it up to speed and, yeah, driving it out on both the 15 and the 10. You're getting a lot of features, especially in the subcompact class, backup camera, heated seats--this is for the XL, though--leather, moonroof, paddle shifters. The safety features for collision avoidance, lane departure warning system. Yeah, that's pretty well-equipped for a Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States - Southern California. I'm Tom Smith and joining us for another vehicle review is our good friend "the Professor" Mr. Clinton Quan. Say hello, Clinton. Clinton Quan: Hi, Tom. It's great to be back for another review. Tom Smith: Great to have you back. Thank you so much, as always, for joining us. Today, we are taking a look at the 2018 Honda Fit that Clinton picked up from our good friends out at Rock Honda in the Los Angeles suburb of Fontana, California. Clinton, tell us all about your experience with the Fit. Clinton Quan: Well, I test drove the 2018 Honda Fit, the EX-L, and the EX-L is the top line trim for the Honda Fit. The Fit is a subcompact vehicle. It's one of the smallest classes of vehicles out there. Tom Smith: And the Fit is, being a subcompact, it's the smallest car that Honda offers in its lineup. But you were mentioning off mike that the subcompacts have gotten to be a thing with manufacturers now because all of the other classes of vehicles have kind of gotten bigger. Clinton Quan: Yes, that's correct. So a lot of the compact vehicles now are so much bigger. In fact, if you look at a compact car such as the Honda Civic, they're as big as what the midsize cars used to be in the 1980s. So they produced a new class of vehicles called subcompacts that are what, I would say, what the compact's used to be maybe back in the 70s or 80s. And some manufacturers have both a sedan and a hatchback. Honda has decided to just go with a hatchback given the space and the versatility of the hatchback. Tom Smith: So I...a couple of comments on that. I drove the Honda Civic SI, did a review on it. For you the podcast listeners, please, check it out. I think that was my first one that I did on my own. And I think I called you, actually, to get some pointers before I actually did it on my own. But when I drove the Civic SI, it didn't feel like a small car. I mean it felt very comfortable. Now my other comments on what you just said is you mentioned even the 70s. And I have to say, I'm in my mid 40s, so in high school, you know, we're driving anything that would...we could get to start and run in northern Illinois, where I grew up. But I had a buddy that I want to say had a '71 Impala two-door. Now that was a coupe, right? Being a two-door, r it's a coupe. Clinton Quan: Yes. Tom Smith: But I mean that thing was a land yacht. I want to say that measured close to 20 feet or more than 20 feet. I mean that thing was ridiculous. The back seat, for a two-door, was like a couch. In fact, I'm pretty sure that back seat was bigger than some of my apartments...my first couches in my apartments in college. But anyway, we're getting off topic.