It’s been just about a year since I purchased my Honda FIT (well 11 months, but I have some time to sit and put some thoughts down right now).

With the odometer approaching 17,000 miles, I can say without hesitation that I love my little car. I have filled up 51 times and have achieved 33.6mpg over that time frame. A bit lower than I had hoped but in these winter months I’ve only been getting about 30-32 mpgs. A combination of more traffic due to snow, and 5-10 minutes of “letting the car warm up” each morning. I’ve also noticed that I do not try to achieve the highest possible mpgs as I did when the car was new – by accelerating slower, or coasting longer when safe. Still happy with the efficiency, and when on the highway I do get 35-40.

Aside from gas I’ve had 4 oil changes. That is all the maintenance performed thus far.

I haven’t changed anything from a trim standpoint from when I took delivery of the vehicle. I did install the floor mats I had ordered when I bought the car.

I find myself using the iPod connector basically every time I drive the car. Coupled with my iPhone 4 I listen to the iPod, or more often than, not stream Pandora, tunes from home via AudioGalaxy or lately tune into Howard Stern using the Sirius app. In fact, I have probably used terrestrial radio or the cd player a total of 10 times. Good thing I was grandfathered into AT&T’s unlimited data plan. Though somehow they can get away with calling a 5gb cap “unlimited” – but that’s a whole other blog post.

Back to the car. As a reminder I’m pushing 6’2″ but have never had any discomfort driving this car. The manual seat adjusts enough for me to have plenty of leg room, head room and reach. And still fit an adult behind me. But more often than not, it is my daughters booster seat there.

I use this car as much as I can. Because of the better gas mileage, unless we need the additional space for cargo or are traveling with more than 4 passengers, we will take the FIT over the Honda Pilot every time. It offers a quiet ride, iPod connection, ample room, speed and efficiency to take us anywhere. It is also great for going into the city as it is very easy to park almost anywhere. We have yet to take it on a really long drive (more than 80 miles or so). Mainly because we haven’t driven that far in a while, and if we do go that far, we are probably hauling more stuff.

So what’s the conclusion? I am more than happy with this car. I have no regrets at all. The price was great, and after a year of driving I am very satisfied with it’s comfort, styling, usability and efficiency. Would I buy another? Yes. But would likely wait for the hybrid or ev version!