Destination: Rehobeth Beach, 3 hours/150 miles one way, 3 nights
Cargo: Wife, baby, two tiny dogs and a bunch of beach stuff
I purchased my first new car, a blue 2015 Fit EX-L on July 14th. Nine days later, it was time for our annual beach vacation, and naturally I wanted to drive my new toy. My wife and I had always taken our larger Nissan Murano (mid-size SUV) to Rehobeth Beach. Now that we had a newborn baby in addition to our two small dogs, we had even more stuff to take, so my wife was not sure if everything would fit. It did. With plenty of room to spare.
Cargo
With a baby seat behind the passenger seat, I was only able to lay down the one wider back seat. First I packed in the large items: a beach chair, beach umbrella, canopy, travel crib, stroller and dog crate.
I wedged our smaller items on top of the large beach stuff, and between the dog crate and baby seat.
My wife is 5' 3" and our Britax B-Safe baby seat only barely fits behind the passenger seat when her seat is comfortably positioned. If the passenger was any taller the baby seat might have to go behind the driver, but that would be inconvenient for putting a baby in the car because the rear driver door is the only door that can not be unlocked with Smart Entry, discussed later.
Dogs
The dog crate was anchored to a cargo loop on the floor to prevent things from sliding around in case of sudden acceleration.
My 10 lbs dogs enjoyed easy egress from their position on top of the folded seat, but both had trouble hopping up.
Stella, the most timid dog in the world, hops down no problem.
Yoshi was only able to make the jump into the car one time during this four day beach trip. And it took a lot of encouragement because on every other attempt he made he would fall backwards as he hopelessly clawed at the slick metal with his hind legs. Maybe he will get the hang of it by using the rubber gusset for grip. The dogs are still getting used to the new car, I can tell because Yoshi whined for the first hour. I could not coax Stella to even attempt jumping in the car.
Air Conditioner and Stereo
We left around 2pm on a 90 degree afternoon after the car had been in the sun for hours. Direct sunlight poured through the wide windshield onto the broad black dashboard, wafting oppressive heat. It took 30 to 40 minutes of full blast AC to cool down the car to the point where we could back off the fan to the second highest setting. After the beach trip, I realized that turning off ECON mode makes the AC colder, but I left it on the whole trip to boost mileage. It is important to blast both center vents backwards to cool the rear occupants, but there is no vent angle that directs air rearwards without making my right shoulder chilly, but not a big deal.
Now that the blower fan was on 3 instead of maxed at 4, it was quiet enough to enjoy music, but the touchscreen did not allow my wife to pair her iPhone 5s as a Bluetooth music source while the vehicle was in motion. So we plugged her iPhone into the USB port instead. My Android phone was already (trickle) charging using the USB port under the touchscreen, so I was pleasently suprised to find that the USB port hidden in the center console can also play music. Immediately it was noticable how much better her iPhone music sounded playing over USB than my Android playing over Bluetooth. It sounded crisper.
Notice the cutout to allow a thick cable to exit the center console. (The plastic shroud guards the iPhone cable from cat teeth)
The annoyance of not having a volume knob is amplified on road trips. When starting out from a parking lot, it is impossible to spin the wheel and also crank the music down at the same time. In any other car I would just take my right hand off the wheel and feel blindly for the volume knob then twist, but I can no longer take this basic ability for granted. Every time my wife fumbleed with the volume slider, I was reminded of its poor design, and more of a concern, one time she blocked my visibility of my right blind spot LaneWatch camera while I was changing lanes, resulting in me shouting at her to move her hand.
Her hand was even higher up than in this picture because she was using the + button, and completely blocked my view of LaneWatch.
LaneWatch
The LaneWatch camera is my favorite feature. I leave it turned on whenever I'm on a multilane road. Its expansive view proved more useful than the passenger side mirror and rear view mirror combined. The LaneWatch field of view is much wider than the side mirror, completely eliminating even a hint of a blindspot, and from its outstretched position the camera can peer around the rear of my car to reveal vehicles hidden from mirrors. Despite adjusting my driver side mirror, I still can't eliminate a left blind spot which at one point completely concealed a motorcycle. I never turn my head to check the right blind spot because the I feel safer relying on the crisp and wide LaneWatch video feed, so having to turn my head to check the perilous left blind spot is even more annoying because it feels like going back in time. I have 21st century technology covering my right blind spot, and 0th century technology on my left.
I bet I could stack cargo all the way to the ceiling, blocking the rear view mirror, and rely solely on the LaneWatch camera for rear awareness. So, in a way, the LaneWatch camera increases the amount of cargo you can safely carry.
LaneWatch can see the car AROUND cars behind me!
Even though the road is curving away from the LaneWatch camera!
This truck is dominating my rear view mirror.
LaneWatch reveals a car hidden by the truck. This seems insignificant, but its not. It gives me greater road awareness.
The left A-pillar can make it hard to see to the left, so at times I find myself bobbing my head side-to-side like a cobra, such as when driving through a shopping center where at anytime a pedestrian might cross from the left.
Backup Camera
The dynamic guidelines on the backup camera make reversing into a parking spot easy. They are not at all a gimmick, they save time and improve safety. This is another reason to get the EX (the backup guidelines on the LX do not curve as you turn the wheel to help you aim, they just stay straight). The dynamic lines also allow you to parallel park right against a curb.
After a rain storm, water droplets impaired backup camera visibility, but it was hardly an issue, I still parked fine.
Smart Entry
The proximity based Smart Entry which allows you to keep your keys stowed was a delightful convenience. I highly recommend all Fit buyers upgrade to the EX model if they have a baby seat or carry items into their car on a regular basis. Smart Entry is also great for escaping from the rain. Smart Entry is not a gimmick, it saves you time everyday, and could be a safety benefit while loading in babies.
My keys are in my right pocket, but I don't need to precariously juggle loose soda cans over pavement because all the doors unlock when I touch the inside of the passenger door handle.
I wish I could unlock all the doors from the driver side too, but you can't. To access the driver side back door, I have to unecessarily open the driver door first to press the unlock button near the power window buttons, much more difficult compared to accessing the passenger side rear door which I can open after merely brushing the inside of the passenger door handle with a finger, which unlocks all doors (as does opening the rear hatch). Because of this reason, I prefer to approach the passenger side first to unlock all doors, which seems counter-productive considering my destination is the driver's seat.
Locking the car is even easier, because I could just push the black button on either side of the car even if my hands were full, but if my wife had a door open, like when she was still getting the baby, the car would refuse to lock. I don't like that restriction. There is also a button on the tailgate that locks all doors, so all the doors can be locked from three sides of the vehicle, by a passenger even, as long as the driver is standing near any door. Like I said earlier, the only way to unlock all doors with Smart Entry is from the passenger door.
A few times, we failed to close the tailgate on the first try. The tailgate has a lightweight feel which resists momentum when throwing it down. You can't just flick down the hatch and let it fall closed, it won't. You have to follow it all the way down with your hand and give it a good shove at the end to be sure that it is closed. If it does not completely close, you can not lock any door, which seems dumb. In most cars, a door can still be locked even if it is not fully closed so I don't understand this restriction.
The doors open wider than any car I have owned, almost 90 degrees, providing luxurious elbow room when reaching for large items, like a baby seat. The Fit is luxurious in a practical, not snooty, way.
Low Clearance
Arriving at the motel, I pulled too far forward in a parking spot and felt the car rub against something. The flexible front skirt was deformed around the concrete bar. It looks like the front skirt is designed to warn the driver before they impact the gas tank, which I imagine could have ruined the beach trip. Fortunately, I was only slowly creeping forward at the time of impact.
After backing up, the skirt did not seem damaged, except for some scuffing which I was not concerned about it because nobody can see it anyway without getting down on all fours.
Cup Holders
I love the cup holder to the left of the driver seat even though I never even use it as a cup holder. It is like a storage console exclusive to the driver, that my stuff can retreat to when my wife takes over the center console with her purse, sunglasses and phone.
I want to install more USB ports in the empty switch plates under the driver's side cup holder, which is a great place for a phone, and nearby the preffered location of a dashmounted GPS, both of which need USB power. My wife and I together have five mobile devices and the car only has two USB ports and two 12V outlets. Both USB ports charge an iPhone 5s just fine, but only trickle charged my Android devices, but they were both taxed with powering their GPS antennae.
The driver side cup holder is also a safety benefit because I could stow my sunglasses without looking down, something I did not want to do during a heavy rain.
Speaking of rain, I liked how the unusually large driver side wiper pushes that "rain seam" between the wipers over to the right, out of the way of the driver's line of sight, a slight safety benefit.
The center cup holders handled even the largest drinks, such as Venti Starbucks and giant sodas, with no problem.
The giant soda even fit inside the driver's cup holder but I don't like it there because I am right handed. In retrospect I should have placed my Frappuccino in the driver's cup holder to keep it frozen longer due to its clever position in front of the AC vent. I can say that the cup holder vent was very effective at making my phone cold.
The center USB port was difficult to access with two giant drinks in the way. Two outstretched hands were required to wiggle in the USB cable.
Cleaning
After the trip, sand was easily vacumed from the leather seats and carpet. Cleaning the back seat floors was a sinch with the magic seats folded up, not so much to reach under the seats, but because the upright position eliminated that cramped feeling by allowing the vacuum handle to move freely, and I could see the entire floor.
The dog hair clung firmly to the fuzzy material on the back of the seat where the dog crate was. I was not able to remove all the hairs and just accepted my failure to restore the interior because the dogs will just get hair in the car anyway the next time they take a ride. Dog owners might want to place a barrier between their dogs and the cargo area fabric.
MPG
1st tank 30, 2nd tank 41 (I didn't need two tanks, I just topped off to calculate mileage)
ECON and AC on the whole trip
I'm sure you've noticed the gauges on the phone mounted on the windshield. I display real-time telemetry from the car's computer using an old Android phone, running a free app called Torque, paired to a Bluetooth dongle plugged into the OBD port.
I prefer the numeric display of the instantaneous MPG, which agrees with the vehicle meters, for honing my hypermiling skills, which I was not able to do much of because driving slow makes my wife angry and wastes costly beach time. I did try to maintain constant throttle up hills which meant my speed sometimes dropped to 50 mph on the Capitol Beltway. For most of the trip I kept under 65mph.
I have heard others say that accelerating faster is better for MPG. I have not found that to be the case. I can keep the mileage above 30 while accelerating slowly, but quicker starts only give me 10 to 15 MPG. The Eco Assist Ambient Meter around the speedometer stays green if I accelerate slowly. The Ambient Meter seems heavily correlated with the engine load ECU parameter (not counting the significant increase in engine load whenever the AC compressor comes on). FYI, part of the reason ECON mode saves so much gas is because it cycles the compressor on and off, with the fans blowing gradually warming air until the compressor kicks back on. This seems like a smart way of conserving energy.
As an experiment, I turned off the AC for about a minute and my cruising MPG dropped from the mid 40s, to the mid 30s. MPG was also noticably reduced during heavy rain, my cruising MPG dropped from the mid 40s to the high 30s.
Filling up the tank before leaving home, then again before leaving the beach, calculated an embarrassingly low MPG of 29.8. I attribute this to the eleven short trips (two miles) around Rehobeth Beach, idling the car for over an hour with AC on, and Washington, D.C. rush hour traffic which at times required me to waste energy braking, and at other times pressed me to plow through the air at a lavish 65 to 70mph.
According to Torque Pro telemetry, I burned .11 gallons of gasoline idling for 25 minutes with the AC on. While idling, cutting off the AC drops the engine load metric from about 35% to 20%. This is with ECON on.
I filled up the tank after returning home for a pleasing 39.96 MPG, which included 35 minutes of idling but mostly highway driving at around 55mph, with stoplights every 10ish miles. This is just under my best tank of 41.43 which was mostly highway driving, ECON on, with the AC off about a quarter of the time. My tank has only been filled five times, including the initial dealer tank, since my purchase on July 14th, nine days before the beach trip.
Link to my Fuelly.com tank MPG data
Conclusion
My standard setup consists of telemetry on my windshield, LaneWatch camera on, and Google Glass navigation projected against the sun visor. With this setup I feel like I have great awareness except the left mirror is too small so there is a dangerous blind spot.
Overall, my Fit was a great road trip vehicle. You just can't beat that combination of cargo space, fuel efficiency and practical luxuries like Smart Entry and LaneWatch. I love my new Fit!