Honda Fit Handling

The paragraph below is from a British review of the Honda Jazz. While
the engine is different, the suspension is probably the same. I wonder
if the instability he mentions in corners is because of the torsion-beam
rear suspension.

Second Opinion:
We lived with this car for two weeks and tried it out in all sorts of
conditions. I'd better make that point first before going on to say that
the Jazz encapsulates all Honda's current good and bad points to such an
extent that we could almost have written about it without going anywhere
near the thing. The build quality was as fine as we have come to expect.
The interior is as surprisingly spacious as, to take one recent example,
the new-generation CR-V. But the suspension set-up is simply wrong. The
Jazz becomes unhappy at the first sign of a road ripple, and over crests
- particularly ones in mid-corner - it feels like it's about to take
off. Sort that out and the Jazz would be a truly excellent small car,
rather than a very good but flawed one. David Finlay.

Don in San Antonio wrote:
>
> The paragraph below is from a British review of the Honda Jazz. While
> the engine is different, the suspension is probably the same. I wonder
> if the instability he mentions in corners is because of the torsion-beam
> rear suspension.
>
> Second Opinion:
> We lived with this car for two weeks and tried it out in all sorts of
> conditions. I'd better make that point first before going on to say that
> the Jazz encapsulates all Honda's current good and bad points to such an
> extent that we could almost have written about it without going anywhere
> near the thing. The build quality was as fine as we have come to expect.
> The interior is as surprisingly spacious as, to take one recent example,
> the new-generation CR-V. But the suspension set-up is simply wrong. The
> Jazz becomes unhappy at the first sign of a road ripple, and over crests
> - particularly ones in mid-corner - it feels like it's about to take
> off. Sort that out and the Jazz would be a truly excellent small car,
> rather than a very good but flawed one. David Finlay.


------------------------------------

Could have just been something simple, like low tire pressure in the
rears too. Guess you'll just have to try one for yourself.

'Curly'

'Curly Q. Links' wrote:
> Don in San Antonio wrote:
>> The paragraph below is from a British review of the Honda Jazz. While
>> the engine is different, the suspension is probably the same. I wonder
>> if the instability he mentions in corners is because of the torsion-beam
>> rear suspension.
>>
>> Second Opinion:
>> We lived with this car for two weeks and tried it out in all sorts of
>> conditions. I'd better make that point first before going on to say that
>> the Jazz encapsulates all Honda's current good and bad points to such an
>> extent that we could almost have written about it without going anywhere
>> near the thing. The build quality was as fine as we have come to expect.
>> The interior is as surprisingly spacious as, to take one recent example,
>> the new-generation CR-V. But the suspension set-up is simply wrong. The
>> Jazz becomes unhappy at the first sign of a road ripple, and over crests
>> - particularly ones in mid-corner - it feels like it's about to take
>> off. Sort that out and the Jazz would be a truly excellent small car,
>> rather than a very good but flawed one. David Finlay.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Could have just been something simple, like low tire pressure in the
> rears too. Guess you'll just have to try one for yourself.
>
> 'Curly'

I drove a Fit a few months ago. I loved the smooth shifting manual
transmission. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to drive around a
bumpy corner to see how it handled in that situation. However, it
couldn't be any worse than my Dodge minivan with the solid rear axle and
leaf springs.