TTAC's Long-Term Test 2015 Honda Fit: The Bell Tolls at 7,987 Miles

It’s been a stressful few weeks, but when I remember my children and grandchildren are healthy, everything else is gravy.

TTAC’s long-term test of the 2015 Honda Fit EX came to a sudden halt at 7,987 miles just after I began a left turn through three lanes of stopped traffic south of a red light on Groesbeck, a major road in Macomb County on the east side of Detroit.

I was going to a music store, but couldn’t remember exactly where it was, which landed me traveling in the wrong direction on Groesbeck. To effect a U-turn, I pulled into the left turn lane of the seven-lane highway to turn into some business frontage.

Perhaps I relied too much on the motorcyclist who stopped to let me turn and waved me through, or maybe the guy driving an Econoline 250 for a marine engine repair shop was going so fast in the curb lane that he wasn’t there when I checked, but he was certainly there when the nose of my Fit poked into that lane. The truck ripped off the plastic fascia of the Honda. When metal hit metal, the Fit’s bumper support tore a wide gash the length of the Econoline’s flank, ultimately chewing a chunk out of its rear tire.

At first I didn’t think it was a serious accident, but there was a strong odor, the airbag in the steering wheel had gone off, and something was obviously shoved into the engine and making an oscillating noise. As I pulled into the driveway and tried to gather my wits, a nice lady working for Honda asked me, via the Hondalink equipped infotainment system, if I was okay and if I needed her to call for emergency services.

The impact didn’t seem that severe. I don’t think the attitude of the car on the road even changed from the collision, and I wasn’t seriously injured. I had an abrasion on my left hand and wrist from the airbag, or maybe it was a slight burn from the propellant, and I later noticed some lower back pain, but I have a bad back and it could have been unrelated to the accident. The other driver said he was uninjured.

A couple of police officers from Fraser responded, as did a Macomb County sheriff’s deputy. I called AAA, the insurer for the car.

The Fit had been financed through a promissory note with The Bank of Mom and to protect her assets it was titled in her name and insured under her policy at the Automobile Club, where she’s been a member and paying for full collision coverage for decades. I believe that she’s insured her cars at AAA since the 1960s, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her total premiums paid reach into six figures. AAA has made a lot of money doing business with our family.

I’ve been driving for more than 40 years, but this was only the second time I’d seriously wrecked a car. I submarined a minivan stopped at a light (also on Groesbeck, maybe I should stay on my side of town) a few years back, which required about $2,500 worth of work on my old Saturn. Immediately after the accident, looking at the Fit, I figured the damages would be about double that. The headlights and radiator needed to be replaced, but there didn’t appear to be any structural damage other than the bumper support. The hood was crunched and both fenders were a bit askew.

The cops called for a wrecker, whose driver first loaded the Econoline onto the flatbed and then hooked the Fit up to his lift behind the bed. At the tow yard, I retrieved a few items from the car I’d bought during my interrupted shopping trip and waited for a ride from my son.

I was cited for failure to yield right of way, but it will probably be dismissed because the other guy isn’t likely to show up at my court date. To add insult to injury, the City of Fraser sent me a bill for $18.30 for non-resident emergency services. Essentially, they charged me for the time of the cop who issued me a ticket. The notice said that they charge 12% interest per year. I plan on paying exactly $17.31 of that and leaving 99 cents on the account. By the time 12% on that $0.99 adds up to anything significant, the administrative costs of carrying that account and sending me regular bills will likely eat up that $18.30 — and I’ll be sure to let the folks running Fraser know that.

Yeah, my old shrink called me a “counter-puncher.” Oh well.

When I told Mark Stevenson, my boss here at TTAC, that I totaled the Fit, his response was “That will make an awesome article.” Thanks, Mark. My life is not complete without embarrassing myself in front of two million monthly pageviews.

Actually, I had already planned on writing about it. When I cleaned out the car, I brought along my 3D rig to record the wreckage for posterity. In recent years, Honda has promoted its use of what it calls Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body design. ACE was introduced about 10 years ago and is intended to absorb collision energy in a way that leaves the passenger cell unaffected, and the other vehicle less damaged. It uses four different grades of steel in the unibody — mild steel, high strength steel, advanced high strength steel, and ultra high strength steel — to keep things strong where they need to be rigid and soft where they need to crush. The latest development in the ACE architecture is selectively tempering different sections of a hot-stamped high strength steel parts. That allows those sections to be softer, reducing the number of parts and weight.

Though I said that the impact wasn’t severe, that was a subjective characterization. Objectively, the collision was severe enough to bend frame members and total the car. Walking around the wrecked Fit, I checked the panel gaps on the doors. Other than the deployed airbag, from the cowl and A pillar back, the car was in perfect shape. As far as I can tell, ACE does work. My Fit was totaled, but I’m okay. I’ll gladly eat that gravy.

It works well enough that I’m going to keep a record of the Fit’s VIN, because with just 8,000 miles on the drivetrain and a mostly intact body, I’m almost certain it will be back on the road with a salvage title.

I’ll report on TTAC’s long term 2015 Honda Fit EX 6MT test, the remix, once I get back from Texas.

[Images: © 2016 Ronnie Schreiber/The Truth About Cars, Honda]

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view over at Cars In Depth. – Thanks for reading – RJS