2009 Honda Fit Sport

After logging some 16,754 miles in seven months, our Four-Seasons Honda Fit Sport isn't much worse for the wear - except for the carpeting.

In stock form, the Fit's flooring isn't exactly plush or rugged - some staffers have noted it resembles indoor/outdoor carpeting - and as we've previously reported, it's aging and wearing rather quickly. Honda graciously supplied us with a set of floor mats to help spruce things up, and they do make a difference.

"Well, this was $99 we should have spent eight months ago," opinioned executive editor Joe DeMatio. "The floor mats go a long way toward negating the cheapness of the standard floor covering in the Fit."

We'd recommend the mats to any potential Fit buyer, but for those with small children or hairy pets may also want to spring for a set of seat slip covers.

"What you don't see until you vacuum the interior," wrote contributor Ronald Ahrens, "is the extreme, back-hallway-in-a-VFW-hall, seat fabric, with kinky fibers that snare pet hair and grass stems and hold them for dear life." Indeed, vacuuming such debris from the seat cushions is arduous, though not impossible.

Sadly, we can't seem to find an accessory that makes the Fit more adapt at long cruises down the freeway. A considerable amount of wind, tire, and engine noise makes the Fit's cabin fairly boisterous.

"I called a friend on my ride home," said senior Web editor Phil Floraday. "He immediately asked what I was driving since the car was so loud. I explained I was racing home in the Honda Fit at an incredible 72 mph." Ahrens logged a similar complaint, noting, with some hyperbole, that viewing a stock car race from within the infield is "quite serene in comparison."

Overall, most staffers are ambivalent about the Fit. There's no doubt the little Honda is perfectly suited to city-dwellers seeking an urban runabout, but the car is out of its element when pointed toward the highway. With the navigation system pushing the MSRP of our Fit close to $19,000, Floraday can't help but think the money is better spent on a $19,900 Mazda3.

"Even the base 3 makes the Fit feel like a compromise," he writes. "The Mazda just feels more substantial, and has the same hatchback utility."