2008 Honda FIT
This year drew an ordinary 217 complaints for a Honda FIT — the model's median is 134. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.2% of them mention behind, against 3.2% across the model's other years.
Last year of its generation. This Honda FIT ran from 2007 to 2008, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 217 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 134 |
| Involving a crash | 28 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| EPA combined | 30 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- behind — 9.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: behind, lucky, about mph.
- switch — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the model's other years (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: switch, headlight, signal.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
COMBINATION HEADLIGHT SWITCH WAS FAULTY. WHILE LOW BEAMS ARE ON, TOGGLING THE RIGHT TURN SIGNAL ACTIVATES THE HIGH BEAM. I BROUGHT THE CAR TO THE DEALER AND PERFORMED THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH RECALL HOPING IT WOULD GET FIXED BUT THE RECALL ONLY ADDRESSED THE WIRIN…
while driving, the low-beam headlight and fog lamps became inoperable without warning. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer and diagnosed with a defective connector switch that needed to be replaced. Additionally, the connector was melted. The vehicle was…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V770000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 19V501000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V029000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V344000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V260000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 10V033000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 10V624000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 07V549000 AIR BAGS
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda FIT was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Honda FIT? What happened to yours?
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