The Honda Fit’s unique take on compact car styling, functionality and packaging hits you square in the face before you take your seat within its cheerful little body. The doors opens ultra-wide, and a massive aperture presents itself with room galore around the seat, which sits low in the cabin, with room to spare in every direction around it. The floor is surprisingly low in the Fit’s body, enhancing the door opening size, which itself also stretches high above the seat. And the door, and the sill into which it closes, are both relatively thin – again taking up less room and leaving more space for getting in and getting out.

So, from the very process of boarding the Fit with space galore, and hardly any need for even very tall passengers to duck, it feels a bit different for a compact car. Strange. Foreign. Like the stuff they play on the CBC at 4am.

From the driver’s seat, there’s more uniqueness related to the driving position on account of Honda’s interior packaging wizardry. Headroom is abundant, even for occupants well north of 6 feet tall. You sit up close to the Fit’s front, surrounded by tall glass, for great outward visibility. Here’s a compact car that’s tremendously easy to see out of, easy to position, and one that makes it easy to keep aware of your surroundings.

Add in the tight turning circle, and the Fit is a bit of a parking-lot sniper-attack ninja: ready to suddenly pounce into any space it likes. Sorry, Camry-lady! This space is mine! The wide-angle, high-definition back-up camera helps making reversing into or out of a space easy, too.

Honda’s clever design and interior packaging does even more for the Fit’s rear quarters – the flexibility and size of which arguably comprise one of the most compelling parts of the car. The cargo floor is low, and since the back half of the Fit is shaped like a box, every inch of the stretched-to-the-edges cargo hold is usable. Even taller items will fit with ease, and the seatbacks fold down, full-flat, lickety split. There’s room in abundance for a weekend worth of camping gear, a full load from Costco, or a trip to my favorite place in the whole wide universe, Ikea.

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