Why no Canadian love for small cars, especially Honda's Fit?

Like you, I’m sure, when I think of the Honda Fit I do not conjure images of all-black alloy rims shod in low-profile rubber so thin it makes a Loonie look fat.

Instead, I think of $35-dollar fill-ups and clever flip-and-fold seats. I imagine a little and hugely underappreciated grocery-getter. I harken back to a Fit so cargo-friendly, it once comfortably contained me, four-little league baseball players and all the game gear.

I glow with the thought of the Fit’s $16,875 base price in a Canada, where J.D. Power and Associates reports the average new-car transaction price is $33,000; the average monthly finance payment is almost $590; and new rides are so expensive, 56 per cent of buyers are stretching out loan payments to 84 months or more.

And so, I was staggered by my first take of the updated 2018 Honda Fit Sport. This is a nice-looking car.

Why, then, are Fit sales down about 50 per cent in Canada this year? In a country where 10,000 Canadians buy a hulking, gas-swilling F-Series pickup each month – spending more than $40,000 each, on average – only about 500 Canadians take the monthly Fit plunge.

Looks kinda sporty, this Honda Fit.

The Fit, alas, is a casualty of a trend. Subcompact car sales in Canada are down 20.2 per cent, reports DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. Sales of piggish rigs like the F-Series are up 15.2 per cent. Ugh.

I have trouble believing that so far in 2017, some 337,628 Canadians have needed a pickup bigger than a Vancouver condo. No, pickups have become luxury vehicles – offensive displays of the utter disregard hundreds of thousands of Canadians have for our planet.

Yes, yes, if you happen to be a working tradesperson or the odd vacationer who tows a very big trailer, you might need an F-Series or a Ram or a Chevrolet Silverado, a Toyota Tundra or the most-aptly named Nissan Titan.

So, let’s say that 100,000 full-size pickups go to real, live, working carpenters, plumbers, electricians and the like. And another 5,000 are snapped up by trailer-yankers.

Shiny exhaust tip.

That leaves 220,000 full-size rigs being greedily grabbed by selfish people who insist on making conspicuous displays of wastefulness, who have no interest in fuel economy, emissions, or the reasonable and thoughtful use of the Earth’s resources. And 2017 isn’t over. By the time this year is done, about 400,000 Canadians will have bought an ocean-liner sized pickup.

I know it might be tough on the perceived manhood of many pickup buyers, but why not a Fit, or something like it – a Hyundai Accent, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Micra or Versa, a Kia Rio, Chevy Spark, Ford Fiesta, Toyota Prius C, Mitsubishi Mirage or Fiat 500? You have choices here.

My choice would a Fit. My tester Fit Sport, at $21,312.50 (including $1,722.50 freight) is reasonably priced, though I’d skip Honda’s financing offer – 4.39 per cent for 60 months, weekly payments of $91.52 with no down payment. That’s just an awful deal in a marketplace awash in rich sales sweeteners.

The Fit, a four-door hatchback, has loads of cabin space, takes tiny sips of fuel, has an interior with very nice materials and stands out in traffic with a kinda-cool exterior. The Sport, black cloth interior and orange stitching, adds a front spoiler and rear diffuser, gloss-black 16-inch aluminum alloy wheels, a chrome exhaust-pipe finisher and side sill garnishes.

Rear diffuser.

It has the looks of a racy car and the fuel economy of a Greenpeace member. The engine is the same 1.5-litre four-banger (130 horsepower) plugged into all Fits, though at least with the short-throw, six-speed manual gearbox you have some control over how you manage engine revs.

If you get the Fit Sport with the continuously variable transmission – something I would not recommend because it makes driving tiresome – you get a load of electronic safety nannies, none of which you actually need if you simply pay attention to your driving. You might like to have adaptive cruise control, but because this is not a road-trip car – not enough seat support — you can live without it.

In the city, well, this nimble runabout is in its element. The steering is tight, the responses are quick, the body structure is solid and the cabin is surprisingly quiet. The reliability record of this model is terrific, too.

The 2018 is also utterly compatible with your smartphone, whichever brand, and the instruments and gauges are clear and smart. It has plenty of storage spaces and holders for cups, including a flip-down one to the right of the driver, below the vent. Love it.