All-new Honda Fit hits the Tokyo Motor Show stage

The Honda Fit, that small-on-the-outside, big-on-the-inside car that has been bending perceptions of three-dimensional space since 2001, was revealed in its fourth generation guise Tuesday at the Tokyo Motor Show. 

Details were limited, beyond a promise that it would continue to offer a surprisingly spacious cabin and seat-flipping flexibility. It will also come in five trims, and the hybrid system will be a two-motor type that Honda is calling e:HEV. Honda says the hybrid Fit can be driven electric-only in “virtually all situations of everyday driving.” Honda did not release details of the hybrid system.

Honda says the driver’s view will be enhanced with new front pillars that improve lines of sight without compromising crash safety. Windshield wipers are better tucked out of sight when not in use, and the instrument panel is low and flat. The cabin will offer more storage.

The cabin is equipped with new “body stabilizing” seats that Honda says it designed with its bigger sedans in mind. They promise to be better-padded and more comfortable on long trips. The rear Magic Seats that the Fit is known for promise to be every bit as versatile as before. They, too, will get more padding.

The Fit’s five flavors:

• Basic, which is as it sounds.
• Home, with high “tactile quality” in coordinated colors and materials, fabric seats and leather wheel. 
• Ness, with bolder, sportier interior colors and a padded instrument panel. They must have had the Loch Ness Monster in mind in naming this one, because the seats are water-repellant.
• Crosstar, which adds 16-inch aluminum wheels and a tougher-looking exterior.
• And Luxe, with leather seating and “platinum-style” exterior chrome accents.