Honda Gives the 2015 Fit a New Front Bumper

2015 Honda Fit (Credit: © Honda)

Some claim that Honda has been regaining its engineering mojo, which was lost and resulted in some questionable designs and models. When IIHS released the results of crash tests for the 2015 Fit back in January, some people started to doubt if Honda wasn’t still struggling. The little subcompact performed poorly on the notorious small-overlap crash, which has shamed a number of vehicles, particularly smaller ones.

Instead of just giving up or vowing to make the next generation of the Fit better, Honda has done one better. It has created a new, safer front bumper for the car and has been installing them on all 2015 models. The automaker isn’t just correcting the problem on cars that are still in its possession, reports the New York Times, but is actually retrofitting Fits that have already been delivered to customers.

The problem with the original design was that the steel beam that sits behind the plastic cover actually separated at the weld joints, which caused scary amounts of damage in the test. Honda worked to make the weld joints stronger, then resubmitted the Fit to the small-overlap crash test, which the IIHS says it passed with an “Acceptable” rating. That improvement also earned the model a Top Safety Pick designation.

If you own a 2015 Honda Fit and suspect that you don’t have the new, stronger bumper welds, sit tight, The company plans to reach out in September and have owners swing by a dealer for the swap. Apparently, if the service departments aren’t too busy, the fix could be applied in as little as half an hour.