The Honda Fit is a great little car at an affordable price, and I personally think that it sits head and shoulders above the Toyota Yaris. One point of contention is that the Yaris claims better fuel economy than the Fit. Well, Honda Canada is tackling that very issue.

This isn’t just because they want you to have a more fuel efficient vehicle, letting you save at the pump. Nuh uh. In Canada, the government provides rebates of between $1,000 and $2,500 for certain “green” vehicles and the current Fit narrowly missed the mark. It’s currently rated at 6.6L litres of fuel consumed per 100 kilometers, which is 1/10 of a liter more than the federal criteria for the rebate. The lack of a rebate probably hurt sales, driving customers across the street to Toyota.

So, Honda engineers are working hard to “eek out a few more miles per gallon”. With some “internal tinkering”, they were able to achieve the goal with the manual transmission Fit. They’re having a much harder time with the automatic, because they’re not willing to sacrifice any of the extra safety features that make the Fit weigh more than the Yaris.