Launched in Japan in June 2001, replacing the Honda Logo, the first Fit built its whole interior packaging around a fuel tank moved from the usual rear-axle location to under the front seats, freeing a completely flat floor and letting the “Ultra Seat” fold in configurations no rival hatchback of the size could match.[1] It didn’t reach North America until 2006, five years after its Japanese launch, sold there with a single 1.5-litre VTEC engine rather than the four petrol options offered elsewhere.
Honda’s Brazilian market also received a flex-fuel version running on any mix of petrol and ethanol, rated slightly differently on each fuel (80 hp on petrol, 83 hp on ethanol), a real difference in the fuel’s energy content, not a rounding inconsistency. It is not recorded as a trim here since this entry focuses on the US-market car.