The Honda Fit is a five-door hatchback subcompact car, manufactured by the Honda Motor Company of Japan. It is known as the Jazz in Europe, some parts of Asia, Australia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Africa - while retaining the name "Fit" in Japan, China, and the Americas. Honda originally intended to name the car "Fitta", but shortened the name in some markets, and renamed it completely in others, upon discovering that in several Nordic languages, "fitta" is a popular slang word for vagina. The Fit was first introduced in June 2001. It uses Honda's Global Small Car platform, which is also used by the City/Fit Aria, Airwave, Mobilio, and the Mobilio Spike.

Although the Honda Fit is now one of Honda’s global models, it experienced a very slow progression as it made its way around the world. The car first debuted in June 2001 in Japan and immediately became a big hit. It was then introduced to Europe (early 2002), Australia (late 2002), South America (early 2003), South Africa and South-East Asia (mid 2003), China (mid 2004), and Mexico (late 2005).

A production model for the United States and Canadian markets debuted on January 8, 2006 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The car was released in Canada on April 3, 2006, and in the U.S. on April 20, 2006. Due to its late introduction in Canada and the US, the current generation Fit will be replaced after only three model years by a new 2009 model, which was released for Japan in November 2007 as a 2008 model. Thus, the Fit is an exception to other Honda models sold in Canada and the US, which traditionally have 4 or 5-year model cycles. This reset is to ensure that the 2009 Fit and subsequent iterations will maintain the same platforms worldwide.