21/08/2008 08:07. According to Automotive New's Craig Trudell, the on-sale date of the redesigned Honda Fit subcompact will be more than a month sooner than originally planned.

The 2009 Fit will arrive in dealerships Tuesday, Aug. 26. Honda's earlier plans were for the updated Fit to arrive Oct. 1.

"We basically increased supply as much as we could to meet demand, and we were still going to be sold out of the 2008 model," Honda spokesman Chris Martin said. "We had to do something so that our dealers would not be without the small cars that buyers are seeking."

In the first seven months of the year, Fit sales in the United States rose 72.9 percent to 52,053 units.

In July alone, Honda sold 12,266 Fits. That's nearly as many units as the entire lineup for its Acura brand, which sold 12,828 units in... // Autochannel