Yeah it’s a good idea to not fucking do something about your engine smoking and rattling for a couple of years.
That is a good video. Also keep in my that the Carmax price can be used as leverage with the dealer–you can simply say to them that unless they can do better than the $16.5K that Carmax is selling it for then you’re not going to buy it from them. Hell, you can lie and tell them the price is $16K (there’s certainly no need to mention the transportation fee). You can also let them save face a little (remember, this is a game for them) by mentioning that you prefer whatever color Fit the dealer has, but you aren’t willing to pay more for it.
If also else fails just surreptiously key the car, point out the blemish, and ask for some money off because it’s damaged.
That’s exactly what the wife and I were just discussing. We can ask for an 08 with 3K miles for $15K (carmax price, just about), then let them haggle us up to 15.25K-15.5K + title/tax/etc. We may do better to buy local but at least I have some ceiling on price that I don’t have to pass. I guess if the carmax deal is the worst I do, at least I have some expectations going in, and that’s what I really need.
Bear in mind though that the Fit is a bit of a special case–even now, it’s selling about as fast as Honda can manufacture them. So if you tell them to come down or you won’t buy, they may very well say “Okay–no sale.” When we got ours, we just went in with the expectation that we’d have to pay MSRP. When the dealer has trouble even keeping them on the lot, there’s not much incentive for them to haggle.
I’d definitely recommend the Fit, though. We love ours, and the two or three people we know who have one are also really happy with theirs.
There are always exceptions to the rule. Like the GM diesel with the Allison transmission that didn’t die when the temperature hit -40.
Totally agree. Unless you’re just wed to the idea of a hatchback, you should look at Civics. We have an '06 and really like it.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on Audis to help espressojim buy his Honda?
No, but the Honda dealer here is also the BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, and Land Rover dealer, so when you take your CR-V or Civic or Fit or whatever in for anything you get to hobnob with people bringing in their 535s or C-class or Boxsters and the like. My theory is that the service rates there are skewed towards their upscale customers, but they do treat you nice–after you drop off your car and are waiting for the shuttle, the sales staff doesn’t know if you’re a Honda owner or a BMW purchaser!
And there are nice cars to drool over while you wait. Until you hear what people are paying to get their German wundermachinen fixed…
Does anyone else have any thoughts on Audis to help espressojim buy his Honda?
In the spirit of Format’s post, I think we can make non-Audi suggestions as well, so long as they cost more than twice as much as the car that espressojim is currently looking at.
Not to denigrate the Civic, which is a great car, but here are some things to consider:
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The Fit handles better than the base Civic. Car & Driver did a test drive comparison a while back, and felt that the Fit’s handling was more comparable to that of the more expensive Civic Si.
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The Fit Sport is the fully loaded version of that model–it comes stock with basically everything except the navigation system. So while it is comparable in price to the baseline Civic DX, it’s more comparable in features to the Civic EX/EX-L, which costs $3-4K more. Standard features on the Fit Sport include alloy wheels, cruise control, the stereo system with the USB input and MP3/WMA playback, security system with remote entry, the improved power windows with auto up/down, fog lights (which don’t come standard on any Civic trim level), and a bunch of trim improvements like skirts and spoiler, chrome exhaust, leather-wrapped steering wheel, etc. None of that stuff comes with the Civic DX.
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Obviously, the Fit can carry a lot more cargo. You can put a bicycle in the Fit without taking it apart, and I’ve seen people fit a full-size washing machine in the back, if you put the rear seats down. The max cargo space square footage, in fact, is almost as much as that of my in-laws’ Jeep Grand Cherokee. In spite of that, there is still a ton of passenger space in the Fit. I’m 6’, and I can sit in the rear seat, with the seat in front of me pushed all the way back, and my knees still have room.
So anyway, it has its advantages. A lot of people think that it’s just a budget Civic with a hatch, but it really isn’t.
Is this the renamed Honda Fitta?
The Honda Jazz over here for obvious reasons, yes.
I think they should have kept the original name. They could have built a great ad campaign around that.
“Look at all the things you can fit inside!” ;)
I’ll just echo everything that Ben said, and not just because he’s my best friend. I bought a Fit Sport about, I dunno, 6 or 9 months ago, and it’s a terrific car. But the dealer wasn’t haggling much – I did the call-20-dealers thing (everyone within a reasonable distance of my house in LA), and the best price I got was 18K off the lot. Of course, this was before Honda bombed two quarters, so maybe things are better now. But even back then, car sales were hurting, but the Fit – at least, the 2009 Fit, which was redesigned that year – was not. I got quotes from several dealers, but none of them actually had Fit Sport manuals on the lot (and only two of them had any Fits at all, of any type or color). They were all “When we get one, we’d sell it for X” quotes, and when I finally settled on one, I actually went down and put a deposit on it a week before it arrived in the showroom. The things sell like hotcakes, or at least they did back then.
FWIW, the '09 redesign is totally worth it IMO. The adjustable steering wheel alone makes it worth it, but the other additions (radio with USB jack, etc) are also nice.
Oh, and Ben’s right about the cargo room. I just moved my girlfriend in here, and she had an eight-foot dining room table that we got into the Fit. Crazy.
Edit: And to add something that actually addresses anything the OP was asking…I looked at buying used when I bought mine, but the price difference for a recent used Fit (like an 06-08) was very small, because Hondas hold their value so well. To me, it wasn’t worth it, particularly since it meant missing out on the '09 redesign.
Well of course a hatch has more cargo room and if you’re in the market for a hatch then obviously the Civic probably isn’t the car for you. The argument is that there’s a whole lot more room to negotiate the price of a Civic than there is for the Fit. Yes the list price is $5k higher but you can easily get that haggled down while you’ll be lucky to $1500 off the Fit.
I was just pointing out that one could get a comparable Civic for only a little more than the Fit in case Jim hadn’t considered it.
Did he have a manual? You’ve got to rev the crap out of those engines to get any performance! But the engines are built for that high revving, and last forever.
Manual, yes. He often lent it to me, and at least when I was driving around in it, the engine’s idle speed was probably 3500 rpm :) It’s weird what kind of noise those engines make, and where you’d have long shifted up in another car, the Honda has 5000-6000 rpm to go. The guy’s uncle had an Integra R, into wich he put a supercharger and a few more jokes, and I’ve got pictures of when I was driving it (still w/o the supercharger) and revving it to about 9800 rpm. Fun times.
When I bought my Yaris, I was waffling between new and used. I decided that I couldn’t justify the extra money, even though it was just a couple thousand, because I found one that looked new, had all the features I wanted (down to the color) and low mileage. However, the redesigned Fit looks waaaaaaaaaay better, bordering on attractive.
I find it funny people are saying “for just a little more, you could get a Civic” because I heard the exact same thing about the Yaris and Corolla. As was pointed out, it’s really not that close unless you’re comparing fully loaded to a base model. Once you start adding in the features that come with the hatchback at that price, the bigger car gets a lot more expensive.
I’m starting to see more and more of the 2009 Honda City on the streets. The previous generation City was a dumpier version of the Jazz/Fit–nearly identical mechanically , but with a trunk grafted onto the back. The new one has more distinct and aggressive styling. I think it looks pretty sharp, even though the grille looks like a bad collaboration between Ford and Gilllette. I haven’t read a whole lot about how it drives, though the impressions in the linked review seem to mirror a lot of what I’ve been hearing about the current-gen Jazz i.e. more comfort, less ‘sporty’.
I’m also not sure if Honda has any plans for selling it in the States, despite the American consumer preference for the sedan shape.
I have an '07, which is the second model year of the current version of the car. (Although mine has the headphone jack in the dash. Sorry Jerri.)
The mechanic actually stepped out to show us the engine, and just went on and on about what a piece of art it was. The man was gushing.
I got it for $200 over cost. Don’t know how many Fits they’re importing now, but at the time they were selling all the fits they could get with the markup, so I ended up getting my Civic for around the same price.
It’s my understanding from a good source that KBB and Edmund’s aren’t actually much good. Unfortunately, the only good, solid info on used car prices is recent auction data, which is costly.
Dammit, can’t remember the name of the national clearing house for used car auction data.
The point is take all blue book values with a huge grain of salt.