The Holtonian

Test Drove a Fit Today

So today I got to test drive the FIT by Honda. Now I'm not a big test driver, I just want to take it for a quick spin, see how it feels and then I'm pretty much ready to roll. The car overall ran well, had decent pickup for such a small car with such a small engine. It was really really roomy, made my sentra feel like a coffin. Tons of head room which isn't a huge deal for me because I'm short but way more head room than the accord or civic.

Great interior, nice console, great stereo system, good cup holders that are easy to get to. They didn't have a sport model to test so I had to do the basic, but the basic seemed pretty non-basic to me. The really only feature I want that's not on the basic is alloy wheels. I had a bad experience with wheel covers on the sentra... it has zero wheel covers as of now. So I vowed to never get a car again that didn't have wheels. The fold up seats in the back are pretty amazing, they just pop up so simply that its just genius.

Overall I thought it was great, kind of ugly on the exterior but not enough so that it takes away from the overall utility and economy of the car.

But as I mention economy I move onto the big problem I had with the car... or more in general car dealers. The Honda.com website lists the Fit basic starting at 13,850... the one I drove was 16,000 or more. The sport is listed on the website as 15,170... the one they had on the lot (which was sold) went for 18,500 or something. It ticked me off. Here I find it on their own website for one price and the dealer jacks it up.

I recall when I looked at Elements I had the same problem. I saw 15K something on the website and went to Economy Honda and didn't see anything close to 15K on any of the cars. I asked the sales guy why the discrepancy and he gave me some BS that the website is never right.... hello its the freakin HONDA Website, how can it be wrong? Now, in my opinion Economy Honda is the worst Honda dealer in the south east, Pye in Dalton has way better prices and I hear the same is true for Honda of Cleveland. So that being said I wasn't too surprised to see "Economy" jacking up the prices of an economy car. I mean how is 18K economical? For that price you might as well pony up a couple extra thousand and get a civic or used accord. The Fit's entire purpose is cheap transportation and I think once you go over 15K on a car its no longer considered cheap.

So the conclusion I've come to is to look for a civic if possible. I'll still see if I can finagle a Fit... if I can go in and say, "Hey, this is the price I found on the website and I want you to honor or I'll go to Toyota or Pye Honda... or some used car lot." We'll see how that works. I'm a motivated buyer as I need a car so we'll see how motivated they are to sell to me. Otherwise I'll just go to a used car dealer, find a year or two old civic that still has a decent amount of warranty on it and just get that. The Civic is more professional looking too, so that might be the best route anyway. Though I really like the new style of Civic and to find one of those used I'll have to wait a few months.... which who knows if the Sentra will make it that long in Atlanta.

The Scion XA is also of some interest as its the same car as the FIT, so I'll keep my eye on that one as well. I'll try to look around and see what I can find in Atlanta and Dalton. But overall it was just disappointing to see that sticker shock because its nothing but pure profit, they know it and I know it. At least do a better job of hiding the profit. It was annoying they had the MSRP price (which is what is on the website) and then they had "Economy of Honda Processing Fee---$700" OH bull, give me a break. "Economy of Honda Floor Mats---$500" Again Bull! And then a bunch of other crap that was just rediculous. Car dealers, they're like the tax collectors of the Bible times.... its hard to love them.