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Its official. I am selling back my 2015 Fit and trading up for a 2017 6MT Crystal Black Pearl. I got a shorter loan term and lower APR as a result so to me it was a no brainer. Payment per month was only a few dollars more a month. I was initially offered 0.9% for 60 months for a 2016, but I would not compromise on a manual transmission, and those are simply impossible to find at this point. Wound up settling for 1.9% at 60 months for the 2017. Way better than my 66 month 3.9%. Granted I will be paying a bit longer for the 2017, however, this vehicle will always be garaged so I feel this car will last way longer and show less signs of wear with it not being outside.
I also needed tires for the 2015 if the deal didn't go through. They have died at 34k. I'll be spending the next few days removing the mods from the car which will be all transferable to the new vehicle. I am re-buying the vent visors and the body side molding since I have no patience dealing with scraping off the 3M tape. The difference this time around is I will be investing into scotchgard for the front bumper, fenders and hood. This will likely be my last Fit for a long while I plan to drive the 2017 into the ground. I now have a beautiful two car garage and the car will be sheltered from the elements.
Thankfully I wont have to wait long for the 2017 manual transmission. My dealership located one for me arriving at another dealership thats due on the 28th this month. I'll likely take delivery sometime next week.
I will say that the 2015 is still a solid vehicle. Had the deal not come through I would have gotten new tires for the 2015 and kept driving it till it died. Sadly the paint job is subpar and you can really see all the wear and tear since being outside all the time. I believe the body would have started to corrode before the engine died. Bottom line, it was the first 14k off the production line of the GK body style. I will be looking over the new 2017 very closely to see if there was any improvements in build quality.
Cheers All!
Enjoy!
Getting a new car always has to be balanced by all the modifications I made to my current car. Usually it is money thrown away. I plan to keep this one indefinitely. When I got my Fit, Honda was offering a very low rate, even lower than my credit union, so I took that.
Very cool, still hard to beat the Fit for practicality! And a new chance to redo your mods in a new and improved way is always good.
Agreed! there are a few different things I want to do, mostly power wiring, going to clean that up a bit. The rest of the mods will install just like on the 2015. Yeah my wife straight out asked me are you sure this is the last Fit you are trading up, and I said yes. I drive very often and long miles even though we both work only a few miles from our work places. She barely drives anywhere where as I do all over Connecticut, mostly for family/friends. Trading up has always worked out for me. We have an older "beater car" now between us that we will be using for the dog and doing trips with, and keep the miles low on the newer cars. I love our dog, but she is not going into my new car!
out of curiosity, how good was their buyback offer? (i own my car outright, so this probably isnt as good for me). i miss having a turbo car
Dealership buys back the 2015 and pays off my loan in full. The original offer was for a 2016 at 0.9% and 60 months, but they could not find a manual transmission to save their lives. Finance manager said "let me make a few calls, would you want a 2017?" My response was if the offer was the same as the 2016. Said he could not do that being the newest model year, but came back with 1.9% and 60 months which was better than my current loan. Monthly payment was a few bucks more a month but negligible. The main idea was to not take on a worse loan term than what I already had, despite the higher miles of the 2015.
Still waiting on delivery. Seems the 2017 manual is as much a unicorn as a 2016 manual.
Dealership buys back the 2015 and pays off my loan in full. The original offer was for a 2016 at 0.9% and 60 months, but they could not find a manual transmission to save their lives. Finance manager said "let me make a few calls, would you want a 2017?" My response was if the offer was the same as the 2016. Said he could not do that being the newest model year, but came back with 1.9% and 60 months which was better than my current loan. Monthly payment was a few bucks more a month but negligible. The main idea was to not take on a worse loan term than what I already had, despite the higher miles of the 2015.
Still waiting on delivery. Seems the 2017 manual is as much a unicorn as a 2016 manual.
Dealership buys back the 2015 and pays off my loan in full. The original offer was for a 2016 at 0.9% and 60 months, but they could not find a manual transmission to save their lives. Finance manager said "let me make a few calls, would you want a 2017?" My response was if the offer was the same as the 2016. Said he could not do that being the newest model year, but came back with 1.9% and 60 months which was better than my current loan. Monthly payment was a few bucks more a month but negligible. The main idea was to not take on a worse loan term than what I already had, despite the higher miles of the 2015.
Still waiting on delivery. Seems the 2017 manual is as much a unicorn as a 2016 manual.
Ahh, makes sense. Hopefully they can track one down for you quickly. They had to get mine from the next state over as well (6MT).
Ahh, makes sense. Hopefully they can track one down for you quickly. They had to get mine from the next state over as well (6MT).
Now my dealer is saying my 6MT 2017 is due on the 14th from another dealership where they do a swap. I haven't started taking off any of my mods yet as I want a solid date that the car will be available for delivery. Originally they told me the 7th. I'm not giving the dealer too much shit because I know how hard it is to find a 6MT. My wife drives the new Suburu WRX 2017, but she can't drive stick. I started teaching her don't worry, but didn't want one as a daily driver. For the CVT version of that car its been almost 3 months to the day before she can take delivery. She has the opposite problem as me!
My dealership said the 6MT is stuck at the border awaiting customs. That was 3 days ago. Still not sure on delivery as it keeps on getting extended out. Got my VIN# for the new 2017 so its def coming, just not sure when.
I started removing all the mods on the 2015. Oddly enough the LED lights, heated mirrors, winkers were fairly easy to remove. The stereo should be straight forward as I made all the components plug and play modular. The difficult removal will be the tow hitch and suspension being under the car. Need to be careful to fish out the bolts inside the frame rails so I can reuse them on the new 2017.
My illuminated door sills are rock solid stuck to the body. I'm afraid to use a heat gun to loosen up the 3M tape. I don't want to spend another $100 for a new set if I don't have to. They are stuck on there so good I could actually bend the aluminum metal they are made of. Don't want to do that.
I do need to remove the front bumper to remove the Honda Jazz style DRL's that are on the side of the foglights. They also double as switchback blinkers, but I'm not sure I will reinstall these. They have a blueish tint to them (higher color temp like 8k) and the rest of the LEDs are about 5500-6k true white. Plus they are not very bright. I may start hunting for a similar sized LED array that has some serious LUX to them and refit.
All in all going back to OEM stock is going fine. Knowing what I know now I will certainly assemble the wiring more cleanly. I had a serious spaghetti mess under the dash. You didn't see it, but for my own knowledge it didn't look professional.
Hey everyone! this will be my last post in this thread. Just took delivery today of my 2017, and from first glance, the build quality is better than the 2015. there are subtle differences with the infotainment center, definitely a newer firmware. I'll detail in a new thread as i redo all my mods which will easily fit onto the vehicle. Some I may not redo simply because of the hassle. I'm driving this one into the ground, no more trade ins for me.
My dealership said the 6MT is stuck at the border awaiting customs.
I do need to remove the front bumper to remove the Honda Jazz style DRL's that are on the side of the foglights.
Removing the front bumper on the new Fit can be tricky. When I had the bumper recall done, the tech broke an attaching tab on the upper right. I found it when I removed the bumper to install a pair of loud horns. Putting the bumper back on, I broke the tab on the left side. I would never remove the bumper again. My '97 Civic's bumper was very easy to remove - just a few screws and a few minutes.
Welcome all to my new thread! Took delivery of my 2017 yesterday evening, odo had 46 miles on it. As some know I got a better finance deal on the 2017 than my 2015, and now that I have a garage i anticipate the 2017 will not age as bad. I'll try not to rehash too much in my other main thread, however, already I can note some key differences that I think others will be interested to read.
To start off, my 2015 was an early production model, in the low 14k off the line. Celaya really didn't have all their shit together, though I had zero issues with the drivetrain, there were a lot of issues with the trim and paint that made the car age faster. Aug 2014 i took delivery of that car, and i was already getting rust spots on the hood, quarter panels, and under carriage. Bad quality control on the rust mitigation aspect.
2017:
- this first part will be subjective, but others may relate. The build quality "feels" better and improved. The doors close silently, no misalignment. The doors feel stiffer, heavier, like I'm not closing the lid on a tin can kind of thing. The door skins are without a doubt thicker than my '15. No mirror shaking, less body panel flexing. I'm not sure but the road noise seems to be the same, but it could be a bit less? Not positive since I have fall allergies so ears aren't too reliable for the short term.
- Tires are Firestones, and I will be able to use my snow tires from my '15. I have honda wheel locks. I had gorilla locks too with the spinning collars for two locks per wheel, but the gorillas began rusting almost immediately. they still work, I may try to clean them up and reuse them. maybe some light grease will prevent the corrosion.
- the paint job is volumes better than the 2015. I looked extremely carefully to look for thin or downright missing patches of clear coat around the body. ***My 2015 while not immediately apparent had thin to missing patches of clear coat near the rear wheel wells that was causing the pain to discolor and eventually rust. I was able to arrest the rust with touch up paint, but it was a constant maintenance thing that I shouldn't have to do so early in the car's life.
- drivetrain feels smoother than the 2015. Same engine, same sound, but the transmission and clutch feel more confident, and not clunky. This may simply because its a new car, but time will tell. I do not experience the hesitation in 2nd gear anymore that others have reported. Possibly Honda did a firmware update of the DFI system to stop this. The 2015 had this but I would always shift at higher rpms to smooth it out.
- infotainment seems to have a newer firmware update. where before this didnt work on the 15, if I'm playing a ytube video like music, and my audio source is set to bluetooth, the title and video info now comes up on the screen. I can still override the HDMI mirroring lockout by disabling the DDVSP error menu. The sales guy thought that was pretty slick since he did not know about it. Also my lanewatch camera is perfectly aligned. I know now not to screw with pressing alignment in the hidden menus, learned my lesson on that! The camera also handles nighttime glare better from headlights. the '15 had the camera washing out the image where it was pretty much useless at night. now I would say the '17 is somewhat useable. It's not perfect, but improved. Still messing with it a bit. I will be reinstalling my stereo system with subs, tweeters and door speakers. thankfully I saved all the wiring so install will be plug and play.
- Lighting: Interior lighting stock is horrible OEM, but I am reinstalling the LED cool white lights I have. Same thing for the cargo area adding the 2nd light. the stock headlight halogens and foglights I believe I will leave them in. While I liked the cool white LED set I used, the light may be brighter and to my eyes clearer, they simply don't throw down the road as far. Without a projector to properly aim the light its not worth it. Im also not reinstalling my switchback DRL's on the side of the fog lights. It requires removing the bumper cover, and I do not have ANY bumper sag. I'd like to keep it that way. So I'll be selling the LED headlights and DRL switchbacks. I will be reinstalling the LED rear blinkers, reverse lights, and the front switchbacks.
The remaining mods I will reinstall, such as the tow hitch, tow lighting, brake controller, and air shocks. Same goes for the heated side mirrors and winkers. Now that I have a garage I'll do them at my leisure. The hitch was pretty rusted, same for the air shocks. Looks like the paint finish was subpar on those parts, but nothing some grinding, repainting, and never sieze grease cannot fix.. I think I will do the 35% tint this time around too, but only on the quarter windows and door windows. I don't like it on the rear window at night, hard to see.
That's all I got for now. I'll report any differences and things I notice moving forward. As before I'll document my mod installs. Knowing what I know now, I intend on doing the install more clean since learning from my past experience.
I test drove an early 2015 (mfg earlier 2014) a few months ago that had some pretty dull looking paint for the miles. I'm happy to report that mine is still nice and shiny, but I can relate to how your's probably looked if it suffered a similar clear coat problem as the tester.
Your new one garaged should help reduce the damage from repeated morning dew and evaporation on the paint from sitting outside.
Re the HU, I wonder how one would obtain a firmware update? In the ST, you load up the flash drive with a file and it automatically updates, very simple.
I test drove an early 2015 (mfg earlier 2014) a few months ago that had some pretty dull looking paint for the miles. I'm happy to report that mine is still nice and shiny, but I can relate to how your's probably looked if it suffered a similar clear coat problem as the tester.
Your new one garaged should help reduce the damage from repeated morning dew and evaporation on the paint from sitting outside.
Re the HU, I wonder how one would obtain a firmware update? In the ST, you load up the flash drive with a file and it automatically updates, very simple.
Thank you!
The firmware update would likely be a USB dongle with some sort of update program. There is a way to see the firmware version in the hidden menus. Once I figure that out I'll post mine and see if others have the same or an earlier version.
Been having a few life things happening so really haven't gotten to installing my modifications yet but I was able to get the version of firmware loaded into the infotainment Center. You can check out the info on your head unit by pressing and holding Home Power and Eject which will bring you to a diagnostic menu. You will want to click on the detail settings which is the bottom selection and then pressing Version which will get you the screen shown below. Not sure if it is the same version as the 2015 but I'd be curious to see if anyone could chime in on this.
Also I ordered my deluxe 3M kit for the front end. Should have that here in a few days.
09-26-2016, 09:26 AM
