So we FINALLY have our FIT! HUZZAH!

We got the Sport A/T Navigation in Storm Silver Metallic.

Ok, not the color I wanted (blue) and I originally wanted the regular Sport. The C4C program demolished the supply in my area and we couldn't wait until the next shipment. We needed a car now, so we took the only Fit they had.

For the curious: The price of the car was 19,200$* but with Tax and Title and all that jazz it hit 20,000$. We put a down payment of 4,000$ so the total was around 16,000$. The bank we went through gave us a loan at an interest rate of 5.25% for 5 years. So we pay about 300$ a month. (Yeah, someone's making a good junk of interest off of us.)

Originally my husband didn't want the Navi, but when he saw it in person he was totally sold on it. Apparently it reminded him of Batman's car. (You know, you talk to it and it talks back, that type of thing.) He has therefore dubbed the Fit "Bat-Mite". (We'll just pretend it's black or blue, the correct color for a name like that.)

We took the Fit back to get "detailed" by the dealer, and they gave us a Civic Coupe EX to drive around until they were done. That made us really appreciate the Fit. The Civic Coupe might have a stronger engine, but the Fit excels in every other way.

So yeah, we really liked the Fit. It's surprisingly comfortable, even for tall people like us. (He's 6', I'm 5'9".) Everything is very easy to reach and the controls are easy to understand.

*I'm rounding down because I can't remember the exact change amount

 

Did you guys actually buy it in Japan? (Your location mentions an ARB in Japan.. what is that? An Air Force Base?)

If so, how was your experience different there? How is the model different? Were there other options available?

 

No, in the States. We JUST moved back. I forgot to change my location! I'll do that now.

That's part of the reason we needed a car so quickly. Ever try traversing Texas without a car? Not cheap, and not easy.

 

Congrats! And I really believe you'll grow to love silver. Colors on small cars are tricky. They can make them look cheap if it's the wrong color. I'm 46 years old, so I didn't want a cool or fun color- I wanted a color that made the fit look refined and more upscale. Silver accomplishes this on the fit. The car just looks more expensive and classy in silver. It's also pretty darn easy to keep clean and get by when it's less than perfectly clean, and I gotta tell you- that's a big deal! I've had just about every color car through the years- red, blue, black, white, green, tan, and silver. I tend to choose a color that looks best on the car, and I'm open minded fully until I see the color on the car. Although the fit looks ok in all it's colors, the only one that truely looks 'right' for the car is silver, with the orange revolution coming in second for me. My dealer didn't have silver on the lot- they only had tide water blue. I wouldn't take anything but silver and they found me one. So enjoy your silver- you got the best color for the fit!

Of course...this is my opinion.....

And you got something in your sport that I didn't get in mine- navi.



Dan

 

While you were over there in Japan, did you happen to convince them they didn't "invent" the drift...?

 

Silver was a secondary color choice, so I wasn't devastatingly disappointed in getting it. It does look good, I admit. We already got a compliment on it.. (Though I don't know if it counts, it was our Realtor... xD)

I did sit in a Japanese Honda Fit. I don't remember much about it other than it seemed a lot more "upper class" in Japan. I think they had a different interior color too.

Never hung around people who drifted. I thought it was illegal in Japan. (Not to say people won't do it anyway.)

 

Silver was actually my first choice, but that's the only color they didn't have. I walked up and down lookin at all the other colors...staring at that orange at lot longer than i would ever have imagined. Ended-up with the black, and loving the decision every time I look at it...just needs a little more attention to keep clean.

As for the drifting thing...I couldn't resist the remark. I have an Asian-American co-worker/friend who is convinced, thanks to the damn movie, that "drifting" is a Tokyo thing. Sorry folks, drifting is almost as old as cars themselves.

 

I really liked the orange color. I wish I could have gotten it. My husband would never have gone with it though. He said the only way he'd buy one is if he could have put the turtle symbol on the top. (This is a DBZ reference... yes, as you can tell, he is a NERD of the first order. It's ok though, so am I.)

Black is a very nice color. I think it would have been difficult to keep clean here though. They have dust storms a few times a year.

 

So we've had the Bat-mite for about a week or so now. It's been a great car! It's strange because when I was in Japan, I thought of the Fit as a popular mid-sized hatchback. I mean, if you'd seen their compact cars there, you'd think the same. (When the Smart ForTwo starts looking only a little bit on the small side, you know you've lived in Japan too long, lol..) And Fits were EVERYWHERE. But now that I'm back in the States, I've realized what 4 years in Japan can do to your sense of perspective.

Fits are SMALL. At least when you put them up against all the Chevy, Fords, and GMCs trucks around our town. (People who say the American car industry is dead never lived in Wichita Falls, TX!) Every where we drive and park, there's vehicles towering over us!

And popular? Well, even though Patterson Auto managed to sell their entire stock of 09 Fits, I've not seen another one on the road. I've spotted two other Fits, GDs (pre-08s) and thats it. In fact, Honda doesn't seem all that popular here. You got the Big 3 all over and then a lot of Toyotas and Nissans.

But that's ok. Our car looks small on the outside, but it's perfectly roomy on the inside. It's amazing how a really well designed car can feel almost like magic. And I wanted it because it was best in it's class, not because it was popular.

I've loved the Navigational system, but not for the normal reasons. My husband can be a very unpleasent man to travel with when he's lost or driving in city traffic. Having the Navi virtually eliminates the stress and annoyance of going new places. I can now travel long and short distances with my husband and not feel the strong urge to smack him upside the head. xD

I love the Cruise control, though I haven't had the chance to use it much. We've never had it before. It's funny to watch my husband try to use it. He thinks it's cool, but he's also nervous not having his feet on the peddles.

Now some people have made less than positive remarks about the sound system in the Fit. For myself, I think it's excellent. My previous cars were an '85 and a '93, so the sound in the Fit is like, 100 times better than anything I've ever had in a car before. The fact that we can FEEL the base when we're listening to the remastered Bionic Commando sound track is a marvel to us.

The Fit also turns and parks really well. We get into places bigger cars can't go. It's great to do u-turns because not only can we make a tighter turn than 90% of the vehicles in the area, we can also do it a lot quicker too.

The only thing I don't like about it is the road noise at high speeds. Depending on the the quality of the road, the noise can be almost deafening. (There are some poorly made highway roads between here and Ft Worth.) I wish I was brave enough to take panels off and put some noise dampening stuff in there.

I think my husband has grown quite attached to it too. Even though he heckles me about talking him into buying a new car, he really appreciates all the new features and amenities. Plus not having to worry about things falling out of the bottom of it! (Always encouraging.)

I'm very pleased with the Fit. I think this car will be good to us.

 

Most people saying negative things about the sound system are talking about the stock HU. The Navi audio is different.

Check some of the threads. There are some things you can do to improve the soundproofing without removing panels. Think: wheel wells, floors, cargo area floor, probably more..

 

interestingstuff, I thought both versions of the Sport had the same audio? O_o

 

The Base and the non-navi sport have the same stock head unit.

The Sport has tweeters whereas the Base does not. The Sport then has 6 speakers, and the base has 4. (The Base however does have grills for the tweeters, just no tweeters and no wires.. but they are supposedly easy to add.)

The Sport w/Navi's audio is through... the Navi unit. . but with the same 6 speakers as the Sport w/o Navi.

I do not know the quality of the Navi unit's audio.