Well, I guess it's true that all good things must come to an end, and courtesy of an unlicensed driver who turned left in front of me, I must say farewell to my trusty 2008 Fit Sport, Fitty-Cent.

It had just under 51,000 miles on it when I bought it in November of 2011. I paid it off just over a year later in February of 2013, and I intended to drive it until it became unsafe to do so.

It had 181,916 miles on it when a black Toyota Corolla turned left in front of me just over 2 weeks ago. I hit the brakes and swerved to the right to avoid plowing into the front of the Toyota, but she ended up hitting the left side of my car, making it impossible to swerve back to the left. I hit the curb perpendicularly at about 40 MPH, jumped the curb, went down into a ditch, jumped out of the ditch, then came to a stop. It may not look like it, but the repair estimate came out to around $16,000.00. So...State Farm obviously deemed it a total loss.










That thing was the best car I've ever owned. The most trouble-free 131,000+ miles of any car I've had, and I'm sure it would have gone at least another 100,000.

So, based on my experience with Fitty-Cent, I immediately started looking for another Fit Sport. Today, I do believe I found my next Fit. It's a 2010 with 60,170 miles on it. No accidents, and regular service according to the CarFax report. I'll probably pick it up this Thursday.





I'm pretty sad about having to say goodbye to ol' Fitty-Cent, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Now it's time to hit up the GE forum! :-)

 

Great model and choice color on the new fit. What transmission does it have?
I am enjoying mine tremendously and it had zero issues in 88K miles. Still getting 41 mpg on it.

 

Looks clean, good luck with it.

 

Seeing the GD is painful! Looks like ours.

Good luck with the new ride!

 

Few weeks ago an idiot tried to collect some insurance money from me, but my brakes saved me from the trouble. I sent my dash cam video to the appropriate agency for investigation. Good luck with new car!

 

Yeah, I remember when I bought it and posted here for the first time, you mentioned that our cars were twins, except mine was an AT.

Really bummed about it being totaled.

 

Sad to see Fifty Cent victimized by a Corolla owned by an irresponsible driver. :-(

Glad that you weren't seriously injured. We bought our used 2013 GE Fit last summer and it's been a fine car so far. You're likely aware of the issue, but be sure to be sure that your spark plugs are tight. There are threads on this.

Enjoy the new ride!

 

Man that GD looks salvageable. I wonder if this is why there's so many salvaged Fits on CL?

Can you give some reasons why you went with a 2nd gen Fit as opposed to the first gen? I need to do some learning on the cars, so just about any info is useful here.

 

There are many reasons to go GE over GD, but the biggest one is supply of clean low mileage cars. 2008 was a long time ago and there's not a lot of them left in good shape. If you search autotrader, you'll find quite a few good GE's, but few GD's.

Here's the other things better about the GE:
- more power
- stiffer chassis
- smoother ride
- quieter interior
- factory 16" wheels
- slight increase in interior volume

Most of the things above are also true about the GK when comparing to the GE.

Things better about the GD (not scientific, only my opinion):
- sportier feel (more nimble)
- better looking
- easier to work on (motor not under cowl)

For my money, the best Fit so far is probably the 2012-2014 models. They are the best looking to my eyes and are the most refined of the GE's.

 

Thanks for the reply and education! I'm a sucka for a MT Fit. What are the advantages of a 5sp vs 6sp on the Fits? What about the mpg comparing the different years and 5sp vs 6sp?

Oh and what attracted me to the Fits was that they are nimble, comes with a MT, have some storage availability and FLEXIBLE STORAGE.

 

The final drive and top gear ratio is the same between the 5 and 6 speed, so no improvement in fuel economy or relaxation for highway driving. They sandwiched a gear in between the others. Probably better for acceleration and more fun if you like shifting more, but no improvement to comfort or economy.

The GK's improvement in power and economy come through technology. They have a better valvetrain set up and Direct Injection. The motor improvements are welcome, but I'm not a fan of these early versions of direct injection. Honda is just now in it's first iteration and they are having lots of issues.

VW, Ford, etc were early to the game and have better sorted systems.

 

The GEs are safer being more structurally rigid, newer design, and 2012+ (unless sport navi) come with standard vehicle stability assist system.

The GE's L15 engine is so reliable it is used as an official formula racing engine and is sometimes installed in small aircraft.

 

Salvageable? Perhaps, but the repair estimate was over $16,000.00. The insurance company gave me $6,349.00 for my car, so that's all I would have to do any sort of repairs, and that wouldn't go too far. Plus, there's the issue of insuring a car with a salvage title, etc. As much as I loved that car, it wouldn't have been the same after that accident.

As for why I went with a GE instead of another GD, well, I definitely looked for another GD, but as GAFIT mentioned, availability is an issue. I actually found one that looked just like mine with 105,000 miles on it, and a clean CarFax that indicated good service records for $6,400.00. I test-drove it, and while the steering wheel was a little off-center, it seemed to drive just fine. It even made all of the same engine and brake sounds as my car did. But after asking about the key for the alloy wheel locks it had on it, I looked in the spare tire well, and it had a lot of water in it. The salesman told me that they were pressure washing some of the cars on the lot next to this one and the doors and hatch were open, but I wasn't buying that line. There was too much water in there, and the carpet was dry. All of the other GD's I found had around 100K miles on them, which wouldn't have been an issue with documented service records, but few had them.

So, I started looking at GE's as well. I drove a 2010 with 101,000 miles on it that was priced at $7,599.00 (before tax, tag, title, etc.), and honestly, I wasn't impressed. The ride was noisy (likely due to cheap tires), the A/C button wouldn't turn off the compressor, the plastic on the driver's side door armrest had caved-in under the cloth, the rear bumper cover was out of alignment with the body on the right side, etc. Just too much wrong with it for that price. In the meantime, I read up on the 2010 model Fits, and as others have mentioned, they had a higher safety rating, a little more interior room, and seemed to be pretty highly-rated.

Then I found the 2010 Fit Sport with 60,170 miles on it priced at $8,850.00 (again, before tax, tag, title, etc.). It had a clean CarFax with no accidents and regular service recorded. When I took it for a test-drive, it was much smoother than the other 2010 I had driven, and the interior was in better shape. I got the car down to $7,900.00, so it was $8,800.00 out-the-door.

I've been driving it for a week now, and I like it. It seems quieter than my GD, and it's a bit smoother. I haven't tossed it about much, so I can't compare nimbleness quite yet, but it's still pretty fun to drive. I still like the look of the GD, but I like the way this one looks as well. Only two fill-ups so far, but I got 32.79 MPG on the first tank and 34.38 MPG on the second tank, and I commute in Atlanta traffic every day (38 miles each way), so I'm happy with the gas economy so far.

 

Awwww sorry you went through that! Hope you love and enjoy your new Fit just as much. I had no luck finding a replacement GD either, and I don't like the look of the GEs, so I bought a completely different car. RIP Fitty Cent!