I've been a 10+ year member of Honda-tech and some other BMW forums, so some of you may recognize my name. I'd like to introduce myself to FitFreak (JohnnyHT referred me here). I have always loved Fits since they were introduced and thought it would be a great daily driver and car to have for the long haul. I have lived in NJ for 32 years, and just moved to Southern California late last year. It's been my goal in life to be here, so I finally did it. Don't regret the move one bit.

Anyway, I ended up with a 2012 Honda Fit Sport w/navigation in Taffeta White. Unfortunately in 2012 (and I believe 2011), this combination only comes in an automatic transmission. I don't mind, since with only 117hp, the manual counterpart won't make much of a difference to me. For it's occasional use in LA traffic, this is perfect. I have always wanted navigation/Bluetooth in a car and this is my first car with it. So far, I love it.

Car was purchased in Fladeboe Honda in Irvine, CA. They had to do a trade with another dealer in Palm Springs for this car. This means when I took delivery, it had 122 miles.

MSRP: $20,480
Market Avg: $20,516
Factory Inv: $20,143
Dealer Cost: $19,749
My Price: $19,500 :P

So what did I do? I called ~5 dealers and said, "If you will take $18K, I'll come in right now and buy." As you may have guessed, nobody agreed to that price. The lowest dealer offered up a price of $19,799 (Honda of Corona).

The last dealer I called up was 10 minutes from home. I asked for the same $18K and they of course said no. I mentioned calling around, and they asked for the lowest price. I lied and said, "$19,500". I was put on hold for 2 minutes and they came back and agreed to match the price. It was a losing deal for them, and they were quite forthcoming with mentioning it to me numerous times. :P

My goal was not to have any payments. Keeping my M3 @ $800 a month + insurance + premium fuel @ 16mpg wasn't worth it, especially if I drive once a week. The CPO warranty was running out in a year or so, the maintenance warranty just finished. The car is in perfect shape, so it's the perfect time to sell at the highest amount. I'll be sad for a little while having a 117hp automatic, but in time, I'll have something awesome. When that time comes, I'll have the Fit as a daily driver as well. Perfect situation for myself.

Onto the pics. Pics were taken by a Canon 7D. Everyone knows what a Fit looks like...

You can see a small black dot at the center of the front bumper. The Palm Springs dealer was nice enough to drill a hole right in the center for the plate. Ugh.



I will probably remove the "Fit" badge and leave it bare. Debating on putting the red Honda badges on. The "real" ones are ~$115.



I hear there are "JDM tails". I'll have to look into those maybe. :P



185mm of fury. I'm not too fond of the sunken offset of the rear wheels. Perhaps a spacer?





Mileage will only increase from this point.





They were nice enough to include Fit floormats.



Navigation. Yay!



Threw on my 10-20mm lens for this one.



Not too fond of the bare sill. Might get the Honda (or aftermarket) sill guard piece here. This is just asking to get scratched up.



Window sticker.



Since I'm new to this forum, here's a brief pictoral history of "shamoo".
1997 Acura Integra LS. Auto to manual swap, with a T3/T04E turbo setup. Not many pictures since this was before digital cameras became popular.



2001 Honda S2000. Unforunately, I cannot find the one picture I have of this car. It was stolen 9 months after I got it.

2001 Honda Civic DX. Bought from parents for cheap to use while I didn't have a car.

2007 Honda S2000.







Sold it in ~6 hours after I posted the ad. Buyer flew in from CA, bought my car, and drove back to CA! Here it is driving away. He is in San Luis Obispo. Somewhat neighbors again.



2008 BMW M3 coupe.





Transported that and my R6 to CA:



And now...the Fit.

Whoops! Forgot to mention my primary ride. 2012 Ducati Monster 796 ABS. I ride this to work every day from Irvine to Los Angeles. Almost 100 miles round trip!

 

Congrats and welcome to the forums. Nice list of rides there too! If you don't mind me asking what do you do for work?

 

The white 2012s just look so good. Nice cars. Welcome. Hope you enjoy the Fit.

 

Thank you sir. I worked for Vonage as a Marketing Analyst when I was back in NJ. Now I work for one of their vendors in Los Angeles as an IT Project Manager. I work in the call center industry.

Thanks! I love it so far. The view towards the front from the inside is amazing. It's so bright, especially with those little "side windows". It's like a space ship haha.

Looks like there's a lot to learn on this forum, so I'll be doing my share of searching before I ask any stupid questions.

It looks like not too many people opted for the navigation option, as I don't see to much information about that.

I don't plan to mod the car for performance at all (if anything, I may get some aftermarket wheels and lower it a bit). Everything else will be geared toward asthetics, such as red Honda badges, the door sill piece at the bottom, all weather trunk mat/tray, maybe HIDs. etc. Plan to keep this car for a long time, hopefully it'll last me 300K miles. :P

 

Welcome, Shamoo!

 

lol I know your type after after all these years. I've seen your cars. They all say that at the beginning. There aren't any commercially tried and true upgrade paths for more power though, so that might dampen your temptations. Even in light of the cars you've owned, the Fit should be fun in the corners with a few things thrown on there while still having the ride be comfortable enough that you won't tire of DDing it.

 

You might find it's more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow

Or you might not. Either way the Fit is going to be a bit pokey vs an M3! However I suspect that when you have the need for speed your bike will be a good substitute.

Since you've driven several S2000s, you might find that the Fit displays a similar attention to packaging, detail, and design. I am constantly finding features where I think, "someone thought that this would appeal to an enthusiast driver, so I'm going to add it even though the car is slow." That ranges from the sporty front valence styling, to the perforated leather steering wheel with shift paddles, to the fact that the radio can adjust its volume up when you go faster. None of that is necessary in an economy car, but, it makes driving one a lot more satisfying . Hondas in general are pretty good and I have seen it said that the Fit is the best thing they currently make ... most of their lineup has become boring to be entirely honest (they claim this'll change with the new Accord). So the Fit certainly isn't fast, but it's trying hard to please!

 

Ahhh, the navi. I like it too.

 

I have a 796 in the same color, but a 2011 model. Love it!

 

Welcome aboard. Always nice to have another call center industry man on the boards.

 

I like the 796. I chose the Street Triple R over it though

 

from HT

 

Welcome to FF!

I do not envy your commute having worked in Irvine for almost 4 years, especially if you do the 405 to 55, very scary on a bike, but a hell of a lot faster

Good deal on the car!

 

Loving the TW '12 Fits. They look so awesome.

 

Shamoo is a bish.

 

mods can we ban op and johnny?

thanks!

 

Why the op? Anyway, welcome and congrats. All the mods you discussed are already well covered. This is a great resource. Enjoy!

 

I am a newby all I may not be doing this right! I have a 2008 FIT with manual transmission. About 5% of the time I cannot get it to go into gear. Sometimes its so bad I cannot leave neutral when I am on the road. I have to make my way to the side, turn the car off to get it in gear! Any insight anyone???

 

Probably would be best to make a new post to get more useful replies.

How many miles do you have on your Fit? Have you changed/flushed your transmission fluid at any point yet? Could possibly be related to your clutch as well (master/slave cylinder) not fully engaging/disengaging.

Does this happen when the car is cold? Does it only happen when the car is moving, for example, if you rev-match, can you get it into gear at all?

 

Has 120k mileage. I guess mostly when cold. Does manual trans fluid need to be changed? I thought that was only automatics.