I love my car and don't regret it at all

 

why doesn't my signature attach to my posts?

 

I was very close to buying the FIT but I ended up with the ford focus SE (base). The Honda was "harder" to find around me (I'm in Southern California), although I did find some. The problem was they aren't really making any deals on it.

The ford focus has a new model coming out, so the current ones have huge rebates. I got the car for 400 under invoice and got a 3500 rebate. Out the door it was 17,800 (that's with tax). It just didn't make sense to go with the fit other than the love I have for the hatchback/magic seats.

I almost went with the Mazda 3, but I cant get over how much I hate that center console/screen.

 

The Ford Focus was my second choice having rented a couple and they were great. I would have insisted on the manual, and they aren't easy to find.


My Fit is my retirement present, and I haven't owned a car in 35 years. So $2K was fine by me for what I wanted.

 

Regrets... kind of.
The car serves its purpose as a commuter car.
Everything else... is okay. Freeway manners are not the best, nor is interior isolation from road/wind noise.
This car is also really slow (albeit not as slow as the Prius C I cross shopped against).

If I had to do it over again I would probably spend extra to get a Mazda 3 or the VW TDI (both of which will have much slower depreciation).

Just being honest, and I know they are a bit more expensive but worth it in my eyes.
Over 72 months, with the low interest rates as they are, it is almost free money (.49% over 72 months on 20500, 0 down, the bank is LOSING money over time to inflation). So besides the negligible interest you'd be paying, your payment would increase slightly by $70 a month ($25,000 over 72) but you'd be getting a greater percentage of that back on resale (Mazda 3 and TDI's hold their value exceptionally well).

 

I thought Honda had better resale value than Mazda or VW. Nothing like regretting a $20000 purchase. Did you rush your decision?

 

I did/didn't rush it.
I wanted a white one. In retrospect I should have waited until there were more white ones so I could pick it up locally and not be boxed into picking the one EX-L white fit in southern california (at the time).

A 160+ mile daily commute was killing me in the SLK 55, as I was getting around 16 MPG on premium. The longer I waited the more $$ flies away.

That and I just got married and my wife wanted something white, cute, small, with high visibility (she is less than 5 feet tall).

I cross shopped the Fit, Prius C, Prius, TDI Jetta, TDI Golf, Mazda 3, GTI, Mini, 1 Series BMW, C class mercedes, and concluded if I have to drive slow I might as well do it with the most modern tech package available.
I REALLY wanted the Mazda 3 with tech package because it would be the cheapest car with automatic cruise control, helpful with that commute through LA, but the wife wanted the Fit because of the rear seat room and all the above mentioned criteria. Not sure why we needed rear seat room as there will only be two of us for the very long forseeable future...

I did research these cars extensively, I was actually able to get a brand new Prius C Four, in white, for the same price as the Fit because I have family in Toyota, but the wife didn't like the blind spot . That and those cars arent freeway optimized for MPG anyways.

I'll be stuck with this commute for at least the next 3 years, so I figured I would buy something my wife would like and then see what happens in 3 years... if she still liked it I would consider keeping it. Since I drive the car 90% of the time for my commute, she seems to like my SLK on her short commute to the hospital now
It was all planned!

No but in all seriousness the car gets better gas mileage than advertised. Not sure if all cars would do that if I drove them set at 65 cruise control 90% of the time (this is the first time I've ever NOT wanted to drive fast lol, don't think I've ever driven 65 this long...) It is a great little car with lots of interior space, but I would say its a great people mover, maybe not the best driving experience or quality, but it gets the job done...
Thats about how I feel about my purchase right now.

 

What do you mean? We own a Prius C in addition to the new Fit. Our Prius C averages 60 mpg and most of the miles are on freeway due to dbf's commute. More than 2/3 of the driving is freeway.

 

I've never owned one, but I've read multiple people say the larger prius is more freeway optimized. I saw people reporting MPG of around 40-45 going 70 on the freeway (as opposed to high 50's in the city). I suppose it was the size and blind spot that made that car a no go. I was actually in the process of locating a white one when I called it off.

Do you like your Prius C? Any issues with it? If you say you are getting 60MPG then I'll have to believe you because I have not had one to try... I made my conclusion about MPG based on reading lots of forum posts.

 

That was the big thing for me. The power of the Honda fit just wasn't great. That's why I went with the Ford Focus. It's very fast for a basic car.

I think the resale of the Honda FIT will be WAY better then the focus though. So I better keep this car for awhile :P

 

Well, EPA numbers on the Prius say it's a little better on the highway than the C. Couldn't really tell you about the regular Prius. But with leaving the ECO button on all the time in the Prius C we literally average overall about 60. It weighs more than 500 lbs less than the regular Prius and basically has the 1st gen Prius engine. Many people get better mpg than we do but we just aren't interested in trying THAT hard. We do watch our acceleration and don't speed much at all. Awesome little car, no issues whatsoever!

 

I could care less about power. I like the size, the ride and all the gizmos. :-) It gets me onto the freeway and up to speed in no time. No issues merging into traffic, or going up the very steep hill to my house.

I'm drive fairly lawfully so I really don't need a car that drives like a race car.

 

No regrets here! In fact, I bought this car expecting not to enjoy it or bond with it. I bought it for practical reasons. I've got about 500 miles on it, and I REALLY like this car! What a surprise! I find that driving with the 'Current MPG' display on nags me to drive with economy in mind. When I change the display, I stopped caring about feathering the gas, and started to have some fun with it. There's a place for both mindsets, and not every car can deliver whatever you are in the mood for.

Also, I thought the paddle shifters were totally cheezy and would go unused. I have found that I regularly use them to downshift approaching stops, or in lieu of light braking. I still need to read the manual before I figure out the best use of the S setting on the shifter, but I will say that the paddle shifters and transmission behave quite differently when set to S. The paddle shifted 'gear' while in S, stays in place longer if not indefinitely. While in D the paddle shifted 'gear' is more of a temporary adjustment before it resumes with handling ratios without your input.

 

Prius C has a smaller powertrain than the regular Prius so it doesn't do as well on the highway, but combined mileage is essentially the same. AFAIK, Honda still has better resale values than Ford or even Mazda. Mazda3 is pricier than the Honda Fit overall. To get comparable features in the Mazda, I'd have to go with the Grand Touring trim which is quite a bit more than a Fit EX or even EX-L. I might have a little more lee-way to negotiate price at the Mazda dealership, but I don't think even Mazda dealers want to sell their cars at cost or below, which all I could really afford with the Mazda prices.

I haven't bought the car yet, but I suspect I'll have the biggest buyers remorse if I missed a serious QC issue or got dinged in financing somehow. Otherwise, I'm just going to grin and bear it.

 

Agreed. That screen is horrendous. If it could at least be flipped/pushed down it wouldn't be so bad. From a functionality standpoint it seems fine...but it also seems like it's just waiting to be snapped off.

 

I still think the "extras" and the space packaging is phenomenal on the fit... but I ended up with a ford C-max. Just seemed like a whole higher level of car for about the same money as an EX. Definitely a lot more complex though. For simple, the honda wins.

 

Wow, where did you buy a C-MAX for same money as a Fit? Last I checked the base model C-MAX was over $5K more than a Fit EX and that's just on paper. Over here at least, it really takes a lot of hard work, persistence and due diligence to get a car around invoice price.

 

Considering Honda wouldn't really budge on price, Ford has/had some really heavy incentives on 2013 C-Max's. It wasn't exactly the same, but it got the OtD pricing within 1k or so of a Fit. For that difference it was worth it, its much quieter, a little more upscale interior and i'm averaging 42 mpg! I do have a friend whos in the market and would probably still go Fit if given as she is between the two. The Magic seats and completely flat cargo around really are a nice point on the car. The battery and such on the c-max sort of screw that up.

 

What does this mean? Does it not go 65 mph?
E

 

I thought acceleration was pretty decent, it won't light your hair on fire... but a 8.5 second-ish isn't too bad. Its those 10 second plus cars that seem to be doggedly slow. I do agree it seems a little loud though.