I wondered if Honda corporate had anyone monitoring this website. It is beneficial for customers and Honda to get a customer perspective on car and dealer quality issues. Please keep us informed as to how this plays out and thanks for posting here. I am STILL waiting for my 2015 black LX CVT. Put deposit down last Tuesday (8/26) told car was due any day now. I guess any day is any day, just need THE day. Good Luck, Bill

 

Funny how the interwebs work.


As are result of reading some of these threads, I was convinced I had bugs in my Fit. Only recently did I realize that my complaint that the passenger airbag said "Off" when the seat was occupied by an adult is because, well, it never says "On". (In fairness to myself, I really thought it was lit as "Off", but my seatmate tells me he thinks I am wrong.)


So when the dealership couldn't recreate the problem and I realized that the light was now off when the seat was occupied, it didn't immediately occur to me that I had imagined it. But the dealership was nice enough to refill my tires. So when my TPMS light 'came on' a few days later, I had to go back because I thought there was a problem. The tires were fine. Here's where the forum really helped: My guess is I didn't notice the TPMS light on the way back from the dealer and saw it only after I drove the car two days later. The service people no doubt did not recalibrate the system; that happened to another poster.


So, in retrospect, my buggy car was never buggy at all. Good luck to all of you with yours. Mea culpa.


And possibly tl;dr.

 

Just now Honda Customer Service called me, and knew everything about me and my purchase (psychic?).

They were concerned, helpful, and very willing to help resolve the last of my issues with the vehicle. I must say I feel much better about the whole thing now.

I'll be taking the car in again, and a Honda rep is going to come out and survey my vehicle.
I'll stay posted.
Thanks friendly Honda guy. FYI they DO watch the forums.

 

At this point they should give you a new car and take your present one back to Celaya to use as an example of how not to do it.

 

late yesterday i got my fit back. i only had the car for a day, then multiple dealers had it for almost 2 weeks. they replaced the clutch and other related transmission components.

i drove straight home and put it on the lift, and it they did an very clean job. car still looks new and the job can only be described as "excellent".

i only put 30 miles on the car last night, but will be doing a couple hundred today/this weekend. i hope this is the end of the dealer warranty visits, and fingers crossed, the car will be good for 200k...

 

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Could you please let us know your build sequence. It is the last 5 digits of your VIN.. I am picking up my black LX CVT tomorrow and using the info in this topic to look it over. My last 5 digits are 22335. Thanks, Bill

 

I am sorry al the crap you had to put up with, I think the sticker specialist may have been the dealer that stuck it to you. I am picking up my 2015 black LX CVT, VIN 22335, tomorrow and will use all the posts here as a guide to check out my new car. Thank you for sharing with us.
I will post here on my experience. Bill

 

You said you lost 75% of your week which is "easily" $2-3k.

If you easily make $2,667-4,000/wk you are over $200,000/yr.

So first off, why are you wasting your valuable time on this? Ex: I gladly call Uber and spend $10-20 for a ride instead of waiting around. On my way to drop off my Jeep for service the other day I requested an Uber to the location of the shop, handed them the keys signed my name and walked out. I could have waited three hours in the lobby but the $30 I spent on Uber gave me two hours of my time back.

Try not to get upset if you lose money. I dropped $40k on a Mustang GT and sold it for $30k when I realized I actually like my Fit better, even for purely fun driving. I don't look at this like I lost $10k on the car, I learned a valuable lesson, and that lesson cost me $10,000. There is a lesson in pretty much everything, from having your wallet stolen to eating a lousy lunch, sometimes you just have to look harder for the lesson


Sell the car, lose the $3-5k on it, and move on. If it has cost you this much in lost productivity already it will likely cost you more. It will cost you $5k to learn never to buy a car the first year it comes out, or right after assembly moves to Mexico, or even never to buy another Honda again if that is how you feel, however you want to view it. The car at this point is a sunk cost. No matter how much you drive it you are not recouping the money spent on it and you are not likely to feel better about the purchase over time.

If you want a Mazda 3 and find the build quality leagues better, grit your teeth and write the check, then move on. This is the logical thing to do given your income, as it will save you money.

Besides, there is a certain guilty pleasure in doing things just because you can. Spending a little more money to get what you want is worth it. If I was not happy with my Fit I wouldn't think twice about dumping it for another car.

Realize what a sunk cost is, and think about the opportunity cost in EVERYTHING YOU DO. For every minute you spend of your life doing something, you are giving up the opportunity to do other things. This is why I do not own a television.

Maybe my brain is just wired wrong or something, but once I started thinking of things like this I became much more productive and I rarely get stressed or angry.

 

I picked up my new Milano Red Fit LX one week ago today. It was my 1st new car in 15 years, and my 2nd Honda (I originally purchased a new Civic SI in 1991 - awesome car!). I have to admit, I was very disappointed with the dealer prep and I suppose disappointed with the initial Honda quality inspection overall. I swear all that the dealer did was to slap on the wheel covers and call it a day. First off, when I got to the dealership to pick up the car, there was a white, what looked to be like a scratch, on the driver side rear door. I told the sales person if it didn't come out, I wasn't taking the car. Fortunately they easily removed it with some polish. But instantly when I saw that, I was a little hesitant in general. I didn't have much time for a really close inspection so I completed the paperwork and I went on my way. However, when I got home and I started a closer inspection, there was sticky glue residue all over the driver's door sill plate. And there was sticky glue residue over the entire upper portion of the hatch and on the Honda emblem. I had to really soak it down with Goo Gone and then rub and rub until it was all removed. It was very stubborn and tough to remove. Also, the driver's door weather stripping was pulling away from the front corner of the body frame of the vehicle. I pushed it on, and it slowly pulled back off. I pushed it on again, and is slowly started pulling away again. After several attempts of pushing it back on, and having it pull back off, I simply removed the entire weatherstrip and I put it back on myself - now it's staying put as it is supposed to do. I don't think they applied it with even "tension" around the body frame and it was too tight in the curved area where it was pulling away. Also, where the flap is on the floor, near the passenger seat, the one that covers the VIN#, there was all of this white fuzzy carpet padding sticking out all around the perimeter of the flap. I opened it up and the carpet and padding was all messed up and improperly shoved into the cover. I had to pull the carpet out and reposition it back into the frame of the cover and then I took sissors and I trimmed off all of the extra white fuzzy stuff that was originally sticking out. I closed up the cover and now it looks like it should with no fuzzy stuff sticking out. On the passenger side door pillers, there were white marking pen marks. . . 2 straight lines in one area with a dull area of paint between the lines - it looked like rubbing compound was used to polish the area between the lines, but it was still dull so I took some polish and I removed the white lines and I shined the area; another one of the areas was a large white oulined circle; and the other area was a small outlined white circle. They easily removed with some more car polish, but they looked ridiculous when I opened up the doors and I saw white pen markings against the red paint. I'm assuming the marks were part of some type of quality inspection, BUT, they should have been removed after the inspection was completed. And lastly, when I opened up the hood, there was this piece of black foam about 6"x1.5"x1/2" just lying on top of the engine. I'm assuming (hoping) it was just a stray piece of left over foam from somewhere. And I also had to vacummn and wash the car. You're probably wondering why I didn't take the car back. Well for one, and obvious good reason, I don't trust dealership repair service or their prep people and I knew that I'd do a better job fixing these (minor) issues on my own. I feel if they didn't get it right the first time, they'd only mess it up even more the 2nd time. And a point to note, they had 5 days to prep this vehicle. I love driving the car so far so I'm getting over my initial frustrations. And since I haven't owned a new car in so long, or a Honda, I don't know if this is now a typical experiece or just the product of lazy prep and poorly trained assembly people. I had thought of buying a used car, but I chose a new one to avoid such things. I did take some photos of what I described, but I couldn't get them to upload with my post. Fortunately, I still have hope that this is going to be a really great car! (P.S. Call me sentiment, but I like to keep such things - the window sticker was also torn in two. Are they really that difficult to remove?)

 

Could you let us know the last digits of your VIN and the date of origin from the Honda title?. I picked up my Black LX this morning. No issues I could find. My VIN is 22335 and date of origin was 8/15/14. I was told car was built about 2 days before date of origin, maybe on Aug 13 which was a Wednesday. The car was delivered to dealer 9/4 and I picked it 9/6 at 9am. I did get the Firestone tires and they ride pretty quiet and smooth, only drove car about 20 miles, had 12 miles on odometer due to dealer testing before delivery. Honda will ask you to rate your dealer so you can provide feedback besides here. Thanks for your comments! Bill

 

Hi Bill - my VIN numbers are 15999. Date of manufacter is 7/14. I'm not sure where to find the date of origin. Where extactly do I find that? My Fit also has Firestone tires. Were they putting another brand on prior to the Firestone tires. And I will definitely keep an eye out for a survey from Honda. I have yet to receive that. I am surprised and disappointed by the sloppy prep job that was done by my dealership. They have been in business selling only Hondas for over 30 years now so I would have expected more. Well, thanks for your response, Frank

 

Hi Frank, One of the documents you use to title your car is I think called a certificate of origin. This is provided by HONDA. The dealer finance guy said this is done after car is completed, usually about 2 days after leaving assembly line. This is one of the documents I needed to provide to MO Dept. of Revenue to get my car titled in MO.. I wish I had made a copy of it. Since my VIN 22335 it seems about my car was built about 6300 cars after yours. I have the Firestone tires, ride quiet and smooth to me.
I used the info on these posts to develop my own checklist of items to look for. My car had no problems and the dealer even waxed it before delivery. Even the steering wheel insert, a few people complained about, was perfect. This dealer prep may be one of the reasons they are the largest Honda dealer in St. Louis. I was told Honda will give me a survey, with 1 to 5 ratings. I will sure give them all 5's. My car came in Thurs afternoon and I picked it up 9AM Sat. I wonder how many FITs Mexico is making each day? Bill
PS They were putting Bridgestone tires on the 2015 FITs until they either ran out or Firestone were made available.

 

They contacted and assisted me with my battery issue, they called dealer and followed up with me religiously, I am very pleased to have HCS rep Here on board. Hope they get you fixed up, your issues have been far to many and you patience has been tried.

 

In order to provide a Balanced perspective, I picked up my White LX CVT today after waiting 7 weeks( since August 1).

The dealer did an excellent job in cleaning and peeping my car. My purchase was handled by San Diego County Credit Union Auto Buying Service. SDCCU was awesome. Their service and communication during this long 7 week wait for Honda to deliver a White LX was excellent, even if Honda provided little or no information during the wait.

If I had to use one word to describe the initial driving experience with my 2015 Fit, it would be DELIGHTFUL!.

I purchased both a Gen 1 and Gen 2 Fit and this new fit is so much better.

The 2015 is a Big Winner, and worth the wait.

 

I just got my car back from having a clear bra put on, and the installer told me that he saw a lot of defects in my paint - things I hadn't noticed before. He also had me run my hands over the passenger side windows to feel for some "bumps," which he speculates are overspray from the front fender being repainted over. When I looked at it in the sun, I did notice significantly more orange peel than on the rest of the car, so that seems feasible. What I don't understand is why that would have already needed to be done when my car was supposed to have been freshly in the morning that I bought it.

I also noticed some scuffs on the driver's side door after I'd gotten the car home, but I didn't call the dealer because it felt like a case of my word against theirs, since I'd already driven off the lot. It seems like people have had luck going back to their dealers and having these things sorted out, but my question is, how long do you really have before they tell you "Too bad, you left with the car, so now it's your problem, and it could have been scuffed anywhere,"? And would the car need to be taken back to the dealer it was purchased at to be fixed? Mine happens to be about an hour away from where I live, and I honestly don't ever want to set foot in that place again.

 

My car has zero issues, I mean im sure there will be a some cars with some issues here and there. it's to be expected.

btw does anyone know where the actual engine is "built"?

 

The factory is under no obligation to disclose any type of work done to the car, and that includes repairs done at the port. Considering the paint issues reported at Celaya, nothing should be surprising. At the end of the day, every single vehicle comes in "fresh" off the truck. The particulars behind this vehicle such as a new factory with new people and new processes does not favor a robust build. Maybe 6 months from now, many of these obstacles will be under better quality control.

I know many people here don't want to hear this, and there are hoards of new orners swearing they have perfect vehicles, and I am not arguing with any of them. It's their vehicle and they have the right to judge it as they see fit. Having worked almost two decades in an assembly plant, I have seen some outrageous things. The only thing worse than the initial challenges seen at Celaya is what I saw happening in the two years between the time my plant closing was announced and the day the last vehicle rolled off the line. There were many times I felt sorry for the average Joe who was spending good money for one of those vehicles.

Also, it's possible that paint repairs undertaken at the port or at the dealership were done outside in open air, thus exposing the repair to more dust, orange peel, fisheye, and overspray than work done in a paint booth under proper lighting and positive ventilation. Honda knows that the new Fit now represents a tremendous opportunity to increase the car's profitability. So the first ten or twenty or fifty thousand units will cost Honda a little more in terms of warranty administration. Honda is looking at the big picture. These vehicles will be sold and many owners will either not persue waranty remediation for the imperfections on their cars, and even if they do, a certain portion of those requests will be denied. Honda knows the learning curve will eventually favor better quality and less rework. The only losers are the folks who have bought cars with severe quality issues in the present.

 

I haven't gone over the car with a fine tooth comb yet (overtime) but no problems so far. Paint looks good, all features I have tried work properly. No squeaky wipers. AC is plenty cold in Econ mode for Texas, mileage seems good. About 39 hwy with AC. A tad sluggish merging uphill into freeway in Econ mode but that was expected. Dealer had it all weekend before I returned to claim it, and seems to have invisibly corrected any issues if there were any. Terrific little car. Now, I'm not a perfectionist and could have missed something... Been raining. Handles well in rain and great visibility. I found the button to dim the display at night. Yay! My detailing supplies and Spongebob stickers are on their way.

 

Great to hear!
Susan

 

No, it is a warranty issue and just because you didn't detect the problem before leaving the dealer doesn't mean that it shouldn't be corrected. You probably didn't look at every feature of the audio system, but if one of them is defective you wouldn't feel bad about getting it fixed, right?