I'm coming up on 3 years of ownership. Expiration of the basic factory warranty. The time, when often if you have insecurities or dislikes about a vehicle you start to think about trading it in.

Maybe I will? But I don't think so. Why? Well...a lot of reasons. But the #1 reason is because I love the Honda Fit interior so much.

I believe with any vehicle from an Old Truck...to a Sports Car, your interaction with it starts and is primary with the steering wheel and dash. Where you sit, and what you see and feel, that becomes what that vehicle is, every time you use it.

And I absolutely love The Honda Fit Sports Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel and the Gauges and Dash as well as the expansive windshield.

My dad recently bought a Brand New Toyota RAV 4, and while it's a more expensive vehicle, and "nice enough"....it's SO BORING. The interior and dash layout is like 95% of all vehicles on the road. The gauges very generic, the dash a simple waterfall design. Even the first time I rode in it, it took me about 3 minutes before I felt I was in ANY rental car that I've ever rode in.

It makes me appreciate my Honda Fit. I love the blue lit instrumentation. I love the fact that the dash, while hard plastic, has some personality and some unnecessary or added style with the sculpted additions.

And those seemingly overly numerous cup holders? Love them too...

In vehicles I had in the past? I alway bought steering wheel covers, usually more than one...but in 2+ years of Honda Fit ownership? I haven't and I don't plan to. In vehicles I've owned in the past, I couldn't stand the cheap plastic feel of the steering wheel.

IMO The Honda Fit leather wrapped steering wheel is one of the nicest feeling steering wheels I've ever been happy to own.

So the problem for me in moving on from the Honda Fit, is the minute I sit in anything else, my first reaction is "I don't like this as much".

I suppose that's a psychological win for Honda. But I think it's going to be hard for me to ever find a vehicle I like as much from a drivers seat, dash, steering wheel and windshield perspective.

Add to that, the good gas mileage and the storage configurability, and I might be forced to drive this vehicle until it's so old it's worthless.

 

I couldn't agree more. After all the cars we looked at the Fit definitely stood out. Now if they could only make the interior fabric not be a fuzz magnet we'd be all set

 

If your major concern is the warranty, it'll be a lot cheaper to buy a third party warranty than trade in your car every three years! Geez!

You can get these for a reasonable price directly from the provider. Not from a dealer or reseller; they bake in a nice profit margin for themself.

Of course, the price of a warranty is always going to be more than your expected fixes. That's how they work, right? That is true for the factory warranty itself, of course, but the "price" of that is even lower because most cars go bad so infrequently within the first three years. (I'm not including German cars in this analysis ... those are a separate beast). So yes, you pay more, but of course you eliminate the worry that YOUR car will have more faults than the AVERAGE car - there's always variation right?

Basically, if you like the car and it's working well, keep it. That advice will work for anyone

 

Thanks, but I think I either did not make myself clear or you are misunderstanding me.

I said, for some people, who may not like the vehicle they are driving, the final year of the factory warranty becomes a time THEY consider trading the vehicle in.

The whole point of my post, is that's NOT me.

Actually, while when I buy a new vehicle I appreciate having a factory warranty, if I like the vehicle and have confidence in the quality of it, there is something almost liberating about the factory warranty expiring.

I no longer have to worry about doing "something" that might void the factory warranty.

I can't say that someday I might not get the itch to get something different. But yeah, for now, I have no plans to trade in The Fit.

But thanks for the advice. Since The Fit seems pretty solid, I have no plans to buy an extended warranty. Once the factory warranty expires, I plan to keep up with maintenance and face any repairs as they come up.

With well made, well built automobiles my long term experience is that they start to tell you when you reach the point where investment becomes questionable.

I've owned Honda's in the past, and my experience has been 100,00-150,000 miles with attentive maintenance is simply the warm up period for a Honda.

I expect I should be able to drive this vehicle for many, many more years if I so choose.

 

What are you trying to say? When writing a post like this you need to be more clear. Are you saying you like your Fit?

Love mine too!

 

my '12 GE MT is definitely one of my favorites.

 

I can agree on the steering wheel, but the dash is the worst design I have ever purchased. When you say it looks like a waterfall, but to me it is a negative attribute, at 10 in the morning with the sun in front of the car. No other vehicle I have ever owned has so much reflection. Not only reflective shine but stupid white side panels that show up in the windshield. Maybe the older models don't have the shiny chromed rings around the gauges that reflect sun at 11 AM. My 2012 requires polarized glasses to be able to see when the sun shining bright in the sunshine state
Those blue lights while great in the daytime, at night they reflect from the side windows, at least there is an easy fix, just turn down the dimmer.
As far as the windshield, this is the only car I have ever owned where I needed to look out the side window when making a turn, and it does take some time to get accustomed to.

 

huh, dave did you apply armorall junk on your dash?

my GE is '12 and sun does not bother me. no super reflection you speak of?
i use PrimaNero 50/50 dilluted with water on my dash and plastic bits.

 

No, but dealer did the exterior paint protection and may have included the dash, when I complained to salesman he said dish detergent would take it off, didn't, still too shiny for a dash. I have seen the same problem with others interior photos on this site.

Still looking for source for dash duller mentioned by other members of this forum, solved problem with dash mat but didn't want it. I will checkout PrimaNero, thanks. Just checked amazon out of stock.

 

To each his own.

And for clarification I say "Waterfall Design" in description of the dash design in my dads RAV 4.

And by that I mean the really, really common design of most dash's of being simply a sloping cluster of instrumentation, in various configurations.

If you look at the dash design in so many cars, they are so similar. The inside of everything, looks like the inside of anything.

I like the fact that The Fit dash doesn't fall into this mold. At least it has some personality.

I try to use "natural" dash cleaners, and not anything that adds gloss. But I admit that I get some reflection at times, when the dash is clean and the window also clean.

But I guess it just doesn't bother me much. I've learned to ignore it. And I actually see this as a flaw in the windshield material (glass) more than a flaw in the dash.

It would cost Honda more, but the glass could be made non-glare/reflective. IMO the problem isn't that the dash is clean or shiney, which it may or may not be...the problem is the glass has no non-interior glare/reflection properties. So you get a ghost mirror reflection of the dash, but it's not really the fault of the dash.

But my opinion of the dash is purely my own. I think compared to the majority of standard dash designs today, at least The Fit's has some shape and personality.

Again, I haven't sat behind the wheel of anything that I felt I really liked better. With my dads cars, rental cars, and company vehicles, that's a rather large cross section.

Some may have more comfortable seats, or better overall materials, but the whole package is never as good as The Fits.

I think that's saying a lot for a subcompact entry level vehicle.

On the negative side? I have an automatic and dislike the Auto-Shift handle. With the leather steering wheel, and now I had my center console redone in leather, everything I routinely touch is leather. The only thing that feels cheap or economy to me is the shift handle.

I've thought about the available OEM leather shift knob upgrade, but I'm not very impressed with how that looks either. IMO it looks like deconstructed baseball or a bulls testicle.

Just incase you thought I felt The Fit was "perfect".

 

dave- try this to clean off all the crap from your dash..

Interior Cleaner - Interior Detailing - Car Care - Griot's Garage

and here's Prima Nero in-stock at detailers domain. use this 50/50 with water.

http://www.detailersdomain.com/Prima...ing_p_396.html

 

I'm glad you like the Fit and its dash, and plan on keeping it. And it's also the most cost effective way of squeezing value out...do routine maintenance, be prepared to spend bucks on starters, batteries, and water pumps in the high mileage years, but keep it going until finally something breaks that costs more than the car is worth >to you<.

I have paid for repairs that were quite a bit more than my vehicle's KBB value because I knew the soundness of the rest of it. With my car payments years behind me I ask myself how long any repair might go to keep me on the road until the next repair...and how much the repair costs converted into new car monthly payments. (Ex: A $1200 repair, compared to $300 monthly car payments, makes sense if it is likely to keep you going more than 4 months. If you spend the $1200 and get 6 months more out of the car, you are $600 <2 months payments> ahead of the game.)

How has this worked for me in over 40 years of car ownership? Great. A number of my vehicles were kept until they hit 250k miles, and I finally let them rest in piece. This worked for everything from a 1974 MBZ, to a couple of 1986 Suzuki Samurias. In fact since I did most wrenching on my own, most cars I have bought had about 100k miles when I got them...when purchase prices plummet due to the decades that meant 100k miles was a completely worn out car...while 200k miles are more realistic for most modern vehicles, and from what I've heard 300k miles for Hondas.

My 2012 Fit was the first new car I bought since 1985, and only because I can no longer do my own wrenching. And I love the dash...but not as much as the "world dash" that was on my 1961 Chrysler Newport, the one with big slanted tailfins.

Paul H


Maybe in future years I'll post pictures of "my old Fit" dashboard.

 

Leathers solves that.

 

I couldn't agree more Fitchet! I traded my Fit for a Prius c back in March and the big things i missed were the steering wheel, seating position, and the dash layout. So much that i traded the Prius c back for my Honda Fit. For me the Fit feels like your in a cockpit where everything is perfectly placed and the steering wheel is hands down the best I've ever had!

 

Hondas are known for wearing out the owner before they wear out. I love my honda. At the end of it though its nothing but a smart economics choice...thats what its all about. Ive only had to bury one Honda. One I definitely took pretty far and my current im planning on keeping it for a long while.

 

I still like my dash and interior









Replaced material with black on the doors.

 

I can tell you that this huge ass windshield and huge dash took a bit of getting used to but now when i get into normal cars it feels more cramped because of the windshield feels too close to me even if its a bigger car. I still feel the hard plastic dash and mismatched colored plastic is a bit of a cheap looking but it is a cheap car so....

 

The only thing that bothers me about the Fit dash is that I can't see the front end of the car at all. I usually back into parking spaces because at least I can tell where the back of the car ends.

Maybe I need a hood ornament or something!

 

i use my side mirror as a gauge vs the tire stop or the curb to park.
ive gotten use to it. i park pretty shallow as i dont want to hit the tire stop with the bumper.

also matching the side mirrors to cars that are already parked next to you is a good reference too (well, as long as their front end isn't caved in from tire stop )