Part One, what car to buy?
The first step on my journey go getting a Fit was deciding that I wanted one. That turned out to be kind of easily actually, but took a while.

I'm a bass player so I have to move my large (2' x 3' x 1.5') bass cabinet, as well as two basses and accessories, around 2-3 times a week. I basically wanted the smallest car I could get that would hold my rig (to give you an idea, I was originally looking for a used Geo Metro). My requirements for a car were, in order of most important to least important:

Space to hold my rig
Gas mileage
Reliability (the whole reason for buying a new car)
Fun to drive

After trying quite a few cars (Xa, Xb, Vibe/Matrix, 9-2x, Yaris, etc) I found the Fit to be the best in every category. It even excelled where I expected it to lose. For example, it has more usable cargo space than the Vibe/Matrix, despite being much more compact.

I test drove a Fit at my local Honda dealer (West Hills Honda, in Bremerton WA) while I was searching for vehicles. They have an employee who owns a Fit and lets people look at it. I set up an appointment with her but when I arrived at the dealership they had a Fit on the lot. It was an order that was never claimed and they were looking to sell it.

It was a Fit Sport Auto and I hated the driving experience. Between the drive-by-wire and the electric power steering and the paddle shifters I felt like I was driving a video game. Because of that and because they were asking 19,500 for it I didn't buy, and actually went and looked at several other cars.

After driving all of the others though, I found that the interior space usage just wasn't even close with anything else on the market. I decided that I was going to buy a Fit Sport with a manual trans, and hope that I liked driving the manual better than that automatic.

Part Two, finding one:
Because my local one was asking 3k over MSRP I was not about to order from them, so I started calling Honda dealerships.

I called or e-mailed every Honda dealer in Washington state (28, just so you know), and several in Oregon, Idaho and California. after 5 days of searching I found 2 dealerships that would sell me a Fit at MSRP, but both had a wait till February at the earliest for a MT fit. I was worried about my 230,000 mile Subaru not making through the winter so I kept looking around.

On Friday, Nov 17th, I found the "Honda Fit Dealer Representatives" forum here on Fit Freak. In it there was a threat entitled "Any Fit Sport manuals nationwide?". I started reading that thread, and just got discouraged... nobody else could find one either. Then at the end of the thread was a post by hondaful, saying he had been in to Sussman Honda in Philadelphia and they had a Fit Sport MT, just the combination I was looking for! Best of all the post was only a few hours old!

I called up Sussman Honda, to check things out. Sure enough they had a Storm Silver Sport MT sitting on the showroom floor. Somebody got tired of waiting and got a Civic instead, so this poor little Fit was orphaned. The best part was they were asking MSRP for it.

After having a serious look inside myself to see if I really was crazy enough to fly to the other side of the country to buy a car, the exact version of which I had never driven, I decided I was. I called Scott at Sussman Honda back and placed my $500 deposit to hold the car till the following weekend, when I was off of work for thanks giving and would make my trip. within an hour of reading hondaful's post I had a deposit on the car and had booked a plane ticket.

Part Three, getting it:
Over the week I finalized things, such as setting up financing with a local bank, coning somebody in to going with me to help on the 3200 mile drive back, getting a hotel in Philly (we flew on thanksgiving day, so we could pick up the car first thing Friday morning), figuring out where to stay on the way back, etc. I also spent way to much time at work looking at accessories for my new Fit (I've got floor mats and Jazz side sills on the way, I can't wait to get a JDM center console and roof box).

On thanksgiving we flew, which was actually kind of nice other than missing turkey. The airports/planes were mostly empty, kinda’ cool. After landing in Philadelphia we got a cab do Willow Grove (where Sussman Honda is located) and stayed at the Hampton Inn there.

In the Morning Scott came and picked us up from the Hotel first thing. We pulled into the lot, walked into the showroom, and there was my Fit. I like Storm Silver! I was really hoping for Blaze Orange, but of all the Fits that I've seen in person I think SS is my next favorite. The took the car to clean it and stuff and I had to deal with paperwork.

When you buy a car out of state there is some oddness that goes on there. I got a 30 day temporary registration for the car, $25, that I have to use until the title arrives and I can register it here in Washington. I didn't pay any Tax in PA, I will pay the tax in WA when I register the car.

The folks at Sussman honda were really interested to know how the heck I found out about the car all the way in Washington. I told them about FitFreak and if they have any more orphaned Fits they are going to post them here. I also got a classic quote from one of the sales staff when we walked in the door with our bags.

"hey, you from Washington?"
"yeah"
"what the f**k?!"

After what seemed like way to long we finally got all of the papers signed, I was handed the keys, we loaded the bags in the very roomy hatch and we were off. From the moment I pushed in the clutch, put it in first, pressed the throttle and released the clutch I knew I had made the right call, I LOVE the way this car drives.

I had decided previously to do a motoman style break in for the car. We found a semi-empty road, did some 2nd gear accelerations/decelerations and than hit the PA turnpike.

We drove almost 900 miles on the first day, to St. Louis where I have family. The Fit performed like a champ! We varied the speed a lot (55-80, 4th or 5th gear) for the first tank, for break in reasons, and I didn't bother to check gas mileage, not knowing if the Dealer had truly filled it up or not(though it appeared they did). For the rest of the first leg however we were doing 70-80 and averaged 37.5 MPG! Woo Hoo!

We arrived at my Aunt's house in St. Louis 13 hours later, 14 by our clock because of the time change. While there we there we checked the weather report, and got a bit of a shock. There was supposed to be 2 feet of snow in Denver on Sunday, right when we would be there, as well as blizzard conditions in Wyoming, right when we would be there as well.

The Next day we had a nice breakfast with my family, and headed on the road about noon. I had planned on getting an oil change while there, but the waits were to long and we needed to get going, so we decided to forego it till either the next town, or till we got home. Thinking about the weather though we decided that we were going to drive straight through, at least till we got over the mountains. We got a sleeping bag, a pillow, and a gas can, filled up and headed on our way.

We did not make a stop, other than for gas, and to buy tire chains, till Sunday night when we got home. We drove for 2400 miles, with one person sleeping the back while the other drove, switching off every fill up. When we got home at about 12:30 AM the odometer read 3216. When we left the dealership 3 days earlier it read 4, LOL. That’s one way to BREAK in your car!

Part Four, 3800 mile report:
Overall I am very very happy with my Fit. Although most of the driving so far has been freeway, I have had a weeks worth of commuting, 2 band practices, a lot of grocery store trips, some stop-and-go traffic, some snowy driving, and some "spirited" driving on twisty roads. This car is an absolute dream. I do have a few qualms, but I will tackle those later. First:

The Good:

I really like the magic seats. It’s so easy to reconfigure them, and even with all the seats in “normal” mode the car has great cargo room and rear seat leg room. We set up a sleeping bag in back and had no trouble catching some shut-eye back there with the seats down. The seats are also very comfortable, even for 36 hours in a row!

The car handles great, and the general feel of the steering, clutch and trans is great. The engine is very smooth, and very quiet until you step on it. That’s cool because when cruising you don’t have to fight the engine to have a conversation or to listen to the stereo, but when you want to have some fun the engine makes enough noise to be entertaining, and let you know where you are RPM wise without glancing at the tach.

I really love the (sport) stereo. Overall it has good tone to it, and the EQ settings are actually useful. Mainly though I love the features, the speed sensitive volume and aux in jack are awesome! Also it’s kind of cool at each of the 3 pairs of speakers kind of has their own frequency block, so your lows are coming from your feet, your highs are coming from the door, and the mids are coming from the rear speakers. It almost has a surround sound effect when the instruments are in the right frequencies, like bass, guitar and cymbals are all around you. I guess you can tell I’m a musician LOL

I actually really like the looks. It’s like a Pokemon or something, totally Japanese. I also like how compact it looks. I drove some friends will all of their bags to the airport and when they looked at the car they though we would have to take their 4 Runner. But then you open the doors and it’s like woah! Where’d all the space come from?

The whole car also has a very upscale feel to it. I can’t describe it but it feels way more sophisticated than its competitors.

Last but not least is the gas mileage. In a normal tank of driving I got 36.5 miles per gallon with my last fill-up. It blows be away that they have made a car that is the same weight as my last car, within like 5 pounds, yet gets 10-15 mpg better, has A LOT more power, and can hold just as much stuff, if not more, while being much more compact outside. Go Honda!

The Bad:

While there is a lot a love about this car it’s not all rosy. There are a few things I have issues with.

Number one is the drive-by-wire throttle. Am I the only one who thinks it is slow? It’s like every action with the throttle hits the engine half a second later. This really sucks when shifting quickly, because I have to let off the throttle and wait a second before I shift or else when I put the clutch in the engine will continue to rev up. If I was shifting at red-line this could easily send the tach into the red.

Am I the only one with this problem? I’ve heard Civic SI owners talk about it but no Fit owners. Maybe it’s actually a bug and I should have it looked at by the dealer.

My other complaints are all the standard fare. No dead-pedal, no passenger side vanity mirror, the steering wheel is to far away when the pedals are right, or it’s the other way around, the back hatch gets dirty really fast, the headlights are adjusted to low, etc. Most of these things can either be fixed via aftermarket or are really very trivial though.


Overall I am as happy as can be with my new Fit, so thanks again to hondaful for the tip. I would recommend this car to anyone in a heartbeat, and I have!

 

Thanks for your story and review. I really don't notice a delay with the throttle, I thnk it is very responsive.

 

Quick question - for the cost of plane ticket, hotel, gas, possible lost wages... it seems like paying a markup over MSRP anyway... which I probably would have done instead in your position.

Not sure if I could tough it out the few days like that.

 

While you're right about the cost, it was nowhere close to 3k which is what my local dealer wanted. The main advantage though was that I didn't have to wait, meaning I "potentially" saved repair costs on my current ride to keep it running till my Fit arrived who knows how far down the road. That could have easily come out to WAY more than the cost of the trip.

 

Or get it shipped for that matter via truck for under $1000 by a cartage company.

No throttle response problems on mine, take it back to the dealer...your local one for that matter

 

The nature of what you are describing is normal for DTW throttle systems. It does not have the instant response of a mechanically linked system. I notice it in ever DTW car Ive driven (many), the Fit being no exception. After some time you just adapt to it. It only bothers me now if I drive my Integra for several days w/o getting in the Fit.

Anyway glad you are enjoying the car. It seems to be a popular choice among musicians, that hatch sure does love to swallow guitar/bass amps, and drums too!

 

Heh, it's awesome that you came into my neck of the woods to buy a Fit, though that's an awfully long trek. I never would have gone to Washington to buy mine, lol. Glad you're enjoying it.

 

I'm suprised you hated the Sport auto so much. I think it's the best driving automatic I've ever driven. Prior to buying my Fit I would've never considered an auto tranny.

My dad's been playing bass for 40+ yrs now. He still plays in a band every once in awhile.

 

The one thing about making a trip like that is that it's a great adventure! You may never drive cross country again, and now you can at least say you did it once. Plus, you found out how the Fit drives when making a long road trip. I'm kinda jealous.

 

Excellent write up!

Anyway, I have the same complaint with the DTW. Although, its only during transitions from normal to aggressive driving. If youre driving hard, the engine is super responsive. However, If Im in fourth going 45 miles an hour and I floor it, then I feel the delay. Another thing I dont like about the DTW is how non-linear it is. I could give it 1/4 gas and the engine pulls like im giving it 3/4 gas. Which is not that bad until you ask for even more power and you realize the engine is almost max'ed. Thats the same reason people complain about the car still pulling after they've released the gas. Because the last half of the pedal feels like it does nothing.

Although, I have a feeling the computer may be adaptive. I finished the 600 mile break in period and i REALLY got on it. After about 3-4 miles of semi-aggressive driving, the car felt less responsive, which might have been the computer adjusting to my driving.

 

I thought it was really cool that my post had brought Bennet all the way from the state of Washington to the suburbs of Philadelphia to buy his Fit Sport Manual, and since Sussman Honda were promoting a $50 reward to people who had recommended Sussman and it resulted in a sale, I let them know that I was the one. Guess what? Scott refused to play, since Bennet had not mentioned my name when he came in! (How could he, since my post was under a screen name?) I told Scott that I thought that was pretty petty, in view of the circumstances, but he just walked away. I'm happy with the Fit that I bought from Sussman, but I dealt with a different salesman. Nonetheless, it's left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

that sucks! there's no way I could call and tell them it was you? I even told him that I found the car on fitfreak and that the person who told me had ordered a fit through them, but I guess that wasn't enough.

 

If Sussman had been smart, they would have printed up a huge poster advertising the $50 reward and included your picture and the details of Bennet's sale. The salesman, Scott, that you spoke to was a real jerk.

 

That had to be one of the most entertaining posts here. it was truely a great story. Thanks for the read Bennet!

 

Thanks for a nice review and wow 3k driving within 3 days.. wow.. i

i too got my fit from NC which is about 350 miles where i live(VA)

my local dealers were charging least $600 to even $1000 more than MSRP

my from in NC hooked me up with Ashboro Honda and they found my beauty... drove 350 miles back.. and the journey was also pleasant one...

Hope you enjoy your Fit..

 

Bennet, I don't think a phone call would be worth the long distance charge, but thanks! The $50 reward is clearly meant to be an inducement to get future sales; in this case the sale had been completed, so Scott saw no reason to pay our the $50. I was hoping that he would be smarter, as kgustaf said, and see it as an opportunity to build Sussman's reputation. But apparently he wasn't.

 

well this is interesting, I got a call from Scott sometime this morning but I didn't get the message till just now. He said that somebody (I'm assuming you) came in and tried to claim the 50$.

What he said that was interesting though is that somebody else already claimed it! and just weeks after the sale. Thats why he was acting rude. He must have figured you were just trying to cash in. It's actually kind of cool that he called just to clear it up I think, instead of just ignoring you.

My only question is who is the other person? because nobody else knew that I was getting it? The only thing I can think of, as much as I hate it, is that some fitfreaker who lives around there read this thread and decided to claim the $50.

Anyway, I'm going to call him in the morning and see what I can figure out. Do you want to PM me your name so I can tell him it was you on the phone?

 

I just PM'd Bennet with my personal information. I previously claimed the "reward" when I picked up my Fit on December 13, so maybe this was just a mistake and Scott will come through after all. It's unfortunate that he didn't tell me what he told Bennet, but most people shy away from direct confrontations, so it would be understandable.

 

wow! nice story.

guy's, it is only 50$!

 

Wow! I know this is an ancient thread but it was indeed a great read. If I didn't already buy a Fit I would have bought one after I read the post.