yah, nothing else for me either.

i was in the market originally for a 08 R32... but found out that
it only come in DSG so looked at a few GTI wagon 6MT's but
decided that i didnt like the car that much especially with those
faux front grills, big and sluggish.

hopped on over to my usual honda dealer to take a look at the
Fit to see how big the cargo space was just for the hell of it
and i was like WOW! this is it. 5MT and all.

 

RAV 4
Scion TC
Hyundai Tucson
Honda CRV

My Brother was going on and on about this "Honda Fit" that I had never seen. I went to several dealers in the area, but no one had one even to look at. I did a lot of research on them, but figured I would never get one because they were so scarce (this was Aug 2006). My brother (who lives in New Orleans) called me and said he had a friend from his gym that was a salesman at the local Honda dealership and that they had 2 that just came in. I put a $500 deposit down, flew down there and picked it up. This was the first time I've ever bought anything sight unseen. I don't regret it in the least.

 

When I started looking at the ~$15k boxes, I considered everything... xA, Versa, Yaris, etc. I didn't want to spend more than $16.5k, which ruled out most cars.

-Mike

 

Scion's, Mazda 3/speed 3 or a great deal on a Mustang GT... had to get rid of the junk Suzuki Aerio i had... couldnt stand it anymore.

 

The 08 Yaris just couldn't compete, in general, with the Fit.
The mazda3 hatchback was too expensive and got mediocre mileage.
The smart car wasn't here in October of last year.
There were too few 1996-2000 civic hatchbacks to choose from.
There were too few small used toyota pickups to choose from.
Bang per $, including resale, the Fit can't be beat!

 

My list was probably different/shorter because a requirement is that the back seats go down leaving a flat floor. When I bought my last car I got a Subaru Impreza wagon because it was the only (affordable for me) model that met that condition.

So in addition to the Fit, I considered:

Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix - steering seemed sloppy (I'd driven a Fit the day before which may have contributed to this opinion), big gap between back of front seats and floor, hated red gauges - I do think the fact that the back end doesn't have fuzzy carpet but a hard surface is a big plus, and I think they're pretty cars

Mazda 5 - never looked at in the end, more expensive, not so good mpg

Scion - noisiest car I drove, big holes in the floor, big gap between back of front seats and rear floor, 2008 XB model has none of the charm of the original model

Kia Rio5 - another I never test drove, in the end I just couldn't believe a Kia would be reliable enough

Subaru Impreza - since the Subie I had started needing expensive repairs when it got over 100,000 miles and the transmission basically blew all over the road at 170,000 miles, I couldn't make myself look at another Subaru. I had a 1972 Chevy truck that went 300,000 miles on the original engine and transmission and a 1987 Dodge Omni went 150,000 without a hiccup. I don't want a car that won't go 200,000 miles without trouble or major investment

 

Camry - it's what I drive now. They got stupid in '07 with the transmission and now they aren't rated so reliable any more. And Toyota is taking the cheap way out when it comes to finishes.

Matrix - just drove it again about an hour ago. I like the car but I don't like the low visibility. If I'm going to get a small hatchback I prefer the Fit.

Rav4 - too big, gets 19 mpg.

Corolla - cheap finish, car feels vague and wandering in steering. Even the XLE feels cheap.

None of them compares to the Fit as well in safety, handling, visibility, gas mileage, and fun factor. And I'm very disappointed in Toyota's cheap finishes.

 

I REALLY wanted a VW rabbit, but VW declined my credit app. They said I had too much installment debt ($5,000 in student loans is not too much debt).

Honda approved me for 72 mos. at 5%.

Anyway my order went:
VW Rabbit
Fit Sport
Mazda 3
Nissan Versa
Hyundai Accent
Toyota Yaris
Chevy HHR

I test drove all but the HHR, cuz I know I really did not want it, but it did met the "want list" of my next car. I hated driving the 3. That is some poor handling.

After test driving, I narrowed it down to the rabbit, fit, and versa.
Rabbit because its strong engine and 6 speed auto trans, that thing is fast!
Fit cuz its a honda
Versa cuz of the intelligent key (Stupid reason, but I'm a tech nerd)

After thinking about it, the Versa was too expensive. So I decided the Rabbit was the one for me, but they denied me. So I said F*** you guys, went to the Honda dealer the same day, drove away with a Fit 2.5 hrs later.

I really like my Fit tho, I just kinda pisses me off the my 109 hp engine is getting the about same MPG as the Rabbit with its 170 hp engine.

 

The cars that I seriously considered, in this order:

VW EOS - I love this car, if it wasn't for the lack of cargo space
VW Rabbit - if only it wasn't so plain
Toyota Matrix - if only the side mirrors folded
Toyota Yaris Hatch - if only it wasn't so cheap feeling
Nissan Versa Hatch - if only it wasn't made in mexico
Honda Civic - if only it wasn't what everyone else has
Mazda 3 Hatch - if only the my knees didn't hit the center console
Honda Fit Sport - didn't have any complains

And that's how it went down. The Fit was just the best fit, I had no complains about it during my search.

 

Yaris
Versa
Matrix
Civic
Focus
Cobalt

Fit made the most sense and was the safest and cheapest to maintain

 

Toyota FJ cruiser. This is what I really wanted but I couldn't find one at the price I wanted, only had $22k to spend.

US spec ITR. For a "slow" car it was too fast, the whole point of me getting a new car was so I could avoid tickets for the next year.

I bought the fit because I had an EP3 a few years ago and loved it, I thought the fit styling was similar and its slow as hell which is a good thing for me. And it left me with a good amount of money left to drop into it.

 

"ICE vehicle"
​​​​​​O my gosh what have these children became
rick

 

I was looking for a cheap banger rally project car, and there are two main philosophies as far as I can tell:

• Luxury car that has something major wrong with it and/or has a million miles. Buy a $500 BMW, Audi, or Volvo with a blown engine, missing interior, etc., and pray that nothing major blows up
• Econobox in reasonable condition. I went this way and looked at the Swift, Yaris, and Aygo, Fiata Panda. Other than the Swift, the Jazz looked and felt most like a normal car and was pretty nice to drive despite the meager power, plus it's by far the most practical for carrying stuff and sleeping in the car.

Otherwise my daily is a Miata and I've been known to look at Caymans and Boxsters before so I'm not typically in this market.

 

After my second Saturn was wrecked by a Lexus/Infiniti 4 door I wanted a Fit. I didn't look at any other cars.