Honda is a good quality car. Period. If I bought a Fit today, I would still expect it to be around and in good shape 10 years from now, maybe even 20 years from now. Toyota is a close 2nd, altho I hear that Toyota quality is starting to fall a bit. If you bought a Hyundai, an Aveo, a Nissan, a Rio....will that car still be running in 10 years, and what shape will it be in? THAT is the difference between Honda and the rest of them. Even if you think the Fit sucks big time, it will still be a reliable little car. And NO, I don't work for Honda. We have 2 Toyotas. :-)

 

Lets put it this way. Do you still see yourself driving the same econo box 20 years from now when the gas in the tank is worth more than the car? If so get help now before its too late.

 

I'll put a spin to this, with the intro of the Fit to the North American Market. I see the second coming of how Honda first introduce us to the Honda Civic Si in late 1985. This could be the beginning of the return of the econo hatches. The Si back then was only putting out 92 hp on the 1.5L, with excellent fuel rating.

 

I bought a brand new 1989 Civic Si in December of 1988. It had a 1.6L 16 valve 4 cyl. that put out 108 HP, and was a blast to drive. Exceleration was respectable at 0-60 in the mid 7's, and it cornered like it was glued to the road. I was much younger then, and not very smart, and decided to see how fast I could make it across Washington state (300 miles). I did it in 3 hours and 15 minutes, averaging around 90+ miles per hour. At one point I had it up to 120 miles per hour on a barren isolated stretch of interstate. it was solid as a rock. At the end of the trip, I calculated my mileage at 30 MPG!

My girlfriend at the time called it a fishbowl, but I wish I still had that car.

 

like Papawiskey, I had a Honda Civic Si (mine was a four year old 1985 model). It was a blast to drive, almost as much fun as my CRX Si which was my primary car at the time. The CRX sucked in winter driving, so I picked up the Civic, and still wished I had both cars. I traded them both for a plain jane Honda Accord in 1991 (my worst mistake). The Accord was nice, but too much like a Buick. I traded it 4 years later for an Acura Integra, which was smaller but much more fun to drive. Anyway, I look forward to the Fit, which I think will be a nice solid car, and almost as fun to drive as the old Civic!

 

Hey tjts, I was just making a point. I'm slightly nutty (heh), but not nutty enough to drive the same car for 20 years. :-) Altho, I did have my 1986 Civic Si for 13 years, and it was the only car I ever had that lasted that long! I agree with the above posts, that the Civic was a blast to drive. I thought it was like driving a front wheel drive go-kart, with a body on it. I had it as fast as 105 MPH, and it was very stable at that speed. If the Fit drives like my old Si, then it would be a fun car.

 

I think one thing you will find as a pleasant surprise about the Fit is because the vehicle has such a low center of gravity (thanks to putting the gas tank beneath the front seats), the car will have surprisingly good handling. And the interior of the Fit is still way more classy than that of the Yaris, which I found to be a bit too cheap-feeling.

 

In 20 years I expect to be mostly riding my bike, but also driving a Honda Fit/Civic hatchback DIESEL TURBO running on B-100 biodiesel that will be available at every gas station...or living in Paris, in which case I'll just take the train.

 

Well, yes, in a way. My car is now 12 years old. It was a free gift, given to me when it had 175K miles on the odometer. It is fully depreciated.

I put less than 3K miles per year on it, and I can easily see it lasting 8 more years, although I aim to put less than 2K miles on it this year, and hopefully less than 1K miles the next year, etc.

Maintenance and repairs have been quite reasonable and my total costs are siginficantly lower --maybe 75% lower--than what a new car (even at $10.9K for a stripped Yaris) would cost.

I don't want to reward an automaker with my hard-earned bucks until they make something that I want. FIT isn't it. I want significantly greater efficiency and they haven't seen FIT to meet that desire.