I'm sorry but I have to comment on something that I have been reading here for quite some time.

It seems as though when an individual posts a question here or a concern to a mechanic at the Honda dealership, such as a rattle, many are being told "Dude, it's a Fit!" and many seem to be ok with that.

Mind you, my Fit is solid as a rock without a single rattle and I expect it to be that way and don't understand how many of you are living with whatever problem you may be experiencing. A Fit is a Honda and as we all know they make quality products from motorcycles to cars to lawnmowers to generators and more.

Our Fits run anywhere from $16,000 to $22,000 and I don't know about you but to me that is A LOT of money. At what point should you not expect rattling noises, etc? Once you spend $40,000?

Off of my soap box now.

 

I would say 26k and over I would expect a step up in quality

Honestly that doesn't mean anything because there are some shitty cars for over 30k even

 

But that's my point. I am the cable guy so I will spin my example into my field of expertise.

If you only had Basic Cable and were paying $10/mo and the reception was poor, would you be ok with it since you weren't paying much per month ??

 

NO!
I would expect fewer channels with basic cable. Reception should always be excellent.

 

OK, you took my bait! Perfect. So then if you would expect fewer channels and reception to be perfect, why shouldn't we expect quality and "fit" to be perfect with our cars?

 

In the grand scheme of things, Fits are one of Honda's cheapest cars on sale (unless you live in Japan and have seen Honda's even smaller, cheaper K-cars)...so yeah some cost-cutting is to be expected. That doesn't necessarily have to come at the cost of quality though.

Your cable service analogy is excellent IMO.

Unfortunately Honda's seen more benefit in replacing good old stovebolts and screws with plastic clips. Those benefits escape my head as of the moment but they seem to have been used in a lot of places, including the much-maligned rattly dashboard panels where they are most obvious.

Just speculating:
Maybe the design brief for the GD and GE Fits/Jazzes included a clause stating "quality to (a certain predetermined low) production cost." Honda does have to make money after all, and in the supermini segment where the Fit/Jazz competes in, competition is pretty fierce. Such competition doesn't leave much room for profit margins sadly...so they try to get it back where it thinks customers/car owners won't notice such as in the aforementioned plastic clips...which DO get noticed by people in colder climes

Just my two cents' worth...feel free to discuss

 

this is a great post.

if i EVER...EVER went to the honda dealer and was told that, i would punch the guy in his face.


QUALITY is supposed to be one of hondas calling cars. sure the interior is better on an accord ex-l v-6, but the point is that both cars were suppossed to be screwed together just as tightly.


my fit has been great so no complaints from me, but this attitude is shit.

+rep to o.p.

 

The dealer guy has no faith in the quality of Honda's products perhaps? Or maybe has a bias against Fits?

Agreed though. Crap attitude.

 

If a mechanic tells me "Dude it's a Fit"

My response is "Shut your pie hole and do your job or DUDE you don't get paid."

 

funfact: my 33k dollar 350z had more rattles than my 20k tiburon did. (before i modded either of them lol when i was done there was more rattling than i'd like to talk about haha)

the fit actually has the least rattles of any of them. i consider it my comfy quiet car compared to anything else i've owned..

 

Did both cars also use plastic clips instead of screws and bolts? Neither of them was a big-seller here.

 

Have any of you that have problems with rattles looked inside the dashboard?
Can you tell me if there is foam on all wires and on the inside on every panel? I have looked inside mine (when installing the new Navigation/sound system) and there is a thin layer of noise dampening foam around every cables and on the inside on every panel on my car...
I have a EU Jazz and wonder if the qulity is diffrent in this aspect on the US Fit?

When I was testdriving cars before I desided wich car to buy I tested many diffrent cars, all off them brand new cars. And there was a lot of diffrent build qualities on the cars. Some had a lot of plastic noises and lots of rattles. Especially Ford Focus and Ford Fusion sounded so bad and the plastic felt so hard and noisy that I only drove a few hundred meters and returned them back to the dealer. I have later had a good look inside the dashboard of a brand new 2007 model Ford Focus and there was no noise dampening materials there... no wonder all the squicking noises and rattles...

 

japanese cars (especially made in japan) are notorious for rattles for some reason. usually no big issues but just rattles.

i really dont care much about rattles on my FitS. it was bought
to run like a champ for daily tasks...and it does. so it is fulfilling
its duties.