This is rediculous. Honda simply isn't building enough Fit's. The June sales numbers are out, and Toyota sold nearly twice as many Yaris, compared to how many Honda Fit's were sold.

Yaris June 06' sales: 6,888
Fit June 06' sales: 3,747

http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/news/br...une-185003.php

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060703/lam013.html?.v=51

 

I think honda would totaly OWN the toy sales if they had got more Fits out sooner..

 

^^ i agree.. everyone is waiting for theirs

 

Yeah and other companies are ramping up the advertising. VW is advertising its Rabbit now on mainstream TV (the Fit seems to get few commercials and mostly on cable channels).

Maybe they'll figure it out next year.

 

I think the majority of Yarii sales are the sedan and not the hatchback.

In any case, the Fit will not sell faster than the Yaris. Just look at the Civic and the Accord.

 

Only reason they arent advertising is because they dont have any more to sell!

 

They are building as many as they can they just don't have the capacity at the moment to build more NA spec vehicles. I expect that once the CRV shift to US production that that capacity will be used for the fit. I work for a dealer and I have to wait 5 months to get a white sport 5sp.

 

I got mine already... :P

 

I got mine too

 

I ment a white sport 5spd though ... hehe

 

With 39,000 Fits destined for the USA for 2006, Honda is selling the appropriate number of Fits each month to meet their target.

You guys with Fits should be happy. Honda is guaranteeing us a whicked resale value with a little car that does so well in all the reviews, and is limiting the number of Fits available. High demand and low availability (especially manual Fits) are a winning resale combination.

 

Honda has always been traditionally conservative in the way they do business thus the "limited" numbers imported. Let's face it, Fit was a gamble for them in such a fickle American car market. Not to mention they imported the car at the very end of it's model cycle. Unless they break from tradition, 2008 will bring a redesigned Fit. They did such a good job with the current design,.... I can not wait for the re-do!....I went to my dealership today in Auburn, MA and there is a waiting list not only to buy the car but to take one for a spin......unbelievable......

 

It's true that Toyota's Yaris is outselling the Fit, due to Toyota's faster supply-to-demand ratio. And Honda is slow (and safe?) on the take to deliver the Fit to a hungry American public. However, what new vehicle as of late has created such buzz and excitement as the Fit has already done? Demand is outweighing supply, and yet, the positive buzz and interest in the Fit is growing, due to overwhelmingly positive reviews. I can only compare this excitement to a "Collector's Frenzy". You simply can not buy such "consumer demand" like this with a simple ad spot in a magazine or TV! Honda maybe not be gaining in the sales numbers like Toyota, but be assured that the demand for a Fit over a Yaris far outweighs anything that any multi-million dollar Ad campaign can generate for Toyota.

 

I bet you honda set up their production with the entire life of the product in mind. If they spend a bunch of money to increase production, they will lose money once the demand begins to decline, and their factory isnt running at its full potential.

 

what would happen if honda stops sales of the FIT

 

I really hate this thread. I was hoping the fervor would die off by December, and I could just waltz into my neighbourhood dealer and snag myself a Storm Silver Sport MT, as quickly as you could say "Bob's your uncle." Oh well. I might just have to send my brother on a recon...

 

Read up on the news, folks.

Honda is ramping up production for the Civic, which has gotten insane increase in sale in Europe. This is adding to the shortage of Fits, since plants that would be building Fits are now being geared towards building Civics.

And for the record, the Civic gets better gas mileage than the Fit.

This is old news.

And I still like the Fit better than the Civic.

 

Considering that the American car manufacturers have a dim view of their own public -- believing that people wouldn't come to their senses and reject big vehicles -- Honda is still ahead of the game. The Japanese manufacturers seemed to have a better sense of where the market was heading when they took a gamble on small cars. Toyota may be leading the sales figures and spending bigger on advertising, but in the long run, with all the free publicity Honda is getting from all the articles in newspapers and magazines and the excitement on the internet, including this forum, the Fit will be the front runner in 2008. That's when Honda will be ramping up production -- as gas prices go through the roof along with the demand for their car. The Fit has it all -- versatility, handling, safety, economy and fun. If anyone decides they'd rather have something else, they'll get top dollar for a used 2007 Fit. Now all Honda has to do is read our Forum to get the best tips on how to tweak the new model for North American buyers. Instead of wasting their money on advertising dollars (and passing the cost on to the consumer), they can put it into producing a top of the line car at an economy price. Meanwhile, they'll sell every 2007 Fit at MSRP, break sales records with the Civic, and unload their Ridgelines, CRVs and Odysseys before the big vehicle market crashes. Honda looks for the best and the brightest when they hire people. They keep a relatively small staff and seem to be able to look ahead for long-term success, rather than going for the quick buck and windfall profits like certain greedy Detroit manufacturers we could name. Honda not only saw the trend towards "green" by producing eco-friendly vehicles; they are touting the new Indiana plant as having a small environmental footprint. They're even looking into "eco fabric" for car interiors. (After the most unenvironmental American president in history, global warming concerns, anger at windfall gas profits, etc., I personally predict the rise of eco consciousness and a Green Party in the U.S. similar to what Europe experienced years ago.) And don't forget that Honda has enjoyed a reputation for introducing safety features into their vehicles long before government requirements kicked in. My '95 Accord was 10 years ahead of U.S. safety regulations. How many American cars at the entry econo level have the safety features we've got in the Fit? This is what I hit people with when I got criticized for "not buying American" when I showed up with my new Accord (built in Marysville, OH by the way). Japanese manufacturers care about our safety; American manufacturers do a cost-benefit ****ysis to determine whether to put in an $8 part that could save lives (just ask Ralph Nader about that). Incidentally, anyone know how much Honda's CEO makes per year compared to GM's? (I think I'll try to find out.)

 

The manual Fit gets 33/38 mpg and the manual Civic DX (the only one worth comparing the fit to) gets 30/38 mpg according to hondas website. The auto Civic gets 30/40 mpg.

 

The lack of availability of the Fit is great for current Fit owners, if and only if you want to sell it....for maybe the next year, or less. But once Honda finally catch's up with demand, your resale value will decline at a more rapid rate.

For the rest of us, who aren't current owners of a Fit, this is a frustrating situation. It is not such a good situation for Honda either. The main reason Honda brought the Fit to NA was to lure first time/lifetime buyers into the Honda family, and fuel efficiency was a secondary issue. If Honda can't keep up with demand, it's quite obvious that first time/lifetime buyers will be lured into other car manufacturers families. So who loses? Ultimately, Honda does.

Wrong. Past presidents have been far less environmentally concerned than our current president. Franklin D. Roosevelt and his "new deal" created huge hydroelectric dams such as Grand Coulee, that backed up water which destroyed habitats, and disrupted salmon flows thereby reducing salmon populations to name just one.

I am not saying he is the most environmentally concious president, but our current president just set aside for environmental preservation great expanses of the Pacific ocean around the outlying Hawaiian islands. That is not the extent of his environmental protection legacy either. By the way, it was a Republican president that created the Environmental Protection Agency, not the Green party. I'm sure I could go on and on about the environmental atrocities of past presidents, but this is supposed to be an auto forum, not a political forum.