Hey guys. I'm looking for some feedback regarding my situation. Right now my Fit is my DD. About 5 days a week I put on 85mi. a day just for work! I have had the fit since mid-February and already about to break 10k miles. Now I do enjoy the Fit but I am afraid to dump any money into her because I'm not sure if I should hold onto it and pay it off entirely in 5 years. (At this rate I will break past warranty in a little over two years) or if I should trade it in before the warranty expires for a new car.

So my question to you is what would you do in my situation? Dump money into it and customize it and drive it til the wheels fall off or leave it stock aside from small upgrades and trade it in after a couple years for a fresh car?

 

Are you rich enough to buy a new car every 2 years? If yes, then do whatever you want. If not, then:

The most expensive part of owning a new car is the first few years' depreciation. The cheapest is somewhere from 5-15 years after purchase. The most economical strategy is to buy a newer car and drive it until its just not worth it to repair it anymore.

There's one person on here who just passed 150,000 miles. Beyond scheduled maintenance, the only repairs were a clutch, a couple of switches, and one of the headrests stopped staying up. Or the guy with 250k.

It never makes financial sense to sell a car to stay under warranty. Additionally, this car is very reliable up through high milages. If you like the car then there's no pressing need to buy a new one.

 

since your driving it so much its gonna affect its resale value (its not gonna look good to a buyer when you have 50k and everyone else has 30k on there fit) so I say run that sucker into the ground.... 300k+.

 

We drive em' into the ground. Our 2008 has 120,000miles. The 2012 has 20,000miles. The kids get em' when were done with em'.

 

Consider an extended warranty. Bernardi had the best price on a real Honda warranty back in 2009 when I bought my Fit.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys! Looks like I'll be keeping her around for awhile.

 

I have heard - and experienced - that a lot of brand dealers need to talk up the warranty on their cars (10 yrs 100k miles for Hyundai is a great one) in order to reassure people that their cars will last a long time. But the lack of a long warranty on a Honda is not typically a downside for buyers - they are so reliable that the extra $ spent occasionally on the last few years of ownership are well worth not having to take the car to the dealer several times a year for warranty repairs. Now, any car can break, of course, and I think the only reason Honda needs to provide ANY warranty is catch the few that do.

My last Honda was a CRV I owned between 45k and 70k miles. For a VW that would be prime mechanical failure range. The CRV had some issues but none I needed to bring to a mechanic for - I think zero dealers visits in three years is pretty remarkable. (To be fair, it was going to need a few medium-level repairs coming up, brakes, radiator and 02 sensor, so I am not going to claim it would run forever with no work).

I fully expect my Fit will run through the warranty period with maaaaybe one warranty repair during that time, and a similar amount of breakages subsequently. You can definitely plan to run your Fit into the ground IMHO. Again - no car is perfect - I just try to accept that

 

Skip the warranty and save your money. I've only had one serious failure on the 6 Hondas I've owned (tranny on '01 Odyssey @ 79k miles) and Honda fixed it for free, even though it was past the warranty. You should easily get 200k out of any well maintained Honda before you see any serious problems, if then. I drove my '91 Accord for 17 years.

 

We usually buy Toyota my last car was a Corolla that I drove 20k a year and had alomst 120k when I traded it in beyond oil changes, brake pads and tires never had to do anything else. With my 2012FIT I expect the same since it has a better reliability rating than my Corolla and a low cost of ownership in Consumer Reports.

I just hope the body holds up as good as the Toyotas' when you see older Toyota's the body and paint looks better then most cars the same age.

 

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys! Now I've got an idea of what I want to do with the Fit.

Now I have another question for you.. I own an Automatic. Would it be pointless to put money into performance upgrades? I've noticed something a AT Fit can do well over normal driving is start off in 1st gear on the shifter and work your way up the gears like a standard. Only the AT would take over for gear 4 and 5 once you hit D. 3rd gear also works well for sudden boost when you want to pass that pesky person in front of you on the freeway.

I just don't want to dump money into performance parts if I'm not going to be able to have a little extra fun with it like one can do with a Standard tranny.

EDIT: For the record, I wanted a Standard Fit but for some reason they are not easy to find around here.

 

That's one of the pluses of the Fit Sport, you can use the paddles to corral the transmission a bit.

As for performance upgrades, the big recommendations are for coil overs, wheels and tires. Generally the computer negates the possible effects of intakes and the like, or so I've been told.

 

Lol. Funny thing is, I don't have a Sport.

I have a Base AT. I feel as though I made a mistake getting this particular car. When I got it I had fuel mileage in mind. But now I've got a taste for Power.

 

I agree you prob made a mistake purchasing a base AT

trade in for a sport....that way you'll have more fun while driving it to the ground!

I'm taking that road and while it has been bumpy, I love my fit and am surprosed how well its holding up after 4 years and 86k miles.

Regular maintenance is a must though, fluids must not be neglected in a lil car that has to work as hard as this one to keep us up to speed on US highways.