Honda Fit

It’s hard to find a good car these days.  With gas prices going up, people around here are ditching their trucks and SUVs and buying up used Hondas, Hybrids, and Diesels.  Domestic car companies help to narrow down the selection, as they don’t even have a serious offering of thrifty, reliable small cars.  The closest match is the Daewoo Chevy Aveo, which consistently receives bad ratings, lacks in features, and has only adequate fuel economy for its size.  And it’s not really a domestic car.  The closest match was the Saturn Astra, but the lowest price was $18000 just to get cruise control and a car that’s rated at 32mpg.  Other than that, it is a pretty nice car but then again, it’s made mostly in Belgium and Argentina and is thus not really a domestic.  The upcoming Ford Fiesta looks promising, but it is a distant dream at this point.

After several nights of edmunds.com, Consumer Reports, visits to dealer lots, and spreadsheets calculating cost per month including gas at different gas prices, I narrowed the field down to three cars.  The Honda Fit, the Volkswagen Rabbit, and a used 2005 Honda Civic SI hatchback.  I was mainly interested in a hatchback because I love the sportiness combined with the ability to haul a lot more stuff than a sedan.  My old RSX was so handy simply because it was like having a miniature truck.  High MPG rating was also key, as I drive 122 miles each day.

I was really impressed with my test drive of the Volkswagen Rabbit.  There were a lot of cool features packed into this car and it came with a traction control program which would be good for winter driving.  However, when talking with the sales rep, I got locked into negotiating a monthly payment, varied by term, so I retreated and played the “gotta talk to my wife” card.  I learned later that the VW dealer in Lansing is notoriously non-negotiable on prices.  However, even if I was to get below invoice on the Rabbit, it would still cost $100 more per month to own than the other alternatives, simply because it gets a measly 29mpg highway with its 2.5L I5.  Why can’t VW put in the 2.0L I4 that the Jetta has?  Or, better yet, a turbo diesel engine!  The Jetta is known to be coming this fall with a TDI engine and the Rabbit is rumored to possibly come with one as well.  At up to 60mpg, a TDI would be the best choice, even at $4.50 per gallon.  Sorry, I can’t wait until fall! 

I found a 2005 Honda Civic SI at a Honda dealer outside of Detroit.  I was pumped about it because it was basically the same as my RSX, just with a taller body, cloth seats, and a strangely-mounted shifter.  When Julie took a test drive with me, we realized that the car smelled of cigarette smoke, and I was greeted with a blast of tobacco fragrance when I turned on the A/C.  Even after a 100-so point inspection, there was pop residue in the cup holders.  The dealer offered another cleaning, but it just didn’t make sense to pay $1,000 less than a brand new Fit to get a used car that will probably always smell bad and get lower mpg.  

Which brings us to the winner - the Honda Fit.  I was really attracted to the low price, the hatchback style, and the 34mpg rating.  The car is an econobox, but it has a ton of storage space and the seats fold into ridiculously awesome positions to maximize hauling room.  Just this weekend we hauled our luggage, a double-tall dorm fridge and a garden full of plants home from Illinois.  I even have more headroom than in the RSX.  I can finally sit up straight when I drive.  On my first tank of gas I averaged 38mpg.  The lowest I’ve seen is 34mpg after a tank’s worth of interstate driving at around 70-76mph.  The only downside is there were no Fit Sports with a manual transmission in Michigan.  I decided to get the base manual model, which means no cruise control.  However, the dealer did tell me that they can install cruise control for a fee.  It may just be worth it.  Since Fits and Civics are being snatched up like crazy, I wasn’t able to negotiate on price.  What really got me is that they added on a fee for having a seat cloth protector sprayed on.  When I asked if this was optional, they insisted that the protector was already applied.  Grrr!  I should have threatened to walk out then, but after days of searching and finally being at the end, I didn’t press the issue.  Now, I realize how silly it is because, supposedly, I have to take it in once a year for a few more years to get more stuff sprayed on.  If that’s the case, then I should have at least only paid for one spraying!  Oh well, live and learn.  I’m really bad at negotiating!  The last time I bought a car, the dealer didn’t even wait for a response to his initial offer before going off to “talk to his manager.”  It was so easy then…