High Mile Honda Fit?

kazoospec wrote: Don't be cagey son! (I never leave my cars unmodified anymore) Details, man, details.

Looks like it has to be an 09+ though: http://ktuner.com/fit/

I think the supercharger kits are no longer made and are hard to come by now though.

In reply to Driven5:

Hondata has always been around for the 07-08 Fit, it was the 09+ that had nothing until KTuner came around.

https://www.hondata.com/flashpro-fit

The superchargers are also still available, but they aren't cheap.

http://sprintexusa.com/honda-fit-jazz/

Bobzilla wrote: Just seems you can get more care for less when you don't shop the name brands.

If you honestly think an Accent is "more car" than, or even "equal car" to, a Fit of the same age/mileage...Then I cannot help you.

In reply to pointofdeparture:

Thanks for the clarification(s)!

Yeah, from a practicality standpoint there is no car in its class or even one/two classes up that can do as much. I hauled a queen sized mattress home inside mine (memory foam so I was able to bend it to fit beside me), fit moderate sized Christmas trees with their tops touching the windshield, and hauled 3 people on a trip from VA to Kansas City with all of our luggage, a couple of guitars and coolers for snacks. Plus I could redline it away from every stoplight and never get in trouble .

Ugh, now I really miss that little thing.

Bobzilla wrote: mY #1 problem with the Fit is the buy in price. Because of the Honda badge it brings a premium over similar cars in its class. (Accent, Rio, Versa, 2, etc). I mean, a 2008 with 100k miles goes for $5700-6k. A similar Accent goes for $2-3k. Same milege, same year. Just as indestructible.

I would not say an Accent is indestructable. More like the typical Hyundai owner has very low expectations, so if the door doesn't actually fall off when they open it to get in, then it's good enough.

I'd take the worst Fit over the best Accent, in part because I haven't seen an Accent in better mechanical shape than the worst Fit.

In reply to Knurled:

We'll have to agree to disagree. A friend of mine'swife had a 5-spd first gen Fit. I drove it a few times and getting back into the wife's 2000 Accent 5-spd with 200+k miles felt luxurious, comfortable and faster. Then again, his wife could probably destroy a rock... she was a bit hard on it.

Coincidentally, I had an '07 Accent hatch concurrent with our '09 Fit.

The Accent makes a better back-road rally car. The Fit seemed to hold up a bit better, but we were somewhat more kind to it over the years, having bought it new. I got the Accent in late '09 with 54k on it for $3500. However, when I sold it around 157k it was definitely due for some work - the A/C compressor had locked up, the CD player quit working, and the control arm bushings were shot. Although the Fit had never been airborne, so maybe it's not an apples/apples comparison.

In general I'd say the Fit was definitely more versatile, slightly better built, and got way better mileage; but I'd give the Accent a nod for being way more fun to drive.

Dang it Bobzilla, I thought I finally had it narrowed to a single vehicle. Trying to make arrangements to look at this tomorrow, even if only for comparison sake: Stoopid cheap hatch

Bobzilla wrote: In reply to Knurled: We'll have to agree to disagree. A friend of mine'swife had a 5-spd first gen Fit. I drove it a few times and getting back into the wife's 2000 Accent 5-spd with 200+k miles felt luxurious, comfortable and faster. Then again, his wife could probably destroy a rock... she was a bit hard on it.

I have never seen a Fit that was dangerously rusty, I have never had to replace the transmission on a Fit, I have never had to chase down weird electrical gremlins on a Fit that were borne from really really bad failsafe strategy or lack thereof (if the TPS loses ground momentarily in an Accent, at city traffic speeds, it will downshift to 1st so hard that the seat belts lock up and it feels like you just broke all the motor mounts. this is a common problem), and did I mention how Accents rust harder than Nissans and Mazdas do? And the brakes for some reason fail every 15-20k and need calipers/pads/rotors because they rusted into uselessness, although most Hyundai owners DGAF and just figure, hey, it still moves under its own power, so what.

Fits: One weird A/C gremlin, the water leak issue on early ones, and the rotor screws rust into place so it's hard to change rotors when you do the front brakes every 80k. I have never done rear brakes on a Fit and some of my Fit-owning customers have 300k and counting.

If it weren't for the high cost of entry, I'd have a Fit. They are friggin' anvils.

I will allow that the Accent WRC looked awesome. This is as much an endorsement for subjecting oneself to the self-abuse of daily driving an Accent as it would be buying a Monte Carlo because Dale.

Again, agree to disagree. We're pushing 350k now on 2 different accent/rios. Had one failure with the first one at 190k miles beacuse the crank sensor died. replaced for $20 and it ran another 60k before we sold it.

On both cars I've put on 3 sets of brake pads and one set of shoes. in 350k miles. Never had to replace a caliper on any of the hyundai/Kia's we've had. Putting the Forte and Elantra into the mix we're talking ~550k miles on them in 15 years on 4 cars.

Pete Gossett wrote: I got the Accent in late '09 with 54k on it for $3500. However, when I sold it around 157k it was definitely due for some work - the A/C compressor had locked up, the CD player quit working, and the control arm bushings were shot.

This: The typical Hyundai owner that I have to deal with. "Berk it, it still moves under its own power, that's good enough."

THIS is why a used Accent is $2k and a used Fit is $6k.

There's also a lot of foregone conclusion at work here, mind you. People don't sink money to maintain a disposacar. Fits are inexpensive but they aren't disposacars. Or maybe they just are sturdy enough that they last through abusive owners with a disposacar mindset.

Trivia: One of my aunts really wanted a Mini Cooper. She bought a Fit instead because reasons. Over the last eight years she had to replace four tires and an air filter. She's probably going to own this car forever at the rate she's going. OTOH, she also had the only good Renault Encore sold in the US: She had it for over ten troublefree years until someone rearended her, so maybe she would have also had the world's most reliable Mini...

In reply to Knurled:

Seriously. I bought it w/54k from the original owners, who'd bought it new in Cali and drove it back to IN. It had a recent oil change when I bought it, but my gut said that was likely its first one since it left the dealership.

Edit: Also, although I see about as many Fits as I do the same generation of Accents on the road, I very rarely see Fits for sale. I think owners do keep them forever.

Did a bit of a test drive tour today, driving a 2008 Fit, 2010 Fit and a 2010 Accent 2 door hatch. Here's the short version: I didn't care for the 2010 Fit. Seat position was way too high, the seat was really uncomfortable and didn't have any adjustments to it. (It appears to have been a "Sport" trim level, so I'm assuming they aren't available) The engine seemed willing, but a bit overmatched by the bulk of the car. Yes, I realize it's weird to call a 2500 lb car "bulky", but it felt a lot more sluggish than the 08. Part of that may have been perception caused by a bigger, higher CG car. This particular one was massively overpriced, so I wasn't really seriously considering it. The bright spot was the transmission. Honda just knows how to build a 5 speed.

The Accent was ok, aside from being pug ugly. The shifter was a bit floppy and the interior was cheap, as you'd expect from the entry level offering. The engine seemed more willing than either Honda offering, but also seemed to hesitate and wheeze out at the top end. Kind of made me wonder if it had mechanical issues or some sort of variable valve timing that wasn't working. It appeared to have been treated pretty poorly and was represented by the owner as "my son's old car". Pretty much every body panel had been damaged or scratched, which I usually take as a sign of general neglect. Pretty sure I'll be passing on that one as well.

Which brings us to what was the "sweet spot" for me. I loved the 08. I reminded me of all the best qualities of my 93 Civic DX hatch. Small, straight-forward and simple. The interior is no frills, but high quality and well laid out. Although it was definitely narrower than the 10, it somehow felt a lot more spacious. It also felt a lot more nimble than the 2010. Unfortunately, this particular example was a automatic, and appeared to have been poorly treated. There were some unnatural noises coming from the engine which led me to believe these may not be idiot-proof to a sufficiently talented idiot. I'll be looking for a good condition 5 speed moving forward.

pointofdeparture wrote: In reply to Driven5: Hondata has always been around for the 07-08 Fit, it was the 09+ that had nothing until KTuner came around. https://www.hondata.com/flashpro-fit The superchargers are also still available, but they aren't cheap. http://sprintexusa.com/honda-fit-jazz/

I wonder how long it will be until someone puts a new Civic Si's engine's into a Fit. They're supposedly the same engine family, although the B20 from a Prelude was also the same engine family as the later B20s but may as well have been from another planet.

I had an 07. One of my favorite cars I've ever owned. Mrs. DX and I crammed an entire Fit full of crap for our first apartment from Ikea. It also would handle a couple hundred lbs of scrap aluminum to the dump no problem.

Hopefully not a thread-jack here....

If the HRV is Fit based, is the HRV just as awesome and reliable as the Fit?

In reply to CarKid1989:

According to the car rags the HR-V is just a Fit that gains optional AWD in exchange for less cargo capacity and worse fuel mileage. People seem to like them and the reviews are good but it sounds like you have to be a pretty specific person to really need one over a Fit. They have only been around a few years though so they don't have the same 10 years of empirical enthusiasm as the Fit.