Venture over to the Pit, and you’ll see that I’m looking for a job right now Ceejaytee. For a small (read: huge) fee, I’d be more than happy to drive up to Teeny Tiny Obama Boro, NJ and show you how incredible the Fit is myself (read: eat your food and mess up your lawn).
I bought a car!
It isn’t a Fit- it’s a 2008 Hyundai Elantra, and it ended up being pretty much the same price after I figured in all the equipment that was a must for me (auto, cruise, A/C, ABS) and obviously it’s a lot faster, which is handy since I do about 50% highway driving.
No flappy paddle gearbox, though 
ETA: I also get an extra “owner loyalty bonus” since I’m trading in a 2002 Elantra I owned from new).
Hey! That wasn’t one of our suggestions! 
Better fuel economy–already working!
Because the new car is so shiny I don’t want to park it on the street, I walked to work. I saved 1/4 gallon of gas, the equivalent of which I spent on a coffee.
Good choice. (Or at least, I hope it’s a good choice.) I’m buying an Elantra SE tomorrow to replace my minivan. I was going to suggest it.
I just took my kids in a 600-mile roundtrip in a Mazda 3 and had no problems. It actually worked better than the van would have because they were farther apart in the backseat than they would have been in the van. The trunk held a portacrib, two suitcases and much other miscellaneous junk with room to spare. And the Elantra is actually classified as a mid-size car by the EPA, so it’s even bigger.
None of this is to say anything bad about the Fit, of course. When the lease is up on my 3 next summer, I might get a Fit as a replacement.
Hello Fit owners. Sorry to revive a zombie but I’m looking for a new lease (the wife insists on leasing :rolleyes:) and the Fit looks like it might be a good idea. I’m wondering what y’all have to say about your Fits - especially the 2012 and 2013 versions. I’m between the Fit and the Accord and could use a little help deciding.
A bit of background: I live in NYC and I have a 2 year old and another kid on the way. My car would need to accommodate two adults and two car seats along with a shit ton of groceries (think Costco) or a decent amount of luggage. We mostly drive locally but we occasionally spend a weekend upstate or in D.C.
Also, considering winter driving conditions in NYC, would I have trouble with the Fit?
My key concerns are safety, passenger comfort and space, and cargo room. I don’t care if it has crappy acceleration or handling - I drive like a grandma anyways.
So should I get an Accord or a Fit? Anyone have personal experience with both?
Thanks!
Unless they’ve really scaled the thing down since we bought ours in 2006, I cannot imagine that you can’t fit 2 car seats and a shit ton of groceries in the new Fit. One Thanksgiving, we took ourselves and our 2 biggish dogs (flipped up the back seats and put their beds in the floorboard) to my parents’ house. By the time we came back, we had 2 suitcases, a cooler full of mutton, a bunch of small Christmas stuff Mom didn’t want any more, and several bolts of fabric in the hatch. The top of the cargo was right level with the bottom of the windows.
The current one is actually slightly bigger than the one we discussed in 2008. Having said that, DO NOT LEASE. It’s a Honda. One of the things you pay for is residual value, and leasing takes that away from you.
This thread is a bit of a mystery to me, because the Honda Fit (or Jazz as we know it here) is not even a particularly small car. Why on Earth would anyone think you couldn’t fit two kids in the back?
I used to drive a 1994 Honda Accord but now drive a 2010 Honda Fit. I think the hatchback Fit gives more flexibility than the sedan or coupe Accord. But if you want a larger car, look at the Crosstour. Although you’re a city resident, so I think the Fit will be easier to park.
It’s a small car even in Britain. Here, it’s a tiny car - at just under 160", it’s among the smallest on the US market. Us Americans are generally of the opinion that any child-carrying vehicle must be able to seat 93 people. 
That’s why the Canyonero is so popular.
And yikes, the Crosstour? That thing is ugly.
The Crosstour is beautiful but too expensive.
Re flexibility, I don’t care how flexible it is, I just want it to accomodate my family comfortably by 'Murican standards. Is it really as roomy inside as people say, despite how small it looks?
You’re preaching to the choir. I’ve been trying to convince wifey for 3+ years that buying is more economical. Her family got burned with bought cars that broke after a few years, so she has it stuck in her head that its cheaper to lease :rolleyes:.
Take the wife, child and two car seats to a Honda dealer and test the Fit. How easily can you get the car seats into the back? How comfortable are you and the wife in the front? How much cargo room is there in the back? Is there enough for all of the baby paraphernalia? (When my brother’s kids were little, I was amazed at how much stuff they traveled with, even to the next town to visit the grandparents.)
I most definitely will, but there is only so much you can test in a 20 minute test drive. I want to know what people with families who own a Fit have to say.
Also, anyone drive a Fit on snowy slushy streets? Does it hold the road as well as a sedan?
The hatchback configuration will help, if anything, since the weight distribution is more toward the front. Get the sport version, though; the base model has tiny, tiny wheels.
A small car even in Britain - well, yes, it’s small, but there are plenty of smaller cars on the market over here. Heck, our last car was a 2000 Renault Clio, which was smaller than the Honda Jazz.
The Jazz is 390cm long and 169.5cm wide, excluding mirrors. It is marketed as a “small family car” seating five passengers.
I’d call a really small car something like a Toyota Aygo (343cm x 161.5cm) or a Fiat 500 (355cm x 163cm)
Then there are the properly tiny cars, like Smarts - but I don’t think anyone tries to market the 250cm-long Fortwo as a family car 
Well, here’s a recent post from someone who lives in Saskatchewan and owns a Fit.
I can’t help you with the family use thing, as I’m single and drive around with the back seats down all the time for ginormous cargo capacity.
However, I can say that it does fine in winter conditions with suitable tires. The factory tires that came on my '09 are horrible in winter and mediocre in summer, but with Nokians it’s as good in ice and snow as any car I’ve had. Including the Subaru Legacy - though I just had all-seasons on that, so not really fair comparison for the Subie.
It’s got pretty low clearance, though, so deep snow will get you hung up.
On preview: dammit, scooped by my own self!