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WSJ is Tied to Be Fit. Honda-Wise. If You Know What I Mean…
by
John Horner
(IC: employee)
Published: November 12th, 2008
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Former AutoWeek scribe Jeff Sabatini is now driving a keyboard for The Wall Street Journal. While our own JL loved the Honda Fit, Sabatini sees the model as the motorist’s Messiah. “While conventional wisdom says that cheap gas should damp enthusiasm for a compact fuel-sipper, I’m not going to be deterred. The Fit is unquestionably my favorite car, a vehicle that’s the best all-around transportation available from any auto maker at any price.” Wow, talk about showing some love! “Well equipped Fits may just outdo the Mini Cooper for the cheap to buy, fun to drive, feel good drive of the year. Move over BMW, the new kid is strutting his stuff. While the iconic BMW 2002 remains a cult classic because it does much with little, today’s BMWs are porkers best suited to poseurs. The Fit has recaptured the cheap to buy, cheap to run, fun to drive crown in part by being ‘nearly 1,500 pounds lighter than, say, a BMW 5-Series, that perennial best-car-on-the-road contender.'” Jeff then takes both the Big 2.8 and Honda to task for not building more Fit-like whips…
“One of the reasons good small cars are so rare is that auto makers have long assumed that small equals cheap; that makes for diminished expectations. Even Honda, known for building good small cars, has recently been guilty of pandering to the bigger-is-better paradigm, supersizing its lineup top to bottom.” But, the sins of those backsliding brethren haven’t sullied Junior, and in these sobering times Sabatini declares “the Fit is the automotive change we need.” While the Fit is certainly fit, it appears that falling gas prices have done little to damage the MSM’s “anyone who doesn’t build, sell or drive a small car is a selfish bastard” meme.
John Horner
More by John Horner
Published November 12th, 2008 11:42 AM
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