TTAC's New Long-Term Tester: 2015 Honda Fit EX 6MT

My first thought was that a constant velocity joint on the left axle exploded again. However, Mike the mechanic (not to be confused with Mike and the Mechanics) told me there was “a hole in the transmission” in the ’02 Saturn that’s been my daily driver the past few years. I spent a few days asking myself whether it made any sense putting $1,000 into a 15 year old car that’s gone on pretty much unchanged since it was first designed in the early ’90s. My second thought: What’s the next thing that’s going to break?

I started looking around for a small, inexpensive, new car, with a focus on subcompacts. I also asked my colleagues who review a lot more cars than I do for their recommendations and settled on two finalists, the Ford Fiesta and Honda Fit.

How did I come to that conclusion? Different cars were rejected for different reasons. I don’t like the Chevy Sonic‘s motorcycle inspired instrument panel. Though I care far more about transportation than image, I just can’t see myself in a Kia Soul. Speaking of Korean brands, I’m not convinced that the Korean automakers lavish as much attention on their least expensive cars as they do on the Optima and Sonata. And long warranties aside, the long-term durability of even the newest and best Korean cars hasn’t been proven. I like the Mazda3, but that’s a class up from the segment and Mazda doesn’t sell the Mazda2 in America (and I forgot about Toyota selling the Mazda2 as the Scion iA). The Fiat 500 Abarth is great fun, but I said that it was based on a cheap car that was designed almost a decade ago when I reviewed it. The base Fiat 500 I rented was much less fun. The Nissan Versa seemed cheap to me, and the Toyota Yaris, well, I find a ’90s era Tercel more exciting.

On the other hand, the Ford Fiesta I rented when I had some suspension mods done to the Saturn a couple of years ago impressed me. The Fiesta was fun to drive, it handled nicely and I even thought that Ford’s version of the dual-clutch transmission worked better than the VW unit in the Audi A3 I had for review. Despite the fact that I could live with the Ford DCT, the Fit’s automatic is a CVT and you’d take away my car guy card if I bought that. Also, going with a manual transmission would likely save some money off the sticker price. I didn’t realize just how much it would save.

The Fit was all new for 2015. A lot of the reviews of the car dinged it for numb electrically assisted power steering, saying that it doesn’t quite have the [automotive cliche alert] go-kart feel of the first two generations of the Fit. There were also complaints that the six-speed manual transmission is geared relatively low, causing high revs and buzzing at highway speeds. Some complained that the clutch was too soft. The reviews agreed that the stick was way more fun than the CVT and that the Fit’s flexible seating ( Honda calls it Magic Seat) does make it a practical little wagon.

One colleague, a Honda owner who’s pretty familiar with the company, said the Honda was better than the Ford, but that the Ford might last longer. Another, who has contacts at Ford’s plant in Mexico where the Fiestas are built, suggested otherwise. Ford apparently still has quality issues south of the border, or at least that’s what my friend’s sources imply.

I started to configure, price and shop. The base LX trim level in the Fit comes pretty well equipped with power windows, air conditioning and even a backup camera standard. I could live with that feature list, certainly when compared to the 20-year-old tech in the Saturn. When I went to configure something similar in the Fiesta, it appeared the Honda was just slightly better equipped at about the same MSRP. Mostly it came down to the Fit’s six-speed vs. the five-speed equipped in all manual, non-ST Fiestas.

I wanted some fun but I couldn’t justify the extra $3,000-4,000 the ST would run. This car will be driven into the ground and I wasn’t sure that the optional three-cylinder, 1-liter EcoBoost engine in the Fiesta was up for the long haul. The direct injected, naturally aspirated 1.5-liter Honda engine has more power than both the EcoBoost triple and the 1.6-liter four, which is the standard engine in the Fiesta. For the 2016 model year, assembly of the Fit was moved from Honda’s new Mexican factory to Japan to allow for the Mexican plant to start producing the HR-V crossover, which shares a platform with the Fit.

Speaking of Mexico, I like to buy American when I can, but the Fiesta is Hecho en Mexico. Even if I ended up picking the Ford, my choice wasn’t going to be made in the U.S.A. I was going to say something about profits flowing to Tokyo versus Dearborn, but I’m not convinced either automaker makes significant money on these entry level cars.

As for dealers’ profits, as Bark M pointed out, dealers can still make plenty of money on new cars they sell at or below invoice price, but apparently there isn’t enough money in Fits with stick shifts for dealers to want to keep them in inventory, particularly a base car. The most number of Fits I found at any local dealer was eight, all with the CVT. There were no base 2016 Fits with a manual transmission to be found anywhere in Michigan.

Car enthusiasts bemoan the paucity of cars that offer stick shifts, but part of the problem with trying to “save the manual” is finding dealers who stock them. An automatic adds at least a thousand dollars (more like two) to the purchase price and dealers like higher transaction prices.

A call to a dealer in Toledo, about an hour south of here, revealed that there were just three in the entire tri-state region that I assume includes Indiana. A salesman said he could arrange a dealer trade and sell me the car for a shade over $18,000 out the door (Michigan has a 6% sales tax).

Using online tools like TrueCar, I found a Fit LX with a stick, in an inoffensive silver, at a dealer in Dayton, about 200 miles from Detroit. The salesman there quoted me a better price: $17,421 out-the-door. The next day, while I was deliberating a trip to Ohio and figuring out the logistics, I missed a call from a local Honda dealer, Page Honda of Bloomfield. When I called back, I told the salesman, Brian, that I was looking for a Fit LX with a stick and told him the price I’d gotten from the Dayton dealer. He asked if I’d consider a 2015 model, new, not a demo and also in silver, with a stick.

An orphaned manual and I could save it. I told him to check the mileage and get a price from his manager.

When he called back, he said it had less than 100 miles on the odometer, just new car test mileage accumulated in the time it’s been sitting on their lot. I once bought a brand new, all-wheel-drive Chrysler minivan through a dealer trade that put more miles than that on the car. The price he quoted, however, $17,720, surprised me. I expected a ’15 to cost less than the 2016 in Dayton and said so. Brian, the salesman, said, “Oh, that’s because it’s an EX, not an LX.”

While the features of the EX are things I could easily live without, it’s nice to have a smart fob with keyless entry and push button start, a better stereo, and a touchscreen with a nifty blindspot camera that activates when you use the turn signal, all for the low price of $240. With Michigan’s potholes, I’m not sure about the 16-inch aluminum wheels (the LX has 15-inch steelies with hubcaps), and I don’t know how often I’ll use the moonroof, but the package seemed like a good deal at about $2,000 less than if I’d bought a comparable 2016 Honda Fit EX. I don’t care about depreciation, but that two grand probably makes up for it.

The deal wasn’t just good, Bark M’s insistence aside, the dealer had to have lost real money on it. According to online resources, the purchase price of the car was about $700 less than dealer cost, including the holdback. It was a cash deal, so there was no money to be made at the back end on financing and there were no dealer add-ons. Added to the loss: the interest the dealer paid to floorplan the car for almost a year.

They’d been trying to move the little Honda for a while. After I took delivery, I found a hang tag from 2015’s “summer clearance sale” under the passenger seat. The fact that it was also at the end of the month may have incentivized them to come up with their best price. I’m sure that they didn’t want to pay another month of interest.

According to the door jam sticker, the Fit was made in February 2015 and it wasn’t sitting on a boat from Japan for weeks as it was made in Mexico. No, it’s been sitting on their lot, costing them not just interest, but also the opportunity cost of the profit they might have made on the number of CR-Vs they could have cycled through that spot on their lot in the same time. The dealer also had to eat the cost of hand-painted pinstripes (signed by “Miller”) that were added at some point. The artist used nice shades of grey and blue, and they look nice against the silver car, though the painter ended them with a curly-cue on the front fender that I think looks rather feminine. Oh well, maybe I’ll give the Fit a girl’s name.

How do I like it? Well that’s for the first installment of TTAC’s latest long-term test once the engine is broken in and I’ve had a chance to drive it for a bit. I’ll also let you know if and when VTEC kicks in, yo!

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. Thanks for reading – RJS.