I told the dealer what I wanted and laid down a cash deposit.... They called me when the car came in.

 

And the difference is...PATIENCE and not settling.

 

Nope. Never saw these people before. We told the salesperson what we wanted. She tried for a week to find one anywhere in the US. All of the online inventory was bogus. She said she'd order one for us. We signed an order, gave them a hundred-dollar check (never cashed), and they ordered it. Ordered in October; built in late November; delivered in mid-January.

I was happy to have what we wanted--Sport M/T with Navi--particularly since they just aren't available anymore. Three or four months wait didn't matter to us.

Cheers.

 

If you do a lot of highway driving, you might want an AT. (My last was a MT, and I just got an AT)

The AT's are geared a lot more reasonably for the highway.

 

From reading Texas' posts and how he likes driving (even at 60+), I doubt he would ever want an AT. Myself, I plan on never owning an AT equipped car ever again (last was back in '97 or '98), but I know that most likely I won't have much of a choice in the future.

 

Don't rush things... I actually will turn 60 on Sunday..... I'm giving myself some Swift Mach Springs and have quit cigarettes to be able to get the high boost upgrade from Kraft Werks before I am to old to be able to appreciate it..... It is odd that when when are young and have plenty of time to enjoy things we lack patience and grow tired of things without realizing the anticipated pleasure opting for something newer to repeat the process over again.

 

I put a deposit of 250 to order my car and I am looking at a 5-6 month wait. I would probably buy something else if I found a car comparable to the fit sport. The problem is it is in its own class for a small car.

 

I think maybe we are confusing ordering a car as opposed to reserving a car scheduled to go to a particular dealership. The dealerships know what inventory they're getting before the car is even built. There is no way Honda is building a car individually for a customer they were not already planning in their inventory cycle. That is a big difference. For instance if you place a special order with say BMW, they are building a one-off car to your exact specs. It's not like the BMW dealership says well let me see what's coming in to our dealership or another dealership and try and reserve what you're looking for. No, BMW is building that car for you only. Same thing when you order a MINI Cooper (any surprise they're owned by BMW).

Wrong! My dealership did not make me take a car on their lot, they actually got my car from a dealership almost a 1,000 miles away. They were VERY helpful to me, but the fact of the matter is a manual transmission with navi was a very rare car to get. The dealership was very honest with me when they said if having a manual/navi combo was more important than the color of the car (which it was to me, I would not have purchased the Fit if I couldn't get that combo) then I better take the white one they located a 1,000 miles away, because there is no telling when/if they would even get a manual/navi themselves. So I took the white one before that car got sold and then I might not have gotten any Fit with that combo in any color.

Sure, if I wanted an automatic I could have been much, much more picky about taking the exact color I wanted, but since it had to be a manual/navi or nothing I took what I could get. But again, there was no talk of some special order where I could get Honda to build a car just for me in the color I wanted. I don't know about Japan, but here in America you have the following three choices to get a Honda you want:

1. Get lucky and get it from your local dealership.
2. Have your local dealership do a locate and try to find what you're looking for at another dealership. They can search anywhere in the country.
3. Have the dealership "reserve" a car for you scheduled to built in a particular production run.

I can see where the confusion is and it's semantics, as people are referring to reserving a car as a special order, and they are not the same thing.

 

A special order is where you order a car with specific options and was done a lot in the 60s when there were hundreds of variations of options available per model.... Now you have a limited choice of packages and dealer installed options and that is it.... Putting down a deposit means that the salesperson at the dealership is going to locate and have the car you desire arrive at their lot knowing the car is sold in advance.

 

In your original post asking about ordering special you stated the dealer said, "There may be a blackberry pearl with navi and a manual transmission on our lot in the future, but there might not be either. Then if the white one gets sold you're really SOL." That to me sounded like the white one was already on their lot and not 1000 miles away at another dealership and were just not really caring for their customer (you). Pardon me for my earlier reply as I don't know who would of deduced that the vehicle you ended up with was not on the dealer's lot originally.

One might be amazed at what the dealers can do if they attempt to through Honda or whatever brand. Then again as you state maybe they have no say or way of ordering anything, which again points to where I said the business practice is not a very optimal one stateside. You (generalized) are the customer, you should be able to get what you want when you are purchasing new and not have to settle, up to a point that is. I mean nobody should go so far as to say something like well I want a K motor in my Fit or else I won't purchase. Though if Honda offered that package you wouldn't see many other models being sold, well then again those would be MT only so maybe you would see the AT mission models still going out the door. As far as color, mission and whatnot it shouldn't be any issue especially if you are willing to wait the extra 2 or 3 months for delivery.

 

Oh god are you guys still going on about how to get a MT Fit. This is so boring.

Just go to the dealer and order a MT Fit in your colour, wait a month and you'll have it. That is how it goes in the rest of the world. Jeez...

And there are certainly alot of other cars to get instead of the FIT. For example the Ford Fiesta