who the heck on fuelly put the Fit as a "sedan"?

 

 

Lol @ the paddles being fun

 

I think it could very well be fun.

Just because it's not as "engaging" as a stick and clutch doesn't mean you can't have fun with it.

Look at me, I can waste hours on end playing Battlefield Bad Company 2... or Sudoku (and minesweeper!).

Let's not knock it, folks. "To each, their own."

 

I know you want one

 

I can drive one any time I want

 

lets not forget the most important reason to drive a stick, the ladies dig it.

 

I think its so d*mn funny some of these manual owners are so hardcore. I just don't get that excited about eco box manuals. Yes, it's slightly more "engaging" to drive than an AT but we are driving Fits here people not 400hp machines. If I want to feel slightly more engaged I flip my fingers on the paddles and change the gears myself..Big whoop I might be .001 sec faster. For at least 95% of us this is our daily driven commuter car. We obviously can't be roasting the tires everywhere we go on public roads especially when you drive a 1.5L car . I bought this car to be practical. Practical in city/hwy driving, Practical storage, Practical gas mileage. Just the fact the hwy driving gearing was so low turned me off of the manual instantly...not to mention I hate having a clutch in the city. Now if I was driving a true performance car specifically for canyon runs or scca time trials on the weekends then yes of course a manual is preferred (unless you have a seven-speed dual wet clutch transmission in your Ferrari). I'm sorry call me lazy but for my DD I pefer having a auto. It's nice being able to feel my left leg while sitting in traffic..It's nice being able to cruise 75 mph on the highway under 3K rpm...its nice being able to snack on some chicken nuggets in my lap while I drive.... but to each his own right?


P.S. Like I've mentioned before...I love when I hear the excuse that manuals are cheaper to maintain. I've owned manuals and auto's. In my experience all my autos run over 200K miles no problem... My sticks or people I know with stick need a new clutch every 100K miles. If its a good transmission (like honda is known for) your auto is going to out last your stick 90% of the time..Plus the fact a majority of us sell our cars before it even reaches 200K miles. So please don't feed me that line of bull crap.

Just to be sinister fyi I laughed at this... They may dig stick...but the Fit is not the biggest chick magnet in terms of "Picking up chicks in your awesome car" so I think it evens out.

I'm married...I don't need to impress anyone else...lol. All my wife cares about is her huge rock I got her on her left hand and how I take care of her other needs..not what I drive.

 

Bottom line is there are pros and cons for both. I will never own an auto unless it is my wife's car. Buy what suits your needs.

 

"I'll never own or drive AT"

That was me until I stopped being stuborn and grew to be more realistic.
I've been driving stick for more than 16 years until I moved to NY. Doing rounds and running in and out of Manhattan to bronx to queens to Brooklyn and back on a daily basis on stick is no way fun in any way.

I shrunk my ego, grew real balls and bought my first AT... a used 90 geo prizm (corolla).

 

While not a preference Autos have their places and can be alot of fun too.. Manual Valve Bodies, Locking in full line pressure, push button shifts, stalling up the TC to leave the line at peak torque.. consistent shifts every time, etc.

They do absorb alot of torque and create a lot of heat though. Often heavier as well.

To each their own!

FWIW my 2004 RAV4 is an auto. The only auto I've ever bought and I enjoy it thoroughly especially in the winter now that I've sold my other DSM and I still havent installed the rest of the AWD drive train or transfer case...

 

There also is a manual that shifts like auto. SMG is BMW and AMG is Mercedes and they can shift in .08 with a paddle and is more fun than both an auto or manual. Motor Trend: 2002 BMW M3 SMG

 

so... the rock... is that why you're driving a fit? lol. JK.

For many of us, the Daily driver is realistically our only vehicle. (we have a ridgeline but my wife drive's that primarily. the 5SP makes my right hand and left foot happy and it's a nice combination of "fun to drive" with economy & practicality. I'm in the country so city driving really isn't much of an issue for me. (we take the Ridgelinewhen we go down to NYC and NJ). If I had a choice I'd have a DD and a weekend driver but in our situation, it's no realistic. My last car was a 270hp V6 with sport package (Altima 3.5SE) and while it had power, it was a CVT and lacked driver enjoyment. The AutoStick was a lame excuse at manual mode. It just wasn't that exciting to drive. 16 months after buying the Fit, it is still a blast to drive as it is so tossable. (and 1/2 the price - gas wise - of the Altima).

~SB

 

my pros for manual transmission:
1. I like driving a manual transmission in general
2. fit is by far the easyest manual transmission i have driven...
3. Manual transmissions also have zero maintenance (no transmission fluid maintenance like how the automatics need fluid change after 30k miles according to the user manual)
4. Manual transmission fits can accept any intakes, including cold air intakes, and not only Ram Intake (although i think there are some CAI's that will work with Automatics as well)

my cons:
1. I can never get it to drive as smooth as an automatic (even after 8 years of driving stick)
2. On the fit, the automatic gets better gas mileages on highway.....
3. Only need 1 foot to drive


if i can take back time... idk if i would have done anything differently... i say enjoy manual transmissions while you still can... its a dieing breed... especially how none of these new hybrids are coming out with manuals... some day manual may finally kick the bucket.

 

Dead on..this comment. I'm so glad someone else noticed this besides me.

Regarding mileage, I just figured my average after a year of driving and it came out to 39.8 real world. That's combined city/highway. I seriously doubt the AT would do better.

Regarding resale, I bet that if you sell to a private party, you will actually get better resale from the MT. Why? Because they are very hard to find and many MT drivers are not willing to compromise (see below).

Some general comments about MT vs AT

MT fanatics are just that...fanatics. No fit buyer that went to the trouble of finding a MT fit in his/her choice of color is going to be happy with paddle shifters or anything else that does not have a clutch. Otherwise, he/she would have just gotten the AT to begin with--rather than going through all that trouble. (And believe you me, it was a lot of trouble finding my car. My local dealer had 18 fits in stock. ALL ATs!!! Finding a TW MT fit was a major project.)

The fit has a wonderful clutch and shifter for an econobox. That probably sold me more on this car than any other feature. I really can't express how wonderful it is to be able to buy a new, reliable car for so little money that has such a nice MT.

That said, those of you who opted for your AT fits, enjoy! I'm not judging but you are never, EVER going to convince a MT owner to prefer an AT. OTOH, I have seen posts here from time to time where AT owners wished they'd opted for the MT.

 

everyone is going to praise what they buy, i would never buy a 5MT....everyone has their own opinion, the fact is they 10 Honda fit sport 5AT's for every 1 5MT.
there's demand for them but very small...

 

I'm not sure what that proves as it relates to my comment. Are you saying that (in North America at least) many more people prefer an AT to an MT? Nobody disputes that. But it's not demand alone that determines price. It's demand as related to supply.

The simple fact is that when buyers are unwilling to compromise on their choice (such as many MT buyers are) and there is a short supply, they will pay more. We've read many stories here of buyers traveling to other states to find an MT. That to me shows an unwillingness to compromise on transmission choice. Such a buyer is likely willing to pay a higher price to get his preffered car. Simple psychology and economics.

This is not say one is better than the other or defending my choice. I'm simply making the case for MT fits holding their retail value as well or better than ATs. It would be interesting to see real stas on this but they'd have to take into account original purchase price, upgrades, etc, in order to mean anything.

 

you can state your case, go look at what a dealer will give you as a trade in on honda fit sport 5MT...then compare to 5AT.

I have sold 6 fit sports in the past 18 months....I import them from the US....90% of the people do want a manual 5MT, they want 5AT,...


5MT sits on the lot until a specific person wants one....which is a very very small market and no they do not increase market value, it's a small market that wants a manual...usually a young male.

your resoning makes no sense....just because there's low demand does not make it worth more because it's rare.
the blackberry pearl fit has very low demand...so Honda discontinued it. The blackberry color is rare, but it doesn't mean its worth more.

sorry to burst your bubble, Happy New year!

 

I'd be happy with a manual transmission but I live in NY where there's so much stop & go driving that if I had a MT my left leg would end up shorter than my right from so much shifting.

Anyway, from a business standpoint inventory control is sometimes difficult. If only 10% of your customers want the MT and cars are expensive to stock (unlike, say, 12 different kinds of Coca Cola that cost a buck each and turn over a couple of times a week) it becomes a complicated issue. If I remember right from business school, if your demand doubles you need only 1.4X as much inventory (the square root of 2) to run the same probability of running out of stock. For bigger/smaller changes it's still the square root of the difference.

So if you're talking about 1/9 the sales (from AT to MT) you need a proportionally higher inventory in stock (3X the number of cars, relative to sales), and it's expensive to keep cars on the lot. And that's not even factoring in color choices.

And to make matters worse, probably most MT buyers want to test drive the MT model, so the dealer has to keep an extra car on the lot for test drives, and then has to sell that car at a loss at the end of the year...

But I'm surprised that you'd have to go very far to find a MT for sale...

My local dealer has 11 Fits, all AT. But a nearby one seems to have a lot of MT, 8 of 11 are MT. Unless of course that was the default when someone typed their inventory into the computer and they screwed up. I'm always surprised to find out how non-automated a lot of computer stuff is...

 

it varies from dealer to dealer...I haven't checked in a month or so, but they had 3 AT sports at one dealer....and 0 MT.....3 5MT at the other dealer...and 5 5AT's....
some honda dealers in the same city are owned by the same family or person. They share inventory, we have 4 honda dealers in my city. 1 family owns 2 and the other owns the other 2. They both control many dealerships besides honda throughout the city as well.