my advice is to take a look at truecar.com If you do your shopping around, you should be able to get close to the far left of the price curve.

Given that the Fit is relatively low price, there's not too much money left on the table between a moderate effort of shopping around compared to maximum all-out scour-the-earth effort.

There's something to be said about shopping relatively local too, in case you need to make a couple trips to buy the car for paperwork, problems when you actually see the car during delivery, or what not.

 

yea im def. gonna buy local. i like to support local economy plus i feel the level of service at the dealer will be higher if the vehicle was purchased there.

 

Yep! I was toying around with the idea of buying both in Maryland and Massachusetts but ended up making the deal about 15 minutes from my house.

One to get my inspection sticker free of charge and also there was a clip missing from the underside of the dash right to the left of the steering wheel. I went back and salesman just took clip off of another Fit in the lot, issue solved. My guess is that someone did the same thing to my Fit...needed a clip so they took it off the car I ended up buying....now the dude who buys a black 2010 Fit Sport will have the same issue I had lol

I paid a fraction more than the MA dealer and about 700 more than the Maryland dealer. Money well spent in this case.

 

I'll vouch for this. Just bought my 3rd Fit (my 2nd, wife has one too) from the local Honda dealer, basically have a free pass to any routine maintenance for as long as we have our cars

 

Good points all.

ConsumerReports.org is a good source too. You have to subscribe and then pay an additional fee (about 15 dollars) to get the invoice price, find out what rebates & incentives (including the dealer ones that aren't advertised). They also give the lowest price you are likely to get. Also you get some quotes from the nearest participating dealers.

Another advantage to staying local it gives you more room to do a little dealing. If you don't think they are giving you a good deal you can go to other dealers or even talk about looking at other cars like the fiesta or yaris. Might spur him to make a better offer.

As raytseng said there isn't much mark-up on this class of car so don't expect too much. If they still have 2010s on the lot that's where the bargains will be.

 

i know this is off topic but does anyone think we'll see the fit receive the jdm 6 speed manual in 2012? it might be worth the wait. idk but i just filled up the jeep....i put in half a tank for $43.00 ($3.54/gallon)

 

A better question would be, what would be individual expectations for a 6speed in the FIT?

Highway Economy might go up by 1mpg. The USDM Fit auto has a taller 5th gear than the JDM 6spd's 6th gear so I wouldn't expect much in the way of an increase. City Economy might creep up the same as there might be a slightly better gear for low speed traffic. Performance would likely not go up either as the gearing would be closer together and possibly require ANOTHER shift to get to 60. 3rd gear on the USDM FIT seems to be the "everything" gear as you can drive slow, or when wringing it out, you can be upwards of 75mph.

I used to want a 6speed in the fit. but then I looked at the practical side. If all you do is drive highway (FLAT, LEVEL highway) you might see the slight benefit, besides that, all you are doing is shifting more often (like the Auto does for you already at the hint of a hill or headwind) The fit doesn't have the torque to pull off a 6sp with an equal or taller gear to that of the Auto. Remember, the fit basically has the smallest (least amount of torque) of any engine in the class that it is in (here in the US) when it comes to the "sports" model.

I'll refer back to my original question. What's the expectation? And is it worth it?

of note: I believe the USDM 5sp sport has a different gearbox (ratios) than the JDM Fit RS 5sp so while there's no guarantee that the JDM 6sp would make it to our shores. but for that matter, would any 6sp make a difference without a bump in torque?

~SB

 

never thought of it like that...im just one of those people that always talks themselves into waiting because something better is always on the horizon. oh well im gonna start my dealer emails wed. and try to get a realistic feel for the numbers they throw at me.

 

Ok a couple last points on that super deal I posted. I realized posting how cheap you could actually get a new Fit might ruffle some as nobody wants to find out later they could have saved thousands.

That was only a closeout on Base model 5 speeds. Sports or Automatics (probably 90% of all Fits sold) were not included at that price and did not have similar savings off of MSRP. Honda was overstocked on Base 5 speeds end of 2010 and needed to move quick before 2011's starting arriving. Part of that discount was $750 dealer cash incentive from Honda and was only given on 5 speeds.

Preferred treatment by the service department because the car was purchased off their lot has not been my experience. Admitted though I try not to use dealer service but have used it on occasion for cars purchased from that same dealer, another dealer and private party used. No difference in treatment whatsoever for me.

And I have never got any free pass on service or routine maintenance either. Once I had an issue with a A/C failure one month after Honda warranty expired. Dealer I bought car from wouldn't help fight for me and didn't offer any goodwill treatment. I had to complain to US Honda and then they contacted dealer and gave me the part at half price but dealer would not budge on labor cost so I went elsewhere for the install.

Lastly about supporting your local economy. Was that a joke or stated by the few here with sarcasm? If not please explain to me how buying a car made in Japan by a Japanese company is supporting your local economy? The local dealer's profit and employment pales in comparison to that.

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