Hello everyone! I've been a visitor to this forum for a while now, but I've finally decided to create an account as I'm about to buy my own Honda Fit.

Just looking for some opinions on pricing for a used 2012 Honda Fit Sport.

The cheapest I've found in my region is $12500 for a used 2012 Honda Fit Sport with 53300 miles on it. Do you guys think this is a good deal?

I was thinking perhaps I could try to negotiate with the dealer to $12000 out the door. (meaning after all fees and taxes) Fair and reasonable? Too low? Too high? If so, what do you think I should be shooting for?

Definitely going to be scheduling a test drive and an inspection by a mechanic soon.

I would appreciate any thoughts or opinions. Thanks!

 

You should check kelly Blue Book (kbb.com) and maybe some other auto sales sites in your area. According to KBB, my '12 VBP Sport 5MT w/ only 14K miles in excellent condiiton is priced at $12,850, Very Good-Excellent range for Private Party Range sale; dealer trade in range is from $10-12,130 . Of course, this does not take into account all the upgrades that I have made to the car, AND that it is (in some cases) a less desirable manual. Hope this helps a bit! Good luck on your search/purchase!

 

This is what i think, if you have the cash as in you loan from a bank and not the dealership. The car is in good condition and no issue. The car sitting in their lot for over a month. Then, start the deal with 11,500 out the door. You already have the money, so either they take it or wait for another buyer. Beside there are tons of cars out there and dont act desperate. I know just hold back that urge. If it doesnt work just look around, you might find better deals.

 

Whoops, I forgot to mention I'm looking at an automatic, which I'm guessing would be priced a couple hundred more than a manual. (since it's used, pretty sure it would be ~1000 more if it was new)

@fitmann Hm, looking at the kbb values you've mentioned makes it seem like I've got a pretty reasonable deal here. It's an automatic so it's probably a bit more, but then again, it has more miles than yours, so probably a bit less. All in all, ending up under your private party value. Hm, if I shoot for $12000 out the door, the car value should end up being $11000 (since fees and taxes are around 1000 in my area), which is just above kbb trade in values, so the dealer still profits a bit, making it more likely for them to accept.

@BrucesFit Good point. I should start a bit lower than what I'm aiming for to give them a bit of wiggle room. Maybe I should just lowball them $10,000 just to try it out and see what they say. Yea, holding back the urge will definitely be hard. The one I'm looking at is silver, which strangely enough is quite rare in my area. (Who would have thought! plain old boring silver. There are lots of red, grey, and black ones though. Weird.)

If anyone has previously traded in their Honda Fit and would like to share their trade in value, that would be very helpful, I think. (I never know if I can trust kbb, edmunds, etc)

 

Test drove the car today and well, hm. Quite a few scratches on it (more than I thought), but nothing crazy. The bottom of one of the rear seats was missing a plastic panel, brake was pretty mushy (but this seems like the norm for honda fits?), a bit of rust on some of the bolts under the engine, and a bit of liquid pooling on top of the engine splash cover (the plastic board under the engine bay). Nothing seemed to be dripping though. Need to look into these. If anyone has any idea about these things, it would be appreciated.

But what a POS dealer. They said I needed to put down a $500 deposit in order to have the car inspected by my mechanic. It would only be refundable if my mechanic found major safety issues. Well, this sucks, I sure as heck don't think I'll be putting down any money until I'm sure of the car's true condition.

Further more, they refused to budge more than $375 off of the sticker price. Argh.

 

well go see if they ever do the airbag recall. i would say thats a major safety issue. the car is not supposed to be sold if the recall was never done.

 

Holy moly! That is such a good idea! ryu, you're a genius. I knew about the recall, but I didn't think of it this way. It is definitely a major safety issue. Nationwide recall.

The car hasn't been fixed yet and in my area, parts are said to be in late summer.

The dealer didn't mention the recall (nor did I) so he has no idea that I know...hopefully, they don't bring it up if or when I go back over.

Hm, I'm going to have to think about this. This could be my ticket.

 

yes there was a post here that mentioned that dealers werent allowed to sell used Fits that the recall wasn't done yet. quite surprised that i got asked to trade in since they wouldn't be able to sell it anyway. but i'm sure alot of these dealers are ignoring this.

 

Surface rust on bolts in the engine compartment would not bother me in the least. That sounds typical. The liquid on the under-engine shield could just be rainwater that hasn't drained away, or it could possibly be something more nefarious.

Even if it's the going rate, $12.5K for a four year old Fit with 53K miles really doesn't sound like a very good deal to me when a brand new LX (with a CVT rather than a manual) is about $4000 more. Yes, the LX is the low end model, but (at least at a quick glance) it appears to me to be equipped roughly equivalently to an '12 Sport model, though it's hard to compare precisely.

 

Ah, ok. Thanks for confirming about the rusty bolts. Hopefully the liquid on the under engine shield was just water splashed up from the road. It did rain a few days before my test drive, so someone else might have probably test drove it or something.

Yea, I also don't feel that the car is worth the price that the dealer is asking. The problem is that used fits seem to be over priced in my region. It sucks.

Oh yea, for me too, I would compare the LX with the Sport. Hm, true, only around $4000 for a new one, but that's still quite a bit of money. That's a third more than the price of used. And I'm kinda poor, lol. Gonna need to think long and hard about this. Did not expect car buying to be this tedious...

Drew, does your fit also have slightly mushy brakes? That's been the only thing bothering me a bit. (that and the price)

 

I don't notice that the brakes are mushy, but I would not claim to be a connoisseur of performance cars or excellent brakes. They seem about like most small cars I've driven. Before the Fit I had a '96 and an '01 Geo or Chevy Prizm (which were Toyota Corollas with a different badge).

$4000 is indeed not pocket change. It just seems to me like the used car has depreciated faster than the cash price. I saw similar things when looking for my Fit, and I was fortunate enough to be able to afford a new one. If my budget were a bit more limited, I would probably have looked a lot harder at other used cars whose price depreciated more quickly.

 

. .

 

If its in good condition mechanically and interior and exterior. YES. Its a fun car. Any haggling would be a bonus.

 

This thread is from 2016...