My new baby - had her 2 days now...
#41
To be honest during the test drive, I wasn't impressed a whole lot, but I knew about the potential, and it's the only hatch Honda makes currently, so I got it anyway and I'm making it the way it should've came from the factory lol. Can't ever go wrong with Honda. This is my 4th and I'm sure I'll have a few more before I pass away someday lol. Honda for life, seriously If Honda was a woman, I'd be all set!!
#43
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Houston TX
Posts: 2,963
Thanks, hero. That was after i bought $30 worth of washing equipment and gave her a nice bath! And the engine compartment is still dirty, but I'm nervous to wash it out.
I love the car, and hubby is teasing me about my "new love." Well, I'm proud of her! It will be better once I get the windows done and a few other touches.
I wish I could meet some other local Fit owners - soon! I will beep at the ones I see, but I have no idea if any of them will know why!
I love the car, and hubby is teasing me about my "new love." Well, I'm proud of her! It will be better once I get the windows done and a few other touches.
I wish I could meet some other local Fit owners - soon! I will beep at the ones I see, but I have no idea if any of them will know why!
#45
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Houston TX
Posts: 2,963
Yeah, I'm 300% pleased!!! I get chills just looking at her sitting in the driveway, not even moving. Even if she looks like a micro mini van next to hubby's giant 4Runner! I love my car, as you can see by my sig! Thanks!
It was a very l-o-n-g process and one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever been through!!
#46
How was it frustrating? I'm a simple man, I called Honda and said "I want a 08 NHBP Fit Sport m/t" he said "we have a shipment coming at the end of May, I'll put it on hold for you". I came when he called, put down the deposit, had him remove the *** pinstripes, and drove away lol. Totally and completely stressfree
#47
How was it frustrating? I'm a simple man, I called Honda and said "I want a 08 NHBP Fit Sport m/t" he said "we have a shipment coming at the end of May, I'll put it on hold for you". I came when he called, put down the deposit, had him remove the *** pinstripes, and drove away lol. Totally and completely stressfree
When you're buying one in the last 2 months before a new version comes out, trust me, it's not that simple. I live in a one dealership town, and so far this summer, I've seen one Fit there -- a lovely black MT, but I don't do black and can't do MT...
So for some of us, it's a bit more stressful. I thought my experience was one of the worst, but I got started a bit earlier in the summer than Juliane, so I didn't have quite the frustration she had. We started looking in mid-June and by July 1st, I was in a panic, when I realized the inventory was just NIL, all over Texas, for the color we wanted and automatic transmission we required.
I'm glad for both of us that we got our cars, and I got really lucky on the price for mine, and we "only" had to drive 2 hours to get it from the only dealer within 250 miles who offered to go get it for us from yet another dealer!
It was stressful as hell, but due to their failure to prep on time and not removing that horrific striping before we showed up, the price dropped a lot when I hollered. We had already made a 4 figure deposit and my husband had signed the papers, it only needed my final sig and the rest of the cash.
But the 15 minute dealership visit took 3 hours instead, because they'd had it 2 days and did not bother to prep it all the while knowing we were on the way to get it on a certain date (4 july)
At least we didn't have to pay what they are all charging now, did not pay dealer markup, nor did we pay to have the car retreived for us. We paid almost all cash, only financed a bit, and ended up with 4.39 financing that dropped from 5.25 after their failures to get off their butts and have the car prepped on the right day.
Not everyone can just "call up Honda" and have it delivered to their feet, unfortunately. Our dealers acted as if they were doing us a favor by bothering to sell us one at all...
It was horrible. I still can't believe we got the car we wanted. I wish I had decided earlier to sell my 11 year old Civic and start looking for a Fit. We were torn between 08/09 till I saw the 2009s and read more about them. So, it was late June when I listed it on Ebay and sold it on the first day. However, I DID get almost half what I paid for the Civic in 1997, so the total experience wasn't all bad.
Getting that new Fit was a challenge, though. Like Juliane, we wanted a particular color -- VBP. Period. No offense to anyone, but I've had my one black car, had 4 silver ones and am sick of the color now, red's not my color, and white wasn't available. In this town, there's an Orange one every half block.
So when you want what you want, and it's late in the game -- it's not as easy as it is for some others...
Last edited by TexFit; 09-01-2008 at 10:22 PM.
#48
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Houston TX
Posts: 2,963
How was it frustrating? I'm a simple man, I called Honda and said "I want a 08 NHBP Fit Sport m/t" he said "we have a shipment coming at the end of May, I'll put it on hold for you". I came when he called, put down the deposit, had him remove the *** pinstripes, and drove away lol. Totally and completely stressfree
So this summer, I started ramping up again, thinking about what to do. School starts here on August the 18th, ideally I'd have a car by then. Gas prices shot up, and I wanted to get better gas mileage, and the Rav4's mileage is pretty bad - 19 mph city avg. By now, having considered the Rav4 for quite a while, I liked the idea of a hatchback, and looking through Consumer Reports, found the Fit, and was intrigued. This is already late June, mind you, but I thought I had all the time in the world. I test drove one in July, liked it a lot but still was going back and forth. Did I want a small car, or a larger one? Would Toyota be more reliable, or Honda? And how much money did I really want to spend? I found I could not justify spending 25K in case our older Camry blew up and we need to buy another used car for son to drive to college. I tried a Matrix and a Corolla, and neither of those were right either. I finally decided that the Fit...fit my needs and my requirements, was inexpensive, made well, and FUN to boot.
Called my sales guy and tried to get a VBP - at this point I had only seen the BBP color on a cloudy day and thought it was just navy blue (HA!) - AT Sport. He couldn't get one. Called several other dealers, and they didn't have that car on the lot either. (I have a few side stories here about crappy dealers, but another time.) Everyone told me that the '09s were coming out and whatever cars they had, they weren't going to be getting any more, since the production had already stopped. EEEEEEEK! I looked at the photos of the 2009 model and disliked it immediately. I knew it was either '08 or another car completely. Add to the stress a little...
I started calling/going on websites/calling some more. Every time I thought I had found a car, I'd call the dealer directly and they'd tell me it had been sold the previous day or a few days before. You see, the websites aren't updated that often, so it was like chasing phantoms. I started calling in Houston, then widened out to San Antonio, Austin, Victoria, Louisiana, and went on over to Georgia, Alabama, Missisippi...I know a lot of sales guys all over the South! Several freakers, including TexFit, tried to help me locate a car, to no avail. I did find this BBP up in St. Louis, but it had 1000 miles on it, and I'd have to ship it down here or go pick it up, and I chickened out of the deal because I'd never bought a car sight unseen.
I had almost given up on finding any Fits and then a freaker found one being sold here in Houston - VBP with 6K miles on it. I called the guy and was going over to his house that evening but we stopped to test-drive the Rav4 again, and someone beat me to it. And, after the test-drive, I knew for sure I didn't want the Rav - it's cheap inside and doesn't feel like a quality car, let alone fun.
On a whim, I went back to the St. Louis dealer's website to see if the Fit was still there. It was almost a week later, so I didn't have great hopes. On the main website, there was no Fit shown. Then I tried another website - the photos were still up, as if the car was still for sale. I called. Yes, they still had it. I put down another deposit immediately, and never looked back. The lady who bought it initially decided it was too small for her after one month and traded it for a Mazda 5. The first 500 miles were put on when it was driven down from another dealer in Illinois. So it's got 1000 miles but only 500 were put on by an owner.
I considered going up to get it, but it would have been a lot more trouble and would have added nearly another 1,000 miles to the odometer. It took 2 days to get down here and it had no temp tags on it, so I had to fork out another $25 for paper plates, but I am so happy to have it.
Sorry you asked???
Last edited by Juliane; 09-03-2008 at 09:05 AM. Reason: edited for clarity of thought!
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