I was at the Toyota dealership checking out the Yaris for fun and at the same exact time, a girl was being congratulated on purchasing the xA. Granted, she was cute, but I would have said what I said anyway... When the salesman she was with ran off to get a final signature or whatever, I walked up to her and this is how the conversation went...

"Hey. Did you just buy the xA?"

"Yes, I love it."

"I would strongly urge you to check out the Honda Fit. It's similar in size and price to the xA, but it's twice the car, has twice the space, better handling, better interior---"

"Honda Fit? What's that?"

"Well, I just told you... you NEED to check it out. You haven't left with the car yet, so you can still get out of it."

(note: there's a Honda dealership literally, one block away)

At this point, the salesman has returned... but the girl is still confused...

"What's the Honda Fit look like? I've never heard of it. How much is it again?"

At this point, the salesperson puts his hand on her shoulder and motions her to the desk, away from me. Then he steps back up to me and says:

"What the hell are you doing? Do you know her? Get the f_ck out of here." Those were his exact words...

I was gonna make a scene and go ripshit, but I literally had to go right there and then.

Anyways, poor girl. She could have had a FIT.

 

If that girl were me I would have appreciated it if you would have physically drug me down the block and put me in a Fit.........maybe not in the moment, but I would have appreciated it later . She has made huge $16,000 mistake because she was uninformed.

 

Jesus,
I thought your job is to help people, why are you just walk away like that?. Also, I thought you were good swear at A$$holes. Shame on you.
I

 

This Jesus is evil.

Time to keep a bunch of pamphlets in your car, like some shmoe did in a Saturn commercial!

 

Eh, coulda been worse, she could've been paying sticker for a Caliber or something.

xA isn't a bad ride, but I'd still rather have a Fit.

I'd rather have a Matrix XRS over an xA though, but I think that's probably quite a bit more $$$.

 

you deserve everything the guy said to you, and then some.

if i had a customer with a fit, and someone like you come in and talk about the yaris to them, i'll kick you out of the dealership, too.

 

Freedom of speech????

 

That girl was almost me, back in January. I was on the Toyota lot, I had just test driven the xA, and they'd just given me the OTD price.

Thankfully, I said, "I'll think about it," since I didn't really want to get a Toyota (we're totally a Honda family, we've got a 92 Civic and an '04 CR-V). I didn't want a new Civic though either, because I don't really like the looks of it; I know, I'm like the only one...

Anyway, so I went home to research the xA some more, and through sheer dumb luck, I came across the Honda Fit.

YIPEE for me, otherwise I could've been motoring around in a tiny xA... but instead I've got my FIT!

 

As long as you're not bitter. Sorry, buddy. I didn't do anything wrong. Didn't break any laws. It was a PRIVATE conversation between myself and someone else. In fact, I'm sure that if I pursued this, I could get the guy fired. And if I had spoken to the manager, he would have apologized his ass off. I was just trying to help someone out. Take your anger elsewhere, dork.

 

Believe me, you're not the only one.

I'm guilty of steering people away from the Civics, and towards the Fit at the dealership - though not quite as (shall we say) succinctly as Mr. Jesus.

 

I actually love the look of the New Civic, but I am strictly a hatchback fiend... and man, it destroys me that the NA FIT has been ruined with NA spec bumpers. It really does kill the look of the car. The Yaris managed to do it nicely... the front is completely rounded and the rear bumpers protrude just a little. Too bad the shifter in the Yaris sucks and the interior is whack. But I love the look of the 5 door Yaris hatch that the lucky Canadians get.

 

I'm siding with the dealership on this one. For all they know, you could be a Honda salesman not working that day and soliciting customers at a competitor's lot.

 

"I would strongly urge you to check out the Honda Fit. It's similar in size and price to the xA, but it's twice the car, has twice the space, better handling, better interior---"
-------------------------------------------------------------

I think it is fine to suggest people also look at the Honda Fit as an alternative to the Scion xA, but your assertions are as ludicrous as what any dealer would tell a customer to try to sell one car over another. If you aren't going to be honest and unbiased, you really aren't providing a service to anyone.

Twice the car? How do you get that? Twice the space? Maybe twice the cargo area behind backseat, but otherwise, they are very similar in interior size. Better handling? Where does that come from? I haven't seen any good reviews comparing the handling. They both supposedly have good handling for an economy car. It would be great to do a back to back driving session, but have you done that? I agree the Honda Fit has a nicer interior.

I'm trying to decide between the Honda Fit and the Scion xA. The decision is not nearly as clear cut as you suggest. They are very similar, and I can't see how anyone would believe someone made a "mistake" in buying either one. They are just too close. Unless you have a strong bias towards Honda or Toyota/Scion, choosing between them is going to be tough.

In my opinion, the Pros and Cons of the Fit over the Scion xA are:
Pros:
- Honda Fit has a much nicer looking interior
- Honda Fit has more cargo space and more flexible interior space.
- Honda Fit has better controls for the cruise control (Scion xA is a dealer installed aftermarket version).

Cons:
- Scion xA exterior looks much better and more aggressive. It looks less like the econobox it is.
- Scion xA is slightly cheaper. If you really want the side-curtain airbags, the cost is probably the same. For me, I wouldn't pay extra for them.
- Scion xA has stereo controls on the steering wheel.

Both cars should be extremely reliable, get good gas mileage, have adequate acceleration, and handle well for an economy car.

Someone could purchase either one without making a mistake. I do think people should look at both if wanting to purchase a reliable, low-cost car. Be fair in your comparisons.

 

I'm in the same boat and was sold on the Fit until the test drive then decided I should probably compare the drive in the XA. Unfortunately I had some bad luck at the Toyota dealership and never got to drive it but I'm over it now and will get the Fit. Really the only turn off on the XA to me was the small cargo space. Otherwise I would already have it. Same as Annie, I was researching it when I happened upon the Biz Week article on new subcompacts.

The Toyota dealership I went to didn't seem to know much about the Fit anyway, but I agree with some other folks here Jesus, sounds like you basically started a conversation with this woman to tell her not to buy the XA at a Toyota dealership. I don't know what salesman wouldn't have kicked you out. And I don't think they owe you an apology.

 

stop kidding yourself. you did plenty of things wrong.

you are just an ass, promoting a direct competitor at their place of business. think before you speak.

you dont go to yankee stadium and talk up redsox nation. you dont go to christian church and preach buddaism. you dont go to toyota, tell toyota customer about to make a purchase to not buy and go to honda.

you didnt respect the toyota dealership place of business, dont expect them to respect you.

if you pull this at my dealership, i'll kick you out myself.

 

I am an ass, huh? I did it out of goodwill and nothing else. I'm not getting anything from Honda. I don't work for them. Hell, I was set on a FIT before I saw the ugly bumpers. Like I said, it was a PRIVATE CONVERSATION. Between her and I. He heard the words Honda and FIT and freaked out because he's on commission. Was I passing out FIT brochures? Was I passing out print outs of the Car & Driver comparo? Was I saying that Toyotas were terrible cars? Did I say that she absolutely had to buy the FIT? NO. According to your deeply flawed logic, it's absolutely verboten to mention competitors. Which means that if you're at a Sony Vaio store and mention a Dell to your friend, you should get kicked out. Or if you're at McDonald's and mention Biggie Fries, you should get kicked out. You're a genius, man. I know you're a salesman and are on commission, but get a grip. You kick someone out of a dealership because he's recommending another vehicle in a PRIVATE CONVERSATION and you can expect a lawsuit. Idiot. Oh, and knowing that your dealership hired gung ho rude salesman like you, I'd rather go to another dealership even if it's 75 miles away.

 

While I agree that making untrue (i.e. "twice the car) claims about the Fit does nothing but mislead yet another consumer, there is NOTHING wrong with informing a fellow car buyer of something truthful that he/she may not know, REGARDLESS of where one does it. That's not promoting, that's informing.

If the girl hadn't ever heard of the Fit, and I tell her about it in your dealership (hypothetically assuming for the moment that you sling 'yotas instead of Hondas), there is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with that. If I was about to make an uninformed decision, I'd be very pleased about someone saving me from it. I believe in caveat emptor, if someone makes bad decision, after the fact, they have to live with it, but that doesn't mean that I can't give them info BEFORE they make it.

However, if I start going off about how it has warp drive, makes toast, and can launch nuclear missiles with the stereo controls, then I'm the ass.


What dealership do you work at? My REIT may very well own the property you do business on


EDIT: This is directed towards "Jesus". He can throw you out of his dealership for anything he wants aside from something like racial or gender discrimination. He can throw you out for stepping on the cracks in the tiles if he wants to. It's called private enterprise, you can't sue him for that. Consequently, I still largely agree with your main point...but if he wanted to throw you out, he could throw you out.

 

To the person who likes the xA...

In my opinion, yes, the FIT is TWICE the car of the xA. The interior space, if not doubles, comes close to doubling the xA. The cargo area is definately twice the amount of room. And the magic seats enable the FIT to blow the interior space of the xA out of the water. Do I like the xA? Yes. Planned on getting that too. Until I rented it and found myself annoyed by the center guages. The FIT also has a super smooth shifter. The xA does not. Toyotas typically do not, for that matter. So yeah, for a couple hundred bucks more, I feel the FIT is twice the xA in terms of value.

 

you think you did it out of goodwill. i think you did it out of pure stupidity. you are not a knight in shining armor about to rescue a princess in distress. stop worrying about what other people buy. shut up and keep to yourself.

honda is not paying you? good. stop promoting for us at toyota dealerships. we dont need douchebags like you helping us.

and the toyota sales person is on commission. you are taking money out of his pocket on a deal he already closed. if he took you outside and beat you like a step child, you deserve it.

lastly, if you actually knew the girl, you can have your conversation with her, but you dont know her, you dont know anything. your opinion is worthless, so learn to shut up.

if you are at a sony viao store, go up to some guy you never seen before, tell him, dont buy sony, buy dell. you'll get kicked out of the store. simple as that.

 

EDIT: This is directed towards "Jesus". He can throw you out of his dealership for anything he wants aside from something like racial or gender discrimination. He can throw you out for stepping on the cracks in the tiles if he wants to. It's called private enterprise, you can't sue him for that. Consequently, I still largely agree with your main point...but if he wanted to throw you out, he could throw you out.[/quote]

He can ask me to leave if he's the manager. If he's a sales associate, he would have to call a manager over. And I guarantee you that the manager would have apologized his ass off.