I am about to buy one of these two used Fits tomorrow. Cost is a factor for me, but I'm not sure which of these is the better deal.

1.) 2008 Honda Fit Sport - $10990 with 65k miles, no maintenance records. Person could've skipped all oil changes for all I know.

2.) 2007 Honda Fit Sport - $8900 with 100k miles, PERFECT maintenance records. This car was owned by the wife of the dealer and serviced only at the Honda dealership where it received a tune-up and transmission flush at 30k and 75k, and regular oil changes every 3k miles.

Which one?

1). More expensive with lower miles and a mysterious background?

2). Less expensive with higher miles and a paper trail proving all maintenance.

Grrrr! Which one?

 

Drive both and then get the one with the known service history.

 

That's what I was thinking, too.

Also, I bet the car with 100k miles has depreciated as much as it's going to for a while, whereas the 65k car is going to drop in value significantly in 35k miles.

 

Can't beat a complete service history bro.

 

yeah i'd go with the higher miles, its a honda, got at LEAST another 100k left in it before anything really goes wrong, especially since it was dealer maintained..., and you dont have to worry about the timing belt :-) its got a timing chain good for like 250k....

 

What was the guys story who had no records? Did he claim to do them himself? If so (and you believe him) I'd go with the lower mileage one. The tranny flushes are not needed in my opinion (accord goes 100k before first drain/fill).

 

2nd one. its a no brainer.

 

jondotcom... neither car is from an independent, they are both from dealers. The dealer for the 2008 low mileage Honda told me has no records of the vehicle's maintenance or how it was treated. He did say he believes it was bought new from their Honda branch, but that's all he can tell me about its history. Other than that, he has no idea what the car's been through. The 2007 high mileage Fit has a stack of receipts and papers that go with it a mile high, tracing everything that has happened to the car since its birth.

I really appreciate everyone's input. I'm going to go for option 2. I thought about going for Option 1 for a moment, but have now decided against it. It's always freaky buying a car with 100k miles on it. I know it's a Honda, but it still feels weird to me. I guess a 100k miles on a Honda is the equivalent of 30k on a regular car, right? I sure hope so.

The 2008 Fit is red and the 2007 is blue. I kinda wanted red, but I suppose blue will do. I'd rather choose the most reliable/affordable car over the best color.

 

honestly, is $8900 the lowest? thats not out the door either right?

no joke, but i rather spend like $1000-$2000 more on a brand new Kia Forte. Yes its a Kia, but its brand new and high warranty. and you can bargain like hell for kia.

the reason i am saying this is not because the fit is a bad car, but you have a lot of options if you plan to put down $9000 on a car. Heck, you can even buy a new base 2009 honda fit...put $9000 down and your payments will be under $200 every month.

 

But then you'd have a boring Kia and not an exciting, personable FIT!

Yeah, it does seem like a lot of money. And no, that's not out the door. I'm going to be negotiating that with the dealer. I'll be asking them to take care of the tag, title, and license. However, if you look at the Kelly Blue Book value on a 2007 Honda Fit with 100k miles on it, KBB places the retail value right around $11,080 for an automatic.

So their price is pretty good.

And as for getting a new car, I cannot afford to put 9k down on my car. I have a bankruptcy on my record, too. Fortunately, my bank is cool and giving me a 6.5 percent rate. I'm putting 4k down on a 66 month loan (with no penalty for paying it off) which puts my payments well under $90 a month. And I've learned from experience what I can and can't afford. I need to keep my car payments under a $130 bucks, no matter what.

And besides that, I'm not very keen on buying brand new cars. They depreciate so, so much within the first 50k miles.

 

Today's 100k is yesterday's 50k. Negotiate you best deal and drive away with a smile. It sounds like you have learned from your history. Good luck.

A couple years ago we bought a Civic hatch with 164k on it. Drove like a dream. No one believed it had that many miles. We gave it to our son and his wife when we bought the Fit. It now has almost 200k and still runs like a much younger car. If they take care of it, they may see 300k. They are that good.

 

Yup. I'd go with the 100k car. A friend of mine has a Civic with 499,000 miles on it and they've never had to do anything to it other than routine maintenance. The owner's wife drove it 150 miles round trip to work six days a week for some time.

 

get the 100000 one its not that bad of a deal but get them to pay the tags and the rest if u can

 

I got the 100k car, out the door. They also threw in T,T,L AND agreed to paint the passenger's side door which had been scratched up by the previous user's dog. So now the car looks brand new, no scratches anywhere. It also drives like a new car, too. The engine sounds great.

With a little pushing and shoving, they let me keep all the maintenance paperwork performed on the car which was 8 pages of maintenance receipts and data. The lady that owned it previously used it as her delivery vehicle for her side business and almost all the 100k miles are highway miles. She got an oil change almost every month for a while! She had that thing serviced like clockwork.

I'm excited to be a new Fit owner. But, it's going to have to prove its worth to me before I'm a true believer. I'm coming from a Toyota Echo and I put 200k on that car without ever having to make a single repair. In fact, it's now with a friend and it still runs perfectly to this day. Transmission shifts smoothly and everything. It was one amazing car. It was ugly as shit, but it currently stands as the best car I've ever owned. Will the Fit take the crown? Guess we'll see!

 

I'm sure your love it Congrads

 

naw, i dont think the fit will out beat the echo in reliability...or it's too early to tell. the echo was A REALLY basis car...no paddle shifters, not as much electronic gizmos...etc.