Hi Fit owners!

I'd like your feedback. I'm considering two Fit Sports, equal cosmetically and in price.

2007 Fit with 35,000 miles or a 2009 Fit with Navi with 74,000 miles. What are your thoughts? Which one would you buy?

Thanks much.

 

navigation is about 2grand new, so it's about a $1000 increase in used prices.

74K isn't high miles (35K is silly low miles for a 2007).

For the same price the 09 sounds like a better deal, but many prefer the 08 and earlier models for esthetics/handling/after-market mods. If you're going to leave it stock, probably the 09 would be the way to go.

 

for me, i would not take either one and look for another.

74K is too high imho for a 09 (mine is less than 45k), and the GE's are better overall cars than GD's. this is from my experience owning both generations.

 

How much are you saving buying the 07/09 versus buying new? Having driven my parents' 2012 they bought from new many times, the GD (O7/8) just does not stack up.

 

I've got 65k on my '10, will be 75k easy by the time it's the same age A lot of the mileage is highway cruising. It gets driven often and is maintained well, only issues are cosmetic.

For being the same car the GD and GE are incredibly different, I would highly recommend driving both before deciding anything. It depends on what you want out of the car like some have said above.

Personally I would get the 35k GD if I was used car shopping and planned on keeping the car for a while.

 

Thank you for your feedback! Is one better equipped for my weekly mountain driving than the other? We're leaning toward the 07 because of the lower mileage. But the 09 has the Navi and leather seats. Both are priced below KBB.

Thanks again.

 

is the 07 a manual? if so, get that i guess between the two. you can get a nuvi nav for cheap (or use your smartphone)

 

i suppose if you bought the car new and you put the miles on the car, you know the history and so then it's better... carfax will only tell you part of the story.

a used car is taking a risk of buying someone else's problem... im not sure if i want to do that from a 75k mile car.
i personally would wait for another car.

 

^That is true, I guess i'd be more trusting of a car with one owner and 75k miles than one with multiple owners and the same mileage. I'm just saying 75k miles for a 4 1/2 or 5 year old car isn't that hard to do and isn't an excessive mileage for the MY @ 15k miles/year.

You don't count as normal because you have like 4 cars to drive

 

My 3 cents comes from my 2007 Fit Sport purchase last month. I was lucky enough to score a Fit from an owner, NOT A DEALER. He was the only owner and could tell me everything about the car. When I examined it in front of him, he answered all my questions, to include him never having swapped out the tranny fluid nor coolant in 94,000 miles. When you buy from a dealer, they have NO clue as to the vehicle's history, nor do they care. So first, buy from a private seller, not a dealer. I saved big bucks buying from someone who did not want to over inflate his selling price; nor did I have to pay any pathetic dealer markup fees. Since I don't know whether the two cars you have listed are being sold privately or at a dealer, I'll offer up my next comment. If the brand of car is reliable, then mileage means nothing. It is the age of the vehicle that will send it to its grave. In the case of the Honda Fit, it is bulletproof. As such, I couldn't care if the 2009 had 130,000 + miles on it. If the prices are equal, I'd definitely get the 2009. High miles on a relatively new car are a result of highway driving which is much easier on today's engines. Although I cannot speak to the technical differences between the GD and GE, common sense dictates that given that there has not been any fall off in reliability reported in Consumer Reports with the 2009-2013 models, I would go with the 2009 knowing that continuous innovations likely make the GE a better car than the GD.

 

take the vins form both to honda nad have them run a warranty repair check to see if both have had recalls fixed.


Who cares about mileage? There are already a few 2009s pushing 200k miles on this forum

My own 2013 that I bought in Dec 2012 has nearly 12k miles. It will be nearly 20k miles before winter.

I drag race my car on the track.. Yeah yeah, its slow, but it continually proves to be the fastest stock economy car at the drags, full of older civics, versas, aveos, etc..

Get it in manual if you get a 2009+

Mileage simply means you need to listen for valvetrain noise and ask if the valve lash has been adjusted every 30-50k miles. If not SKIP THAT FIT

 

valve adjustment isn't recommended before 100K unless it needs it. Delaying past the point of "needing it" won't damage anything, but will make it run sloppy. If it's really off it'll throw misfire codes.

Honda used to recommend every 30K but I think they figured out it wasn't needed and was turning people off (I'd get something with hydraulic lifters before another Honda if I felt that was required every two years).

Fits have noisy valve trains from the get go. Have a dealer do a PPI if you're not sure (or even if you are!).

Service 4 calls for plugs and valve clearance (somewhere north of 100k).

 

Haven't done my valves yet at 65k, they're not noisy (less noisy than some Fits i've seen in videos anyway) and no loss in performance or fuel economy. I will do it at 100k with the spark plugs and all that jazz as long as my car doesn't tell me otherwise.

 

everyone except you, apparently.

 

private sale is VERY case by case. it's still a hit or miss.

 

[QUOTE=Steve244;1183811]valve adjustment isn't recommended before 100K unless it needs it. Delaying past the point of "needing it" won't damage anything, but will make it run sloppy. If it's really off it'll throw misfire codes.


Fits have noisy valve trains from the get go. Have a dealer do a PPI if you're not sure (or even if you are!).
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Thanks very much Steve244. Very helpful post. I shall wait for a bit of "negative feedback" from my valves before forking over the money since I can't do any harm. Also, can you de-acronym PPI for me? (Post Participle Inflection?)
And if you want to hear noisy valves that you can't do anything about, check out the Corolla VVTi. My Pontiac Vibe is very noisy, and they burn oil, just like Corollas always do.

 

sorry: pre-purchase inspection. although post participle inflection works.

 

Not true. On all models of Fits the exhaust valve closes it's clearance more and more over time with some with virtually no clearance in the 50,000-75,000 mile range.

At that point, with no clearance, it's only a matter of time before one or all the exhaust valves will be burnt beyond repair. And that may cause head and seat damage.

Burnt valves are almost instantaneous and happen with no warning so any MIL codes you get will be too late the damage will have already been done.

It will be the ALREADY burnt valves making the misfire that causes the code.

It's soooo much cheaper to have the clearances done at 50,000 than running the risk of burning the valves and the resultant expensive damage.

 

I'd like to see a cite for that. Too little lash (i.e. from overzealous amateur adjusting) can cause damage. Too much will simply not open the valves long enough for ideal exhausting (or intake) at all engine speeds.

If there was a risk of damage through less than ideal valve adjustment, Honda would specify valve adjustment more frequently than service code 4 (about 100K). Of course their engineers could be wrong.

If solid valve stems were this big a problem, Honda would have gone to hydraulic lifters or gone out of business through required valve/head jobs at 75K.

 

Here's the link https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...ml#post1184194 Post 18


Very simple just read the posts on adjusting the valves in here and other Honda sites and you will see EVERY ONE of them posted the exhaust valves have NO or very little clearance. Including my own.

And LOL you mean the same Honda engineers that designed the coilpacks that fail at an alarming rate at 50,000 miles driven and don't even have a mileage for replacement listed..... THOSE engineers are the ones you are referring to?