I checked the Fit vs Scion xB thread hoping there would be some good information on it versus the xA as well, but there wasn't much there. While I'm not as excited about the styling of the xA as I am of the Fit, it seems like I could get the features I absolutely must have at about 2k cheaper than the Fit.

I think I'll test drive one just to see - but I'm still pretty certian the Fit's styling will win in the end. Curious as to your thoughts though.

 

i drove my sister's xA and i have to say, power / tranny wise it's about the same

the seats are sport bucket and they were what i was used to, not the mini-van like seats in the Fit

we can't get Scions here, but if we can, it would be a serious contender for my purchase

-joe

 

I looked at the xA and xB at the dealer where I test drove the Yaris. I have to say that there is something about the styling that never really appealed to me. The xA reminded me more of a mini-station wagon than the Fit, not as sporty. At the time I was set on buying a Yaris and had never even looked at the Fit.
When I found out the wait time for a Yaris packaged with my preferences, that's when I decided to test-drive a Fit. After I drove the Fit I no longer even wanted a Yaris, and didn't rethink the xA either. I admit I did not drive the xA, but looked it over closely and it really didn't appeal to me. The Fit grabbed me right away by the way it drove, looked on the outside, the spacious inside, and yes the "styling". The dash of the Fit looks like a much more expensive car. The Toyota had the same mushy handling and 'growly' motor that my former Tacoma had.
I also had the chance to compare my Fit to an xA side by side. A friend from church parked their brand new xA right next to me once. The Fit looked much nicer. I could tell that she was also impressed with it. Toyotas are well-made cars, but too practical and bland for my taste.

 

The xA is rated 4/4/4/4 in the NHTSA crash tests, VS the 5/5/5/3 for the Fit

A similarly equiped xA will cost you more out the door, actually.

Fit Sport AT: $16733
xA AT: $16774

This includes title/registration/destination fees for Oregon. For the xA I included side airbags ($650), Scion keyless ($499), fog lights (online purchase, $200), aftermarket cruise ($399 installed), 15" alloys ($665). This is as close as you can get to matching the equipment.

If you don't want all the extras above, the xA can come out cheaper, but it's not going to be a huge difference in your monthly payments one way or another.

On the Fit, I like having factory cruise, paddle shifters, a MUCH larger cargo area when all the seats are up (21.3 cu ft VS 11.7 cu ft for the xA).

I have a friend who got an xA, and it's a great little car... I just found that the Fit was the best overall package for me!

[edit] added a few details

 

Thanks Packy, that was extremely helpful!

I completely missed that cruise and keyless weren't included. Since they weren't listed as add ons I just assumed they were standard. (I thought the $499 security package was for an alarm - not keyless entry as well.) That was actually one of the biggest sellers for me for the sport trim instead of the base on the Fit along with fog lights. The upgraded stereo didn't hurt, either. ;) I didn't even consider the upgraded wheels on a Fit Sport either when comparing the two cars.

I guess I don't need that test drive now - the Fit is still the one! :D

 

When I started my car hunting, i was pretty well sold on the xa. A friend has one and loves, her boyfriend has the tc and also loves it. Being that there car knowledge far surpases mine I took there advice and researched. For me it came down to 2 things. I drove the Fit first because the first scion dealler did not have any auto transmisions. The Fit had me from go! I decided to treck to another scion dealer though because I did not want to make an impulse decision on my first new new car. The first thing about the xa that made me leary was the hatch storage with all seats up, I opened the hatch and was expecting more from what I had seen with the fit. Driving it was allright, though I don't like the speedometer in the center. I know I'd get used to it, but it didn't do it for me. Then it was all the options I was going to want. At the time (like i said my first time buying from a dealer), I was still considering either car, but wanted to think about it and come back maybe a week later. The dealers manager got a little annoyed that I wasn't going to buy right then and it became less about the car and more about just walking out.

All in all I'd say if you considering both, drive both, get a good feal for them and then decide. I saw my friend with the xa the other day and am still not convinced that it is the same style that I test drove. It looks so sweet. They are great cars and if the Fit did not exsist I'd have an xa right now.

-C-

 

Glad I could help! I created a huge spreadsheet when I started narrowing down which car to get since there were WAY too many variables for my little brain to remember.

The xB comes with keyless entry standard, but no alarm (it's $469), and the xA doesn't come with either. The upgrade for the xA is the alarm and keyless combined.

And considering the Auto xA is rated 31/38, and the Auto Fit is rated 31/37, they're pretty damn close.

Glad I made you stick with the Fit! Muhahahaha! :D

 

squidmonkey - I agree that the center speedometer is a huge negative. I honestly didn't look closely enough at the interior gallery on Scion's website to catch that. Glad you said something. Even driving a friend's Saturn Ion, where at least the gauges are angled toward the driver (thus not as bad as forward facing center gauges IMO) it's not something I think I could get used to. Plus, the gauges on the Fit are straight up Acura - I was suprised how nice they were when I finally got my test drive.

Thanks for posting your experience in choosing between the two!

Packy - I completely missed that you posted crash test ratings along with the rest of your first post. That's a huge consideration here in the midwest where pretty much everything on the road will be bigger than me.

The xB is hideous. I'm sorry if there are any fans here - but I just couldn't drive one.

And yes, your post FTW for making my decision easy! The Fit it is. :)

 

biggest difference right now between a Fit and an xA, is that you can actually order the exact xA you want (color, tranny, options), to every detail and have it in no more than three weeks (I ordered an xA yesterday* and it gets here next week). try that with a Fit, it is more like 3 months. If you need a car soon, then it is a no brainer. If both cars were available in all configurations, with the same availability, then the Fit wins, pretty solidly, but alas, that isn't the case.


*black, manual, side and curtain airbags, alarm + keyless, cruise, stock stereo includes aux input. $14,862 before reg and title vs. $15,720 for the Fit (assuming you can get a Fit for MSRP which most dealers will make very hard if not impossible now). As someone has pointed out though, my xA price doesn't include fog lights or fancy rims, but I don't really care about those things and with the scion, i was not forced into getting them. and the fit (no pun intended) and finish on the Fit is better, imho. it was a hard call for me, but after waiting for 7 weeks for my Fit and being told i would need to wait for 12 more, the xA was the obvious choice. maybe i'll trade it in for a Fit hybrid when the time comes.

one interesting thing in the comparison is that while the xA does have smaller cargo space, about half the Fit in just the boot, and about 80% of the Fit with seats down, the xA can actually take on 50 pounds more weight than the fit (850lbs vs 800lbs) which is very useful for someone like me, a publisher, who is always carting heavy books around—i can actually fit more into my xA than the Fit, even though it has less space.

 

oregonfit -

I was following (and posting in) your thread and I was so sorry to see that things didn't work out. I'm not in a hurry, and I'm actually not really in the position to buy right this minute, so depending on the answers I get from my local dealerships as far as wait times go, it's not really an issue for me. If I can put down a small deposit to hold the car I want, an 8-12 week wait would actually work in my favor as I could put more towards my down payment.

The manuals are extremely hard to come by, but I believe I'd be happy with the fit in white, orange, or black so long as it's a manual tranny. Since I'm indecisive by nature, I figure the demand for certian colors will actually help make my decision for me, and since I've never had a color choice in cars before, even getting to narrow down my choices is enough for me.

It sounds like the xA was a good choice for you though, and I absolutely hope you are satisfied with your purchase after all you've been through. Honestly, even if Packy hadn't posted what he/she did, and even if the xA turned out to be less expensive even with every single feature the Fit Sport comes with - the dealbreaker still would be and is the center mounted gauge cluster. I just can't get over that. It's the reason I didnt' consider buying a Saturn Ion, despite the fact that my current Saturn has been tremendously good to me.

I imagine it's something you'd get used to, but I just can't bring myself to even try. Haha. Then again, I have the luxury of time that you did not, even if that means driving the old gas guzzling "work" truck that usually only sees action if my father has to haul his own tools to a job or someone is moving for a couple of months. More expensive to drive, and it's a beast ('89 Ford F-150 that has no working air conditioner, and smells like the work truck it is) but since I don't have a car payment it's still less than I'll be paying once I buy a Fit, even with the awesome fuel economy.

 

the central mounted cluster takes about 10 minutes to get used to, i think you are just resistent to change :-0

-joe

 

But the XA is ugly!

 

I was hung between the xA/xB and the fit when I was purchasing my car. What sold me was what every review had said, yes they are both cheap cars with good mileage and some nice features. But the fit felt more solid, felt much more responsive on the road and to me the motor/tranny seemed a bit more responsive. One big factor that didn't effect me was this pricing issue i got my fit sport MT with no extras (now i need the cargo cover I never owned a hatch before and have learned) for 14700 plus tax and reg. Dont take a bad deal just to get in the car shop around for a honda dealer with the presidential award, they usualy don't price over MSRP.

 

I'm really not sure i believe you got your Fit Sport Manual for more than $1,000 UNDER MSRP. That's like $400 less than even the invoice price.

To everyone else, I agree the fit is a better car, hands down. but it's like a 97 to 100 score. Shellica, it sounds like you are indeed in a perfect situation to get a Fit in a few months, so that works out perfectly. We were too, two months ago, but when the dealer screwed up our order, that made it a five month wait, and it was just too long, my girlfriend is commuting to grad school, including the summer quarter, 55 miles each way several times a week, and we just couldn't have her do that in her beater chevy for another three months. Good luck and enjoy the Fit, I know i'll always be a little envious whenever I see a Black Sport, and if i race it and it wins, I'll know it is a manual, and then I really will be jealous :)

 

if i had the chance, the xA would be my next car

-joe

 

I'm the opposite of most the people who've posted on this thread. I think the xA and Fit are very comparable, but where I think the Fit loses is in its styling. I don't think the Fit looks more sporty. I think it is completely the other way around. Most angles of the Fit look very much like a miniature mini-van to me. IMO, that isn't sporty. The xA has its fenders flared out and tapers in more at the top. Not near as good as a Mini Cooper, but somewhat similar.

I think the Fit wins in interior styling and cargo area. I don't care that much about tall mode or refresh mode, but the Fit definitely has more space behind the rear seats, and thus better cargo room with or without the back seats down. That's a clear advantage.

They are both likely to be very reliable cars. They both have similar interior passenger volumes and fuel economy. I'm trying to decide between the two, and it is coming down to whether I'm willing to trade the looks of the xA for the improved interior look and cargo space of the Fit. The interior look isn't that big of a deal to me, but the cargo space would be nice. I just can't get over the styling though. If I were being practical, I'd get the Fit since this is supposed to be my daily driver.

The prices are very similar if you want an extremely well equipped car. If you want a well equipped (but not loaded) vehicle, all you need to add to the xA is the alarm/remote keyless entry, and it will be cheaper than the Fit. However, I want the leather steering wheel, aftermarket wheels, foglights, spoiler, cruise, etc., which drives the cost to where the Fit Sport is. The Fit Sport would still have side airbags (which I don't care about) and a better cruise control (the xA is actually an aftermarket unit even though available in Gulf States as a dealer option) but the xA would have nicer wheels and a nicer steering wheel (w/ stereo controls).

Someone in this thread mentioned reviews comparing the Fit and the xA. Do any of those actually exist? I've never seen a review comparing the Fit to the xA. I've seen the Fit compared to alot of new vehicles, but not the xA. I've seen older articles comparing the xA to other small cars, but the Fit wasn't out in the US then. I've seen nothing directly comparing them.

No matter which car someone gets though, they are very evenly matched and you can't go wrong either way.

 

kdepew

I have been compairing with my friend who ownes an XA and we both agree that both cars are a great deal. With me it really came down to the basic hatch space, the stock options (stereo input and fog lights), yes I know I could get them on the xa at a comparable price. I love the xa and if you go with that choice you will have an excellent machine. I came so close to it until the fit came out (really, drooling over it on a day to day until I found the fit with that extra 8" of storage). I went to Honda after going to Toyota to test drive. When I made my decission allot of it came down to the deallers. The first Toyota dealler didn't have an AT for me to test, so I went down to Honda on a whim to see if they had a Fit. They did and I drove it and fell in love, I was somewhat the fool to not buy it that day. The only thing holding me back was that it was a McGrath Honda and they refused my trade in ('96 ford Contour missing a driver side mirror thanks to a suicidle dear a week earlier).

So I drove down to annother Toyota dealler just to test drive, I didn't want to make a purchase without testing all cars I was interested in.

I was telling my xa owning friend the other night that I am convinced they had me test a crap model. The handling/pickup/feel of it was crap. I still can't believe it was really an xa.

(still waiting to swap cars with my friend to hopefully prove to me that I drove a crap version of the xa)

My point is that they are both good cars and which ever you choose you will enjoy. I made my choice based on certain personal requirements, I recomend everyone do the same.

I've had 3 hours sleep in the last 2.5 days, sorry if this got long and random. Goodnight/morning.

-C-

 

I've heard that the mechanics of the Scion are solid (Toyota), but the Korean-made body is tinny and rattles. I prefer the looks of the xA, but when one nearly sideswiped my Fit, I wondered if it has a blind spot, or if the driver was simply an idiot.

 

I had a POS Echo for about 18months - the center guages SUCKED the big one:mad:
The speedo should be only a degree or 2 (optium) from your direct forward line of site. Toyota is just being plain old cheap making their cars this way...
FOO :p

 

Where did you hear the Scion xA had a Korean-made body? Everything I've ever read indicates the car is completely made in Japan just like the Honda Fit. The car is 100% a Toyota and is sold as a Toyota elsewhere. They just decided to call it a Scion for the US market.

Also, someone almost side-swiping you in no way suggests their car has a blind spot. Car and Driver was very positive on the Fit, but they did suggest it has some rear visibility issues. Of the two, my experience was the xA had slightly better rear visibility than the Fit, but it wasn't enough to make a big difference either way.

As for the center gauges, I think Toyota did that because they thought it was better and unique. I don't think cost was the primary motivation. I don't think they can actually share many parts between right and left hand drive cars. It's not like the xA's gauges are exactly in the center and would be exactly the same if the car had the steering wheel on the opposite side. I do think Toyota made a mistake though. I think most people will get used to it quickly and many will prefer it to standard gauges. However, they have definitely lost sales because of the center gauges. Some people would never buy the car because of that. I doubt many people would buy the car just because it has center gauges.