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I bought a car tonight. The Honda salesman had called me last week to say that he now had a manual-transmission Fit for me to look at. It's their only one and he was holding it for me, so I went on the first possible night (Friday and Saturday being out and dealerships being closed by law on Sundays).
When I got there he said he had some "bad news"; they had sent a 2008 rather than the 2007 we had discussed, and was I willing to pay $60 extra for this? I said "get me the cable for the iPod and it's a deal". He said (after some looking) that they didn't have a cable; I said mailing one to me would be fine. He said I could probably get one at a store (though mentioned in passing that there are different sorts); I said we were talking about hassle factor here. He said ok, he'd send me a cable. Sometimes it's the little things. (He said the difference in trade-in value would be more than the $60 by itself; I said I hoped to drive the car into the ground. He said he was sorry to hear that. :-) )
As I suspected, the manual behaved better for me than the automatic I'd driven before. I attribute some of that to skill; I think there is skill involved in driving an automatic too, and if I ever acquired it I lost it by always driving manuals. I mean, I can make an automatic go; it's just that I don't have the nuance to get a smooth ride that never feels under-powered.
The Fit is not as powerful as the Golf, but I expect that given the difference in engines. The Fit is fine. Its visibility is rather better than the Golf's, and of course its gas mileage is significantly better. And let's not forget the reliability difference between Honda and VW. (Hmm, I'm going to need a new car icon now.)
The Fit is a very comfortable car to drive. In some small ways it is a step down from the Golf; for all its flaws VW does understand the user experience. On the Golf all controls are lighted; on the Fit the ones on the doors are not. On the Golf the inside light comes on when you stop the car; on the Fit not until you open the door. In the Golf I can reach into the bottom of the driver-side door bin from driving position; in the Fit it's a little deeper and I have to lean. (That's where I keep the sunglasses -- the only reason I care.) Stuff like that. Not enough to change my decision, but areas where Honda could improve things in ways that make people say "hey, nice design!" instead of "yeah sure, whatever".
From what I've seen so far, the Fit has good documentation, including a quick-reference card. This might sound frivilous, but for the number of times I had to dig out the full binder of VW doc to figure out what an idiot light meant, it's a good thing. Of course, I hope not to need that kind of reference for the Fit nearly so much.
The salesman was very easy to work with, and I complimented him on being straightforward and helpful. I have every expectation that he will take calls from me next week or next month or next year; that wasn't true at VW. Completing the transaction was easy and not nearly as tedious as with VW.
The car was not the originally-promised blue, but silver seems an acceptable color. (They call it "storm silver", which sounds ominous.) It's smaller than the Golf by about a foot in length and several inches in width, but it still seems to have lots of room inside. And that highly-configurable back seat could occasionally be a real win.
I doubled the car's mileage by driving home from Monroeville. Ah, two-digit numbers. :-)
When I got there he said he had some "bad news"; they had sent a 2008 rather than the 2007 we had discussed, and was I willing to pay $60 extra for this? I said "get me the cable for the iPod and it's a deal". He said (after some looking) that they didn't have a cable; I said mailing one to me would be fine. He said I could probably get one at a store (though mentioned in passing that there are different sorts); I said we were talking about hassle factor here. He said ok, he'd send me a cable. Sometimes it's the little things. (He said the difference in trade-in value would be more than the $60 by itself; I said I hoped to drive the car into the ground. He said he was sorry to hear that. :-) )
As I suspected, the manual behaved better for me than the automatic I'd driven before. I attribute some of that to skill; I think there is skill involved in driving an automatic too, and if I ever acquired it I lost it by always driving manuals. I mean, I can make an automatic go; it's just that I don't have the nuance to get a smooth ride that never feels under-powered.
The Fit is not as powerful as the Golf, but I expect that given the difference in engines. The Fit is fine. Its visibility is rather better than the Golf's, and of course its gas mileage is significantly better. And let's not forget the reliability difference between Honda and VW. (Hmm, I'm going to need a new car icon now.)
The Fit is a very comfortable car to drive. In some small ways it is a step down from the Golf; for all its flaws VW does understand the user experience. On the Golf all controls are lighted; on the Fit the ones on the doors are not. On the Golf the inside light comes on when you stop the car; on the Fit not until you open the door. In the Golf I can reach into the bottom of the driver-side door bin from driving position; in the Fit it's a little deeper and I have to lean. (That's where I keep the sunglasses -- the only reason I care.) Stuff like that. Not enough to change my decision, but areas where Honda could improve things in ways that make people say "hey, nice design!" instead of "yeah sure, whatever".
From what I've seen so far, the Fit has good documentation, including a quick-reference card. This might sound frivilous, but for the number of times I had to dig out the full binder of VW doc to figure out what an idiot light meant, it's a good thing. Of course, I hope not to need that kind of reference for the Fit nearly so much.
The salesman was very easy to work with, and I complimented him on being straightforward and helpful. I have every expectation that he will take calls from me next week or next month or next year; that wasn't true at VW. Completing the transaction was easy and not nearly as tedious as with VW.
The car was not the originally-promised blue, but silver seems an acceptable color. (They call it "storm silver", which sounds ominous.) It's smaller than the Golf by about a foot in length and several inches in width, but it still seems to have lots of room inside. And that highly-configurable back seat could occasionally be a real win.
I doubled the car's mileage by driving home from Monroeville. Ah, two-digit numbers. :-)