Another day, another recall, but this time my car is not involved...yet. It was announced last week that Honda is recalling 2007-2011 Honda Fits for the front passenger airbag inflator. This recall seems to be based on the age of the vehicle, and it's just a matter of time until the 2012 is recalled as well--my assumption--I have no actual inside knowledge of the future situation.
Further, I'm thinking that loaners will not be available for the front passenger airbag fix as one can operate the car without anybody in the passenger seat.
I'll be keeping my open for recall notice for the 2012, and for now I'm happy that I don't have to deal with this latest setback.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Day 58: Outside In
Having had my Fit back for the day, and driving around and parking in bright sunshine gave me a chance to assess what the past two months have been like for the car. What I can immediately tell is that the dirty pollenated outside parking got into the cars nooks and crannies. There are places I know were very clean when the car left me that are now caked with schmutz. I'll get into the cracks this weekend to clean them up. This car has lived in a garage for past 4 years, and was washed/waxed regularly so at least the buildup of polleny grime will come off easily. To their credit, the dealership did clean all the obvious outsides well, and even vacuumed the all season mats in the car--not so much under the mats, but that dirt wasn't their making.
Curiously, there was one small chip of safety glass in cargo area making me wonder whether there was a broken glass incident unreported by the dealer. The documents in the glove compartment were shuffled as well, but there really wasn't anything left in the car fit to steal. After thinking about for a while I'm guessing maybe a box or cooler that I previously loaded in the car from the street picked up the rogue piece of glass.
So far the car is right back to what I remember. Really nice handling and fun acceleration in the high revs. Just a really well made little car, especially coming from the poor imitation, the Nissan Versa Note, that we've been driving for the past month.
Happy to have the Fit home. I just hope the passenger side airbag doesn't need the same repair, as has happened in Accords.
Update: I clay-barred the Fit's roof, hood and fenders. It turned out to be relatively easy to do on such a small car, now those areas are buttery smooth after re-applying a coat of wax.
Curiously, there was one small chip of safety glass in cargo area making me wonder whether there was a broken glass incident unreported by the dealer. The documents in the glove compartment were shuffled as well, but there really wasn't anything left in the car fit to steal. After thinking about for a while I'm guessing maybe a box or cooler that I previously loaded in the car from the street picked up the rogue piece of glass.
So far the car is right back to what I remember. Really nice handling and fun acceleration in the high revs. Just a really well made little car, especially coming from the poor imitation, the Nissan Versa Note, that we've been driving for the past month.
Happy to have the Fit home. I just hope the passenger side airbag doesn't need the same repair, as has happened in Accords.
Update: I clay-barred the Fit's roof, hood and fenders. It turned out to be relatively easy to do on such a small car, now those areas are buttery smooth after re-applying a coat of wax.
Monday, May 2, 2016
Day 57: Fin
Lynnwood Honda just called to let me know that they got an airbag inflator in, and installed it in my Fit. I'm leaving now to go pick up the car. Hopefully it didn't suffer too badly sitting around for the last two months. Oh boy, I'm very excited to get my Fit back.
Hooray!
Hooray!
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Day 56: Act Accordingly
A friend of mine with a 1991 Accord with more miles that she's comfortable with and more to-do items on the car's repairs list that she wants to spend is looking for newer Accord. I shouldn't be shocked but late model Accords and Civics are really expensive. I knew when I bought the Fit that we were spending less than Accords, and depending on trim level and options, less than Civics. What I wasn't prepared for today was the retained value of those Accords and Civics. The frustrating thing for her is that the only 'affordable' Accord for her is a 2003--considerably newer with better safety options than her '91, but in terms of maintenance costs, it will probably get spendy pretty quickly. I was thinking she'd be able to afford an '09 Accord or Camry, but there's no way. They is just too high a premium on these cars if they've been reasonably taken care of and have minimal mileage. This really contrasts with the complete lack of love for the recent model off lease Nissan Leafs I've been seeing on the market (and been tempted by). 2012 Leafs with low mileage off lease are going for well under $9,000, and then your fuel costs are a fraction of an ICE, and maintenance costs are similarly low, as long as you don't need a new battery. The gorilla in the room is the 75 or so mile range on these cars--a problem somewhat mitigated if one has the quick charge port. But they will never be able to take intercity trips. We definitely are spoiled being able to fill a tank of gas in minutes, practically anywhere, anytime. If I needed a 2nd car, I wouldn't hesitate in getting one of these Leafs, but as a primary car, I just couldn't do it. I do have an idealist friend whose primary (only) car is a Leaf. He rents a car if he needs to go out of town, and ultimately is many dollars ahead.
More and more Fits are getting fixed. I'm expecting mine to be done any day now. My 30 day rental window is coming up again. I don't think I have to swap the car--last time it was just a verbal renewal over the phone. Here's hoping the rental will be over before May 4 when the agreement comes up.
More and more Fits are getting fixed. I'm expecting mine to be done any day now. My 30 day rental window is coming up again. I don't think I have to swap the car--last time it was just a verbal renewal over the phone. Here's hoping the rental will be over before May 4 when the agreement comes up.
Day 55: Still Waiting
There were at least a dozen reports from FitFreak,net yesterday and today of either notice to bring Fits into the Honda dealer repair shop for the airbag inflator repair, or the actual repair getting done. The repairs appear to be happening all over the country--not just in high humidity zones. More likely it looks like it is based on who has Honda-provided loaner or rental vehicles. This all leads me to believe that it will be a very short amount of time until I get my Fit back as well. I did contact the dealer yesterday about this and was told that they have no record of an imminent fix for my car, but I don't think they really know what is happening on the corporate distribution side. I could be wrong, but Honda hasn't shown itself to be that highly coordinated EXCEPT in the face of social media pressure. Remember, they (probably) had my Honda Airbag twitter account disabled within hours of it starting up, and they actually responded to this blog by the 8th day it was up. A miraculous event considering I still don't see it when doing google searches for Honda Airbag. Maybe Honda's search-monkeys have special powers of intuition that just tell when there is a dissatisfied Honda customer out there on the internet. Now, actually satisfying the dissatisfied customers unreasonable demands--that's a different story.
I want a pony.
I heard there would be punch and pie.
I want my Fit back.
One of these things will happen soon.
I want a pony.
I heard there would be punch and pie.
I want my Fit back.
One of these things will happen soon.
Friday, April 29, 2016
Day 54: Beginning of the End
My test drives of the Ford C-Max Energi and Mercedes B-Class showed me how far we've come with the engineering of small efficient cars, their differences and compromises, and how far we need to go. First to the C-Max.
The C-Max Energi feels great getting into it. The seats are at a reasonable height and the doorframes are tall--no danger of clanging my head on entry. Inside is well appointed with touch points covered in soft stuff. I'm not a fan of Ford's Sync system, but like anything, I'd probably get used to it. I don't think using the touch based screen would be easy at all, but steering wheel plus voice controls seem to be well deployed. Rear passengers have plenty of room with supportive seats and a nice amount of legroom and ability to see out of the car. Driving the car is very pleasant (for an automatic). On battery power, it is very quick off the line and torquey. Corner is flat and confident and road noise seemed minimal. Overall the car is only 174" so a foot longer than my Fit, but not overly large by any means. The only downside to the C-Max Energi is the compromised cargo area that is intruded on extraordinarily by the battery pack yielding only a 19.2 cubic foot capacity. The load floor is raised about a foot over where it would normally be without the battery. Interestingly, with the rear seats folded, there is a flat load floor, but again, it's high up making for limited cargo capacity of 42 cubic feet--a deal killer for me. I looked at the C-Max Hybrid (but didn't drive it) and it's load floor is about 8 inches lower than the Energi making it much more usable. Claimed electric range is about 19 miles, then it gets about 37 MPG after that.
The Mercedes B-Class electric is so close to perfect, but misses in a huge way. By placing the battery at the bottom of the car, everything about the car seems normal. Good entry and egress. Good cargo area with a low load floor and plenty of space, good handling and ride and quietness. Great touch points. The not so good is that Mercedes seems to overcomplicate everything they get their hands on, and the B-Class is no exception. There is a high center mounted video screen for info, back up cam (if equipped) and GPS that sticks up out of the dashboard in a really unfinished way. I get you don't want your dash to go that high, but neither should you just keep piling stuff on. The B-Class is powered by Tesla, but they left the Tesla acceleration at the factory. The compromise here is the size of the battery only gives a claimed range of 85 miles. The used 2014 model I was looking at had an asking price of $25K--too rich for my blood
The big news of the day is first report of a Honda dealer having parts for the inflator fix. According to posts on FitFreak.net, dealers in Connecticut and New Hampshire have parts and will be fixing this posters' Fits today. Huzzah. The parts coming in have the VIN# of the car to be repaired, so it's definitely a coordinated effort.
The C-Max Energi feels great getting into it. The seats are at a reasonable height and the doorframes are tall--no danger of clanging my head on entry. Inside is well appointed with touch points covered in soft stuff. I'm not a fan of Ford's Sync system, but like anything, I'd probably get used to it. I don't think using the touch based screen would be easy at all, but steering wheel plus voice controls seem to be well deployed. Rear passengers have plenty of room with supportive seats and a nice amount of legroom and ability to see out of the car. Driving the car is very pleasant (for an automatic). On battery power, it is very quick off the line and torquey. Corner is flat and confident and road noise seemed minimal. Overall the car is only 174" so a foot longer than my Fit, but not overly large by any means. The only downside to the C-Max Energi is the compromised cargo area that is intruded on extraordinarily by the battery pack yielding only a 19.2 cubic foot capacity. The load floor is raised about a foot over where it would normally be without the battery. Interestingly, with the rear seats folded, there is a flat load floor, but again, it's high up making for limited cargo capacity of 42 cubic feet--a deal killer for me. I looked at the C-Max Hybrid (but didn't drive it) and it's load floor is about 8 inches lower than the Energi making it much more usable. Claimed electric range is about 19 miles, then it gets about 37 MPG after that.
The Mercedes B-Class electric is so close to perfect, but misses in a huge way. By placing the battery at the bottom of the car, everything about the car seems normal. Good entry and egress. Good cargo area with a low load floor and plenty of space, good handling and ride and quietness. Great touch points. The not so good is that Mercedes seems to overcomplicate everything they get their hands on, and the B-Class is no exception. There is a high center mounted video screen for info, back up cam (if equipped) and GPS that sticks up out of the dashboard in a really unfinished way. I get you don't want your dash to go that high, but neither should you just keep piling stuff on. The B-Class is powered by Tesla, but they left the Tesla acceleration at the factory. The compromise here is the size of the battery only gives a claimed range of 85 miles. The used 2014 model I was looking at had an asking price of $25K--too rich for my blood
The big news of the day is first report of a Honda dealer having parts for the inflator fix. According to posts on FitFreak.net, dealers in Connecticut and New Hampshire have parts and will be fixing this posters' Fits today. Huzzah. The parts coming in have the VIN# of the car to be repaired, so it's definitely a coordinated effort.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Day 53: Beating a Dead Horse
Today's email included a very nice note (okay, it was a spammy blast) from Lynnwood Honda offering up to 120% of blue book value for my used car.
So naturally I clicked thru to see if they would be increasing their low $11,000 offer for my Fit up to $13,200 (which I still think is too low to actually get a deal done, but it's progress). What did I find with the click thru?
This lovely sign up sheet. So I filled out the sign up sheet and got the very professional looking result:
More runaround from Lynnwood Honda. Thanks for the easy to use tools--NOT! I will call them in the morning and see if they really do want to improve their offer, but I'm thinking not, since the sales manager hasn't gotten back to me about improving the original offer.
Tomorrow I'll get into my test drives of the Ford C-Max Energi and Mercedes B-Class Electric.
I miss my Fit.
UPDATE: Apparently my request went thru. A rep from Lynnwood Honda just called and offered me $10,200 for the car. For those of you keeping score, that is less than the $11,000 offered last week, and, as mentioned by the buyer, I wouldn't benefit from the reduction in sales tax if I didn't do a trade in and buy in the same transaction. Same net result however--these offers are way off the mark if they really want to get me out of my car and get themselves out from under my rentacar.
This lovely sign up sheet. So I filled out the sign up sheet and got the very professional looking result:
More runaround from Lynnwood Honda. Thanks for the easy to use tools--NOT! I will call them in the morning and see if they really do want to improve their offer, but I'm thinking not, since the sales manager hasn't gotten back to me about improving the original offer.
Tomorrow I'll get into my test drives of the Ford C-Max Energi and Mercedes B-Class Electric.
I miss my Fit.
UPDATE: Apparently my request went thru. A rep from Lynnwood Honda just called and offered me $10,200 for the car. For those of you keeping score, that is less than the $11,000 offered last week, and, as mentioned by the buyer, I wouldn't benefit from the reduction in sales tax if I didn't do a trade in and buy in the same transaction. Same net result however--these offers are way off the mark if they really want to get me out of my car and get themselves out from under my rentacar.
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