the old and the new

[heman]

well here are some shots of the old,

http://i44.tinypic.com/fntiwz.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/25jxevd.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/15qx5ag.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/ofzrc6.jpg
and here is my new 2010 Honda fit sport

http://i40.tinypic.com/vcrzx5.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/wloy0y.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2u4iwcn.jpg

let me know what u think of both of them

[VillageIdiot]

I Like them both.

[claymore]

What made you decided to switch from ford and go with the Fit?

[heman]

i wanted something more reliable and a little biger (on the inside) the ford had 138000miles on it and i put about 30,000-40,000 miles on my car each year so i wanted something that was going to last, i was looking at a base model imprezza but i felt like this was abetter value.

[VillageIdiot]

When the Focus first came out I really liked the looks and the station wagon made me wish I hadn't been tied to loan on a new GMC Safari Van.... My wife always makes negative comments about the tail light placement yet I find it to be practical and attractive I have a cousin that is 7' tall that has been driving small fwd Fords they first started selling here.... I can't remember if the first was the Festiva or Fiesta but the dealer he bought it at took a picture of him and his car and put it in their newspaper ads.

[macbuddy]

well here are some shots of the old,

let me know what u think of both of them

Henan,
I was kinda hoping you were going to tell us what you thought of both of them.
Back in 2006, one of my friends suggested that I get the SVT Focus when I was in market for a new car. Although I am extremely happy with my GD3, I have been wondering about the virtues of the Ford Focus ever since.

[EXWRX]

I have a friend with a first year focus. He was at the last Bay Area Fit meet, and he has over 180k miles on it. It has needed some maintenance, and has a fair amount of rattles, etc, but is running pretty well for its age.

[heman]

Henan,
I was kinda hoping you were going to tell us what you thought of both of them.
Back in 2006, one of my friends suggested that I get the SVT Focus when I was in market for a new car. Although I am extremely happy with my GD3, I have been wondering about the virtues of the Ford Focus ever since.

i can do that, i just dont have time right now to write it all out maybe later tongiht i can..

[VillageIdiot]

I'll be tuning in also.

[heman]

my home comp. got a virus last night, once i get that taken care of i will post it up. cant realy do it here at work

[heman]

Henan,
I was kinda hoping you were going to tell us what you thought of both of them.
Back in 2006, one of my friends suggested that I get the SVT Focus when I was in market for a new car. Although I am extremely happy with my GD3, I have been wondering about the virtues of the Ford Focus ever since.

the focus was a great little car i had alot of fun with and learned alot about cars and modding cars while i owned it. as far as build quility the motor is strong, they were designed in england and the trans is from getrag(BMW)(on SVT's) and the susp. was designed and tunned in germany but it was all put together in mexico and then sold as an American car. so the build quality is lacking but put it through its pases on the Auto cross track or a back road and its very rewarding. directly comparing my focus to the fit, the focus was faster and handled better, but was lacking in build quality and was starting to rack up the bills in little repairs and it was just a matter of time untill the big repairs came, timing belt ($900) clutch(1200) altinator(250-300)
gas milage was also not as good as the fit 24-33 i got high 30's a few times and 40 in one tank but there was a tail wind and effort put into it.
i am very happy with the fit so far yes it is slower and yes it doesnt understreers alittle early but the build quality is awsome and the over all feel of the car is much more solid then the focus. i am hoping as i wish to keep this car for a long time that it will be cheaper to tend to when it gets higher in millage, also the inside of the fit is unbeatable, i shoped around for about 3-4 months and the fit was the best opption for me hands down, just cant beat it fot the money.

[VillageIdiot]

It sounds to me like the Focus was a very good and fun to drive car.... I still wish that I hadn't been too financially strapped to have gotten one back when I wanted to.... I liked the looks of the early station wagon and thought it would be a nice to slick out a bit.... Whenever I saw the 2 doors like yours when they came out I would remark to my wife how much I liked the looks of them and she would always say she didn't like the tail lights..... The after market has been responsive to the Fit and guys like Claymore, Manxman, Macbuddy and many others have been providing ideas and opinions about how to make the Fit more enjoyable. It's good that they do this because a Honda is going to last a person a long, long time.

[heman]

yea i was looking into mods for the fit but they are to much $$$, i got my ford racing svt suspesion kit set up (springs, struts front and back, bushings and front and rear sway bars for 300 bucks from ford) but the honda after market is alittle to pricy for me right now, probaly just going to do tint, wheels and swap out the sport model headlights for base model head lights to get rid of the chrome. are there any other cheap mods out there that are worth doing???

[VillageIdiot]

There are a lot of kids into Fits and they will spend money on anything with a Made In Japan tag on it... Things have changed from when I was a kid.. If I walked in the house with something I'd gotten at a five and dime store that was Japanese made I caught hell for buying junk..... These idiots that worship Spoon oil caps, Mugen shift knobs and other over priced eye candy are keeping the prices up by their obsession..... A lot of good stuff goes unnoticed and the pricey stuff is sold off second hand when they find something that cost more and has to be better because of the higher price so you will find some good stuff along the way when they tire of it.

[heman]

agreed things have changed alot, when i was 16 i would not have been caught dead driving a honda, and my jeep was considerd good quality.

[claymore]

Yep my Jazz has been a great car. I became hooked on the looks (don't ask me why because I still don't know what attracted me) but the room inside is impressive everybody that has ever been in the back seat always says WOW it's very comfortable back here. And even in stock form it keeps up with traffic very nicely indeed.

The best part is the quality with all the threads here and other forums it's hard to find many faults beyond the steering controller issue and that looks not to be a problem on the GEs.

[VillageIdiot]

I was in the 8th grade before I ever saw a Japanese made car when a used car lot not far from where I lived started selling Datsun.... By the time I was 16 a friend had a Datsun 1600 "Fair Lady" roadster with a sideways mounted rear set for one person.... It was a far better car in many ways than the MGB that they were compared to.... I drove an Austin Healey at that time.

[VillageIdiot]

Yep my Jazz has been a great car. I became hooked on the looks (don't ask me why because I still don't know what attracted me) but the room inside is impressive everybody that has ever been in the back seat always says WOW it's very comfortable back here. And even in stock form it keeps up with traffic very nicely indeed.

The best part is the quality with all the threads here and other forums it's hard to find many faults beyond the steering controller issue and that looks not to be a problem on the GEs.
I think you are the only person that has posted anything about the power steering problem... How bad is it and what model years have had problems....If the Fits were equipped with smaller cross section tires it wouldn't need power steering.

[claymore]

It's with the "computer" that runs the power steering. The ones I remember seem to start acting up about 50,000 miles. Mostly on the older GDs. If you look on the freaky site there are several threads about the problem. Haven't seen any complaints on the Thai boards or in Australia so maybe it's a USDM only problem.

[VillageIdiot]

At the rate I am going I have 2 more years of driving before I should start to worry. I got my car in July 2006. I guess it is one of the old ones.

[manxman]

The failed Power Steering Module problem is pretty heavily covered on fitfreak, and while I had my GD, the fact that it might come into play with my car really bugged me. I certainly hope that it is never a problem with the GE's. I suppose that for most people, the car is light enough so that even if the power goes out, you could still muscle the car into the right direction at moderate speed. Don't know though, and I hope that I don't find out.

[VillageIdiot]

It is things like power accessories going out that has me often reflecting back on simpler times when we did fine rolling down windows and signaling turns with hand signals and turning knobs to find a radio station. I nearly crapped when I looked under the hood of an 82 Honda Accord that my former father in law bought to pull behind his motor home when I saw the power steering pump under the hood.... The car was given to my wife when they got a lake house and sold the the motor home and my mother in law wouldn't drive the Honda and opted for a new Mercedes.... The Honda was horribly boring and uncomfortable with crappy interior we had replaced by a local upholsterer and except for brake problems and constantly needing new tires from my ex's insane driving style, it was also unbelievably trouble free until my son took down a telephone pole with it shortly after trashing a MGB and very trick Rabbit convertible. The obsession with crash survival opposed to being a skillful driver that avoids accidents, luxury items entertainment systems and cell phones is the reason that people are isolated from the driving experience and little cars like the Fit need power assisted brakes and steering due to the added weight of all of the unnecessary crap that has nothing to do with driving. I have no doubt that I can steer my car with out the power steering but working against the pump does require more effort that it would if there was no power brake system and about 400 or 500lbs were shed by eliminating what isn't needed to drive....It would be nice if there was a way to order a car that was equipped without legislated safety items and unnecessary stuff you are stuck with due to having to buy the all or slightly less than all package..... There are just too many things that add weight and require repair that aren't needed.... Village Idiot is grumpy man this morning.

[manxman]

It is all of the unnecessary crap that keeps the dealers profitable enough to stay in business. Once the new car is sold, there is no more profit. All of the fancy shit just sets up and endless loop of breakage and necessary repair. The hours for a given procedure listed in shop rate manuals usually winds up being about three times the length that is actually necessary for a skilled DIY-er.

I am convinced that all car manufacturers employ a staff of engineers whose purpose is to complicate the original simple and straight forward design of operating systems so as to frustrate the average DIY backyard "mechanic". Metric fasteners are perfectly fine with me, but why the hell use a metric nut on a bolt with a SAE sized hex head? Why undersize the wires in the headlight switch circuit so that they overload and short out? Why not own up to the fact that the electric power steering module in the GD's now have a high rate of failure and replace all of them with a recall?

If the steering fails on some first-time teenaged drivers, very bad things are going to happen. Look at the CHP officer (a professional driver considering their training) who killed himself and family when his floor mat trapped the gas pedal, and he didn't (apparently) even think to turn off the ignition in his Toyota vehicle. Kids aren't going to even try to steer a Fit by brute force because they have never driven any car made without power steering.

I do have to say that among the unnecessary, profit generating stuff, I do like power windows and locks. It's great not having to reach across the car to push the lock button down, or wind up the window on the pass. side. After breaking my left leg twice, I am a fan of automatic transmissions with five speeds and "flappy paddles" as they call them on the "Top Gear" TV show.

[heman]

I am a fan of automatic transmissions with five speeds and "flappy paddles" as they call them on the "Top Gear" TV show.


i love Top gear, one of the few car shows that is ok with saying something in complete crap.