Reflections On Our FIT - The Decision

I haven’t said much about our new car, and would like to talk more about it, not only because we love that darn vehicle, but also because, like all things in our lives, buying it was quite an adventure. As my Mentor astutely predicted, the process was going to be a painfully thorough one, with no stones unturned.

The first step was making a choice, which as anyone who knows us is aware of, is the hardest and most time consuming process. We sort of wrestled with this one, because we had some choices. On the one hand, there was my approach, which was the cheap and quick approach. We even had an option sitting in our driveway, my Mentor’s Ford. This approach, however, may work when you’re buying a screwdriver or pair of socks, but once you get into big ticket items, the adage, “You get what you pay for” becomes increasingly relevant.

R took the more pragmatic approach, which was to get something newer and more reliable. The drawback to this approach was that more money meant greater angst and consequently, greater delay. Three to four years worth, in fact. We had been in need of a second car for years, but the cost was always a significant obstacle.

Looking at new cars was daunting, to say the least. Again, we had to make a choice. There was no question that we were going to avoid SUVs, though a truck would have come in handy. Trucks, like SUVs and even what are called crossovers, are expensive. You could probably get a Ford F150 for a good price, and it is in fact the best selling car in America, but it is also consistently rated the worst in reliability year after year. I find it amazing that even though it constantly breaks down, people continue to buy it. Up here you see one in every driveway. Then again, they are real-man trucks, not a sissy import.

We had decided on something economical: a hatchback with a 4 cylinder manual transmission, just because we like the Euro-thing and prefer stick-shifts. We did not need 4-wheel drive or all wheel drive, which seems to be the new standard. I can appreciate how it would come in handy, but we’ve lived up here for 6 years and never had all wheel drive, except, of course, when we borrowed my Mentor’s vehicles. Personally I think having all-wheel drive sets you up for more maintenance down the road, more things to break down. So, our options were narrowed down to basically 5 cars. The Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris, the Hyundai Accent, the Mazda 3, and the Ford Fiesta.

The Accent was by far the cheapest, and came with a great warranty, though it was only a two-door. The Mazda 3 was nice looking, and we like our Protege. Mazda’s also tend to be more performance oriented, and fun to drive, but more expensive. The Fiesta is a nice looking car, but relatively new to the scene. Ford definitely got it right on design, but again, I think they have a long road to travel in order establish their credibility on the reliability front. In a way, they sort of took advantage of the car-buying public by selling a mediocre product to a loyal clientele. Instead of reliability, they focused on gadgets, power and/or luxury, stuff that I’m not interested in. In all fairness, they simply catered to what people wanted, and what most people seem to want has nothing to do with reliability. I’ve been told they have made many improvements, but again, time will tell.

The choice really boiled down to a Toyota or a Honda, both comparable in price. Now after doing exhaustive research, certain important points came to light. First off, cars are expensive. We were looking at the bottom line in terms of price, which to me still wasn’t cheap, and yet, I was under the impression that these cars were not that in demand. People were in the market for cars that were significantly more expensive. I think the best-selling car is the Camry, which will set you back about $25,000.

Maybe after spending my entire youth behind the wheel stuck in traffic in LA, I’ve come to view a car as simply a way to get around, and want to minimize my time behind the wheel and don’t want to enhance my driving experience, nor do I want any bells and whistles. R agrees, and we both feel the most important thing, bar none, is reliability. Clearly, I’ve become like my parents.

Which brings me to my second and third points. When you research cars, most of the high profile rankings don’t rate reliability. They tend to focus on performance or luxury, especially when you look at the big magazines like Car and Driver. If you base your decision on what they have to say, you’ll have fun in the short term, but could end up paying the price down the road.

The final point is that when you actually do find some reliability figures, hands down, without exception, the two cars that consistently dominate the top ten lists are Hondas and Toyotas. In fact, Hondas were famous for reliability when I was a kid, and they’ve stayed true to that up until now. Somehow Toyota has managed to steal the spotlight, while Honda keeps quietly cranking out quality cars.

We also turned to the Car Talk guys, who put out all sorts of information about the issues that matter to us. In a stroke of good fortune, while we were shopping around, they happened to publish an article in the Globe about the top ten cars to buy in terms of, you guessed it, reliability. Of the top ten, I think 5 were Hondas, 3 were Toyotas, with one Chevrolet and one Subaru, which actually surprised me. These were the cars that Click and Clack said were the most reliable and had the fewest problems.

Say no more. Our decision was going to boil down to a Honda Fit or a Toyota Yaris. We were looking for a manual transmission (not easy to find) in a four-door hatchback. We were happy for forsake power windows, power locks, and even keyless entry. The only thing we would have liked was air-conditioning, which is standard on all makes and models, so this was not an issue.

Now we were ready to the next phase of this process, shopping around and finding the model we wanted at what seemed like a reasonably price. If you’ve ever dealt with car salespeople, this is a painful process, and the most unpleasant aspect of car shopping, but a necessary one.

I don’t do well in these situations, but sometimes you do what you have to do.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.