so much for "NOW, within days, no really this time..."

[chhotii]

Hrm, wrong time of year to be like WANT NEW HONDA FIT NOW NOW GIMMIE. Just talked to Honda salesguy, who explained that Honda has stopped making the 2015's because the 2016's are coming out soon, but the 2016's aren't going to arrive for... Another month? Two? He didn't even know. Meanwhile the Fit inventory is dwindling. There is not a single new blue Fit with a manual transmission for sale anywhere in New England. (I don't know about CVT; I tried to explain that I would be willing to buy either a CVT or a stick, but once I confessed to being able to drive stick, the salesguy was really really fixated on telling me all about the lack of availability of the ones with manual transmission.)

Not a good time to get a deal. Scarcity drives up prices.

Oh well, I can be patient. Maybe I will see what the revived ABJ can do about a couple of the annoying problems, and look into replacing the mirror.

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Yup, bad time of year to buy new cars. I think the new cars come out in September. :(

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

While I was at the Subaru dealership getting an oil change for Ann's car, I overheard the sales critter apologizing about the limited availability of cars as they transition from 2015 to 2016 (the show room had fewer than normal cars on display). He said that when the boats start arriving with the 2016 cars, the first ones go to folks who pre-ordered the cars (inventory for dealers comes later).. So if they were to order the car now, with the features they want, they will go to the head of the line when the cars come off the boats I don't know if this is true, or if it was a desperate attempt to avoid losing a sale, or both, but sounded like useful advice for someone who knew what they wanted to order.

I don't know if this also applies to Hondas, but if you are definite that you want a Fit and you know what features you want and you're willing to be patient, it might be worth talking to a couple of dealers and see if you could get a good price on a 2016. If it's transition period, they're probably not making many sales, so they might be willing to negotiate.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I'd be surprised to find more than a handful of manual transmissions, in any color, at any time, anywhere in the USA. Yes they are fun, and often get better mileage, but after 25 years or so of driving them, I realized that for driving in traffic -- which of course is what you get in the Boston area -- an automatic or CVT was not going to trash my shoulders and hips the way driving a manual in traffic did.

Very few Americans want the manuals at any time in their driving lives. Which makes things interesting when they rent cars in Europe, where a manual is the default, and people look at you funny if you don't know how to drive one.

So maybe start over. "Looking for a blue 2015 Honda Fit with CVT."

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Oddly, looking at cars within 50 miles of 02139, there are 97 Fits with manual transmissions on dealer lots vs 105 with automatics. I knew the manual transmissions were reasonably popular with the Fit crowd, but I didn't think to that degree! (Of course, this is what's sitting unsold on lots at the end of the model year...)

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Well that's promising!

[frotz.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I went through this two summers ago to buy a Fit, and the "lack of inventory" routine was basically all lies. Some car dealership people lie like a really good carpet; very smooth and very pleasant. Still completely full of shit.

Happily, others were more than pleased to sell me a car.

Am I missing some critical criterion that messes up my search here? Looking at basically live inventory on edmunds.com, I see two Fits with manual transmissions in Aegean Blue Metallic paint in the close Boston metro area; VIN 3HGGK5G87FM742565 at Prime Honda of Boston and 3HGGK5G8XFM742575 at Herb Chambers of Westborough, and plenty more if one looks farther out. At least when I was shopping the Edmunds inventory search was dead-on accurate.

Prime is a lot nicer to deal with than Herb, imho. (Prime also does fixed pricing; it's all up front.)

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

I just looked at the inventory on Prime's website. They have, like, 18 EX's and 2 LX's. The LX's are in unattractive colors-- black and silver, maybe. Maybe you are seeing lots and lots of EX's? The blue one you found is an EX, so the MSRP is $18,220 rather than $16,315.

So, this is consistent with what the salescritter from Honda Village was telling me: the cheaper LX's have basically sold out, and people are now buying the EX's, because they can't find an LX. The difference between the LX and the EX, besides almost $2K in the MSRP, is a bunch of silly features that I don't need and don't even want. Push-button start? Really? What's wrong with turning the key? I'm having a hard time justifying to myself spending $2K extra for bells and whistles.

I think perhaps Honda did not realize that the people who buy Fits are as price sensitive as they are. They were thinking "market to the fun-loving crowd", rather than "market to the price-sensitive crowd". So they built too many of the ones with the expensive extra features that Fit buyers don't want to pay for. Maybe when the last 2015 LX is sold, and a bunch of EX's are still stuck on the lot, the dealers will have a 2015 EX desperation sale. And then I will have 16-inch alloy wheels and Honda LaneWatch™. Uh, joy?

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Oops, EX vs. LX, that was the spec I didn't have. Sorry!

You saw the blue 2016 LX manual in Poughkeepsie? Bernardi of Natick also has a blue 2015 with no transmission type listed, but it's an LX.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Huh, and Curry in Chicopee is showing a blue 2015 LX with a manual transmission that I could swear wasn't there yesterday. Maybe they got another batch in these parts?

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

So they built too many of the ones with the expensive extra features that Fit buyers don't want to pay for.

The question is not "Do they want to pay for it?" but "Will they pay for it?" If Fits sell well, Honda isn't going to make too many of the cheap ones.

Indeed, the fact that you aren't talking about a substitute from a different manufacturer suggests that Honda doesn't have to be too price-competitive.