My RSX-S is worth basically what I bought it for. 53K miles, per recent sales could be worth $20K.
Lightweight, manual, no screen, hatch, decent luxury, 8600rpm redline, etc.
It is a surprisingly versatile little car. My ego doesn't want to get caught dead in it, but the amount of crap I can fit in there and still get awesome gas mileage makes up for all of that.
To the point where even if I went out and got a small truck, the gains for my use case are minimal. So it has delayed me going out and getting something new.
That said, I really wish that the OG ranger was still a thing. People seem to hold onto those the same way that they hold onto Fits though.
And they are by far the best offering in that segment if you're looking for a subcompact hatchback past the 2015 model year. People are willing to pay the extra money to not own a Versa or base Fiesta.
While that's true, for ~18k you can certainly get a ton of very nice larger cars if you want them. There's for sure a market for these small subcompacts, I still see a ton of them on the road despite basically no manufacturers still making them.
The Fit, Yaris, and Versa are all dead now, kinda wild given how many of em sold over time.
This article is complete nonsense. This is a very low mileage example of a car that is no longer available new and has a cult following. Of course it will command a premium. The connection the article is trying to make is based on very faulty reasoning and a bad example.
Man, I'm coming to realize almost nobody on right now recognizes pretty obvious sarcasm.
So the whole "if X then explain Y" joke has been around forever, right? Like If i said "if there's no god, explain who gave us taco bell" we'd all know that was a joke, yes?
IDK for some reason 2/3 of this sub read the headline with the exact same obvious joke structure and is acting like they've never seen that before. I'm kinda baffled by the amount of people reading this as if it's a dead serious statement.
I wrote that take, and it is sound. I stand by it:
[https://www.theautopian.com/if-your-car-has-a-timing-belt-its-not-really-reliable/](https://www.theautopian.com/if-your-car-has-a-timing-belt-its-not-really-reliable/)
Consumables on a vehicle that are to be replaced at a certain interval doesn't make something unreliable.
Also, have you ever had to replace a timing chain before?
Yes I have. I've replaced timing chains and timing belts. Both suckkkkk.
The beauty of a well-designed timing chain is that it should never require replacement. And in that context, a timing belt engine falls flat.
Calling a timing belt a consumable is kinda my whole point. What if an engine popped its head gasket every 7 years but the manufacturer had that in its maintenance schedule? Would you tell me it's reliable because the head gasket is a consumable? I'd say no; that's a major engine service that shouldn't be necessary.
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My s2000 CR was bought new for like 34k and now sell for like 100k. It means that small two seater with naturally aspirated engines are all that the American buyer wants right?
Definitely not that there are some outliers in the market.
Not to mention that no one ever said that "nobody" wants small cars. There just isn't the critical mass of people who want a small car to make it sufficiently profitable for every brand to have one anymore.
It’s remarkable how low auto journalism has fallen recently. The article could’ve just been about the car selling at auction rather than the endless drivel trying to extrapolate a point that it doesn’t even remotely prove.
What you're missing is what I said above, it's a lighthearted article talking about a single car that sold for an interesting price, and making a few broad jabs at the lack of these cars being offered today. And you're taking it super seriously and getting upset.
Not everything put in print is a hard hitting piece of journalism, it's just not that serious lol.
This isn’t “lighthearted,” it’s just nonsensical. The answer to the headline is “because it’s a low mileage collector’s item that is no longer manufactured,” not whatever the author tried to link it to.
Am I wrong? “Oh, it’s just lighthearted,” isn’t a defense of dishonest journalism.
On the contrary, if someone makes their title a common joke that's used all across the internet, and you get super upset at it because you took it seriously, then yes you are wrong lol.
Good luck out there.
> It’s wishful thinking, but maybe elevated values of late-model subcompact cars combined with the recent decimation of U.S. emissions teeth could result in some automakers giving subcompacts another try. Probably not, but there does seem to be a market for truly affordable new cars. Why else would people be willing to pay so much for decade-old entry-level Hondas?
This is the point the author is trying to prove. Now you tell me, is the reasoning sound? Or is trying to extrapolate data from a collectors’ item to the general public bad reasoning?
Look man, this whole thing has whooshed over your head so hard. You're obviously mad and looking to fight, I'm not really interested in that. I tried explaining the thing to you, you rejected that and are insisting on being mad, have at it lol.
Nice sidestep, because you know the reasoning in the article is flawed so you can’t answer the question without contradicting yourself. I guess we’ll leave it at that.
I already explained things, you decided to ignore that because you want to fight. IDK what to tell you man, but I'm just not interested in a fight only you care about here, it's a satirical headline, at this point I think you're just mad that someone had to point the joke out and you're taking that out by trying to fight lol.
I'm not defending anything dude, I was just replying to you in good faith to explain that you missed a joke. You gotta chill man, you're so eager to fight over whatever you can.
I hope your day gets better.
Yes, it's really shocking how many people in this sub have absolutely no media literacy, the whole "if X then explain Y" joke structure is literally all over the place. IDK what to tell you guys, other than maybe don't take your frustrations for missing an obvious joke out on the dude who posted it lol.
Have a good one.
Because the headline is misleading. The article isn’t saying an average American will pay practically MSRP for an 11 year old car — it’s clearly collectors paying a stupid premium for a mint model.
It’s like taking the subset of people who collect tradings cards saying “Americans want more Pokémon cards”, it’s a complete misrepresentation
> Because the headline is misleading. The article isn’t saying an average American will pay practically MSRP for an 11 year old car — it’s clearly collectors paying a stupid premium for a mint model.
It’s not though-- did you read it? The buyer was a guy who bought it for his daughter to be her first car. And the article also cites some other sales of Fits with more normal mileage for not a whole not less.
They are only dead because of the light truck exception. Automobile manufacturers manipulated public opinion to sell us larger cars that they could make more money off of by skirting regulations.
CUVs are gainly popularity across the globe though. People tend to like the taller greenhouse and its easier to get in and out of them. They deal with messed up roads better too with more ground clearance.
The article is journalistic malpractice, they cherry-picked data to make the point they wanted to. In other words, this is propaganda.
I just pulled up every Honda Fit for sale in my area. All models in the 20-teens were between $8500-1100. With inflation that puts that at between $5000-6500 in 2015 dollars. If they sold new here for $6100-7600, then the article would be correct.
If there was demand there would also be more than 30 total for sale right now.
> If there was demand there would also be more than 30 total for sale right now.
How do you figure? If there’s demand and limited supply, that implies people would cling to them as long and as hard as possible. Meanwhile go check how many, say, post-GM Saabs are available for sale at any given time. They’re low supply, yet there seems to be more for sale than were sold new, because no one wants them!
No, but I'm apparently the only one on reddit who recognizes clear satire when I see it. I guess I'm meeting all the people that the "/S" thing was created for lol.
I was selling a small subcompact a while back, and literally 100% of the interest came from parents wanting a first car for their kid. It's a big but very price sensitive market.
Every time I've bought a new car in the past 20ish years, I've been looking for a small base model car. Every time I had to hunt to find a base model. The last time, I wanted a small EV, but those largely don't exist, and the models that dis were impossible to find. I ended up going for an equinox because it was the cheapest one after credits. It took 3 months to find a base model. If the slate truck actually hits 25k, I'm going to argue we get one
Yeah and those extra points do matter a lot to people on a budget. The point is that you usually pay less monthly for a car loan for a new car at a dealer. Because when people don’t have money, they have to think about the monthly costs, not the overall cost of the loan.
It’s people that can afford to save money and pay cash or a larger down payment that end up buying used cars.
And new car buyers don't? Customisation aside, you can't seriously think the buyer groups for a new car vs a used one with 3k miles aren't close to the same.
I think the need for a loan (or not) also plays a factor. If you’ve never bought a car in cash, you don’t know true haggling. It’s a big difference when you’re asked to give $500 of your hard-earned money for some bullshit like nitrogen filled tires. Imagine paying for that on your current car. Nobody would go for it. It is only because loans feel ephemeral that dealers are able to tack such things on. But, of course, you end up paying that and interest in the long-run.
...unless you're buying an electric car. I've been shopping for a 1-2 year old Hyundai Ioniq5. Despite depreciating like crazy Hyundai is offering $10k incentives making 2026 models cheaper than used 2024s right now.
Nice. It's a solid choice. Iccu aside there shouldn't be many issues. They seemed to be the most common taxi while I was in Busan.
I'm not sure how Tesla is handling the free fall but Lucid used a combo of referral bonus and flat discount end of year. But also had a super low apr for loans. Maybe to clear inventory in general.
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Retail used car prices are usually on a lag because used car managers don't want to lose $12k+ selling a car they just took on trade.
The price will eventually catch up as other used car managers at the auction refuse to buy for more than the actual transaction price of new cars.
Outside of one or two cars I've almost always bought used, because at every new car price point there's also a slightly nicer lightly used car one can get.
Wanna buy a brand new civic? Why not a lightly used mazda 3 hatch turbo? Wanna get a brand new accord? Why not a lightly used 3 series? You can sorta play that game at a ton of price points.
On the flip side, I know people with pretty low incomes that insist on buying new because they don't know what they're getting with a used car.
Really the only truth is any blanket rule like that isn't gonna work, life is full of exceptions.
But value shoppers wouldn’t and those are the people who gravitate to cars like a Honda Fit. Obviously not all used car buyers are value shoppers, but all value shoppers exclusively buy used.
I think if you polled Jazz owners (and similar vehicles) you'd get a good portion of people who think similarly. A lot of long time owners who have eaten all the depreciation but also had the car for 15+ years, and a lot of people buying them used with the intent of treating them like a much larger car (i.e. hauling big things).
I also think you'd get a lot of THEY DON'T MAKE EM LIKE THEY USED TO NO MORE sentiment, which in this case is kinda correct.
The Autopian (which I cofounded) has the highest standards in all of car journalism, and this headline did not meet them, which is why we've changed it. We appreciate your feedback.
Because the Honda fit has a cult following of previous owners that inflate the price above the typical market depreciation. That doesn't mean there's a general demand for small cars. Why is this concept so hard for enthusiast to understand?
I do think there's demand for small cars, the sales of subcompacts when they did exist would generally evidence that. CAFE standards oddly enough are what killed them, easier to achieve with compact SUVs since there's a relative ceiling to fuel mileage.
The compact cars that sold and even compact sedans on the market today get absolutely eclipsed by the compact SUV sales. It's to the point where every single manufacturer has either left the segment or strongly deprioritized it.
Sorry to burst your bubble here. If there was a market like the enthusiast say, there would inevitably be at least one manufacturer to stay in the segment for shear lack of competition alone. Why fight to be the 8th best selling CUV when they could rack up easy money competing with no one? In reality, there's just not enough buyers to even justify that.
Ford sold hundreds of thousands of Fusions when they discontinued them. They didn't get out because of low sales, they got out because they make more profit on SUVs.
Exactly right. Every damn automaker was going "up market." And the only reason why they haven't been punished yet is because almost nobody is reaching for the bottom.
Toyota still is. They sold about a million Corollas (980,000) last year globally. They still are accessible to the bottom and the market is rewarding them.
I think if Honda had the production capacity, they could sell the Fit and sell a hell of a lot of them in this economy simply because it would be easy for dealers to push out the door. But they don't want cannibalize sales from the HRV which has a much higher profit margin.
It's corporate greed. And they're getting away with it because there isn't enough competition.
You’re conveniently leaving out the fact that the Fusion’s sales declined year over year until its discontinuation as the consumer market shifted away from sedans.
2014: 306,860
2015: 300,170
2016: 265,840
2017: 209,623
2018: 173,600
2019: 166,045
2020: 110,665
no shit, because companies stopped investing in anything but SUVs. literally majority of Sedans on sale and ones that were discontinued were OLD AS SHIT platforms.
I agree that auto journalist and blog journalist in general tend to be the bottom of the barrel for quality or rational takes. But still maintain enthusiast are the one's lapping this up and constantly bitching about "big cars" or manufacturers otherwise not catering to them specifically.
The Fit is such a fantastic little car with so much cargo space. I fill up gas every two weeks cause I work close to home now. Never getting rid of this car.
I don't even need the track. Pedal to the metal at every green light. Squeal the tires around every roundabout. Never need to break the speed limit.
Thankfully I got my second Gen. Got my sister one. My parents got one. My uncle bought three. Buddy bought a third gen. Brother-in-law about a third gen. Cousin got a third gen.
Nobody's had anything break except maybe an alternator or that stupid plastic shield underneath the engine.
What a stupid article. Of course if you take an edge case with ridiculously low miles and put it at public auction, there's some guy out there who will pay a lot. Trying to claim this says anything about broader cultural trends is completely meaningless
ok in fairness that one even w/ inflation would probably still sell lol p sure new they sold like every one they imported immediately no? gm just didn't really care for the margins & they did it only for au tax reasons
> they were HEAVILY discounting the SS
There are 2 distinct parties involved here. GM corporate, and GM dealers. GM dealers discounted it, not GM themselves. GM made their money when it was sold to the dealer.
No to mention that the entire Commodore import endeavour ended up just being a costly obligation to the Australian govt by then.
Ah, didn't know that. Must have been to keep the dealers happy then for forcing cars that weren't selling on them.
But in general what I said is how it works. Corporate sells car to dealer (usually on a loan), after X amount of time corporate comes knocking for payments, so the longer the car sits the worse the financial hit on it will be for the dealer and eventually it eats into any profit on it at all.
Can't comment on the US but demand in Australia had mostly stabilised at 25-30k a year throughout the VF run, after falling off a cliff the previous decade. Some of that is the last call factor but there was clearly demand for ~20k GM made RWD sedans per year in a much smaller market, an increasing proportion of which were V8s.
Difficult to say, because Ford sold it [with an interior that looked like this in 2016, on a 60k AUD car](https://editorial.pxcrush.net/carsales/general/editorial/Ford-Falcon-Sprint-XR8-008-xpwg.jpg?width=1024&height=682)
My friend had a pretty hard time selling his manual E53, a lot of people were turned off by it being a manual until an enthusiast appeared a month later and flew in to buy it with delight.
If I was to sell my manual truck, I know most buyers wouldn't want it.
But it's definitely an "enthusiast" truck, and the right buyer will pay MORE for it over an auto version. (It has other aspects that make it a bit more attractive to the right buyer)
I got my SUV for chump change because the seller was tired of people showing up and saying “oh it’s a manual” and walking away… I came back the next day with a cashier’s check after test driving it.
Considering I’m coming up on 200k miles, pretty good! My O2 sensors and Catalytic Converter both went out recently, but I wasn’t too surprised on that, this is about the mileage my last car needed the cat replaced too. I definitely need to replace the struts soon just due to age and the abuse they’ve taken at the ranch, but the engine is still solid, knock on wood. Apparently the BETA II engine in these was probably their most reliable engine, so we’ll see how high I can get the mileage. Even if I end up buying something new, this will stick around for ranch work probably.
That also happens.
I got my daily driver for cheap for the same reason as well. That car is just a shitty, every day econobox and is base base base model.
But, if I were to sell my truck, I would make sure the fact it's a manual is a highlighted feature because the people that want the manual WANT it.
I wouldn't have bought my truck if it was an auto.
It's a long box, access cab offroad tacoma. With the manual, it's "rare," and not even available outside of Canada.
It won't be a family with kids looking at it, it will be another enthusiast that wants the attributes of the package it has. So, I'd have to wait it out to find the buyer, but there will also be someone looking and waiting for that exact truck.
So, it's vehicle dependent for sure, and the way the seller advertises it also has an effect.
he didn't put on an auction site?
they don't go for crazy crazy money, nowhere near as much as the cayennes, but they don't depreciate tooo much either, they were like 5-10k cars 5yrs ago & r still about in that range little more
which is still like, 5-8k more than kbb
He probably should have, but he was impatient. It was a really strange spec too… silver over black, heated seats, no sunroof, manual climate controls, but it had leather. I enjoyed driving it while I was doing all the maintenance and repairs it needed prior to selling.
damn, bit of a shame, manual climate is real odd
I had a chance to drive one too, good fun, was far more peppy than I was expecting, I don't recall the stick feeling fantastic though, would rather have a decent auto
Same thing w/ VW products where its like I'd mourn the loss of the manual gti & sportwagon & whatever wayyyy more if it was a goooood manual but its just okay, I cant really fault anyone for wanting a dsg or zf8 over it, pair that w/ emissions and its not much of a fight
I remember this being the case when they were new. My folks looked into the x5 with a stick and the salesman said they wouldn’t stock them because of how long they would sit
Americans don't want them that's why they stopped making them. Every time I see people online circle jerk the fit it reminds me of my roommate who bought one new back in 2012ish it was a total piece of shit, everyone called it the wii fit and after 7ish years it sat on the street not working.
> they stopped making them
Technically they just stopped selling them in the US. The Fit/Jazz carries on in the new generation in other world markets just fine.
CAFE standards mostly killed subcompacts, they were actually selling quite well for what they were. Honda sold 32k fits in it's last year (2020), and 35k the year before. That's hardly "people don't want this car" volume.
>they were actually selling quite well for what they were
32k is not a good sales figure. That doesn't even crack the top 25 sold cars sold in the US by a long shot.
The Civic is probably the closest to a good-selling compact with about 238k sold last year, but even that's down quite a bit from what it was 10 years ago.
CAFE just allowed large trucks/SUV to be made that otherwise wouldn't have been possible with better-planned CAFE rules. It didn't change preference. The compacts were still sold and the numbers just weren't sustainable given the small margins involved.
The real reason compacts stopped selling is pretty easy: oil prices cratered in 2015. Buying a new compact doesn't make sense with low gas prices when you can get a larger used car.
blame CAFE, which was almost certainly lobbied for by US auto companies because the only thing they know how to make is big bulky tank vehicles they charge a kidney for .
>pulling inflation into the mix gives this thing an MSRP of $26,320 in today’s money
So it would be approximately the price of a top trim Corolla hybrid and cheaper than a top trim Elantra hybrid.
The constant "there are no cheap small cars" is getting annoying.
Adjusting for inflation is just a data point, not an argument destroyer.
Cars could be a lot cheaper if people weren't soft anymore and could crank a window down, turn a key, or shift a transmission. So many of the cheapest options available are chock full of luxury features that the public decided are mandatory.
A power window regulator costs like $20 more than a manual one. Multiply that by 4, add the switches and you’re still sitting at less than $100.
Fact is, none of those convenience features significantly affects the cost of manufacturing a car.
I'm glad the article mentioned inflation.
Hypothetically if you bought a car in 2016 for $20,000 and sold it today for that same $20,000..... it technically depreciated by $10,000 because $20,000 is worth about 1/3 less due to inflation. This is often the missing piece when people claim that their car held it's value.
$20,000 in 2016 is worth (approximately) $30,000 now. So the vehicle is worth 2/3 of what it would have been had it held it’s value relative to inflation. It lost 1/3 of its value relative to inflation.
It would have earnt interest.
Or you could have bought a non depreciating asset (eg land) and sold it again later
Also there's nothing sudden about something that happens over ten years
Fair enough, I was thinking of standard checking and not high yield accounts.
And no argument to your second point, but it really depends on cash flow. I could see someone do that if they had enough money moving around.
you're getting hounded on by personal finance bros and they're correct in what they're trying to explain but i understand the framing you're using and i get what you're saying. Loss of purchasing power doesn't feel the same as the number in your bank account going down, thats an understandable emotional response even though the math behind how inflation works is still true.
But if you had $30k in the bank, and without interest, that same amount of money would only be able to buy you stuff that would have cost $20k years ago.
I used to buy a ramen package a lot. It was like $4. I would buy like 2 for $8. But now it’s $8 and I can only buy one for $8.
Inflation sucks and Covid sucked.
If the dollar has lost 1/3 of its real value in 10 years (2016 to 2026), that means $1 in 2016 = $1 / (1.0 - 1/3) = $1.50 in 2026.
Thus $20k in 2016 has the same real value as $20k / (1.0 - 1/3) = $30k in 2026.
Thus paying $20k in 2016 and selling it for $20k in 2026 leaves ($30k - $20k = ) $10k of value in 2026 dollars.
Gotta make sure you're dividing and multiplying in the correct direction, easy one to get the algebra wrong on, and then your 7th grade math teacher will come by and verbally rap your knuckles with a ruler.
I don't think it makes sense to use today's dollar value as the frame of reference for a purchase made in the past. If I had $100 dollars in a safe that I expect to lose 30% of it's value due to inflation over the next 10 years, I would say I expect to lose $30 of value, not $50.
I totally understand that, and OP's comment confused me as well at first. But it's just a different way of representing the same number. $30 of value lost in 2016 is about $45 of value lost today in 2026 (if the dollar has lost 1/3 its value). But saying "buy for $20k, sell for $20k, lose $10k" is kind of headscratching without either OP being clear what they meant, or me writing the math out to check if OP is crazy ;)
The confusion I think also stems from mixing nominal dollars (2016--$20k) with inflation adjusted dollars (2026--$10k).
If OP had instead said "you lost no money at first glance but inflation-adjusted you paid $30k for that car, and you sold it for $20k today, so you lost $10k of today's dollars" it would have made more sense as well, I think.
Yup, I bought my truck in 2015 and during 2020-21 i could have sold it for more then I paid, and its still worth about what I paid. It's not specific to a Honda Fit.
No it has not technically ‘depreciated’ if you get the same nominal value when you sell as when you bought the car.
The real buying power of the 20k is simply less than it was in 2016.
Well akshually...
Depreciation is a decrease in value. So yes, the car did depreciate. The dollar is worth less today than 10 years ago. The car is worth about the same number of dollars, so the car is worth less today and therefore it has depreciated.
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Yep it hasn’t depreciated the $20k is just less money but still technically the car did not depreciate at all.
As a side note I noticed that cheaper economy cars depreciate quite slow.
While 3 row SUVs for $50k are like sinking ships.
There's definitely a floor on the market for "car in decent shape that runs and drives". A cheap brand new car can only fall so far as long as it still works
Yeah I bought a ‘17 Fit EX new for just under $22k including Destination & TTL fees. That’s $29k in today’s money, the dollar has depreciated by 32% since then
That's the worst click bait title I've seen from the Autopian. It was *one* Honda Fit with under 2,000 miles on the odometer sold at auction on a site primarily catering to enthusiasts.
At least the redditors who *obviously* didn't read the article and went on to talk like this was happening for every used Honda Fit didn't give the click bait a click, I guess.
Honestly I feel like the **Honda Fit** just has this low‑key charm that people really appreciate. It’s cute, reliable, and actually super practical for everyday life, so even if small cars aren’t “cool,” the ones who want them really want them. That probably helped it hold its value way better than people expected.
Honestly I feel like the 💗Honda Fit is one of those little cars people grow attached to. It’s cute, practical, and reliable, so it makes sense it held its value better than expected even if small cars aren’t “trendy.” People who want something sensible will still go for it.
For most people, the compromise with crossovers is minimal (cost, gas mileage) while the price advantage for smaller sedans and cars is not significant enough for anyone to want to buy little hatchbacks compared to little crossovers. I've only owned smaller cars and even I live in this world where its really annoying that headlights are aimed right at my eye level, I can't see traffic in front of me, and I compromise on space for the few times a year i'd want to carry a bunch of stuff and people (I bought a cargo box on my Golf which I pretty much never take off, its great for golf clubs, snowboards, camping gear, etc.). The biggest issue here is that inflation and lack of wage growth has made new cars hard for the average person to buy (look at 7 year car loans!) so its propped up the used market for anything that's semi reliable. The Honda Fit I think has its own cult following as it was by far the best and most practical subcompact with the pre-turbo civic drivetrain which means its practically indestructible and has the best space utilization of any car outside of a minivan. Actually, most of the smaller hatchbacks have hit their depreciation bottom point. A 2016 Golf which I would not say is the most reliable car is also going for about $13k which isn't terrible for a car that cost around $20k new. So its not that the car is great (it is), its that the economy is so top heavy that average people are jacking the price up on used cars just to afford transportation.
Because they do want small cars. I don't know why companies don't understand how they give people what they want, from video games to movies to cars. If they just made what people wanted they could make a lot of money.
I mean TBF the value of our currency also has been drastically devalued in that same 11 years. Probably makes more sense if you compare the values in euros or yen
Marketers tend to focus on the biggest slice of the pie and completely ignore smaller slices that they could dominate much more easily.
The same thing happened with pickup trucks. They kept coming with bigger and bigger brodozers and suddenly Ford woke up, released the Maverick, and it sold like hot cakes.
The Maverick has only had two sales years where it moved more than 100,000 units. That's one Maverick for every eight F-series. The Bronco Sport has sold more units overall and they share a platform. It's doing better than the Ranger, but it's hardly hotcakes.
I never said that. The subject of the article is about acknowledging that there is a market, albeit smaller, for smaller vehicles. Not everybody think that bigger is better.
We have an old Volkswagen van that could bdd ed sold for a fairly high price. That doesn’t mean most Americans want a Volkswagen van, it means there is a group of people that like / want a specific vehicle and there aren’t so many of them.
It's probably the simple fact that the profit margin on the Fit was small, something like $500, and they were selling 30-40k a year in the US. Now they sell the Fit-based HR-V that sells 150k a year at a higher profit margin.
The HR-V originally was just a Honda Fit with some suspension adjustments, styling . It's really obvious [side by side.](https://i.imgur.com/mz5WFSL.jpeg). Found pics of the body structure too, [fit on the left, hrv on the right](https://i.imgur.com/kpCBMEq.png).
But you're actually right in that the current US HR-V is no longer just a lifted Fit with different styling. The current US market HRV shares a platform with the larger civic instead, while the Jazz based one continues in other markets.
I once sat in a Toyota C-HR (similar to the HR-V) and was shocked at how big it was on the inside, just like the Fit. These cars are definitely the replacements for the Fit and Yaris and I'm sad we'll never get them back.
HR-V is built on the Fit platform. So suspension architecture, engine, transmission, general location of hard points, crumple zones, etc. Same way the CR-V is built off the Civic.
I think it's all up to the marketing. I think a lot of people don't even know the cars exist. The profit margin on these cars is also extremely low, manufacturers can lift, bloat and charge more of them if they call them a crossover.
Under cafe, wouldnt the fit need to get like 60+ mpg in 2025? Ik cafe standards are gone now but Honda couldnt predict that. The hrv is such a bad replacement though.
Someone just discovered "Bring a Trailer" for the first time apparently.
This is a rather typical time capsule car that gets big money on BaT. It's essentially just like new with 1,558 miles on it.
For a real time capsule car it's not even doing that well.
This has nothing to do with any kind of pent up demand for small cars in the USA.
A minority amount of people actually want cars that small. I know they are very vocal on the Internet but in real life Canada/America there is not much interest
Yup. Once youve taken a roadtrip in a modern body on frame truck or the old bof panther platform tiny cars just feel like youre driving an out of balance washingmachine.
The American mindset in general is that if you have even one child or make one trip to the stored a Honda Fit or similar car is "too small". Doesn't matter these are family cars in other parts of the world.
Compares sales of the fit vs. Ridge line and I bet you find out why they still make one and not the other. Even the Civic is apparently as big as an Accord was 15 years ago now.
Ive seen people put 200 6ft fence boards +some other 8ft lumber in one and close the hatch. Was geniunely impressed, even if I would never do that to my own car.
Of course it would be BaT listing bringing asinine price for basic pleb spec commuter car 🤣 Over there the logic is simple: anything low mi = high value. That website is singlehandedly responsible for ruining the affordability of so many great cars simply because one schmuck with more money than brains decided to pay $50k for a $20k car. Watch all other good condition Honda Fit in a couple of weeks start popping for sale for twice the price they were a day ago 😂
Discontinued car with hilariously low mileage in unusual color sells for significantly higher than the average example? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Thank you, Autopian, for bringing this absolutely astounding knowledge to all of us!
Now go look at what 2015 CR-Vs and RAV-4s sell for.
I tried to buy a Fit back in Nov 21 when the Covid market had all the car prices buckwild. Found a 2012 with 25k miles on it and they wanted 17k. I ended up picking up an 18 Accord Sport with 48k miles for 21k. Also, I went to check out a new Civic with a $24,650 for the base model. The dealer wanted 38k out the door. I laughed my way out of there. Type R monies for a base Civic. Six months ago, I traded in the Accord for a 2019 VW Alltrack and I absolutely love this thing.
Ridiculous headline. Why didn't more americans buy a NEW Honda Fit? Or a NEW Nissan Versa / Mitsubishi Mirage, available until 2025? Americans DON'T want small new cars.
New and used car buyers are after different things. Also sales numbers are not the only factor that goes into deciding whether to kill a car. It could've been entirely because the profit margins were close to 0 per car.
Hondas also hold their value very well in general
What’s crazy is even higher mileage examples are still fetching good resale prices. I unfortunately totaled my ‘17 Fit EX two weeks ago but my insurance still payed out $12,500 since it was still able to run and move. Even on salvage yards, Fits with under 100k miles and cosmetic damage are still selling for over $14k, there really is nothing that comes close to the versatility of a Fit except for another Fit. Shame Honda axed the model because I very likely would’ve bought a new gen one with my insurance payout
It's a mint condition super low mileage example of a modern vehicle that isn't available new anymore. It's popular with the small car crowd. Why wouldn't it sell for $18,000?
I just paid almost half that for a mint Yaris that's 10 years older. These vehicles aren't easy to find in great condition, and if you want one you want one. I'm still searching for a nice 2008-2011 Yaris S hatch. I check every day, across multiple sites and platforms, I can't even calculate how much effort I've expended looking. It's been a year. When the right one finally surfaces, you pay up and buy it. That's probably what this guy did and he's happy as shit.
One of the reasons that people tend to purchase SUVs and other larger vehicles these days that's often not considered is auto lending practices. Back in the day a typical auto loan was 3 yrs with a significant down payment and getting loan approval was much harder. Today people can finance a car for 84 months with no down payment and even roll in the short fall on a previous loan they were upside down on. Imagine if you could only finance a car for four years or less and you had to put 20% down. I think people's tastes for smaller cheaper cars would come back.
This is a supply and demand thing, as is the demand for manual transmission cars, etc.
I personally do think that the market for smaller cars would be greater if the domestic manufacturers hadn't pushed the marketing of SUVs and truck as hard as they have for the past 15 years. Now it's a culturally embedded thing that will take time to get out from under.
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