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I had to let go of my Honda Fit Sport.

Cazzie

Cazzie

SOH-CM-2024
The "Blue Goose" is no longer mine, turned the keys over to my son. Best car I have ever owned.

But life is fair. The wife and I sold our Chrysler Town & Country van, POS that it was. Listen everyone, anyone that buys any Chrysler product, take heed, they're ca-ca! There was a big sigh of relief when the wife agreed to dump that tub of excrement.

So now I am without transport, other than my bike. But not for long, yesterday we took delivery of a new ice blue Honda Fit Sport. Girlie color, but what the hey, a girl is paying for it and I get to drive it.

Some comparisons. The only thing I like better about the old Fit is the steering wheel. New Fit is bigger (longer A-pillar gives the impression from the inside that it is larger yet), much more power and better transmission ratios to use it, larger tires on 16-in wheels in lieu of 15-in wheels on the older Fit, suspension is now on par with the wife's Insight (not as bouncy as the old Fit), new driver's seat is much more grippy and comfortable. But higher HP and better gearing in the new Fit do come at a price, gas mileage on the new fit is going to be at least two mpg less than on the old Fit. I can deal with it, still averages 31-mpg, old one gets 32 to 34-mpg. the new Fit's engine is the same iTEC 1500-cc 4-cylinder (developed from a Honda boat engine, really). More HP comes from a new header and exhaust tubing. The new engine sits more upright, old engine slanted slightly forward. The new engine appears to be mounted further back in the car, but on closer inspection, one sees that the lengthening of the A-pillar causes this illusion.

So now, we're a three Honda family and if we get half the service out of this Fit as we have out of the Goose and my wife's Insight, we're much better off than with that lead whale from Chrysler.

Caz

fit_compare_2.jpg

 
Congratulations on your NEW Honda!

... I like the TOWN & Country, Chrysler..
I don't own one, but I always rent that
whenever Hannah and I go out of town...
Maybe I like the feature that I can hide
all my luggage under the floor compartment...
I was thinking of having one in the future,
Thanks for the heads up...
NOT anymore....

I am a HONDA people as well,
I own a 2003 CRV, has less than 58K miles...
I am thinking of giving the Honda 2003 CRV
to Hannah and get a NEW CRV for myself...
I do not know yet...
 
Cazzie,
Quick question: If you were to purchase another van,...what would it be? Maybe a Honda Odessy or maybe a Toyota Sienna,...or something else? My brother is about a year away from buying a new van....his Dodge van (1998, 140,000 miles) has been decent for his job and personal transportation. I'm sure he'll look into the Chrysler line of vans again,...plus looking into other manufactures.
Where there on going issues with your Town and Country for the final few years,...or were you snake bit by the vehicle right from the beginning? How old was it and how many miles were on the odometer when you got rid of it?
 
Chacha said:
Congratulations on your NEW Honda!

... I like the TOWN & Country, Chrysler..
I don't own one, but I always rent that
whenever Hannah and I go out of town...
Maybe I like the feature that I can hide
all my luggage under the floor compartment...
I was thinking of having one in the future,
Thanks for the heads up...
NOT anymore....

I am a HONDA people as well,
I own a 2003 CRV, has less than 58K miles...
I am thinking of giving the Honda 2003 CRV
to Hannah and get a NEW CRV for myself...
I do not know yet...
Click to expand...

Brad, the largest problem Chrysler has with their Town & Country and the Dodge Caravan sibling are their transmissions, known for letting go of their torque converters before 50,000 miles. Ours let go at less than 16,000 miles. It was comfortable transportation when we had need for hauling more than two kids, but we no longer have that need. It was only good sense to downgrade and get something more economical and more reliable.

For the record, both the Odyssey and the Sienna are about equally rated as the two top mini-vans. Chrysler will be getting another soon since the merger with FIAT/Lancia. But FIAT and Lancia reliability has not been highly rated either.

I have tried to wean it into my brother (a buy American person), that once he buys a Honda, he'll never buy anything else. Oh, and both of my Fits are assembled in Ohio. The chassis and drive trains are made in Japan and shipped here, the bodies are done here and assembled to the chassis and drive train from Japan.

Whoo hoo, USA in the final 16, sorry, got lost in the moment! :ernae:

Caz
 
Cazzie said:
Brad, the largest problem Chrysler has with their Town & Country and the Dodge Caravan sibling are their transmissions, known for letting go of their torque converters before 50,000 miles. Ours let go at less than 16,000 miles. It was comfortable transportation when we had need for hauling more than two kids, but we no longer have that need. It was only good sense to downgrade and get something more economical and more reliable.

For the record, both the Odyssey and the Sienna are about equally rated as the two top mini-vans. Chrysler will be getting another soon since the merger with FIAT/Lancia. But FIAT and Lancia reliability has not been highly rated either.

I have tried to wean it into my brother (a buy American person), that once he buys a Honda, he'll never buy anything else. Oh, and both of my Fits are assembled in Ohio. The chassis and drive trains are made in Japan and shipped here, the bodies are done here and assembled to the chassis and drive train from Japan.

Whoo hoo, USA in the final 16, sorry, got lost in the moment! :ernae:

Caz
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Ford Freestar I own. Biggest POS I have ever owned. Trans went out at less than 50K miles with no warning what so ever. I bought the extended warranty so I only had to pay $200 to get it fixed, well if you want to call it fixed. They just put in a used tranny so now I am playing Russian roulette every time I drive it. From other auto forums I have found that there are thousands of other like me and are petitioning the NTSB (I think) to force a recall. Of course Ford denies there is a problem. There have been other problems with this van (now at about 60K miles) that I have had to fix that shouldn't happen until after 100K miles.
I was one of those "buy American" guys also but I have had Chevy's, Chrysler's, and Fords. Three strikes and you're out. I am buying foreign next time.
 
Cazzie said:
The "Blue Goose" is no longer mine, turned the keys over to my son.
Click to expand...


Whaaaat?

Why didn't my parents do that?!?
All it ever was for me (and still is), was "Mom, can I have your car today?" :( :d
Girlie color, but what the hey, a girl is paying for it and I get to drive it.
Click to expand...

It could be worse.
My mom has a red Skoda Fabia with a huge rear window sticker for a music website about east german music... :p
 
Chrysler Corp. has made crappy vehicles since the first bailout back in the 80's. Remember the K cars? Designed to last exactly as long as the warranty. Things haven't changed in the intervening years. Their vehicles (cars and trucks both) are all eye candy. Fancy sheet metal and trendy interiors to disguise the sub-standard mechanics underneath. Once Daimler Benz found out how they had been duped, they dumped Chrysler as quickly as they could. Have you seen the latest TV commercial for the Charger? They tell you to ignore the "consumer magazines" and just drive it 'cause it looks cool. Of course, once the warranty expires, the owners will find out that this isn't the good ol Charger from the '70's. Just another K car waiting to die at the end of the warranty.
 
<--- misses my yellow Dodge Daytona with lowered suspension, roll bar, Carol Shelby ground effects and whale tail, super tint windows and performance cam and Enki racing wheels...

and my Chrysler Laser, jet black with red penstripe, turbo four speed, casted aluminum wheels, that could chirp the tires in 3rd gear on a thick atmosphere day (turbo air bite).

Some good cars.. I owned 3...

Some are bad, some are good. America's car companies have really been... how would one say.. struggling, I guess.. waining? is that a word? lol.. argh.

That new Leaf looks like a good car.



Bill
 
My wife has a Honda CRV and loves it. I looked at the Pilot when I was shopping for my pickup replacement. However, it was too small for my needs. I also didn't like the box look.
 
My wife and I owned two Chrysler Town and Country's in a row. Very utilitarian, very comfortable, very reliable. From my perspective they were good quality vehicles, and we drove them each over 100K. I guess actual experience may vary.

We downsized last year for the same reason Cazzie did....too much vehicle for our needs.

Unfortunately, I also sold my truck, and I have to admit...it's hard not to have a vehicle with some hauling capacity. Love my sedan, but you just don't toss some work benches or a mower in the back.

I do like the color on the new Honda.
 
Whew Cazzie,

I really expected some very sad news, but it looks like you just gained a new goodie! Happy Driving! I always considered the Fit a great car, since my own conversion to MPVs;-), and the pair looks gorgeous. Looks great in blue. Pink (seen very often here) would have been more of a Girlie-type!

My wife also got infected with the MPV-virus, too. She got tired and stressed after the move, cause with her (otherwise fantastic) micro-cutie, Fiat 500, highways became a drag! The tiny car was great in cities or on country roads, but got bumpy and rough on motorways (as small cars go). I boroughed her mine and she didn´t want to hand it back to me any more;-( Family crisis! Selling the very hip small car was easy! And now she´s got her own:
a musa (first series, a little more understated) with full equipment, Leather/Alcantara, electric fullglass-roof, automatic climatecontrol, etc. A little turbo-diesel engine, a blast to drive. I am a bit jealous - the leatherseats are sooooo great, but I can drive it once in a while;-))))
View attachment 11147 the pair, the new one on the left)

Just today I saw a Fit in my color (ivory), looked charming, too!

Concerning Chrysler and Fiat, it can only be a gain for Chrysler, since Fiat quality improved a whole lot recently (the new Alfa Giulietta even won a test over a BMW 1series in german´s Nr.1 carmagazine - otherwise a sacrilege!). And Lancia has always been the higher quality for the Fiat brand (with a few bad reputation-ruining exceptions in the past - early 80s).

Regards
Alex
 
grunau_baby said:
Whew Cazzie,

I really expected some very sad news, but it looks like you just gained a new goodie! Happy Driving! I always considered the Fit a great car, since my own conversion to MPVs;-), and the pair looks gorgeous. Looks great in blue. Pink (seen very often here) would have been more of a Girlie-type!

My wife also got infected with the MPV-virus, too. She got tired and stressed after the move, cause with her (otherwise fantastic) micro-cutie, Fiat 500, highways became a drag! The tiny car was great in cities or on country roads, but got bumpy and rough on motorways (as small cars go). I boroughed her mine and she didn´t want to hand it back to me any more;-( Family crisis! Selling the very hip small car was easy! And now she´s got her own:
a musa (first series, a little more understated) with full equipment, Leather/Alcantara, electric fullglass-roof, automatic climatecontrol, etc. A little turbo-diesel engine, a blast to drive. I am a bit jealous - the leatherseats are sooooo great, but I can drive it once in a while;-))))
View attachment 11147 the pair, the new one on the left)

Just today I saw a Fit in my color (ivory), looked charming, too!

Concerning Chrysler and Fiat, it can only be a gain for Chrysler, since Fiat quality improved a whole lot recently (the new Alfa Giulietta even won a test over a BMW 1series in german´s Nr.1 carmagazine - otherwise a sacrilege!). And Lancia has always been the higher quality for the Fiat brand (with a few bad reputation-ruining exceptions in the past - early 80s).

Regards
Alex
Click to expand...

And it is likely we will have a Chrysler version of those two little beauts.

Chrysler's downfall came with their first fall, as mentioned earlier. The K-Car didn't save them as much as coping a Renault mini-van and putting it on a K-car chassis (at the time). Back in the sixties, Chrysler was the innovator in engineering, best automatic transmission in the business with the Torque-Flight, Ronnie Sox couldn't bust them on the drag strip with a Hemi, as he constantly beat Fords and Chevys with manual transmissions.

But Chrysler lost that engineering in the 1980s, depending more on selling than creating. In the interim they lost quality control too.

Hopefully FIAT/Lancia will bring some of that back, but I'll have to be proven before I'll have another one of their products. I am over happy with the Hondas, having owned four. Only the old Fit has ever had anything other than routine service and that was a trivial recall to replace a switch in the driver's side window control panel. I never had any problem with the controls?

Caz

Another shot of the new Fit:

newfit_1.jpg
 
The Crossfire wasn't too bad. An american body on a Mercedes SLK platform.

My uncle had an imported LeBaron in the early 90s, but got rid of it for a Mercedes 190 because he constantly had problems with it. Then he traded the Benz for a BMW 3 series coupé which spent more time in the garage than ouside before settling for 1980s Porsche 911s, first in white and now in red. And he's happy with it.
 
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