Topic: $25 000 Honda Fit?

[The Mighty Duck]

I was down at our local Honda dealer the other day, looking at the new Fit.  They have plenty in stock, but one in particular caught my eye.  It was a Fit Sport, manual transmission, but the sticker price was $25 337 - that's almost $5000 more than the sticker price of the regular Fit.  (FWIW, the Automatic was a massive $26 537!)

So, I did some digging.  It turns out this is a home-brewed model, modified in town for the dealer.  It's got all the standard Fit Sport features, plus:
-Leather interior
-Heated front seats
-Rear window tint
-Interior illumination
-Leather shift knob
-Side sill garnish
-Carbon fibre look (interior trim)
-Sport Pedals
-Door Visor Kit
-"Touring" Emblem (they call it a "Fit Sport Touring")

Turns out there's a story behind it.  They sold a regular Fit Sport to a customer from Hong Kong, who went about customizing it (leather interior, etc.).  Well, before long he had to go back to HK, so he sold the car back to the dealer.  They put it on the lot, with all the changes, and it garnered a lot of attention.

The salesman says they've sold "a couple" of these modified cars.

Since there's a lot of talk about premium small cars on this forum, I'm interested to know who thinks this is a good idea.  Would you pay $25k for a Fit with leather interior?

FWIW, I wouldn't.  $5k seems like a steep premium on the Fit.  But if they did a version with leather, heated seats, and Nav for about the same price, I would be awfully tempted.

So: $25 000 Fit.  Yay or nay?

[RunsinLight]

Not much for $5,000

Leather shift knob - Prefer aftermarket shifters
Rear window tint - Prefer aftermarket tint
Sport Pedals - Looks good at  a car show. Pointless beyond that.
Heated front seats - Can't say I've never wished I had heated seats. Now heated side minors would actaully be useful.

[HeliDriver]

No way, sounds kind of tacky, IMO.

-Leather interior - In a Fit? Why bother?
-Heated front seats - Might be nice.
-Rear window tint - Why bother?
-Interior illumination - Might be kind of cool.
-Leather shift knob - Might be nice.
-Side sill garnish - Who cares?
-Carbon fibre look (interior trim) - Yuck.
-Sport Pedals - Might be useful. The pedals on my Civic are spaced so far apart as to make heel-and-toeing impossible. A set of aftermarket pedal covers solved that nicely.
-Door Visor Kit - What's that? Sounds tacky.
-"Touring" Emblem (they call it a "Fit Sport Touring") - I bet it's gold plated. Yuck.

[The Mighty Duck]

Not much for $5,000

That was my reaction, too.  I think the problem is the leather: it's done locally, and reupholstering is not a cheap job.  If Honda offered leather as a factory option, it could probably be done a lot cheaper.

The rest, too me, is just filler.  I do like the tint, but that's a $300 job.  It is after market, fwiw, also done locally.

[KRS]

  About the only thing that you've noted they added that I would want is the heated seats. I might go $350 over a stock fit for that. The rest of it? no thanks, even if it was free. I personally dislike leather seats though and that is likely the key selling point so I wouldn't be the target customer any ways.

[ovr50]

It's all cosmetic stuff, nothing to make it a better machine for driving. It would be a stupid move to pay the premium - but likely some one will.

[Black Hatch]

So i go to Honda site and I build a Fit AT

So starts at $21790 (wow PDI is 1310, cost is 20480)
I click on ALL the options (some of them may be duplicate)
but I end up with a price of around $27k
add taxes from say Ontario

and you're looking at a $30k car.

[initial_D]

$30,000 for a Honda Fit?... I will definitely have a fit with that price!

[Leviathan]

Egads, no! A 5speed Mazda3 Sport GT lists at $21,945 & $25,887* with all taxes & fees. If you wanted the 2.0L engine for better mileage and can live without heated seats the GX + Comfort package + A/C is $18,190 or $22,185* with all taxes & fees.

*=choose a colour that has a $105 extra cost.

[tpl]

I would be willing to pay  an extra $5k  for:
Suspension mods
Turbo for another 20 bhp
HID lights
6 spd manny tranny maybe with a DSG option instead of a slushbox

as a sports package. 

Also  a few other things thrown in like satellite radio, trip computer, heated seats, auto dimming mirrors with heating,  multi speed interval on front and rear wipers.   ( Our 2007 does not have any of those little things) for a few '00 more. All those things are very cheap to do and to me add a lot to the perception of comfort and value

I think that the Fit platform could take a sports  package and a premium package and I have no particular problem with small cars being expensive.

The package as defined in the OP ... not a chance.

[Juke1]

I find Fits way overpriced, great little car no doubt but....

[tpl]

I sometimes wonder if there should not be a floor price for cars... like there is  for beer in Ontario.
Minimum of say, $25K on the road price.   Then you'd see some interesting competition amongst the makers as to who could produce the best car for $25K rather than who could produce the cheapest .

[Trainman]

My concern is that those "options" have been done locally.  What kind of long term quality is there?  What has it done to the Factory warranty?  IE if the heated seats fry something, will it be covered by Honda?  What if the stitching on the seats falls apart in 2 years?  5 years?

For me, not worth the extra.

[initial_D]

If they throw in some special decal stickers, then the $25,000 will be more justifiable.

[DockMan]

If they throw in some special decal stickers, then the $25,000 will be more justifiable.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

This one, yes. $25k for decals, heated seats and a leather shift knob, not so much.

[Ice]

Yes...IF...it had a turbocharged or DI engine to back it up.  For that kind of price increased I'd also expect to have some sort of performance improvement to backup the looks.  The features are nice but I think it'd need a little extra oompf to make it worthwhile.

[MKII]

For the extra 5 g's give me xenon headlights, auto-dimming rear view mirror, rain-sensing windshield wipers, sports-tuned steering, sports suspension, 17in alloys, carbon fibre pattern interior trim, upgraded  audio system , sport (Recaro) leather heated seats and special/unique exterior paint.

[safristi]

..how about a leather,heated ,....umm...err.. retractable and adjustable.PersonalKNOB warmerTHEN....!!!?

[Turbo Bob]

Why anyone has carbon fibre "look" anything is beyond me.