Fit the new Element?

[ocnblu]

As I was sitting in Mickey D's this evening being a bad boy eating my quarter pounder, I watched to see who would leave the restaurant and hop in a gray, base model Honda Fit in the parking lot.

It was an 80-year-old lady, 95 pounds at most, with a huge hairdo, accompanied by her p.i.m.p., a dude who was at least 80 and walking pretty slowly.

Has the "Fit is Go!" ad campaign fallen on (nearly) deaf ears? Is every "hip, young" Japanese car doomed to congregate at Friday Night Bingo at the VFW?

I find this phenomenon pretty amusing.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Toyota and Honda will never learn...

[Flybrian]

With the Cutlass Cruiser and Escort wagons far out of production, what else are old folks going to buy?

[ocnblu]

Well I suppose a walker will fit upright in the generous cargo hold, so maybe Mabel and Otto are onto something.

[Flybrian]

Well, for old people, they're sensible. For the commuter or urban dweller, they're sensible. Otherwise, they're junk. I just don't understand why anyone would desire cars like the Fit and others in its class. They're small, ugly, and slow and, no, driving a slow car fast is not fun; its irritating both to one's sense of punctuality and to one's hearing.

[ToniCipriani]

Didn't you know that Honda is equivalent to Buick in UK?

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Ah, 'tis the Power of Senility. (To paraphrase one of WMJ's old sigs...)

[Guest YellowJacket894]

^

I laughed my ass off when I first saw that and I still do.

[pow]

Funny... I noticed the same thing today... a really old man in a bright blue Fit Sport.

[DetroitNut90]

I haven't seen any old people in Fits around here, but there is this one ancient woman driving around in a red riced-out Sienna, complete with large chromed rims, tinted windows, an aftermarket grille, dual rear fart pipes, spoiler, and TRD decals on the front and rear windows.

[FAPTurbo]

This is the best thing for GM fans IMO... if the fogies keep driving the Fit's and Scion xB's, the kids may look to the domestics for a car that's awesome.

If this keeps up, Scion will need a new youthful brand.

[Bimmer325]

Old people generally drive like they're in bumper cars anyway, so this makes sense to me.

I recently saw an elderly woman hit three (3) cars in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot all to end up parking entirely crooked and illegally anyway. She was driving a Fleetwood Brougham. Had it been a Fit, the damage could've been less severe.

[Sixty8panther]

The Echo, xB, xA, Element & Civic base all share this honor.

Esp. the xB. Seems like 80% of them are owned by female members of AARP.

[Cory Wolfe]

Well, for old people, they're sensible. For the commuter or urban dweller, they're sensible. Otherwise, they're junk. I just don't understand why anyone would desire cars like the Fit and others in its class. They're small, ugly, and slow and, no, driving a slow car fast is not fun; its irritating both to one's sense of punctuality and to one's hearing.

I bet the Fit handles much better than your Aurora... so I don't what you're talking about.

[Flybrian]

I bet the Fit handles much better than your Aurora... so I don't what you're talking about.

My Aurora has style, can seat five, and isn't called 'Fit'. That last one alone makes it all worthwhile.

[Satty]

My Aurora has style, can seat five, and isn't called 'Fit'. That last one alone makes it all worthwhile.

They're also hard to find, trust me I've looked for Auroras.

[Cory Wolfe]

The Fit can seat five, and isn't huge. Oh... and gets great gas mileage. Say what, now?

[Flybrian]

The Fit can seat five, and isn't huge. Oh... and gets great gas mileage. Say what, now?

I can put a Fit in my trunk, next to a Yaris.

[Drew Dowdell]

I bet the Fit handles much better than your Aurora... so I don't what you're talking about.

At 25.... maybe.... above that... not so much.

[Cory Wolfe]

Both of you are gas hogs... You gas hogs.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

[Chuckles.] BV likes the Fit. Now all he needs is a walker, an old rocking chair, and some geritol and he'll be set.

[Sixty8panther]

Both of you are gas hogs... You gas hogs.

You say that like it's a bad thing....

I'm about to upgrade from a 350 to 394

in my classic car. That's six and a half

liters for you metric types. Not to

mention when me and XP teamed up to

save BIG RED from the crusher he

payed $300 for it the day gas went up

momentarily to like $3.79 a gallon.

[Cory Wolfe]

Gas hog. For the past 7 months... my GA hasn't used a bit of gas. Beat that, bitch.

[regfootball]

toyotas are big time geriatric cars these days. and its getting worse for them. Some Hondas are becoming old mobiles too....

[roopull]

Toyota and Honda will never learn...

Yeah, Toyota is having a heck of a time selling any of those Scions

And it's not like GM read Honda's Civic playbook & created the Cobalt, now is it?

I don't have it sitting in front of me, but I just read an article that debates which of the three new mini-cars will sell best - the Fit, Yaris, or Versa. The article thought the Fit would by far outsell the others. Of note, however, the Daewoo - I mean Suzuki - I mean, Chevy Aveo wasn't evne mentioned.

Ford had a good hit with the Focus, but went off & idiotically didn't update the US version when they did the Euro version.

GM's Cobalt is a nice little ride, but not in the same class as the Fit. See, years ago, you could get a Chevette or Escort & they were about the size of these tiny cars. Over the years, GM & Ford's entry level models grew in size AND price. The same thing happened with the imports - it happens with just about every model out there.

Chevy, to it's credit, realized there was a market for something in this bracket & dropped the Aveo in there pretty quick. Toyo followed with the Scion Xa. Sadly, the Aveo is simply out-classed... afterall, it's merely a rebadged, reskinned nearly decade old Daewoo. But, a quick re-model could rectify that fast... let's hope they do.

Meanwhile, the Mopar boys are toying with this Hornet concept & trying to find a 3rd party builder for it.

Face it fellas, these tiny tiny cars are here to stay!

[daves87rs]

I can put a Fit in my trunk, next to a Yaris.

[daves87rs]

With the Cutlass Cruiser and Escort wagons far out of production, what else are old folks going to buy?

yep-and you wouldn't believe how many Escort wagons are still around here too..

[ToniCipriani]

Yeah, Toyota is having a heck of a time selling any of those Scions

And it's not like GM read Honda's Civic playbook & created the Cobalt, now is it?

I don't have it sitting in front of me, but I just read an article that debates which of the three new mini-cars will sell best - the Fit, Yaris, or Versa.  The article thought the Fit would by far outsell the others.  Of note, however, the Daewoo - I mean Suzuki - I mean, Chevy Aveo wasn't evne mentioned.

Ford had a good hit with the Focus, but went off & idiotically didn't update the US version when they did the Euro version.

GM's Cobalt is a nice little ride, but not in the same class as the Fit.  See, years ago, you could get a Chevette or Escort & they were about the size of these tiny cars.  Over the years, GM & Ford's entry level models grew in size AND price.  The same thing happened with the imports - it happens with just about every model out there. 

Chevy, to it's credit, realized there was a market for something in this bracket & dropped the Aveo in there pretty quick.  Toyo followed with the Scion Xa.  Sadly, the Aveo is simply out-classed...  afterall, it's merely a rebadged, reskinned nearly decade old Daewoo.  But, a quick re-model could rectify that fast...  let's hope they do.

Meanwhile, the Mopar boys are toying with this Hornet concept & trying to find a 3rd party builder for it.

Face it fellas, these tiny tiny cars are here to stay!

There are globalization plans to consolidate the Corsa and Daewoo small cars development, IIRC.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Yeah, Toyota is having a heck of a time selling any of those Scions.

They actually are...

...to the intended demographic. (People like...me.)

Edited June 8, 2006 by YellowJacket894

[Flybrian]

Chevy, to it's credit, realized there was a market for something in this bracket & dropped the Aveo in there pretty quick.  Toyo followed with the Scion Xa.  Sadly, the Aveo is simply out-classed...  afterall, it's merely a rebadged, reskinned nearly decade old Daewoo.  But, a quick re-model could rectify that fast...  let's hope they do.

The Aveo is only outclassed in fuel economy. Now, I do realize economy is the lynchpin for this segment, but all it needs is a more efficient engine. The rest of the package, from content to int/ext styling to performance to value, is all there in the '07 redesign.

And one could almost excuse the Big Three for failing at homegrown tiny cars because outside of the past two or three years, there was never a significant market for subcompacts outside of the cheap and the poor. Even Toyota failed with the Echo, which was probably the most embarassing and pile-of-crap car you could buy this side of a Fiesta.

[Drew Dowdell]

Sadly, the Aveo is simply out-classed...  afterall, it's merely a rebadged, reskinned nearly decade old Daewoo. 

and yet still one of the best sellers in it's class...

[Cory Wolfe]

Maybe its just me, the I don't like the new Aveo any more than the old one... which I don't really like. I could live with a Fit over it... I'm serious, too.

[roopull]

and yet still one of the best sellers in it's class...

Um, until now, it was just about the only one in its class, wasn't it? You had the Suzuki Aerio (I believe that's the name) that competed price wise, but was much bigger. You had the Rio & Accent - again, similar price, but much bigger. You had the MINI, but that was the same size, but much more expensive...

I'm not trying to knock the Aveo... As far as the big players go, Chevy got to the segment first & they don't get the credit for it. Now that the Japanese & ChryCo are going to get into the ballgame, Chevy MUST redesign the Aveo to keep it up to par... specifically, some nicer sheetmetal & a better drivetrain are musts.

Yeah, Toyota is having a heck of a time selling any of those Scions.

They actually are...

...to the intended demographic. (People like...me.)

I wouldn't be so sure about that. The AVERAGE age of Scion buyers is 31, however, that's an average. If 80% of the buyers are 20 years old & 20% are 70, that leaves you with an average of 30 year old buyers. What is the Mode age of the buyers... the age that occurs the most? I have no idea where or how to find that info, but I'd be willing to bet it's below the average of 31... as others on this board have noted, old people seem to love that Xa!

OTOH, I just read an article that said Toyota was running the Scion plant on overtime to keep up with demand.

Here's a snippet of that article:

We want to make sure residual values stay strong. If we just wanted to maximize sales, we would sacrifice those really important attributes. We're not rushing in. In fact, we're short on Scion. The factory has been tremendous to support us with overtime, but that's the capacity we have. We are not going to plan additional capacity.

And another snippet that shows just how much of a success Scion is becoming:

One of the key indicators is the percent of Scion customers that have never been in a Toyota dealer before, which is running near 80 percent.

Even if the mode age turned out to be 31, it's still a whole lot better than every single other manufacturer out there & much better than Toyo's corporate age average of 48 years old (IIRC.)

What I think the folks at Toyota & everywhere else are forgetting is that most kids first car, the car they buy at the target demographic, are USED cars... not new ones. I suppose that could explain why Scion was first launched in the relatively wealthy state of California instead of say... Mississippi.

[Drew Dowdell]

Um, until now, it was just about the only one in its class, wasn't it? You had the Suzuki Aerio (I believe that's the name) that competed price wise, but was much bigger. You had the Rio & Accent - again, similar price, but much bigger.

Now wait a sec. You can't have it both ways. I get shouted down here because I maintain that the CTS is in the same class as the 5-series because they're the same size and have similar drivetrains. I fight with the people that say that the CTS is in the 3-series class because it shares a price point and is at the bottom rung of the Cadillac lineup.

Therefore if I'm wrong about the CTS then the Aveo is in the same class as the Rio, Accent, and Aerio.

[Satty]

I'd consider the Aerio more of a Cobalt competitor, but the Accent and Rio are definately Aveo fighters.

[roopull]

Now wait a sec. You can't have it both ways. I get shouted down here because I maintain that the CTS is in the same class as the 5-series because they're the same size and have similar drivetrains.  I fight with the people that say that the CTS is in the 3-series class because it shares a price point and is at the bottom rung of the Cadillac lineup.

Therefore if I'm wrong about the CTS then the Aveo is in the same class as the Rio, Accent, and Aerio.

Hey, I didn't shout you down!!! I don't even know what thread you're talking about!

IMO, however, both sides of the CTS argument have a point. Then again, if I were shopping for a car the size of a 5 series & had to choose between a 5 & a CTS... uh... duh. (actually, I'd like to think I'd get the CTS-V or an M3!)