We miss the Honda Fit. We really do. It was an inexpensive subcompact, sure, but it was also so much better than it had any right to be, and it more or less made the competition irrelevant. There were less-expensive alternatives, but they just didn’t have the level of charm, practicality and refinement of the Fit. And it’s not like it was that much more expensive than, say, the Toyota Yaris. As late as 2020, a new Honda Fit started at around $17,000 and topped out in the low-$20k range. Fast forward to today, though, and you can pick up one of the later Fits for… about the same price.
Yes, as it turns out, the last-generation Honda Fit is close to depreciation-proof. Following the general rules of pre-pandemic depreciation, you’d expect that after five years, a $20,000 car would be selling for $7,000 or so. Maybe a bit more if it has a manual and low miles, but still, spending $10,000 on a five-year-old subcompact would have felt crazy. And yet, currently those 2019 and 2020 Honda Fits have barely lost any value at all, and we probably wouldn’t have noticed if commenter Mister Man hadn’t pointed it out here.
Now, we want to be clear that it’s still possible to find post-facelift Fits for less than MSRP. A lot of those are high-mileage examples that were driven 20,000 miles plus per year, or they had frame damage reported or come with rebuilt titles. If you’re patient and willing to fly anywhere in the country, there are still a few deals to be had. Do a nationwide search on CarGurus for ‘19 and ‘20 Fits with a fair deal rating and reasonable miles, and you’ll see a whole lot of Fits priced like they’re brand new and not from 2020 at the newest.
Even the Fits that cost less than their original MSRP have barely depreciated. $14,995 might look like a steal when some Fits cost $6,000 or $7,000 more, but still. We’re talking about only saving a few thousand dollars total compared to the original MSRP. On the flip side, here’s one we found listed for nearly $27,000.
If you look at newer Fits as cheap cars that should be a lot cheaper by now, they’re definitely overpriced, but they wouldn’t be priced this high if they weren’t still desirable cars. Enough people are willing to spend MSRP on a used Honda that just became the price.
It also makes you question whether Honda was wrong not to bring the redesigned Fit to America. We aren’t exactly experts on how much it costs to get a car certified to sell here, and we’re sure Honda had access to plenty of market research, so it’s possible the folks behind the scenes knew more than we do. At the same time, though, how many other non-enthusiast cars are still selling at or above MSRP five years after being canceled? Even if Honda made the right decision with the information it had at the time, clearly there’s something going on here that someone missed.
The people want their Fits, Honda. Bring back the Fit!
