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Comment by germinalphrase | Hacker News Reader

I might love my Honda Fit, but no one else did (apparently) as it’s been discontinued.

The Fit wasn’t discontinued in North America for a lack of buyers. It was built in the same factory in Mexico where Honda builds the HR-V, which is a small crossover that is mechanically similar to the Fit. Honda found that the HR-V was more profitable and sold even better than the Fit, so they just dedicated the whole factory to HR-V production.

Sort of similar to Ford discontinuing the Focus despite it selling fairly well. It was a lot of effort for a narrow profit margin so they shifted into more profitable vehicles. A shame because the Focus and the Fit were both reasonable, affordable choices.

Worst part about discontinuing the Focus is that the Focus Electric went with it. Sure, it was a regulation-requirement car, but it drives well and does what city folks need; 100KM range is enough for most people's day. Works well as a second car.

We desperately need sub-20k electric cars and they just don't exist.

I want one, sad they got discontinued. They seemed to constantly get great reviews.

There are some nice functional design elements (for instance, the back seats are truly fold flat which provides a surprising amount of storage). That said, I am honestly tempted by going up market to a GTI for a little more fun in a similar package.

I do recommend a GTI -- any recent generation. Sometimes I use it like a "truck" by folding the rear seats flat. It also serves well on longer distance drives with folks in the backseats.

I will not part with my MK6, manual 6 speed, 2L turbo! Notes: There are younger folks now that won't bother with manual. 3G telemetry just expired (yay). It's fun. And decent MPG.

My MK6 GTI M/T was totaled right after the pandemic started but before the used car market blew up. It took me a year to find a suitable replacement, but I was not budging on my requirement of an MK6 GTI (Oddly enough, my partner and I were borrowing a Saab 9-5 wagon from her dad while car hunting).

I found a 2012 M/T GTI being sold in Southern California and literally hopped on the next flight once I got confirmation that they’d sell it to me. I bought at asking ($6500, a steal just months later) and drove it back to Sacramento.

I never thought I’d be that kind of person to take a one-way flight to buy a car, but that MK6 GTI has changed me. It’s one of the few “modern” vehicles that is easy to do work on yourself. The chassis was designed to hold the larger 2.5L, 5-cylinder engine in the Golf so the smaller 2.0L Turbo left enough room to get in there and perform repairs/service without taking body panels off (cough cough BMW). Armed with a VCDS and a 10mm, I can diagnose and fix most minor things.

Super fun, easy to self service, manual transmission, not letting this go.

They seem pretty popular on the road

What you see on the road, on average, is what was selling well 12 years ago. Small cars tend to be more popular during long periods of bad economic times or high fuel prices. SUVs sell like hot cakes every time the US has a decade of good economic times and cheap gas.

The Fit started selling really well around the time of the 08 crash (and fuel more than doubled in price that decade):

https://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/23/honda-boosting-fit-produ...

> Like most other manufacturers doing business in the U.S., Honda has been caught by surprise by the sudden shift in demand to smaller cars.

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