Mark is still in the shop, pending further boroscoping, so I’ll do my best to do his daily adjutications some justice in his absence. Did I venture away from the SB part of SBSD yesterday with two cars that were a little too nice? That’s sometimes my one (and only) shortcoming.
It was a battle of convertible, manual, Swedish FWD turbo sports cars, both in good-to-excellent shape. I had a sense that one of these would be way more popular than the other, purely on price, so I was delighted to see that it was in fact a lot closer than I expected.
The value-minded amongst you seemed to prefer the Saab to the Volvo by a small amount, though many of you admitted in the comments that if the Volvo’s price was a bit lower, you might have swung that way:
Today, these cars are both economical, and each comes with a reliable manual transmission. They’re also both from Eastern Connecticut, aka the Nutmeg State, aka the Troll State.
2009 Honda Fit Sport – $3,600
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5-liter i-VTEC four-cylinder with a 5-speed manual
Location: Waterford, CT
Odometer reading: 142,000
Operational status:Â Runs and drives well
I had our old friend Chris Perkins over to test drive my BMW the other day, as he is in the market for an E39, and fellow autoscribe Sam Smith pointed out that the 530i Sports are the one to have (if you’re not going to fork the money over for an M5). I remarked that I didn’t want to replace the BMW, but a part of me wants a Honda Fit.
This is the second-generation car, and it’s a little bigger than the cute first-generation car. I think I prefer the first gens, but it’s a minor preference. These cars will run approximately forever if they don’t rust, and also make surprisingly good race cars. This one is maybe too nice to turn into a race car.
In addition to being a clean car (though I can’t see underneath for rust), it has the one feature you need for a truly reliable car: a stickshift. Having driven a race-prepped version of this car, I can say the 117 horsepower goes a long way when you can control the shifts, and you get the higher revs you want from a sporty-ish Honda. The interior also looks like it’s in great shape.
The headlights are a little cloudy, but at $3,600 that feels like something that you can easily fix.
2014 Jeep Patriot Limited 4WD – $2,900
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter ‘gas-saving’ engine with a 5-speed manual
Location: Manchester, CT
Odometer reading: 140,000
Operational status:Â Runs and drives well
Connecticut does a good job of plowing its roads, so you can probably skate on having an AWD vehicle. A good FWD car with decent tires is enough to get the job done 95% of the time. If you do want to spin all four wheels at once, the Jeep Patriot is a cheap way to do it.
While not the most memorable Jeep, it’s certainly one of the Jeeps of all time. This particular car is a Limited, so it comes with keyless entry, power options, and even leather seats. The 2.4-liter motor in these cars is the “World Engine” shared with, oh, 80% of all cars produced by Hyundai, Mitsubishi, and Stellantis/FCA since the Obama Administration (no one look that up).
They’re fine! This one probably produces somewhere around 180 horsepower. Even better, it comes with a five-speed, so that’s one less thing to expensively break.
Are these good cars? I have no idea. But it’s cheap, there’s no obvious rust, other than on the hitch (I presume, being a Connecticut car, there’s some underneath).
So what’s your poison? A Honda that can go another million miles, or a Jeep with heated seats and AWD that can go… probably 10 more miles at least.
Top photo: Craigslist sellers
The Fit (and my favorite, the 2nd gen shown here in particular) is one of the truly great utilitarian cars of all time. Fit is an incredibly apt name as they are Tardis-like in their ability to haul stuff. The manual is the way to go and $3,600 is a very fair price. We bought a Fit in 2011, gave it to our daughter in 2023, and she’s still driving it. Heck, if my FiST were stolen tomorrow and I could find a 2nd gen Fit, well kept, in manual with under 150,000 miles for $3,600 I’d be all over it.
I kept thinking that there was going to be something really wrong with that Fit for me to even start to consider the Patriot. Nope, not a thing (at least obvious). So it’s the Honda alll the way. I have never heard a bad thing about the fit. It just goes forever, gets good mileage, has a nice shifter and has a lot more space inside than you would think.
I have not heard too many good things about the Patriot. I worked with a woman for a while who drove one. All I ever heard were complaints about the Patriot and also about her husband. She got rid of the Patriot about 5 years ago. And she got rid of her husband about 3 years ago.
As much as I like the Patriot, I have no need for AWD. And Honda makes sweeter manual transmissions than FCA/Stellantis.
Plus, the Fit will be all-around more fun to drive and have better fuel economy.
So the Fit gets my vote.
The Honda is a the right choice, but that Jeep wouldn’t be a bad choice to put my kid in for High School. AWD and a stick in a car that you couldn’t care less if it gets trashed? For $2900? Not a bad option, really.
Kids in high school already have it rough. You want to pile on by giving them the Jeep?
Sure, it builds character.
OK, “boroscoping” is definitely an “ewww” term when applied to humans. Hope whatever they’re doing to you at least sounds way better than that, Mark!
As for the showdown, well it ain’t. As pretty much everyone is saying, there’s no way a Jeep beats a Fit with a manual. A co-worker of mine had one, and he drove it like a racecar, including flying up on people’s back bumpers as he came around a transition ramp somewhere around 95 mph. This was emblematic of his level of common sense and he ended up being one of the few people to manage to get himself fired from our organization. He did make the car look like a blast to drive, though.
A broken down Honda is a better choice than a running Jeep, so a running Honda is the obvious choice.
The Fit is the deal here. IRL, I’d probably pick the Jeep anyway, as a manual would be novel in one of those. But for a primary driver, the Fit is the way to go.
My sister in law recently totaled her 2010 Fit. As a comparsion, she got $7800 for it from the insurance company. Same mileage as the sellers. I owned a Gen 2. Another one of those I shouldn’t have sold! I vote Fit! You could flip it and make some money if it’s clean…
Right now it isn’t any choice, this is a Fit win all the way. What could be put up against the Fit that would win? The Fit is a great car, especially with the manual. One of my best friends has one approaching 300,000 miles. I don’t think much could beat a Fit, honestly.
The Patriot at least has a manual so it won’t be as bad as the ones with the *shudder* CVT, but the fact that it’s up against a manual Honda Fit means it’s not even close. The Honda wins all day every day!
I’ve been wanting something awd for a winter beater and I kinda miss having a cheap car with ground clearance, so Jeep for me. Though the Fit is also very tempting.
The Fit is one of the best small cars ever. This one is in decent shape, and a rather good deal for what it is.
The Patroit being a stick is helpful, as the CVTs these were often saddled with were downright terrible and tragically unreliable. I would argue that for 2900$, it’s a great deal. But it can’t compete against the Fit.
I will say this, both cars are a little suspicious in the posting/pricing department. But all things equal, the Fit is the runaway victor here.
I’ll take the fun, reliable Honda.
Plus, I just really dislike the name “Patriot”
Either one needs to be put on a lift to check for rust as part of a PPI. From what I can see I’d shell out for that on the Honda first.
I like seeing manuals in unlikely vehicles so I picked the Jeep. And it’s hilly and snowy in my section of New England so the 4WD is appreciated.
We already have a 2010 Mazda5 with a 5 speed, which looks like a slightly bigger version of the Fit.
The Honda wins by default LOL
As a teenager I convinced my mom to abandon her Civics, and buy a first gen fit. It was the first summer they were available in the US, and she was originally set to get a red sport with manual transmission, but a blue automatic popped up like 6 months before the red one would arrive and she didn’t want to wait.
The automatic really killed the driving experience, don’t get me wrong it was still a good car, but it could have been a lot better.
Fit is go!
Patriot is yuck.
Let’s see peak crap Chrysler or a reliable Honda? Hmmm choices
I had a 2011 Fit, magnificent nugget. It’s the best of the nuggets in the USA, The Yaris is more caviler, but less clever.
Boy this was an easy choice today. Honda Fit all day long, it’s even a bit too nice to rallycross.
“. . . if it doesn’t rust . . .”
The car has done 100k miles in CT. Everything I see looks good, but I haven’t seen the underside. I had the muffler rot off a Civic in 20k miles from New England road salt, so I’d be worried about any fasteners hanging out under the car.
In any case, the price seems great for a manual Fit with any rust situation less than completely rotted through strut towers or rocker panels.