I’m looking to buy a used Honda Fit through a dealer (non-certified, Hyundai dealer) and found a 2008 manual with only 17k miles on it. I realize the mileage is extremely low for the amount of years but didn’t rule it out completely thinking maybe the owner just used it to tool around town etc. My father, however, has me paranoid about odometer fraud and anything else that could seem too good to be true. Any advice interpreting the Carfax and original listing (below) would be helpful though I realize they’re not always accurate.
A few things…
The previous owner seems to have been very on top of service (even possibly over-zealous but perhaps the original dealer convinced them it was needed). Does any of the service record seem odd?
Is it normal that the battery was replaced right after being sold the first time?
I spoke with Honda reps about the recall and they said even though it’s not under warranty it can be fixed for free at any Honda dealer since it was a safety recall.
Thanks for any advice you can offer!! Never bought a car before.
The CarFax looks entirely legit. Note that the dealer reported mileage on each of the several maintenance visits, so the “odometer fraud” fear is highly unlikely. This was probably someone’s second car, or owned by an elderly person, who didn’t drive it much. And the battery replacement happened at year 5, which is the average expected age for a battery. There is nothing odd about the service records, just normal fluid/filter changes and tire rotation. The power window switch was replaced by Honda because those were defective, so that repair was normal too.
Have it looked over by an independent mechanic first, but from what I see it looks like a cream puff and I would not hesitate to buy it if a mechanic gives it an OK.
Edmunds.com gives a dealer retail price of $10k, and a “certified used” price of $10,992. Since the car in question is not being offered as “certified,” I would try to get them down closer to $10k. But these are excellent cars, so I wouldn’t hesitate to pay the full sticker price if they won’t budge.
Looks like a great car! The car seems to be well serviced and even though the mileage between wasn’t much it was serviced about once a year which is what the dealer would suggest regardless of the miles between. Have someone you trust look the car over but everything looks good.
Just make sure the local dealer takes care of any recalls which will be paid for by Honda.
I don’t see any red flags there. Just looks like a very nice, well maintained creampuff.
In many cases putting only a few miles on a car is not a good thing but this one seems to have had oil changes every 2-3k miles and even a transmission service already although that trans service was not needed.
I note the battery was replaced at a young age but I would not worry too much about that. A certain percentage of batteries will fail quickly. That may have been one of them.
That being said, if the current battery in the car is the one that was changed out back in 2008 then I would skeptical about how much life it has remaining.
Other than that, looks like a whale of a vehicle that for all intents and purposes is new other than the year it was manufactured…
The only thing that appears out of the ordinary is that the oil wasn’t changed for 21 months between 11/9/2011 and 7/26/2013. But it was only 4000 miles. Still, it is probably not a problem.
the 21 month thing could simply be that they had some coupons for another place to change the oil or something.
However, I will address your father’s concern about odometer fraud in that it would be rather difficult to mess with the odo reading in modern, computer controlled vehicles.
I think the car sat for a long time since the mileage between oil changes was only 4000 miles over the 21 months. New cars can sit on the dealers lot for up to a year, so it probably is not a big issue.
