Okay, it’s time for a new car. I’ve narrowed it down to 3 contenders: the Honda Fit (30 mpg and $15,000), Civic Hybrid (40 mpg and $22,000) or the MINI Cooper S (30 mpg and $25,000). The Fit is the cheapest, and nice, but not stylish. The Civic Hybrid get high mpg’s but is $7,000 more than the Fit. And the MINI is stylish, really fun to drive, but the most expensive of the three. So, what do you think? (I tend to favor Hondas, only because they are amazingly reliable… the MINI has a spotty reliability record, according to the blogs).
I don’t think there is any clear choice. It is really up to you and what you value most. While I am not all that excited about hybrids, they seem to be working well (that is they are not special problems) so I would say, test drive each one, do the numbers on the cost of ownership and then decide. BTW the mileage numbers on this years cars is a lot closer to real than in the past.
Which one do you want. It all comes down to choice here.
If you bumped down to the regular cooper, you’d get a little better mileage and a little cheaper price. I test drove a regular Clubman and it was pretty quick, I dunno how the S would be, but I imagine it’d be a lot quicker.
Why not a regular Civic? The auto trans model gets 29 MPG compared to the Fit’s 30 MPG. It cost;s about $1000 moe than the Fit to start.
This is an old post, but I will respond because I have pondered this question and ended up with the Fit. The Mini is cute as a button, and in the S version is pretty quick, but has very few dealers, and none near me. It is expensive, requires premium fuel, and is serviced by dealers that are really BMW dealers in disguise, and BMW service has always been very expensive. Not an economical choice, more of a low to mid priced sports car.
The Civic hybrid? If you keep your car as long as I keep mine you would also be afraid of the cost of that hybrid drivetrain and batteries after the new and the warranty wears off. This one scares me.
I chose the Fit because it is fun to drive as a base Mini but has a real back seat and lots of storage room. Those back doors come in real handy when loading people or stuff inthe back, and the cargo area is very versitle with a flat floor with the seat backs down and Honda’s “magic seat” that gives several options for configuring the rear seat backs and cushions to fit cargo. So far I do not regret my decision.