2012 Accent, Fit or Prius C?

[Dr. Detroit]

We shopped for these cars - I was dead set on a Accent SE. Best interior of the bunch, very good looking, and had plenty of power with large trunk/hatch. Loved the integrated roof rack mounting points too.

Fit - Absolutely horrible interior, its bad in that cavern of cheapo plastic and options add up so they get spendy quick! Needs a refresh bad!

Ended up buying a Focus Titanium as the rebates/Discounts are very good and almost zero discount on Accent or Prius C so after rebates I was close to the Accent SE pricing - about $3K more and have a much nicer car.

Hwy I'm averaging 36mpg, city is mid 20's, for a 32 mpg combined and am getting close to 1000 miles on it so once I switch to synthetic mileage should go up as the car breaks itself in.

I would check out a Focus SE hatchback/sedan as well.

If your goal is MPG - Prius C.

 

[CraigRT]

Probably the Fit. Great little cars. Cavernous in the cargo area. Just massive.
MPG leaves something to be desired. That is why I ended up buying a Civic. It's more substantial feel, and similar MPG to Fit. (I wanted to buy a Fit originally)

 

[xanis]

I'd go with Kia Rio5. It's virtually identical to the Accent, I just like the styling more. For the price of the base Prius C, you can get either the Fit or Rio fully loaded. While the Prius C gets excellent millage, I think you'll quickly get board with its anemic power.

The Rio5 has a lot of robust features, is pretty roomy, and looks fantastic. Great gas millage. Comes with an eco and standard driving mode, and six speed transmission. Two things I don't like are the seats and the stiff ride. You really feel the road in it. It's good plenty of power though, yet gets 40mpg highway. Hyundai/Kia have come a long way. It's a solid built car and a vast improvement over the old Rio. Definitely something to look at.

You could also bump up to a nicely equipped Hyundai Elantra for the same price as the Prius C.

Once again you will sacrifice gas millage but you have to think about how long it will take you to recoup your savings by getting a pure gasser similarly equipped.

Going for test drives in a few weeks and the Rio5 is at the top of my list. Sat in one at the Philly car show and I liked it, and being able to get a fully-loaded one for a tidge more than $20K is pretty damn enticing. Looking at the Sonic and Fiesta too FWIW.

 

[Eli]

Having just sold a Fit (the previous revision, a 2008), I can say that it was a fun car to drive, with excellent handling, but the ride left a LOT to be desired. Driving it on the highway was really, really terrible. The gearing wasn't tall enough so the engine was buzzing at over 3000 rpm at typical highway speeds (60mph and up). It jostled me around a lot whether I was going fast or slow, and there was a ton of road noise.

It did have a lot of upsides. Like I said, great handling, really good steering feel, and it's short and easy to park. Midsize sedans feel like land barges by comparison. Surprisingly a lot of room for cargo, but it's so narrow that driver and passenger will bump elbows frequently. The other disadvantage is the base model I got had no cruise control. I think even the base has cruise now, but it's not a car I'd want to drive on the highway a lot.

Long story short, when I was a single guy who wanted to have some fun with my car and didn't care too much about a bumpy ride, the Fit was great for me. But as I got older, I started to hate it, and that culminated in my selling it.

Oh also the Fit doesn't get as good of gas mileage as you would think given how small it is. I averaged around 30 mpg in mostly highway driving over the life of the car. Which is good, but I gave up too much in space and comfort to justify it.

Heh, the Fit gets from 0-60 in about the same time as the CR-Z then, and it costs less and seats more.

You definitely wouldn't like an Insight then. I hope this never happens to me. No sign of it yet. In fact, I recently started running 65PSI in my tires.

 

[AstroManLuca]

You definitely wouldn't like an Insight then. I hope this never happens to me. No sign of it yet. In fact, I recently started running 65PSI in my tires.

Oh and I'm 27.

 

[Eli]

Oh and I'm 27.

I'm 30.

 

[Mide]

Yeah I also just sold off an 09 Fit which was after the refresh of the interior/exterior. Like AstroManLuca stated, it was a fun car in the city but highway driving was very loud and not comfortable at all. During high-wind days, the whole car shook and wobbled. The main thing that got me was the lack of power when going over the pass...it would shift into 3rd and be hella loud. If it had a bit of a larger engine that would've helped. The interior materials were very crappy too. Paint was coming off of the stereo and the side paneling felt like cheap cardboard over some children's toy cloth (Like Serpentor's GIJoe Cape). I did get a consistent 34mpg with mixed driving and a max of 40mpg on a flat highway road. The lack of steering wheel buttons for the radio sucked as well (only with Nav).

So yeah even if you drove in the city all the time the interior eventually did it for me. The car was able to haul any and everything...many-a-Ikea trips were completed in a fit. We got a whole King-sized bed back home with that car lol

AstroManLuca what car did you replace yours with?

 

[gus6464]

If op truly is looking at non Prius cs that are only two or three k cheaper I advise get the Prius. Prius will have a boring drive but most cars in this price range do and it will molest the competition at the gas station.

I drove my new Prius for 550 miles before I went to the gas station to fill it up for the first time. With 12 miles of gas left according to computer it cost me $39 to fill up at $4.05/gallon in SoCal. With a Focus or comparable car I would have had to fill up twice to get the same range.

 

[phucheneh]

Necroooooooo.....

 

[nerp]

Oh also the Fit doesn't get as good of gas mileage as you would think given how small it is. I averaged around 30 mpg in mostly highway driving over the life of the car. Which is good, but I gave up too much in space and comfort to justify it.

Wow. That is low for a call that small. Consider my 2-ton Charger gets 32-35 mpg highway easily (and that's not babying it) and I can fit 4 full size human clowns in the trunk. It's amazing what a transmission can do.