Car Troubles

A little over two years ago, in preparation for moving to Los Angeles, I decided to trade in my little pickup truck for a car that could road trip across the country and be suitable in the city. After much research, conversation with people I care about, and deliberation, I decided on a brand new 2011 Ford Fiesta. While, yes, it is a cheaper car, it was my first ever large purchase (aside from college tuition), and I was very pleased with the outcome. I named her Gemma.

Elvis was a fan of Gemma.

Fast forward 2 years later, and Gemma treated Jeremy and me well for the duration of those two years. She's made the drive from eastern Pennsylvania to Los Angeles TWICE, she's driven on Kentucky back roads, up and down I-95 around Philadelphia, and all over the state of California- we took Gemma on our honeymoon all through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, up the Pacific Coast Highway to Oxnard, to wine country, and to Monterrey, and she's driven countless hours on the 405 stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Never a complaint.

And then 29,000 miles happened.

And then she stalled on us (an automatic car, mind you) in the middle of the 405 (luckily an easy fix, just put her in park and turned her back on). Then she stalled on Jeremy as he slowed down to merge onto I-5. Then she stalled on us as we stopped at a red light. Those three instances happened throughout the month of August this year, just over the 2-year mark of owning this car. So we lightly considered trading it in for something that had the reliability we were expecting from the Fiesta. We talked about it for a few days, halfway decided yes, made an appointment with a Honda dealership to look at a Certified Pre-Owned Honda Fit, and then Gemma started breaking down so badly a few days before that appointment, that we weren't able to make it to the Honda dealership.

That would be last Wednesday, as we drove our 27 mile commute to work at 6:45am, and Gemma started making a most HORRENDOUS noise every so often as I hit the brake pedal. This noise grew in frequency the farther in to our commute that we got, and by the time I dropped Jeremy off at Zefr and I drove the mile back to my place of employment, I was at a complete loss as to what to do. I'm no car person, and the noise sounded dangerous. I called Ford, they sent a tow-truck under the warranty that thankfully has 6000 miles left on it, and took it to the nearest service department in Santa Monica.

Apparently the service department was too busy to take a look at Gemma on Wednesday, and Jeremy and I are forever thankful for his co-worker Erin who drove us home to her apartment in Sherman Oaks, and our good friend Emily who picked us up there on Wednesday night and drove us home to Burbank. Emily and Jonny also lent us their car to drive to and from work on Thursday. We have amazing friends.

We were able to pick up the car on Thursday evening, but the mechanic hadn't had time that day to check out the transmission (which I asked him NUMEROUS times to do), but had found a code telling him something was wrong with the Throttle Body. So that got replaced, and we were told the transmission could be looked at the next day. But we needed a car to drive, so I drove it home while Jeremy drove home Emily and Jonny's car. The noises started up again about 15 miles into the commute home. And got so much worse on the commute back to work on Friday morning that we drove straight to the dealership in Santa Monica, dropped it off, and utilized their shuttle service to get to work Friday morning. It's a good thing we always get to work ridiculously early to begin with.

We spent much of Friday having no idea if we'd have a car to drive home that evening, and there were plenty of what-ifs. We had dinner reservations for Jeremy's birthday, we hardly ever go out, especially to somewhere as nice as we had reservations at, so of course there was the potential that day, of all days, to have to cancel it. We also had the appointment with the Honda dealership on Saturday morning, and we were really hoping to bring in Gemma in working condition and trade her in that morning and just be done with it all.

BUT, as there always seems to be a but in these situations, a call to the service department around 3pm found us with a clutch that needs replaced. Thankfully under warranty. And apparently Gemma is still safe to drive. So, we got a ride to Ford service from my employer later that day when she got home (so thankful for ALL of the people who have been helping us out), picked up the car that still made plenty of bad-sounding noises, and got to our dinner reservations on time. So now we're driving around our noisy car while waiting the estimated 2-3 weeks for the clutch to get in, then we'll figure out how we're getting to and from work during the 2 days it will take to get it fixed, and then, hopefully, all will be okay, and we'll head over to the Honda Dealership shortly after that and find something more reliable.

We really did like our little green car, but with all this hassle, and with plenty of people all over the Internet griping about similar and worse situations, with fewer miles and with more miles than ours, we're figuring that the best thing to do right now is to get a car that's been proven to not have issues. So, Honda it is. We're definitely going with something that is certified pre-owned. We're looking to get a 2011 or 2012 Fit, as that is actually the other car I deliberated about getting back in 2011, then ended up with the Fiesta, but it has also come to our attention that the 2010 (and some 2011) Insights are also quite affordable. We commute 54 miles round trip every weekday, and the MPG of the Fiesta was a large draw(28/37). The Fit's MPGs aren't quite as nice- 27/33- and the Insight, as it is a hybrid, boasts a much better 40/43. We are in city traffic for a good 3/4's of our commute.

The Internet research I've done has basically said that the Fit is a better car. More space in the interior, drives nicer, and many other things. However, there are also many people who love the Insight (while there are many who do not). The Insights are remodeled and new as of 2010, I think, so that's also a drawback, as we want to get something that we know has the reliability of a true Honda. (We also found an affordable Civic Hybrid, but they do not have good reviews at all.) We want to test drive an Insight to see what we actually think of how it drives, as it seems as though many people have qualms about that.

So, a question, friends, car fanatics, everyone in between, does anyone out there have experience with a Honda Insight? How about the Honda Fit? I already know that I liked the Fit a lot when I test drove it back in 2011. And it seems to be a proven model that will stand the test of time. I just can't get my mind off of the MPG difference in regard to our commute and how often we somehow find ourselves on the road even without work.

I'd love any and all insight (hah) you can give!