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: 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: 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 post Nutmegger Manuals: 2009 Honda Fit Vs. 2014 Jeep Patriot appeared first on The Autopian.
