This seller managed to trade in a vehicle, presumably worth less than the voucher, otherwise they would’ve straight up sold it. What they ended up paying for the Fit is $15480 — 4500 = $10980. That $11000 is presumably financed because if you had over $10000 in disposable income, I can’t see how you’d be hard-up for money. Shopping around you could get 5% and beat the 7% average, and of course the auto dealer may want a piece of that pie and try to beat 5%. In any case, we’re looking at just over $200 for a 5 year loan. A $200 car payment is quite affordable if your other expenses aren’t outrageous. If this seller could not get a $200 monthly payment, they’ve got bad credit or they don’t know how to negotiate or shop around for the best rate. In any case, the monthly payment would have been disclosed to them ahead of time, and they would’ve known if they could afford it, impulse buy or not. Their excuse about overextending themselves sounds dubious. Anyhow, they’re willing to knock $1000 off their asking price, which is $14480. After paying off their loan, they pocket $3500 in cash. So unless their clunker was worth more than $3500, they made money, perhaps up to an extra $1000 or more, not to mention all the time saved from not having to post their car or haggle over the price.

Am I being cynical? Perhaps this person did just make a financial mistake. I would’ve given them the benefit of the doubt until I saw this listing posted 2 days before:

I mean, really? Who turns around and resells a high-demand car with only 14 miles on it? Or one that’s still at the dealer? Two different people in two days?

At least the program is more or less doing its job, and the realist in me understands that people abuse situations all the time. There’s always a few bad eggs no matter what.

So through research I managed find out that Honda Civic 3-doors and 5-doors are sold in Europe and other select markets. It seems to have been designed and manufactured specifically for the continent. What the Honda designers failed to realize is that something that is universally practical is also universally appealing. Some car owners, yes even those in America, would prefer more storage space that a 5-door has over a 4-door without having to upgrade to a larger vehicle. Then get this. The Civic 4-door has a 40/60 split rear seat as an option. For the 5-door it’s standard and what’s even cooler about the ones in the 5-door is that not only do they fold flat, but they also fold up! Brilliant! The problem with 40/60 split seats in sedans is you have to deal with that annoying hole between the trunk space and rear space that’s never quite big enough for your bulky long items. It’s been a pet peave of mine with the Honda Accord and Mitsubishi Mirage I’ve owned and it’s why I’ve been researching hatchbacks.

Besides oozing practicality the European Civic is downright sporty-looking in it’s base class, not just the Type R and Type S trims. Granted I like the lines on the US Civic, it just doesn’t appeal to me as much as the European model. I guess Honda USA wanted to protect their investment in the Fit. I mean who’d want that if they got to test drive a Civic 5-door.

Yet I suppose fair is fair. The Civic 4-door sedan isn’t available in most European markets except in the hybrid trim. I guess Honda doesn’t want to take on the Mazda3 5-door, the current king in its class.