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Hi There,
I'm thinking of buying a small car for daily use. Any tips whch is better: 2004-2006 Toyota Vitz or 2004-2006 Honda Fit? Any watchouts? My budget is around 7,000, what other cars can you recommend for me? Thanks! Cheers!
While the Honda has more interior space, it also has a CVT transmission that has a poor reputation for reliability and high cost of repair. Therefore, the Toyota Vitz would be the better bet as it has a great reputation for reliability.
The Suzuki Swift (2005 on) is another very good model, but I don't think you'd get one within your budget. Therefore, in this price range and all things considered (ie; reliability, year, economy, value for money etc) the Vitz would be the car that ticks all the boxes and the one we'd recommend.
Thanks for your inputs. By the way, can you explain me briefly what is CVT? So everytime I'll check a car, I need to make sure that they do not have CVT?
CVT stands for Continuously Variable Transmission. The main difference you may notice when you drive a car with a CVT compared with a conventional automatic is that there are no noticable gear changes, as the ratios are constantly changing up and down with speed.
The reasons why many manufacturers have now adopted CVT transmissions are cost of production, weight saving and fuel economy. Having said that, depending on driving style, fuel economy can suffer if driven hard due to the flair (or high engine revs, which sounds like a manual car with a slipping clutch). Driven carefully though, a CVT will give fuel economy benefits as the engine is always working in its optimum rev range.
So, while manufacturers tell us that the reliability issues related to earlier CVT's has been addressed with newer versions, unless you are buying new or very near new, CVT's are probably best avoided. A couple of models that had particular reliability issues were the Honda Jazz/Fit and the Nissan Primera, but there are there are many others with CVT problems and high cost of repair or lack of parts availability too.
Therefore, on and earlier model car, it's best to go for a conventional automatic rather than a CVT.
That's great. Thank you for all of your inputs especially regarding CVT. I'll take note of that during my car search. I'll definitely go for the conventional automatic cars. Thanks again! Cheers!
Yes, it would be advisable. One more thing I should add is that some Japanese Import Vitz (Echo/Yaris equivalent models) also have a CVT, so look out for that too and try to get one with a conventional automatic transmission.
Hi I'm looking to buy a imported Vitz 1.5 auto 2005 with CVT. Any news on how reliable this model is taking into consideration that it is aToyota ( reliable?} or any other alternatives that are also good on gas. Looking to spend up to about $9000 , but most probably around the $7500 to $8500 mark. I travel mainly from Whangaparaoa to Glenfield for work.
I'd ba cautious about any car from this era with a CVT. The Honda Jazz/Fit is more widely known in New Zealand for the CVT problems because it was sold new in New Zealand with the CVT, whereas the Vitz/Echo/Yaris didn't have the CVT for the NZ market but did for the Japanese market. However, all of these CVTs from this era could be trouble.
If you're considering a Toyota, they're great but try to find one with the conventional automatic transmission.
Others to consider would be the Suzuki Swift or Mazda2 - but again, ask the question about CVT as although NZ market models didn't have CVTs, many of the imports had them.