Noisy and Not a Good Fit

The Haselwood Times, a weekly advertising circular published by the Bremerton-based Haselwood Auto Group, always includes a testimonial letter from a happy customer. This week’s letter heaps praise on two employees at the West Hills Detail Center who helped the owner mitigate excessive road noise in his 2009 Honda Sport Fit. After reading it I crossed the Fit off my list of possible new rides. It also made me question the wisdom of publishing any customer letter that describes a new car design or production defect in detail and then thanks the service department for dealing with it.

There’s no question on whether the customer likes his new car. But during his daily 45-minute drive to work he noted excessive highway noise, mostly from the tires. After researching a solution, he and the Detail Center selected full undercoating as the best option. He was impressed by their thoroughness in applying the treatment and also the results (there was no mention of cost). For example, he now sets the stereo volume at 14-16 when previously he needed a volume level of 28-30 to hear the music clearly over the road noise. He concluded the letter by saying his commute is “much more enjoyable and relaxing.”

In 1980 I bought a new Honda Accord. It accelerated and handled well, got 30 mpg, needed minimal repairs, and was noisy under just about any driving condition. But that was 30 years ago. I’m not saying later-generation Accords are noisy. Nor am I putting the Fit, a gas-sipping subcompact, in the Accord’s class. But I do think that with an MSRP of $16,260 for the Fit Sport model, a customer shouldn’t have to add undercoating to make road noise tolerable. Either the car should be redesigned or it should be undercoated at the factory. Instead of running a letter about solving a road-noise problem, the dealer should advise the customer about it before the sale.

Or perhaps nothing has changed since I bought my last new vehicle (a 1999 Toyota Tacoma), and it is still up to you, the customer, to thoroughly research your purchase on the Internet. Alerted to the issue of road noise in the Fit, I easily found an online forum describing several solutions. I’m not going to buy a Fit, so my research stopped there. However, now I’m wondering if the Haselwood Auto Group ran the letter on purpose. Do you think?