I want to buy a Honda Insight in red that is a 5 speed manual. Preferably under $6K and under 120,000 miles on the odo. Clean title only. Doesn't matter if it's a 2000-2006
Last edited by InsightLight; 05-10-2011 at 07:58 PM.
Good luck, not to say it will be hard but recently at the auction 1st gen insights have been pulling stupid money and have been selling for 1000-2000+ above high retail. I just picked one up out of Vermont with 122,000 for $6500 but it needs 4 Tires RE92's M&B ($420.00), an o2 Sensor ($250), and an oil change ($25.00). Only good thing overall is the IMA Battery pack was just replaced under Honda's extended battery replacement program so it has 0 miles on it.
No kidding! They are selling ridiculously high!... my whole point in getting one of these is to SAVE MONEY...but if I am going to be paying for my gas savings upfront, I might as well stick to my 2002 toyota prius and wait until a decent deal comes along. Yeah, there are plenty of silvers, but I only want one in 5spd that's red. I see one on ebay right now that is a 2000 with around 58k miles and looks super clean...it is on sale for practically $13,000. For just $5K more, I could buy a brand spanking new 2011 CRZ in Red w/6spd MT and tons of options and won't have to worry about anything covered under warranty.
Down here in Georgia it has been my experience that the used car dealers are afraid of these cars. They hear that it will cost $5000 or more to replace the IMA batteries and just don't want to deal with them. That is how I got such a good deal on mine.
I bought mine with the full intention and calculating into the costs a refurbishment by Ron up there in NY on the battery. I appear to have gotten lucky and don't need it.
What I'm saying is maybe you should look for an Insight with an IMA battery issues factoring in the cost of a refurbishment. It could be easier to find. Or even one that is still under factory warranty that the owner is unaware of... Who would think that the vehicle's battery has a 150,000 mile warranty?
I hear what your saying...as somebody who is selling one it's hard to gauge where the fair price is (especially since I'm trying to factor in the whole audio aspect of it with mine) on cars like these. The KBB value for my car was above 8k but that doesn't take into fact the new IMA battery and stereo.
All of this makes me even more thankful that we were able to find such a good deal on Insight #2. I can see that I was right to become a little frantic when gas prices started rising.
$2500 plus $1500 in work(wheels, tires, transmission, clutch, O2 sensor) makes it a $4000 Insight. We don't expect to have to put anything else into it for a while.
Honda's extended warranty is certainly worth something, but mileage just doesn't matter much. It's certainly not worth another $6000 over what we've already paid to have 375,000 less miles, IMO.
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Insight #1 - Silver '01 5MT @ 158,388 as of 7/11 - Best Tank: 84.5MPG over 807mi
Insight #2 - Silver '01 5MT @ 450,000 as of 1/12 - Best Tank: 86.0MPG over 800mi
Insight #3 - Silver '00 5MT, MIMA #163P, BCM Gauge, OBDIIC&C Gauge, BetterBattery @ 228,869 as of 1/12 - Best Tank: 78.4mpg over 687mi
I agree with Eli on this one, people focus too much on mileage... these cars will go a lot of miles. The ones which are driven frequently actually are more likely to have a good hybrid battery.
I feel like I really lucked out with mine, got it in March just before the prices started going crazy. Plus the used car dealer didn't realize the battery was still under warranty and thought the whole thing hybrid thing was a boondoggle. The price some people are asking these days just seems nuts to me. The point of these things is to save money. Even at $4 gas you could be driving an old Corolla for a long time time for $13k. Hell even an old beat up Crown Vic.
The price some people are asking these days just seems nuts to me. The point of these things is to save money. Even at $4 gas you could be driving an old Corolla for a long time time for $13k. Hell even an old beat up Crown Vic.
EXACTLY!!! THANK YOU!!! ... I'll stick to my babe magnet...aka 2002 Toyota Prius until an under $6K deal comes along. If mileage is not that big of a deal for this type of vehicle then I'll consider a higher mileage one... but being realistic... I guess I am asking for too much to find an 11 year old car with under 120K miles on the odo....that's just a little over 10K miles a year.... and I just finished putting another 10K on my prius from nov-last april. SMH.
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WTB: 5spd Honda Insight in Red
