comments on my mechanic's opinions?

[yogaguy]

My mechanic has owned multiple hybrids and has built a couple of all-electric vehicles. I'm still an Insight wannabee. Here's his response when I told him I was looking for a 1G Insight.

"I am not sure the insight is the car you expect. They get really good mileage on the highway, but not so great around town. It has to do with the fact that the electric motor is only a booster, not a primary motive source. They are a bit fussy to work on, but that doesn't matter since you have a good hybrid mechanic. You do not want an insight going in to the local service station.

They are a cult car. This keeps the price higher than it really "should" be. Good for selling-not buying. It is a big car with no interior space. Kinda backwards from what I look for.

Not a bad car, but I think you might do better with $ 9k."

I'm mostly interested in opinions about the in-town mileage and secondarily interior space, tho any comments are certainly welcome. Thanks!

[Eli]

Hmm..

He's smoking the good stuff if he thinks the Insight is a big car with no interior space. The Insight is a small car with no interior space. Nobody in their right mind would consider the Insight big, it's a tiny 1800lb two seater car with a 76HP engine.

They're capable of getting spectacular mileage on the highway, but their in-city milage is still good; you would expect at least 50MPG city. He's backwards; the only time the electric motor really helps is when you are in town. It doesn't do much of anything on the open highway.

They are a cult car. Their prices are higher than they should be because of their spectacular mileage. Their prices tend to follow gas prices; with gas prices on the rise, so are Insight prices.

You don't need to spend 9k on one if you keep your eye out. That would be for a flawless, low mileage specimen. FWIW, we have $4000 into Insight #2, but I acknowledge that we got a good deal on it. I just pulled a 89.0MPG 51 mile round trip in it last weekend. Not bad for 443,000 miles.

They are not fussy to work on. They're one of the easiest modern cars I've ever had the pleasure of wrenching on. There is a surprising amount of room in the engine bay for such a small, modern car.

There is nothing that compares to the Insight fuel economy wise. It really just depends on what you need and want.

So, what do you need/want?

[gsfent]

Your mechanic is entitled to his opinion, but given his penchant for working on hybrids, he does not really know this car.

For such a small car, the room inside is suprisingly good. Two people fit fine and you can put plenty of items in the storage compartment. There is also a small "secret" storage compartment in the rear.

Fuel mileage is outstanding. I have never had a tank with less than 47 and that was tank in which I was beating on it!!! Typical mixed commute for me is 55-58 without AC, knock off about 3-5 mpg for AC. Only special driving technique is gentler acceleration (but generally keep up with traffic) and trying to use lean burn when possible. I cruise at least the speed limits.

It is true the IMA battery is a booster and the car cannot run on battery power alone, like the Toyota setup. The battery is generally used in city driving, occassionally on the highway.

Toyota/Lexus are generally rated higher in the city than highway because you can run on batteries alone, like my RX 400h. That means infinite mpg, and you can run on batteries up to about 30 mph for a few minutes if you have a light foot. But no car sold in America by any manufacturer has ever been rated higher than the first generation insight.

They are relatively easy to work in mechanically. Nothing too fancy. It is simply a 3 cylinder 1 liter engine. It has multiple catalytic converters and multiple O2 sensors. Other than that, electric power steering and indexed spark plugs, I don't think there is much else different,

So, with all due to respect to your mechanic, he needs to actually drive one of these cars for a while so he can recalibrate his opinion!

Regards,
Jerry

[yogaguy]

Thanks guys. Your information re-inforced my opinions of the 1G Insight. I've always been drawn to them, and nothing is scaring me away now. I may even go for one of the low-mile, flawless specimens. My mechanic is generally very good, but he does seem to be going on second-hand (or third-hand) opinions in this case. Now I just gotta find my Insight.

[drktrpr]

ditto to what everybody said above. I've never found the insight's size to be more limiting than any other care I've owned.

Here's a pic of a 8x12x2 board I brought home in mine:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._1509723_n.jpg

heck here's me traveling to Maine years ago:
dennisjudd.com pic's :: Random Pics :: full_car

great car imho...if only it could hold child seats, lol. :P

[ffearless]

Buying an Insight would probably be disappointing to your mechanic as they tend to go a long way with little maintenance.

[E27006]

Not mentioned in any of the posts is that the Insight is fun to drive, you sit low relative to road which amplifies the sensation of speed, the steering is precise and direct with modest body roll.

The battery gauges , trip meters and fuel consumption gauges give feedback as to your performance, with their assistance, you may hone your skills as a safe efficient driver.

It is unlikely we will see anything similar to the G1 Insight in the future, the car was created, as a challenge for Honda's engineers, with little regard to cost of construction.
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