US IMA warranty 10 year extension UPDATED to all 50 states!

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

Originally Posted by MN Driver

As long as the 12v system is still up, I should be fine to drive it across the country to get it home I figure.

Bring a 10mm socket, a Torx T30 and my phone number and you can definitely drive it cross-country (if the 12V battery is any good).

Call me if the battery idiot light illuminates.

[Insightful Trekker]

Originally Posted by MN Driver

When do the first Insight's start hitting the 10 year mark?

AFAIK warranty "time" starts from the date of delivery to the original purchaser. You should also make _sure_ that the vehicle still has an enforcable warranty. Should it have been declaired a total loss, i.e. accident damage, flood damage that all warranties are null and void.

Call any Honda dealer with the VIN and they should be able to tell you. _BUT_ such is not 100% fool proof. There can be a "lag" time from declaration to entering into Honda's tracking system. How long you ask? I don't know but I'd bet no more than a few weeks.


HTH!

[MN Driver]

Originally Posted by Insightful Trekker

AFAIK warranty "time" starts from the date of delivery to the original purchaser. You should also make _sure_ that the vehicle still has an enforcable warranty. Should it have been declaired a total loss, i.e. accident damage, flood damage that all warranties are null and void.

Call any Honda dealer with the VIN and they should be able to tell you. _BUT_ such is not 100% fool proof. There can be a "lag" time from declaration to entering into Honda's tracking system. How long you ask? I don't know but I'd bet no more than a few weeks.


HTH!

I plan to check the VIN with one of the VIN checking services out there, it's what I did for the last car I bought and the unlimited month that I bought spotted a few salvage cars along the way and it was nice to check the car that I was selling at the time too to make sure there wasn't any errors on record. I'll check with Honda via the VIN, do I need any more information other than the VIN to find out, could I just see a VIN posted online and call Honda to see or do I need more than that?

One of the reasons why I want to know the age of the car is not just for the warranty of the battery, but also because in the state of Minnesota, a car that is 10 years old becomes free of the 6.5% sales tax and instead an 'in-lieu' tax of $10 is due. It does require purchase price to be under a certain value to qualify as well, I'll have to look up the details. We also don't have emissions testing or any other inspections to deal with either as emissions has been discontinued since the late 90s.

So if I managed to get a car that was 10+ years, I'd only have to deal with this
$10.00 in-lieu tax
$10.50 plate fee
$ 8.00 title fee
$10.00 transfer tax
$ 3.50 public safety vehicle fee
$ 8.50 filing fee

$50.50 total, but I think there might be another $10 fee that I forgot so it would be around $60 probably.
In 2006 I gave the woman behind the counter $40 and got change back but I didn't need new plates so something has changed since then. Every year I think I give $20 for the registration renewal tax.

Minnesota is very old car friendly in this respect, we have tons of older Hondas and Toyotas on the road that look like they will be around until they rust out and their wheels fall off. Which says wonders about their reliability, less as much about steel body automotive construction.

At this point, unless I decide to wait a year, which I don't think I'll be doing, I think I'll just pay the sales tax, it should be around $300 or less for me anyway and I might be paying about that much to fly out to buy one and the warranty is always a nice bonus. ...but it still factors into the cost of buying the car so if the battery is fine and the mileage isn't too bad, or even if the battery is bad but the price is still appropriate, I'd know it sweetens the deal a little.

[Homerjs49]

I have been calling Honda pretty regularly lately regarding my 2000. The warranty rep told me the IMA Battery warranty has been upped again to 157,000 miles. Anyone else heard this?

[Willie Williford]

Yes. That has been common knowledge on this site for a long time. It had to do with the "speedometer error" on several Honda models. Use the search function if you need more information.

Willie

[jtmco]

I picked up my car from the dealer this morning where they have replaced my battery pack under warranty. My car is a 2001 with 109,408 miles and I've owned it since Feb. 2004. The car sat quite a bit (not 100%) between Dec. 18, 2009 and Feb. 20, 2009 due to snow and waiting for me to do the 105k mile service and I think that put it over the edge. Very recently, the charge indicator would go to 2 bars, charge to 1/3 and then quickly go to 100% so I thought it was coming. The codes that Honda put on the ticket were P1600 and P1449. I dropped the car off on Tuesday morning (with no appointment), they looked at it Wednesday and it was ready on Friday night. My only complaint was that they were a bit sloppy in putting the carpet back in place.

One last note - my mileage "seemed" to drop on the past few months, but I also needed an alignment and I had not been doing a good job of checking my tire pressures so I cannot say for sure that it was the battery.

Sort of feels like I won the lottery......

Jim

[tomg]

Hi all! Thanks for ealier replies! A new issue has surfaced:

My IMA lit up today (2001 Insight, 68,000.0 miles on odometer).

The battery recharged pretty quick, electric assist seems to kick in as it has, light has stayed on.

I just picked up this car last month, put about 500 miles on it so far, and am a growing proud new owner with Insight!

Is this common? Do I need a new Battery pack? Is the car going to blow--up... ?

The light stays on. My wife says I may need an oil change or some other routeen maintanence (she owns 2005 Prius).

I am going to bring to Honda dealer tomorrow but am looking for some insight into potential expectations. I really am clueless on tech-specs w/this (or other cars) and am advid bicyclist!

Thanks for any/all feedback in advance.
tomg

[aisbell]

Originally Posted by tomg

My IMA lit up today (2001 Insight, 68,000.0 miles on odometer).

Originally Posted by tomg

Is this common? Do I need a new Battery pack? Is the car going to blow--up... ?

The light stays on. My wife says I may need an oil change or some other routeen maintanence (she owns 2005 Prius).

I am going to bring to Honda dealer tomorrow but am looking for some insight into potential expectations.

An IMA light is unlikely to be caused by a routine maintenance problem and more likely to be caused by an IMA system problem. Most common is an IMA battery problem. If the dealer reads a diagnostic trouble code that indicates an IMA battery problem, Honda doesn't do anything but replace the battery. If your Insight hasn't been reconstructed, this replacement should occur under warranty.

[tomg]

aisbell and others,

thanks for the support and feedback! i just commuted to work with repaired vehicle. Honda installed a new battery pack with the goods needed to use this car for at least another 100,000.0 miles!

with this new battery pack installed, there is only a 12 month/12,000.0 mile warrenty. i asked if another 10 year/156,000.0 mile warrenty would apply, dealer-service man smiled and talked profit loss. he also stated that it cost Honda between $4,600.00 to $7,700.00 to correct this issue, per car. he said he had replaced battery-packs on 3 Insights in 10 years there, one was a '01 Insight with almost 400,000.0 miles on it.

is there a statistically based evaluation of Insight Battery-pack replacements, failure frequency curves, cost analysis per year of manufacture available. i have yet to google search.

thanks again for responces! it was good to get this car on the road again with Honda standing behind their product! now to get the front license plate attached..... .
tomg

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

Originally Posted by tomg

aisbell and others,

thanks for the support and feedback! i just commuted to work with repaired vehicle. Honda installed a new battery pack with the goods needed to use this car for at least another 100,000.0 miles!

with this new battery pack installed, there is only a 12 month/12,000.0 mile warrenty.

The pack was replaced under warranty. Therefore the new battery does not have its' own warranty, it is still covered under the old one. Honda might be nice and cover it for a minimum of a year, but they don't have to. When your original 10/150K is up, it's up.

Originally Posted by tomg

i asked if another 10 year/156,000.0 mile warrenty would apply, dealer-service man smiled and talked profit loss. he also stated that it cost Honda between $4,600.00 to $7,700.00 to correct this issue, per car. he said he had replaced battery-packs on 3 Insights in 10 years there, one was a '01 Insight with almost 400,000.0 miles on it.

is there a statistically based evaluation of Insight Battery-pack replacements, failure frequency curves, cost analysis per year of manufacture available. i have yet to google search.

What are you looking for? I can give you trends, but not fixed info.