Parts Interchangeability: Insight & other Honda's

[dtlee]

After much searching, I do believe that the Insight is probably the most unique car I've ever owned. On top of the rear skirts, the engine, transmission, hybrid system (duh) is all one of a kind. This presents a problem to me as I'm used to cars where these parts can be interchanged. Even Porsche parts are often interchangeable between years of 911's.

What parts do we know are interchangeable with our Insights?
Shift knobs?
Suspension components? I can't find aftermarket shocks anywhere for this car.
Bearings, axles...
Interior: Seats, Door handles (mine have lost their chrome), steering wheels?

I'm guessing we have parts that will interchange with Civic's and maybe in the future components from the more popular HCH2 will make their way into our Insights. I've done many upgrades to my other cars by simply swapping in compatible parts that have been redesigned for other cars. I hope this is a possibility for the Insight.

There doesn't seem to be a list of this stuff on this website yet. Maybe we can start it here?

Last Edited 2/24/08
Civic HX wheels (14")
Civic VX wheels (13")
S2000 steering wheel
Any 90+ Honda shiftknob

[HafNHaf]

the steering wheel from an S2000 will fit, and is leather-wrapped.

[budomove]

honda shift knob threading never changed through the 80s 90s til now. I have a 93 integra shift knob on my insight, the stock knob is so ugly, I had to change it immediately. the s2000 steering wheel is exactly like the insight, but with leather as mentioned. search "springs" and you will find that you can buy springs from gm or somewhere and cut a small portion off and they will match up. Saves a lot of dough there, shocks i dunno about. The rest of the suspension is pretty much unique to the insight.
frank

[bryankwalton]

Just as important as knowing what parts are interchangeable, is Insight owners recognizing the rarity of their parts. As most rare and/or old car owners know, the parts are valuable. When my 1984 diesel VW Rabbit died last year, I started parting out the car. Sure, some of the parts were worth considerable amounts of money. But more important to me than making a certain amount of money on its parts, was ensuring that many of the rare parts (that can't be purchased anymore) found their way into the hands of other VW Rabbit owners who are looking for them, as opposed to those parts getting landfilled or melted down as scrap metal, etc.

Insight parts are going to be very rare and hard to find in the future. I'd seriously encourage any and all Insight owners to ensure that their Insights are never hauled off for junk. If your car gets totaled, etc., please offer up the good parts off the car to others who might be able to make use of them.

Cheers,
Bryan

[dtlee]

That's an interesting point, Bryan. It's not often that a Honda (or any other Japanese car other than the occasional RX-7 or NSX) becomes a rarity. On top of this, Insight owners are typically electronics geeks and not motorheads. Whereas the NSX has forums packed with owners willing to buy aftermarket parts like NSX Prime, the Insight was engineered with such an obscure objective in mind that no aftermarket developer can simply buy some exhausts from China, slap a cool logo on them, and sell them to the masses.

I first got interested in Insights when I saw that drag cars were being built out of the chassis. Learning more, I found that they are so jam-packed with technology, that I had to have one to get obsessed an learn all about it. Only the Prius is a more advanced display of engineering talent, IMO.

Anyway, yes. We need to do something about the parts situation because only 12,000 Insights (according to this website) were sold and this is the sort of thing that drives Porsche prices through the roof.