Need opinions on a 00 MT with 69,000 mi.

jharrison · 09-24-2011, 10:38 PM

I put a deposit down on a 2000 MT Insight with 69,000 mi. today. I drove 2 hrs. to look at the car and it seems to be in great shape and well cared for. Exterior is pristine with only one small door ding. Interior is very nice with one small cigarette ash burn behind the drivers seat and a very tiny one on the bottom of the driver seat. Not bad at all. Floor mats are a little dirty but other than that the interior is great. There is a small chip in the windshield.

I won't be able to pick up the car until next Tuesday and on the drive home I started having panic attacks about whether I made a good decision. The car seemed to drive fine even with two large adults in it. The gas mileage seemed to range anywhere from 40's to 50's during our 10 min. drive. I have to admit now that I don't recall paying attention to the battery readings. I was like a deer in headlights while looking at this thing.

The IMA battery has not been replaced and it is out of warranty now. I will get the car for $5400 if I don't back out.

Of course the battery situation is some concern and I'm having a hard time digesting what exactly you are up against if it goes out from this forum.

Can anyone (especially any experts) offer any comments opinions on this purchase. I get really excited about these cars but have to admit I don't know much about them technically.

Any thoughts or opinions shared would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Eli · 09-24-2011, 10:51 PM

Buy it. We'll help you through any troubles you have. Great price for the miles.

If $5400 is their list price, see if you can get them down to $5000 due to the battery concerns(If you feel comfortable), then put that money towards one of Mike's grid chargers. If the IMA battery is operating satisfactorily currently, it's likely that you could get tens of thousands more miles out of the car with a regularly scheduled grid charge.

Do you know any history of the car? Why does it have so few miles on it? Is it driven regularly?

Your experience is typical. There's way too much information to intake on a first drive in the Insight. Between the SoC, assist/regen, the FCD, trying to listen for strange noises and paying attention to the road, it's impossible to sit in an Insight and become learned in ten minutes.

jharrison · 09-24-2011, 11:10 PM

The first owner drove it to 52,000 mi. The man that I'm purchasing it from (second owner) put 17,000 mi. on it in the past year. He bought it to commute to a job and no longer needs it. He's been very pleased with the performance since he's had it. He seems like a good guy but that doesn't mean he's any more savvy than I am about the condition of the battery.

He put new tires on it this past January and had the brakes done. He also had the AC compressor replaced in August.

I just hate I didn't pay more attention to the charge. Very concerned about what I might be getting myself into regarding battery repairs.

Eli · 09-24-2011, 11:13 PM

Hmm. 17,000 miles in a year with no IMA light is a good sign.

Let's look at it another way. $5400 for an Insight with less than 70k miles is a great deal. Even if you have to buy a BetterBattery from Hybrid Battery Repair sometime in the next year, you're only at $7500. That's still less than some people are selling their low mileage 00 and 01's for. Nobody ever has to worry about buying a battery from Honda($2700) again.

It's difficult to determine the health of the battery just by driving it for a short time. You would probably have to drive it for an hour or more and do some specific discharge/charge tests, rather than just drive it normally. Depends on your local terrain.

But that's worst case scenario. In fact, the more I think about it the more unlikely it seems that this car has an original battery. It's more likely that the first owners had the battery replaced under warranty before they sold it.

The investment in the grid charger is worth it either way. They are required equipment to keep the battery in an Insight healthy. With a little luck, you wouldn't have to have the battery replaced for another 2-3 years.

jharrison · 09-24-2011, 11:24 PM

What about the BCM and the MCM. Is it a given that those would have to be replaced too?

Eli · 09-24-2011, 11:31 PM

No. It is unnecessary to replace them, especially for Honda's insanely exorbitant prices.

I'm not sure if you caught my edit, but it seems unlikely to me that this is an original battery in this car. Do you have the VIN? Call Honda and see what all has been done to the car, they will have record.

jharrison · 09-24-2011, 11:36 PM

The current owner said the car fax only showed one repair. He contacted the Honda dealership and those showed it was taken in for a dash panel malfunction. The dealership said they could not recreate the problem. The current owner said there have been so issues with the dash display since he's had it. If the battery had been replaced under warranty would/should it show up on the car fax report?

Eli · 09-24-2011, 11:40 PM

No, it wouldn't show up under a Carfax. At least I don't think? I've never heard of such a thing. Honda is the only one you can get the information from.

They will be able to tell you if the battery has ever been replaced and if the ECU has been replaced under the recall.

kaypee171 · 09-24-2011, 11:52 PM

AC compressor? on a 2000?

Eli · 09-25-2011, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaypee171

AC compressor? on a 2000?

???

It seems that you're suggesting the first model year didn't come with A/C as an option. I'm not sure if that's true or not? But you could have it added to any year. #3 has A/C.