New owner of a 2001 Blue 5 spd

[madapple]

Hello,
I have been reading all I can about these great little cars. I just bought and will take delivery tommorrow of my 2001 5 speed. I drove the car about 20 miles today teasting it out. It has 160k miles and runs and drives great. It has no warning light and seems to charge and assist as it should. I would get anywhere from 40-100mpg depending on the road, the Lmpg is 49.8 on the car. It is a little rough on the outside, I will be painting it, but the interior is in great shape and the engine is clean. I am paying $4200 for the car, I thought that was good, he was asking $5000. It does have new, correct tires on it, I will check the air pressure.
I look forward to many fun days to come!!!! I live in South Central Indana, is there many close to here?
Thanks
Darrell

[Ablinkin]

Nice and welcome to the board. I also own a 2001 Blue MT. I'm sure you'll really enjoy it like I have.

[madapple]

I got the car this afternoon and have driven it about 75 miles,, over hills and thru towns on all 2 lane state roads, speeds from 30-65 and have a average of 63.7mpg now. Is that about right??? I am tickeled with it.
I put 40psi in the tires and am learning some of the driving tricks I have read about here..... I am loving this car. It has 163k on the odometer, but drives like 60k.
I feel like a kid with his first car,, I am 57 and have had a couple hundred cars over the years..... ths one tops the list for mileage.
Darrell

Still looking for owners around here.

[Eli]

I'd say there's room to improve those numbers, depending on the specific driving conditions you were experiencing. The Insight has a fairly steep learning curve to get numbers in the 70s and 80s. Just keep experimenting, you'll get the hang of it.

[diamondlarry]

Congrats on your purchase Darrel! It seems we are in opposite ends of Indiana as I am in the north central area in the Elkhart area. I second Eli's comment about the steep learning curve with these awesome cars. I drove a Prius (an '07 which I still have) for about 3 years and, while the Insight is capable of significantly higher mpg, the Prius is a little easier to reach it's best than it is to hit the Insight's best.

[Balboa]

Don't worry about mpg, there are so many variables that dictate what you get. Head wind, tail wind, drafting, etc. If you drive in a hilly area or your commute involves lots of hills you will not get 70-80mpg.

If you drive in a lot of stop and go traffic with cars behind you that will tail gate you your not going to get 70-80mpg, probably around 55mpg or less in constant stop and go. Of course I'm talking regular driving however. I was getting bad mpg for the past 2 months then all of a sudden I get 68mpg on a 70 mile trip with rolling hills, and the bucking mysteriously disappears after a new tank of fuel?

That is very very strange if you ask me. Maybe someone is putting some voodoo in my gas when I'm not looking, but I can't help but think the bucking is some how fuel related.

I don't even know why it's not bucking any more, and I ordered gaskets to clean the egr passages already. I could of saved myself $40. Oh well.

[Eli]

Originally Posted by Balboa

Don't worry about mpg, there are so many variables that dictate what you get. Head wind, tail wind, drafting, etc. If you drive in a hilly area or your commute involves lots of hills you will not get 70-80mpg.

If you drive in a lot of stop and go traffic with cars behind you that will tail gate you your not going to get 70-80mpg, probably around 55mpg or less in constant stop and go. Of course I'm talking regular driving however. I was getting bad mpg for the past 2 months then all of a sudden I get 68mpg on a 70 mile trip with rolling hills, and the bucking mysteriously disappears after a new tank of fuel?

That is very very strange if you ask me. Maybe someone is putting some voodoo in my gas when I'm not looking, but I can't help but think the bucking is some how fuel related.

I don't even know why it's not bucking any more, and I ordered gaskets to clean the egr passages already. I could of saved myself $40. Oh well.

You have much to learn, young grasshopper! Sounds like you're starting to get the hang of it with your 68MPG trip though. That's quite respectable.

City driving, aka: stopping and starting is what will generally kill your MPG. It's easy to get good MPG under "rolling hills" conditions. I think rolling hills suite the Insight excellently. The only thing better is pure flat ground.

For what it's worth, I can consistently get 85-90MPG on this route, no matter which car I drive:

Geocontext-Profiler ? create a topographic profile

This is what that route looks like to the car:

BetterBattery 50 mile Drive #2

Notice that the SoC starts at ~50% and ends at ~50%. This means that I didn't "cheat" and use stored energy in the battery to artificially boost my MPG. Road speeds are 35-45mph, with a couple short stretches of 55mph.

[Balboa]

Originally Posted by Eli

You have much to learn, young grasshopper! Sounds like you're starting to get the hang of it with your 68MPG trip though. That's quite respectable.

City driving, aka: stopping and starting is what will generally kill your MPG. It's easy to get good MPG under "rolling hills" conditions. I think rolling hills suite the Insight excellently. The only thing better is pure flat ground.

For what it's worth, I can consistently get 85-90MPG on this route, no matter which car I drive:

Geocontext-Profiler ? create a topographic profile

On highe

This is what that route looks like to the car:

BetterBattery 50 mile Drive #2

Notice that the SoC starts at ~50% and ends at ~50%. This means that I didn't "cheat" and use stored energy in the battery to artificially boost my MPG. Road speeds are 35-45mph, with a couple short stretches of 55mph.

I have come to terms that I will never see the kind of mileage you are getting. I'm just going to accept that as a given. I'm pretty excited with 68mpg. Of course there was a lot of highway driving there. Once I get back to the normal street driving I'm sure I'll be back in the 50s in no time.

As to why the EGR jerking went away is beyond me. Here is what's funny, the jerking went away with a new tank of gas. Why would adding new gas eliminate the jerking between lean burn and assist? Maybe the Techron injector cleaner finally cleaned the injectors to get it running right? Could clogged injectors be the true culprit to the herky jerky that people complain about and not the EGR or EGR passages?

[Eli]

Originally Posted by Balboa

I have come to terms that I will never see the kind of mileage you are getting. I'm just going to accept that as a given. I'm pretty excited with 68mpg. Of course there was a lot of highway driving there. Once I get back to the normal street driving I'm sure I'll be back in the 50s in no time.

As to why the EGR jerking went away is beyond me. Here is what's funny, the jerking went away with a new tank of gas. Why would adding new gas eliminate the jerking between lean burn and assist? Maybe the Techron injector cleaner finally cleaned the injectors to get it running right? Could clogged injectors be the true culprit to the herky jerky that people complain about and not the EGR or EGR passages?

You have the incorrect tires on your car, right? With the Bridgestone tires, that 68MPG could have easily been 75MPG. You're getting close. With just a few more tweaks, you'll be there. Keep in mind that there are people who can get much higher MPG than I can, much to my chagrin.

The most common causes of bucking in a MT car are, in order:

1) EGR Valve
2) EGR Plate
3) Fuel Injectors

So yes, it is possible that the fuel injector cleaning is working for your car.

Bucking due to a bad EGR valve is easy to detect; it happens in the most used range.

For example, when the EGR valve went out in Insight #1, I would only get bucking at 75-80MPG. Above and below that was fine. This is where I typically lean burned.

When the EGR valve went out on #2, the bucking happened at 55-60MPG. Above and below that was fine. The previous owner drove fast, so it's reasonable to assume that this was the typical range that the EGR would have been activated at.

I've never experienced bucking due to the EGR plate. I imagine it would be slightly different in that it could happen at any MPG range. I imagine that bucking from bad or clogged fuel injectors would be even more different, but again I've never experienced this either so I'm not entirely sure what it's like.

[jime]

Originally Posted by madapple

Hello,
I have been reading all I can about these great little cars. I just bought and will take delivery tommorrow of my 2001 5 speed. I drove the car about 20 miles today teasting it out. It has 160k miles and runs and drives great. It has no warning light and seems to charge and assist as it should. I would get anywhere from 40-100mpg depending on the road, the Lmpg is 49.8 on the car. It is a little rough on the outside, I will be painting it, but the interior is in great shape and the engine is clean. I am paying $4200 for the car, I thought that was good, he was asking $5000. It does have new, correct tires on it, I will check the air pressure.
I look forward to many fun days to come!!!! I live in South Central Indana, is there many close to here?
Thanks
Darrell

Congratulations. I know you are going to love your new "little gem" as I do mine. The fuel economy varies widely for this little car, depending on driving conditions, climate, driving skill, tire pressure, and dedication to hypermiling. The Lmpg on your car is kinda on the low side, so you can see what the lows are. I have read reports of hypermilers getting tank averages well over 100 mpg, but you probably don't want to drive like that. I once got 103 mpg for a stint from Madison,WI to Wheeling,WV. The average speed for that stint was probably around 45 mpg, and the tire pressures were set at 80 psi, not really an advisable level. A range for normal driving under mixed condition would probably be something like 65-80 mpg, with the 80 being a target.

If you are in cold weather, your winter mpg will be improved by a partial grill block and a Honda block heater, fairly easy for a competent home mechanic to install.

BTW, you can reset the Lmpg if you want that to reflect just your own driving. The instructions are in the owners manual.

Again, congratulations. The little gems are rare and getting more rare. You are lucky to find a good one. Some love em, some hate em(wives), but I can tell that you are gonna love yours