used insight

[purged981]

looking at a 2000 insight with 180000 miles for 4000. Have not looked at the carfax yet but how would I know if the battery would need to be replaced?

[Eli]

Difficult to determine unless the IMA light is on.

[gilbertguy]

Need more info, is IMA or CEL light on? How are tires, if no IMA light when was it driven last, this will help determine health of the batteries. Them driving it daily is always good, car sitting is always bad for batteries.

[racer26]

If the car has been sitting more than a month or so, expect the battery to start failing within a year.

If no IMA light is on after a 20 minute drive or so, it's operational. How long it will remain so is nearly impossible to tell.

[RedJellyBean]

Originally Posted by purged981

looking at a 2000 insight with 180000 miles for 4000. Have not looked at the carfax yet but how would I know if the battery would need to be replaced?

Well, since you asked, it's by removing the battery, popping off the end plates, removing each of the 20 NiMH battery sticks, and doing a series of comprehensive load and discharge tests with them over a period of weeks.

Otherwise it's hard for a non-expert to tell just by driving an Insight around with the system even minimally functional. You could drive it up a moderate hill in fifth gear, goose the throttle and see how much assist you can get, and for how long, before the State of Charge bar graph drops down to nothing and you start recharging while still going up that hill.