My Review of the Honda Insight (3 Months 7,500 Miles)

[bish79]

Originally Posted by Piano Tuner

OMG it rained today and I turned the wipers on for the first time ever.

The car whipped from side to side so violently that my head bashed against the side window.
Blood splattered everywhere and I couldn't see, so I crashed into a gasoline tanker truck.

There was a huge explosion and 15 school busses full of gifted children on their way to a Mensa convention were instantly vaporized.

But I like the car.
I get great MPG.

Now this story MUST be fake.... The Insight doesn't get great MPG!!

[wstander]

Oooooooohhhhhhh,

That is it!!. I removed all of my wipers, and also any other things that act like levers...turn signal control, wiper lever, etc....

These cars seem possessed!!

[joecvt]

Originally Posted by Piano Tuner

OMG it rained today and I turned the wipers on for the first time ever.

The car whipped from side to side so violently that my head bashed against the side window............................................ ...

Dudes,

Yes, the windshield wiper comments were rather funny up to this point but please do not use a car bomb photo from Iraq to poke fun at a comment made on this forum. There were atleast 37 people that REALLY died at a bus station in Karbala Iraq as a result of this car bomb. Here is the USA Today news report that the photo originated from:

37 die as car bomb hits near Iraq shrine - USATODAY.com

I would personally ask users to edit their own posts to take out jokes of school bus children being vaporized and real car bomb photos to back up the story.

JoeCVT = Just your average CVT owner

[bushmaster]

I bought my Insight in early April. I started out driving 70-75 mph and got about 43-44 mpg. After learning to slow down, the mpg started creeping up. The new engine began to break in,the weather warmed up, and my fuel economy began creeping up. My driving is almost exclusively freeway driving. I average 50-55 mpg with about 9000 miles on the car. Now and then I have observed that the data display will read 150 mpg. What this means is: I just reset the trip meter after fueling up and immediately started down a hill. You will now and then observe a high mpg rating on the data display. But it doesn't count for much, impressive that it is. If I had a data display in my 1991 Ford F250 4x4 with snowplow, and coasted down a hill just after resetting the trip meter, it would deliver heart stopping fuel economy. The AVERAGE fuel economy over a week, a month, a year is the only statistic that matters. This is not a 100 yard dash- it's baseball. Baseball teams play over a hundred games a year to determine a champion. It isn't decided in just 10 seconds.
I rest my trip meter "A" every time I fuel, so it gives me a final reading that tells me what I batted for the week- not just one at-bat. Hell, I'd be batting 1000 if I figured my mpg the way some folks do. Trip meter "B" has not been reset so often. It reads 5168 miles, 49.8 mpg. It includes all the times I had to haul ass to merge onto the freeway to keep from getting creamed by a line of trucks, the times I decided to pass a slower car and had to hustle to do so. It includes the times I didn't want to follow a pig truck at 62 mph. It includes the night I was just tired and pissed off and wanted to just get home as soon as I could. It also includes the one day average where the car achieved 63 mpg over a 56 mile commute.
My Insight has exceeded all estimates of the kind of fuel economy that could be expected by a buyer of this car. I'm pleased with that.
I drive a tractor trailer for a living. I do a LOT of driving. I do not expect my Honda to perform exactly as the tractor performs. I don't expect it to perform like the Lincoln Continental I once owned performed. The Insight is a compromise car. I think the Prius system is superior. I think the Prius price is higher. I think the Chevy volt, if it ever hits the road, will probably out-perform either of these cars. And it will cost a HELL of a lot more. The Tesla is a wonderful car. Anybody have an idea what it costs?
Whether the reviewer is a troll or not is irrelevant to me. I actually spent months researching which car I should buy, and then before buying one, I drove some of them. Obviously I couldn't drive a Prius 9000 miles in a trial to gauge its performance over the long haul. I considered Toyota's stellar reputation with Toyota owners. I noticed that Honda owners apparently LOVE their Hondas, and that Honda ranks number 1, 2 or 3 in most vehicle categories. I'm not sorry that the reviewer panned the Insight. For all I know, the reviewer doesn't believe that universal health care is a good idea either- he/she didn't say. But I don't much care about that either. I have no complaints about my Insight. I absolutely love it.

[revinger]

On the windshield wipers. Yes greatly exagerated. Having driven a 2000 insight for the last 9 years though, I can guess at what might be a potential "complaint". My gen 1 when I run the wipers I can "feel" through my feet when the wipers change direction. Sure it is just the vibration of the wiper motor linkages.

I test drove a gen 2 about a week ago. Drueling seriously, it didnt rain during the drive so i didnt turn the wipers on to see if there was a similar feeling. Given the radical improvement in ride over gen 1 Surely there is enough padding that would not be what OP was complaining about.

I swore when I got the gen 1 I would drive it until the wheels fell off, 9 years and 137,000 miles later and I am getting the new car itch. I'm liable to end up with a gen 2 before the year is out and keep the UFO for my daughter who will be driving in a couple of years. Does mean that I would have to keep driving the 2000 occasionally though to keep the batteries up though.

[SR45]

OK, I just figured how his wipers moved the car back and fourth. He and his friends couldn't figure out how to turn them on, so they got on the hood and did it by hand, and that is how the car moved back and fourth.

[numbness4sound]

Originally Posted by SR45

It rained alot yesterday and I went out, turned on the wipers full speed and low speed, and yet to notice the Insight rocking at all. Even turned on the rear wipers as well, along with the front and still no rocking.

Yeah, it rained all of June here, so I got familiar with every possible speed of those wipers. How on earth could windshield wipers rock a car? Perhaps there's some Power Wheels Insight model we're unaware of?

[jpleong]

Originally Posted by numbness4sound

Yeah, it rained all of June here, so I got familiar with every possible speed of those wipers. How on earth could windshield wipers rock a car? Perhaps there's some Power Wheels Insight model we're unaware of?

Oh... but that would make it a plug-in hybrid and we know Honda has no interest in doing that!

JP

[bish79]

Ok, so it was pouring rain today when I went to work. I waited for a few minutes in the parking lot for it to ease up a bit (with no luck), and decided I would give it a try.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Be completely motionless with the engine off
2. Turn the radio off
3. Stop breathing (seriously, you'll not feel it if you breathe)
4. Turn the wipers on high

Maybe, just maybe then you will feel the slightest of movement in the car. Possibly due to the wipers, or possibly due to the wind that is blowing since it is RAINING so damn hard!!

[Sluday]

Hey guys, you should all know by now that this review was bull. A non Insight owner just trying to piss real owners off. This guy probably paid $30k for a 2010 Prius and is sad he wasted money so he is trying to stir us up with ridiculous claims.