The 2010 Insight Shudder...

[ebvortex]

Does everyone's 2010 Insight behave the way mine does? If I'm in heavy traffic, each time I come to a stop the car gives a little shudder as the gas engine turns off, and sometimes shudders again as the engine starts, when my foot is taken off the break. Come on Honda! I've got to imagine it's possible to design this gas/electric transition a little smoother. I get the idea of shutting the engine down with each stop to conserve fuel - excellent idea, poor execution. Will we all have to deal with this "feature" for the life of the car? I hope Honda puts out a recall to update the car's computer so they smooth out that behavior.

[Mikeyt1818]

Mine does not shudder. It has a very slight hesitation when you release the brakes and the engine comes back to life but it is quite smooth, at least my car is. Perhaps you should bring yours in for service? Could be there is something wrong?

[SR45]

Very mild shudder from time to time, not always, but I have found this is the Idle Engine kicking in. It also depends on the way I stop and if I have the air on or not.

Hope this helps a little.....

[CobaltDragon]

There is a very mild transition when auto-stop turns on, certainly not what I'd call a shudder, though. It's less noticeable than when turning off your average ICE car, at leasst for me - did you test drive the car?

[HybridforCollege]

Are you talking about the jerkiness of the car when idling. Cause I definitely still feel that, especially after I switch between driving different cars. I have like 3000 miles on the car too, so I don't think it will change any time in the future.

[Cobb]

Since I turned 5 thousand on the clock I have noticed that less and less. I do however seem to be developing a jerky acceleration when starting off from a stop.

[CobaltDragon]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Since I turned 5 thousand on the clock I have noticed that less and less. I do however seem to be developing a jerky acceleration when starting off from a stop.

May want to make sure you didn't have a drop in trans fluid level or something.

[psyci]

Originally Posted by ebvortex

Does everyone's 2010 Insight behave the way mine does? If I'm in heavy traffic, each time I come to a stop the car gives a little shudder as the gas engine turns off, and sometimes shudders again as the engine starts, when my foot is taken off the break. Come on Honda! I've got to imagine it's possible to design this gas/electric transition a little smoother. I get the idea of shutting the engine down with each stop to conserve fuel - excellent idea, poor execution. Will we all have to deal with this "feature" for the life of the car? I hope Honda puts out a recall to update the car's computer so they smooth out that behavior.

The gas engine turns off when stopped, and turns on again when you move or when enough time passes (~12 seconds, some report). You'l see "AUTO-STOP" blinking somewhere on your dashboard.

I found this very noticeable for the first 500 miles, after that, the shudder almost completely went away - even when I'm paying attention and looking for the shudder, I don't feel it anymore.

[donatom3]

The first Insight I test drove had a very noticeable shudder. At this point I had almost completely written it off. After two other test drives on different Insights (the third test drive was just a formality because you should always test drive the specific car you're buying even if you've test driven that model many times before) the shudder was nowhere near as pronounced as that first test drive. The first test drive was on a car that had under 50 miles while one car had 230 on the odometer and the other had 120 on the odometer.

[Brian1]

I notice the shudder accasionally. Usually only when moving a short distance and then stopping again.