maintenance costs?

[olametak]

I am looking into getting an Insight and this hybrid world is new to me. In general are the maintenance costs any more or less than if I were to get another car not a hybrid? Oil change, tire rotations are the norm for any car, but what else might I incur on a hybrid (insight) that I might not know about now and what are the general prices? thanks!

[Zwolfe]

I've replaced my tires once and aside from fluid and filter changes ... nothing else in over 60k miles.

You might actually end up paying less on rotors and brake pads / shoes over the life of the car courtesy of regenerative braking taking a slight bit of stress off those components.

There's always the battery factor down the road at some point, but, don't know when that'll become an issue.

Solid car. No phantom squeaks have developed. Still does what it does from mile 1. I bought it with 1 mile on the odo too, took a picture of it.

[egads]

The oil change, when done at a dealer, is about $10. more. That's mostly the price of the 0/20 oil. Almost all modern vehicles require much less maintenance
that the days of old. If one goes by the oil life meter, oil changes are somewhere between 8k & 10k. There is no reason to change the oil any earlier.
If you have never had a Honda before, it is also a good idea to change the transmission fluid much more often than other cars. In fact more often than Honda's schedule. But that is true of any Honda automatic.

[runtohel121]

^Oil change is about the same price as any other 2010+ Honda because Honda started using 0-20w oils in all the newer cars from what I know. Though the maintenance is still low because the car doesn't require oil change that often, around 8k-12k depending on your driving condition. CVT oil on the other hand is the pricey one if done at a Honda dealer.

Other than tires, filters, and oil, there isn't much maintenance to do as for now. Just might have to worry about the battery in the long run, not sure when might that fails.

[Tobias]

Ah this is almost exactly the kind of thread I was going to post.

I'm currently in the market for my first car. Just graduated from college, and have a 20 minute work commute every morning.

I'm flip flopping between an Insight and a Civic. The two car traders I talked to were very against hybrids and claimed that the money I'd save on gas would be offset by the battery cost and the trade in value down the road.

I've driven both a 2009 Civic and a 2010 Insight. the Insight felt a little less solid and jerky at lights (I have to get used to the acceleration I guess) but the allure of such 50 MPG.. Well, I'm in a long distance relationship and I drive about 90 miles to and from every weekend so.. I can't decide. And I figured it'd be good to ask some opinions with people passionate about these cars!

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Zwolfe]

I thought trade in value of hybrids was actually good but I'm not a trader so I could be wrong. It's not like gas prices are going to plummet any day soon, if ever.

The Insight is a bit of a pain in the ass at stop lights but a lot of the jerkiness can be mitigated with familiarity of how it operates. One thing you need to watch out for is when the car auto stops you don't want to immediately lay on the gas or it can be harsh.

Even still, I'd buy it again.

As for 50 MPG that depends on the terrain quite a lot. In WV I average 43 or so. If I go to Ohio if I am not getting around 50 I'm doing something wrong.

[runtohel121]

Yup, mpg all depends on the driving conditions such as weather, road, hills, etc. I only average about 38-42mpg on my 2010 Insight in California. On a Civic, I usually get around 30mpg (2006 Civic I drove before).

[Zwolfe]

I do pretty darn good on MPG regarding hills. My secret is to gradually go up even if I'm losing a little bit of MPH, then I crest the top and get up to the speed limit and lightly press the accelerator pedal so that the gauge shows 100 MPG and keep my foot on it as I'm descending.

By the time I'm back on level ground I'm usually WAY over the speed limit, and I keep my foot on the pedal enough that the gauge still shows 100 MPG.

I milk the hell out of the momentum, by the time the car gradually goes back to the speed limit I either hit cruise again or just press further on the pedal to stay the speed limit.

Of course, if someone is tailing you, the above can infuriate the driver in the vehicle behind you. But hey, I get damn good MPG with hills.

My problem around here is called I-77 that has a 70 MPH speed limit.