Hi all from sunny Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland
I took delivery of my new Honda Insight on 17 August and have had it now for just exactly 1 month.
Its a completey standard ES-T not sure how it lines up with US models - maybe an EX?? I got it cause it comes with all the toys like the Navi, bluetooth phone and media streaming, iPod dock, cruise etc.
Mines a lease so its a 3+35 payment plan and I thought I got a pretty good deal considering how much more expensive cars are in the UK compared with the US. After 3 years I just hand it back. I brokered the best deal I could with an English leasing company then challenged the local dealer to match it and after a bit of back & forth they did!
In general I really like it and I'm just halfway into my 3rd tank of fuel. (the first was complimentry from Honda - whoop) When the warning light comes on it takes about £36 ($54ish) to fill it to the neck. Compared with my last car (an Audi A6 2.4 V6 petrol) that is an absolute bargain. At this rate when comparing the amount I spent on fuel for the 9 year old Audi with that spent for the brand new Honda I'm just about breaking even each month. (i.e. Honda lease+Fuel costs = Audi Fuel costs)
The minor annoyances I've found so far are:
1) Doors don't auto-lock when you move off. Honda says it can't be set to operate that way??
2) The Key is huge. I'm used to fold away keys leaving just a keyfob with buttons.
3) The dealer wouldn't stump up for mats so I'm still waiting for custom made ones. ( I ordered them from MrCarMats.co.uk and I think it must be the 1st ones they've made so they had to get a template etc.!!)
4) Fuel consumption isn't quite as good as I'd hoped for with the average meter showing 50.3mpg after about 920 miles in the month. But reading around on the forum it should start to improve as I break thru the 1000 mile mark.
It seems like there aren't too many Insights in Northern Ireland yet, I haven't seen any on the road at all over the whole month.
I'm a bit of a numbers nut so expect to see me chipping into the discussions around MPG.
Mike (aka bubblebuzz if u play poker on PKR.com)
Hello from Northern Ireland....my 1st impressions
