Long term reliability and fuel economy

[siai47]

See how the Insight stacks up against other Hybrids. The test vehicles are in Arizona and you can really see the effect of the A/C operation on fuel economy.

The link is: http://avt.inl.gov/hev.shtml

[JoeMultihuller]

siai47, thank you for the very interesting link. Delighted to see this data published.

Congratulations to both the Red Cross and Arizona's Bank One for their choice of vehicles. As a courier car, I bet that taking out the passenger seat out of the Insight and putting in some simple bins would work very well. Not surprised at the CVT mileage in that kind of service.
I wish that the Arizona Public Service Technology Development group had put in some recording accelerometers and a CarChip which would show just how much hot-rodding their drivers did. I don't think I would be interested in buying a used five-speed Insight with that poor a mileage (47.1mpg at 68,287 miles). Just goes to show that unless an individual driver's technique is standardized, fuel mileage results is an apples-to-oranges comparison. You don't suppose the older guys/gals drove the Prius and the younger set drove the Insight sports car?
...and to think I was a leadfoot for my entire life until I met the Insight... JoeS.