Advice on Purchasing a new Insight 2006

Interrestingly, Civic Hybrid '06 is not available with manual.

I drive a manual Insight -
it's hard to adapt from coasting to deceleration in gear,
i.e. - battery recharging probably gets done better by CVT.

To compensate, I accelerate more slowly to not drain battery as fast.

Right -
But the point is that driving a stick-shift hybrid is different, and takes extra effort.
( The poster was looking for advice on choices )

In a Jetta, I save gas by shifting to neutral for slowdowns.
It's the opposite in an Insight.
And, regen has extra behavior - adds load, and disengages around 15 mph.

I definitely prefer stick shift in the Insight -
but I can understand why some recent-year hybrids droppped manual and
ship only with CVT.

Nope - in the Insight, I need to decelerate and brake *in gear* --no coasting --
to charge the IMA battery.

Maybe some of us just drive "highway miles" on the flat, but not me.

Keeping up the battery charge meter requires
- Careful acceleration to minimize ASSIST meter
( rolling hills can bring down SOC )
- Careful de-celration to re-charge IMA batt with regen