Hello; I am in the market for a newer car to replace my hot garbage Saturn sedan. My friend is willing to sell me his 2002 Insight since he has been collecting cars and honestly doesn't need to keep multiple cars sitting around now that he has been driving his most recent purchase all the time and is willing to help me out for $2k. He taught me manual in it recently and despite me having a prosthetic leg and no ankle movement as my left foot, it was simpler than I thought and much more engaging than simple automatic.
On to the car:
As you guessed it's a 2002 Honda Insight (Gen 1) manual variant. It's silver, still has both rear wheel covers, gets 60mpg, and seems to drive fine. It has about 250k miles and although I'm sure that's not a ton for these cars, it's almost twice that of my current car and I have concerns over future maintenance; but not necessarily of the battery; I'll get to that more in a second. Anything to look out for or ask about?
Battery: I will ask about this more from the owner. My thinking is once it's on it's way out I would replace it with a lithium-ion pack of my choice. I have some experience with Lithium battery packs because of my background building electric skateboards. Usually around the 50 volt, 50-200 amp packs. Obviously I'd have a lot of learning to do creating a 144 volt insight pack but it can be done.
So is there anything you would recommend asking about or something I should know more of before I buy? I pulled a Carfax report and it looks ok but I honestly would not know what I'd look for in it. Honestly I really liked the car when I drove it a bit and the efficiency is a strong pull since I ****ing hate carbon production. I don't drive a whole lot and when I do it's usually around town or occasional freeway trips. Thank you for your suggestions and comments!
On to the car:
As you guessed it's a 2002 Honda Insight (Gen 1) manual variant. It's silver, still has both rear wheel covers, gets 60mpg, and seems to drive fine. It has about 250k miles and although I'm sure that's not a ton for these cars, it's almost twice that of my current car and I have concerns over future maintenance; but not necessarily of the battery; I'll get to that more in a second. Anything to look out for or ask about?
Battery: I will ask about this more from the owner. My thinking is once it's on it's way out I would replace it with a lithium-ion pack of my choice. I have some experience with Lithium battery packs because of my background building electric skateboards. Usually around the 50 volt, 50-200 amp packs. Obviously I'd have a lot of learning to do creating a 144 volt insight pack but it can be done.
So is there anything you would recommend asking about or something I should know more of before I buy? I pulled a Carfax report and it looks ok but I honestly would not know what I'd look for in it. Honestly I really liked the car when I drove it a bit and the efficiency is a strong pull since I ****ing hate carbon production. I don't drive a whole lot and when I do it's usually around town or occasional freeway trips. Thank you for your suggestions and comments!