After parking the pick-up truck for my 100 mile round trip to work, I'm saving $$$ big time with my insight.
Hey Bob,
Welcome to the forum. I bought my Insight about 18 months ago (after my truck got wrecked in an auto accident) to save some money on fuel. Last year, when I took a contract job down in Atlanta, I calculated that I saved over $3000 on fuel within just 6 months by driving the Insight rather than the truck that it replaced, while commuting back & forth each week.
At the time, I wasn't aware of (and didn't think to look for) Insight Central, so when my car performed it's first positive recall, my first thought was that something had gone wrong with the car. However, after thinking about it for a while, I thought that maybe the car's computer just allowed the battery to get low once in a while (before recharging it to full) to run a longer maintenance cycle to clear the memory that many NiMH batteries have. I guess I wasn't too far of the mark, but now that I've been on the forum for a while and have been learning from the experience of all those that have gone before us, I more fully appreciate & better understand how the Gen 1 Insights operate. They definitely are a little different from most vehicles and require a bit of a learning curve but, at the same time, I realize how cutting edge technologically they really are.
Don't hesitate to use the "
Search" function to research certain aspects of the Insight as I've found many of my questions have been answered long ago by Insight owners who had previously experienced the exact same issues as I had. But also, don't hesitate to ask questions here as we are all still learning new, previously unknown or untested aspects of the Gen 1 Insights. Additionally, there is some incredible research, development work & in-depth testing being performed by several members of Insight Central on several different topics.
One last point, since you are in the Eastern/Mid-Atlantic region, you might want to consider joining some of us for a get together near Frederick, MD on September 8-9, 2012. The event is listed under:
Hybrid Socials and Events
Here's the link:
http://www.insightcentral.net/forums/hybrid-socials-events/22168-meeting-mid-atlantic-gen1-insight-owners.html
Regards,
Kerry