[subsea]

And for me also, as I am going to buy Insight soon...

Here is what I found http://www.informedforlife.org/
It is independent vehicle safety analysis.
Look at year 2006... Lightweight Insight is in the end of the list
Low score is probably mostly because of the weight.

Hope none of Insighters will ever confirm this rating. Just posting this FYI.

Be careful on the roads.

 

[ghillie]

I wonder what data there is about the performance of Insights in real crashes. Has anyone been seriously hurt (or even killed) in an Insight? - is it bad manners to even ask about such things?

 

[Insightful Trekker]

Not sure where your site is getting their data. NTSHA has to crash them to get theirs. In crash tests, the Insight earned a 4 star safety rating:

http://www.insightcentral.net/KB/faq-in ... ility.html

But it is true that in a severe wreck with anything a lot bigger, bigger usually does better.

Crashworthyness ratings are never safer than what the driver can do from behind the wheel.

 

[james]

I also wonder if anyone's ever rolled an Insight because a tire blew out

Seriously, it sounds like these people are supported by the SUV marketing department. Evaluating crash safety is one thing, but to get a realistic idea of the actual safety of a vehicle, you have to consider just how likely it is to be in a crash in the first place. I bet you'll find that small cara, and Insights in particular, are involved in fewer crashes per mile driven than bigger, supposedly safer, ones.

 

[florida_gators]

And yes, while size matters (such as an Insight being a bad match for a semi), in accidents it is more important as to how a vehicle falls apart when it gets hit. From what I've heard, the panels should fall/break off as well as the engine (to an extent) during a bad wreck. This leaves the frame intact to protect the driver. While a vehicle falling apart to be safe may seem illogical, it prevents a driver from being smashed and injured/killed from trim/panelling/the engine.

 

[JeffKinTN]

While a vehicle falling apart to be safe may seem illogical, .

It absorbs much of the energy of the impact before the driver feels it. (Layman's reasoning)

 

[flunkysama]

Putting the issue of the accuracy of such statistics aside, the thing that bothers me is that there is nothing about the probability of being in an accident. It's rather like thinking that accidents are inevitable and might as well be in the safest vehicle when it happens. I like to think along the lines of what my car can do to prevent me from getting in an accident.

 

[merigayle]

All the crash test reports I saw on the Insight were pretty good, 4 out of 5 stars, which was the same for the Prius. The only reason i know is a friend has a Prius and brought up the safety issue of the two cars and we looked it up.

 

[kari]

when people ask me about the safety, I send them this link
http://www.insightcentral.net/KB/accidents.html
featuring photos of real life wrecked insights.

and I also don't like to assume an accident is inevitable - I think that driving carefully and alertly goes a long way to keeping you safe! while I can't control others on the road, I can control how I observe and react to them.

 

[foxfire235]

Would a wreck in a rainy environment be a safety hazard for the driver/passenger or other EMS workers due to the battery being exposed? Just curious :?:

 

[Dancer]

Totaled Insights

The aluminum body and frame of the Insight make it, not harder to work on, but more technologically up-to-date. Most shops can't deal with them, so most insurance companies will "total" an Insight for relatively negligible damage. But their loss is your gain, if you know an airplane mechanic who is adept at MIG welding. It is possible to buy and restore a "totaled" Insight for much less than you'd ever believe. If you're looking to buy an Insight, talk to some auto salvagers.

Sorry for letting the 'cat' out of the bag, but I'm just saying this in the interest of keeping as many of these marvels on the road as is technologically possible. (which is, almost all of them.)

--A happy owner of a salvaged silver '00. (with less than 21k original miles!)

 

[b1shmu63]

Congratulations dancer and welcome to the forum. The average age of North American aircraft is over 45 years. Small aircraft production was halted so the old ones just get repaired. Most of them are made of aluminum.

There is little point in repairing a steel car as the welds soon rust. A rebuilt aluminum car does not suffer the same fate so is a great return on investment.

I absolutely agree with you that we must keep as many on the road as possible.

 

[shewb]

we must keep as many on the road as possible

Most shops can't deal with them, so most insurance companies will "total" an Insight for relatively negligible damage

I totally agree :!:
And I think Dancer's right in regards to my Insight. It has very little damage, was still on the road after being "totalled", and I plan to keep it for decades.
8)
- Jim

 

[trunkout]

accidents???

the nimble insight has avoided to many to count...

I have no power over semis at stop lights....
:evil:

 

[Valiant118]

I wonder what data there is about the performance of Insights in real crashes. Has anyone been seriously hurt (or even killed) in an Insight? - is it bad manners to even ask about such things?

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) is the Insurance industry's clearing house for real world crash data. (It is the data collection arm of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.) Its figures come from actual crash & theft loss claims, not from government crash tests, which are only a measure of a car or truck's preformance in those static test situations, and often not a good reflection of how a product will actually do in a crash.

HLDI rates each vehicle based upon claims costs in three categories, injury (inculdes deaths), collision and theft. In general, HLDI ratings show that some small cars like Insight, though not all, do VERY poorly in terms of injury claims. In fact, some are so bad, after you read the data you probaly would never sit in one, let alone be a driver or passenger in one. By contrast, large pickups & SUVs do best, which, of course, de-bunks claims that they are unsafe.

HLDI ranks on a numeric scale, with a score of 100 being "average". They classify by vehicle type, and show averages by type as well. Just focusing on injury data in a couple of categories, "Very Large" cars (i.e., Ford Crown Victoria) average an injury score of 63. By contrast, Small 4dr cars (i.e., VW Golf, Honda Civic, Dodge Neon) get an average score of 158. Two door small cars = 150. (In this category Hondas do poorly, Civic SI = 139, Civic coupe = 173.) Mini cars (Toyta Echo) get a score of...get ready, 198!

By contrast, Very Large pickups (Ford F250) get a score of 47, Large 4wd (Ford Expedition) SUVs = 65, etc., etc., proving in the real world, physics does indeed hold sway.

Unfortunately Insight is not rated, probably because of relatively small samples. However, I would figure the Insight to do about the same as a similar sized little car. Reflecing this, insurance on my '04 Insight was only a bit lower than that of my former '04 Ford F350. Reason cited by Liberty Mutual is "claims costs".

In general, HLDI rates larger vehicles better than smaller ones, but not always, which means a buyer would do well to check this data out before purchasing an auto or truck. HLDI just reports the news and has no "dog in the fight". You can check them out at: http://www.iihs.org/

 

[b1shmu63]

Sorry to have to add to this rather morbid topic, but I hope this adds a little clarity.

Your chances of being killed in a given year by your car is about .017 percent in the worst 4 categories of vehicle, while the safest was a large van at .009 percent according to the NHTSA . This is the conclusion from their web site:

"Conclusions
The occupant fatality rates show variation by the size of
the vehicle within a vehicle type. In 2004, compact cars
had an occupant fatality rate of 17.76 fatalities per 100,000
registered vehicles, followed by compact pickup trucks at
16.87, subcompact cars at 16.85, and mid-size SUVs at
16.16. Large vans had the lowest occupant fatality rate at
9.34. "

They also concluded that in truck/ car collisions the car occupant was 6 times more likely to die, and that you were more likely to die in a rollover in a truck.

No surprises there.