[Valiant118]

I bought a used 2004 Insight CVT back in late October. So far it's been a great little car. However, I wonder if anyone else out there has noticed the un-Honda-like uneven body panel gaps on these cars? Mine has a huge gap between the right front fender and the right door at the leading edge, and it seems they compensated all the way around the car to get all the panels to fit. There's no evidence of this being done by a body shop i.e., after crash damage repair, and none of the attaching bolts for the fenders, hood, etc have ever been removed.

To get the hood to fit and keep the gaps even with both fenders it's been installed with a slight twist to the left, leaving uneven gaps over the headlights, narrow on the right, wide on the left. I checked out another Insight the other day sitting on the street and noticed it had panel fit issues, too, but they were different than mine. From what I can tell it left the factory this way, which is really strange. I know these cars are basically hand built but this seems unusual compared to other Hondas I've been around. Comments?

 

[Rick]

That's not typical. I'd have to see the car to say for sure that it hasn't been crashed, but even a small tap can tweak an Insight significantly enough.

 

[Valiant118]

Well, my inspections say it's definitely not been crashed. None of the panel, hood or door bolts have ever been removed. I had the alignment checked at 31k and it was dead on the money, had never been adj'd, either. It's weird that the door fits in the door frame perfectly on both sides, and the left front fender fits perfectly, too. However, it's like the right front is about 1/8" too far forward, and to compensate they just messed with the hood alignment on the assy line.

 

[Dougie]

You've got a hand made all aluminum car. Sort of like a Ferrari! Did you know that some Ferraris made in the 1950s were significantly different on one side from the other? They were made by hand, and the panel beaters knew they wouldn't get things perfectly matched anyway, so who cares? 8)

 

[Valiant118]

Hey, I used to be a manager with Jaguar Cars, I know all about "hand made" cars! (LOL!) This is not a big deal, just unusual to find bad panel fits on a Honda.

 

[Valiant118]

Just an industry joke for you Insighters.

Back in the 80's Audi ran a tv ad where an "engineer" rolled a ball bearing down the hood / fender gap to show how precise the vehilce build was. At Jaguar we service types said we should copy the Audi ad, only make it a contest to see where the ball bearing would come rolling out after it fell through the gap between the hood and the "wing" (fender). First prise was a brand new XJ-S, second prise was two XJ-S's.

Oh, and what tweo things made by man can be seen from outer space? 1) the Great Wall of China, 2) the panel gaps on a Jaguar.