[JoeMultihuller]

Wife took the Insight to Oregon yesterday. I had disabled MIMA and instructed her to ignore the FAS, Clutch, and Brake switches (she's nervous enough driving the car because of my obsession with lmpg, she claims, and doesn't want to mess with the gadgetry). :?
Driving on I-505 all of a sudden her passenger side window exploded into a million pieces. :shock: She was right by an offramp which some trucks just in front of her had taken and she thought she heard a big bang just before the window shattered. No other damage to the car and the only non-mental damage to her are some cuts when subsequently cleaning the car. The only thing I can figure is that maybe a truck tire blew out and threw a small rock or something (I assume it's tempered glass). :?
Bless her soul, she still managed 83.1mpg from the SF Bay Area to Medford, even with that open window (the weather was quite warm) and no MIMA/FAS.
JoeS.

 

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

WOW that must have scared the he** out of her. Happy to hear that She is ok. My Wife will not drive my Insight.

 

[Curious Dave]

Wow! I thought all auto glass was supposed to be of the "safety float" laminated type. Maybe just the windshield is safety float on the Insight?

 

[HafNHaf]

one of the guys i work with was doing some yard work a couple of moths ago when he heard a "whump!" sound. the right rear window of his fairly new minivan blew out. all the glass was on the ground, none inside! :shock: never did come up with a good idea for that one.

 

[Curious Dave]

I just looked at the glass on my 2003 Insight. All of the panels except the windshield are "Honda Temperlite" tempered glass. The windshield is "Honda Tempersafe" safety float glass. Go figure!! Tempered glass can be tempermental (no pun intended) with changes in temperature. The hotter the tempered glass gets, the more unstable it can become. I'm reeeealy beginning to dislike Honda. :evil:

 

[HafNHaf]

you might as well start disliking a bunch of other cars too. i just looked at my other cars. both my jeep grand wagoneer and chevy pickup have tempered glass. cant tell on the toyota, and the little jeep and minivan say safety glass. i assume that means laminated. the only thing the waggy and truck have in common is their old age. '88 and '82. all my other cars are '93 and newer.

 

[Dougie]

Most cars have tempered glass on everything but the windshield. And it's not that rare to have one just self-destruct. Happened to me one day (not the Insight, though)--I was just sitting there and suddenly the back window just popped and shattered. The worst thing is that you keep finding little pieces of glass for the rest of the life of the car!

 

[Curious Dave]

Well then, I guess perhaps it may pay to have your windows tinted with tint film. Perhaps that would help keep the glass intact rather than exploding into a million pieces when it shatters. I too had a window explode on me some time back. It was the passenger side rear quarter window on my 88 Toyota Corolla FX. My mother was driving the car at the time while I was riding shotgun, and out of the blue came, POW.....no more rear quarter window. It happened so fast that my mother didn't even know it happened. I thought for sure that the window had been shot out by a bullet, a wrist rocket, or some various form of projectile. I even called the cops and they inspected the car trying to locate a bullet of some sort amongst the glass inside the car. No go. I took the entire interior out of the car thinking for sure that I would find a slug somewhere in the car. Nope, no such luck. And what a chore it was to remove every tiny bit of glass from the interior. Tempered glass just doesn't behave well with changes in outside temps.. Especially hotter than average temps. during the Summer months. Tempered glass panels can also have a tendency to "let go" if the panel is stressed or flexed slightly while heat is applied, such as a door glass that is stressed due to door misalignment while the car sits out on a hot Summer day. In fact, if tempered glass is flexed and is hot from the sun, sometimes all it takes is just a slight tap with the point of a key to make it blow. Pretty scary!

 

[JoeMultihuller]

Thank you all for your comments.
Well, wifey took the shattering window experience all in stride. We both figured it was a random fluke and certainly not the car's fault. In addition to what was contributed above, I've subsequently learned that rear-side-window blowouts are not uncommon in cars :shock: (but this was the front side window). A new window is being shipped from Portland to Medford and is to be installed on Monday. $100 insurance deductible.

Off-topic, but related:
Y'all won't believe what I just did for my sweetheart (wifey): I just brought home a brand-new 2006 red MT Insight for her!! She doesn't know it yet as she's up in Oregon. Besides, this will get me off the hook for her upcoming birthday and should make up for her frightening window-shattering experience (like that rationalization, huh). :roll: This'll be her car, so she can do whatever she pleases with the lmpg. Photo of it: http://www.KatieKat.net/Vehicles/Insight/RedInsightHome4Shrunk.jpg
Oooh, nice, I just noticed that they didn't even poke holes into the front bumper for the license plate holder (it's in the trunk). Initial impression is that the stereo is much better than my 2002 but that the stock IMA battery charging is sure slow compared to MIMA.

How did this happen? After hearing about the upcoming demise of the Insight production, I was curious as to what one costs nowadays, figuring I might be inclined to order one in a few months before they stop making them. So I googled Honda and clicked on a price quote outfit (carpricesecrets.com) who evidently pass on requests to Honda dealers... so, what the heck, I filled in the form and asked for the price on a red MT and sent it off with my name and phone number and email. Within minutes I got a phone call from a local dealer who said he had one sitting on his lot :!: :!: :!: Dumbfounded, I asked if it was a new 2006 Insight and he said yep, that it's brand-spanking-new and had been there for two weeks and they'd like to move it. This is a huge dealership and evidently their allotment had been one or two Insights/year. Long story short ... I went, I saw, I drove, I haggled, and I bought for nicely under MSRP (because it doesn't have A/C - but my other Insight does so no big deal and it makes this one lighter).

Hope the wife likes it, but I'm afraid she won't be a candidate for MIMA (sorry, Mike); however, what's to stop me from putting in "anti-theft" mods such as "fuel cutoff device" and "clutch signal deactivator" we happen to call FAS and maybe the "manual brake light activator as a safety enhancer" which happens to instigate regen, and ...? :roll:

Now we're a two-Insight family and I can keep hacking the silver Insight to my heart's content, knowing there's a backup in case I really screw it up. Next, grid charging... need to re-read all of the great writeups and find the time to play... 8) JoeS.

 

[HafNHaf]

wow! very cool of you! and man is that thing RED! wish i could get another one, but the wife loves her minivan. besides, we do need the room frequently.

enjoy the new toy!

 

[Insightful Trekker]

All I can add is unless she's a car kinda girl you'd better get something additional to go along with "her" gift.

 

[cattygurl]

Joe,

If I came home to an insight as a birthday gift, I'd dissolve in tears of joy. But then, for my birthday last year, I asked for worms from acme worm company (they have the best redworms for composting) so I can start worm composting again, and asked my BF if he would build me lots of worm bins. When I got engaged (this is a while back, we split up)- I didn't want a ring. I asked for a new computer.

 

[sputnik]

...
Off-topic, but related:
Y'all won't believe what I just did for my sweetheart (wifey): I just brought home a brand-new 2006 red MT Insight for her!! She doesn't know it yet as she's up in Oregon. Besides, this will get me off the hook for her upcoming birthday and ....This'll be her car...

Now we're a two-Insight family and I can keep hacking the silver Insight to my heart's content, knowing there's a backup ...JoeS.

Congratulations! I think there are now at least four families with a pair of Insights! And it would be great to see even more!

You could find yourself fine-tuning the "This'll be her car" and "there's a backup" thoughts! David and I never drive the other's Insight without very politely inquiring for permission first. I don't even open "Silver's" door to empty the grungy bucket of TAB soda cans and brush the seats off without first asking. I can't think of a time when either one of us has ever refused a request, but the point is that manners count. The Insight is the only car we've ever owned that has had this effect. It's so beautiful that it makes it's owners a bit possesive. It is not a car that one shares easily.

 

[JoeMultihuller]

Cattygurl, where were such level-headed girls like yourself when I was young? (sigh) Let the record show that my goddaughter has over the years accumulated a wonderful tool collection from her godfather ... I mean, who else would give her a beautiful varnished wooden toolbox for her 18th birthday? At this moment she's on her honeymoon (and I hope he didn't marry her for her tools, at least not those), and then starting grad school.

Kathleen (yes, my wifey's name is also Kathleen) - your point is very well made and I will indeed, as I presently do, refrain from touching wifey's car without permission (except to wash and wax it). We both are rather protective of our respective possessions, and, indeed, do take quite good care of them (which is why she was doubly freaked-out when the window blew out because she considers the silver Insight my toy). When I said 'backup', I meant only for long trips together, as we already have way too many things available to drive (actually, we mostly bicycle for errands, despite it being a one-hour hilly bicycling round-trip to town). http://www.katiekat.net/Vehicles/VehicleLinks.html

InsightfulTrekker, I'm now old enough to realize that something to complement the Insight as a birthday present is mandatory.

Taken in 1998, here's a photo taken in Alaska of now-wife Kathy in a bikini: :roll:
http://www.katiekat.net/Alaska/TelstarA ... Part3.html

Hmmm, here's a better one so you can see what she looks like:
http://www.katiekat.net/Cruise/KatieKat ... tml#030201

Oops, sorry John, really off topic. :? Uh, I'll let you all know how the window repair goes, and I've asked Kathy to snap some pictures of the operation. JoeS.

 

[JoeMultihuller]

Well, the window was replaced in Medford and wifey came back safe and sound, with an overall roundtrip mileage of 78.3mpg (lmpg 75.4). For those of you interested, here's a photo of the door with its inside cover off (you can still see the broken glass pieces):
http://www.KatieKat.net/Vehicles/Insigh ... place2.jpg

Insightful Trekker wrote:

All I can add is unless she's a car kinda girl you'd better get something additional to go along with "her" gift.

Um, does an Australian sheepskin seatcover count? :roll:
:lol: JoeS.