[GFujioka]

Greetings all,

I have decided to purchase a pre-owned Insight, and as the technology is quite foreign to me, I am wondering if anyone might offer a pre-purchase checklist; what to look for, etc.

Also wondering if the car is prewired for the factory CD changer?

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone associated with this site including the posters; it's an invaluable resource for people like me and the information I've found here has played a large role in my decision to purchase the car.

Gary

 

[kapps]

Other than the standard checks, if you have the chance to drive the car then make sure the IMA battery charges correctly. The battery is supposed to last ~100k miles and I'm not sure what the average lifespan is. Our 2000 model has about 60k miles and the IMA batery is fine. Also, check and see if the gas mileage is alright (even an unacustomed driver should be able to get 75-100 mpg cruising at 40-45 mph)

The cd changer is not pre-wired and I reccommend that you replace the head unit anyway (replace everything!). I have a nice JVC El Kameleon head unit and some Infinity Kappa fronts/Alpine rears. I put a 12 disc JVC cd changer in and wired it myself. I'm sure with some searching, you can find the wire routing diagrams. It goes above the steering column (attached to other wires with wire ties), then under the door sil, up behind the fabric of the back panel and through the air space next to the battery, and finally to the cd changer. The cd changer is mounted in a hard foam material and it has to be cut/shaved away in the center to fit the changer. The whole cd changer install took a few hours of very cautious work.

Just a side note - Infinity Kappa 3-ways don't fit into the door speaker openings. I had to cut away some plastic/metal behind the door to get them to fit. The only other way would be to make something that would extend the speakers out so the large magnets don't hit the inner door panel. They sound sweet, though.