Service in Australia

Hi Ghillie, the car you saw in Sandringham was not mine, as I have all service logs from Robert Lane & Astoria. It seems that there are quite few Insight around in Melbourne but they don't seem to post into the forum. At least I know there is someone from forum driving Australian version to share the knowledge
I saw the advertisment you refered on red Insight and I also wonder why noone interested. Maybe if people looking for hybrids most of them will prefer Toyota Prius. It seems that you have one as well. How did you find the car so far compare to Insight? Is it fun to drive?
I haven't thought of selling my Insight either, maybe I will replace it with another younger Insight with less kms .
I hope honda will release next generation Insight (maybe based on IMAS --> "sound like it" concept car I saw on video clip at Melbourne Motor Show), if not we will ride one of Honda Masterpiece

Cheers,

Gabriella - The Prius is not as much fun to drive as the Insight. However, we need a family car and the Insight obviously cannot do that job with only two seats. The Insight is a great second car for us and I drive it as often as I can.

The Prius is ok to drive. It's safe and predictable - we bought the upgrade model with stability control and curtain airbadgs so it's very well specified. It has been a very practical and reliable car for us. We get about 4.8 - 5 l/100kms which I think is excellent. The hybrid system in the Prius is more advanced than the Insight and gives great economy for the size and weight of the car. Much of the Insight's economy comes from its light weight.

But I love my Insight. I laugh when reading the Australian reviews of the Insight which typically described it as "impractical". Well, yes, if you need 5 seats it is completely impractical. But for a two seat car it is great. I have carried many things in the hatch back including a bicycle - with the front wheel sticking out the back. If you don't go over any big bumps, for short distances it is not even necessary to tie down the hatch - as it rests lightly on the bike without popping up.

Cheers!

Hi Ghillie, it appears your Prius is more economic than my Insight. I normally get around 5.0 to 5.5 lt/100 km on city driving. Did you get more economic than mine on your Insight? I got 3.9 to 4.0 lt on my lifetime fuel consumption, but I keep getting around 5.0 to 5.5 lt all the time on the trip computer. Did you use the FCD? I am not quite sure how this works, do we need to reset this on each trip?
Insight is also my second car, but I drive the car more than my Accord as it is much economic and most of the time I only drive only 1 or 2 people so not rally need the back seats. I love driving my Insight, but not really familiar with all the technologies and the gadgets.
I was thinking to change my accord with family hybrid car next year if I am lucky enough, it's either prius or next generation civic hybrid, but I am impressed with the prius fuel consumption and will find out about the civic when it goes on sell in Australia.

Cheers

Gabriella - I'm surprised at your fuel consumption. My Insight does considerably better than the Prius. My Insight lifetime is 4.4 l/100km. It was 5 l/100km when I bought it at 6,500 km. It's now done 12,500 km. I use the two trip meters (A and B) to keep my long-term fuel economy - 3.6 l/100km - and current tank fuel economy which is 3.4 l/100km. One push of the FCD button gives acces to these two plus the lifetime reading. (Use the button just below the speedometer to move between lifetime, trip A and trip B.) Push it again and you get a seperate trip meter - which I sometimes use for a particular journey. I'm probably not explaining this very well - but if you look on Insight Central there is some good stuff that explains how to access the different options for tracking fuel economy.

There's also lots of good stuff on Insight Central for improving fuel economy. There are several possible reasons for yours being relatively poor. Driving style is a likely culprit but other contributors from my experience are: lots of stop/start commuting (I don't do much of this), airconditioning use and even mechanical problems.

If you are reasonably careful with your driving style (lots of information on Insight Central) my guess is that commuting conditions is the most likely reason. I have noticed that my fuel economy can get quickly worse if I am in a slow moving line of stop/start traffic.

It's also important to keep the car in "lean burn" as much as possible. You need to be gentle with the accelerator to do this. You should be able to cruise along a flat freeway at about 95km/hr with the instant fuel consumption read out showing a little over 2l/100km. If the freeway goes into even a very slight incline, extra load will go on the engine even if you don't press the accelerator and instant fuel economy will deteriorate to over 4l/100km. This is the effect of coming out of lean burn. There is lots of discussion about this on Insight Central also.

I am very happy with the Prius. From what little I have read it seems that the new model Civic Hybrid is very similar in many respects. It would be very interesting if one of the motoring journalists did a back to back comparison. My guess is that you would be happy with either car - although I do find the hatchback on the Prius very handy.

... Just wanted to ask if anyone has any experience traveling in the kimberlies (sp?). It has been one of my longest standing dreams to just walk/drive away into the kimberlies for several weeks (months?). I have a fair bit of survival training and can hunt/kill/fish/trap/clean/butcher my own food. Just wondering about jumping off points, personal experiences, cultural anecdotes about the area, whatever you want to tell a silly yank about the place!
....

Well "The Kimberly" is a pretty remote region. I drove the "Gibb River Road" a few years back. A pleasant drive, been on worse roads. To be on your own I guess you need to stay to the north of the track. There is one track that leads north to a remote aborigional settlement on the coast but I never went on it.....

I prefer the Cape York region though. :wink:

Happy New Year!
Ghillie, I drove my Insight over new year holiday and I keep maintaining the fuel consumption bars between 0 to 4 (is this what we call 'Lean-Burn'?) and the result I got 3.8 to 4.2 litre / 100 km - Thanks for the tips.
I changed my driving style. Now I accelerate fast with low gears (1st and 2nd and shifted to 5th to cruise on 60km zone flat road) and I keep getting around 4.0 litres (a lot of stop/go and 50 to 70km zone) and I am happy with this. I will try on freeway and will see what happen.
I used both trip metres now, I reset A each time I fill up the petrol and keep B for my record. I am using FCD for every trip now(reset it each time and check trip A for comparison).
With my old driving style (I drove the car with 2nd and 3rd gears most of the time and seldom shift to 4th and 5th on normal 60-70km zones) I could only get around 630km for 40 litres petrol with 1 or 2 bars left. Will see what happen if I keep driving this way (yes, it is very challenging to keep the fuel cons bars below 4lt)

No.166, I haven't driven much around Australia country sides (only drove from melb - syd - canberra - melb and around melb - great ocean road is the nice one), and not really sure where the kimberlies is

Cheers