Suggestions, best wax for finish protection

Besides waxing (I, too, use Zaino), there is one other thing one can do to protect the paint finishes, 3M Clear ScotchCal Film. One can think of it like a clear kitchen counter liner. It's normally sold as in 6" strips, and one would use it to protect areas that could get scratched up. There are 3rd party companies out there that market them as "Clear Bra" and will sell designs cut specifically to the vehicle. But since the Insight is not quite as curvy, folks may be able to just buy the regular strips in install it themselves. It's "virtually" invisable and people do swear by them.

Besides covering the front and top of the vehicle, other uses include top of rear bumper to prevent scruffing when loading/unloading the trunk. One can also use it for under the door handles, or key holes, gas cap area, etc.

Of course, if you often parked under the tree, one should get a car cover also. I bought the ones that can be washed in washing machine, cause in my neighborhood, my car cover gets filthy very quickly. Tree saps, tree saps bonding with pollen, bugs, bird poops, etc. all accummulate quickly during spring and summer. I bought the "weathershield" line of custom car covers. My only disappointment was that they didn't accommodate for the antenna. My MINI has a straight up and down antenna, so the car cover has an extra "antenna pocket" sewn into the top of the car cover. My custom cover for the Insight fits well, but the antenna is forced to bend 45" downward. I never noticed it before the car cover, but now the antenna on the Insight is a bit "droopy". Otherwise, I highly recommend paying a little more for these car covers. They really don't scratch the paint and with the custom fit, not only looks good, but also stay on securely during mild breeze.

It takes probably less than a minute to put it on and off, once you got the folding routine down. For those who do not like the chore of locking up the car cover all the time, it's easier to loop the cable only from one side, and then loop the locking end around the rear tire (ie. looping around where the tread touches the ground.) Since these custom covers stays on snugly, the locking cables is just there to keep it from being blown off all the way, or simply a low-level of theft-deterent.

Oh, park REALLY REALLY FAR FAR AWAY (and on top of an incline if there are shopping carts)... nothing ages a car more than door dings. I don't even know if anyone can repair dents on the Insight, since it's aluminum. Besides the benefits of having a car looking beautiful without dings, there are other benefits with parking far. For those who are desk jockies like me, this is about as much exercise I can get all day. And for those who wants to show off our car, rather than getting buried and blocked by parking the car between two SUVs, when one parks the Insight out toward the streets, everyone who drives by can admire our beautiful car!

Also, don't forget to take care of the black plastic trims around the car too!

Charles <-- obsessed with appearances... of my cars...

I've seen it live mainly on dark colored cars, like black and dark navy blue. In those cases, it is very close to invisable. The only reason one can tell is that the light reflection(refraction) is different, and plus I know it's there in the first place, so I know what to look for. I think it will show up a little on lighter colors, except for bright silver, that too, seems to blend in really well.

Besides the slight difference in reflection, the other thing that would give it away is the seam. If too much dirt is collected at the seams, one we be able to pick out the shape of the "bra". For me, that's not a big deal since I keep my car clean most of the time, and it is still less obvious than a big rubbery car bra.

Various shop guarentee that it would not yellow for at least 4 years, and one testimonial says that they have it for over 5 years and still look the same. I think it's possible that the ones you've seen are intended to be visible.

I wanted to put some on the Insight, but my wife didn't want me to. She doesn't drive as fast as I do, and her stretch of the road doesn't have as many rocks, thus for the last 3 years, we only got a small number chips. For my MINI, I get a chip every few months. I've bought the film specifically cut for my MINI, but there too many curves for me to feel confident to install myself. I've been dragging my feet on fixing the chips, and I should fix those first before I have it professionally installed... The top of the rear bumpers are already all scratched up, and wished I had found out when the cars were new.

Charles