[Bjaardker]

Hello all!

I'm in the final stages of getting financing for a used 2000 insight and have a few questions.

First a little background on it. It's a Honda Certified used vehicle, with 36K miles on it. The previous owner was a local montessori school. All of the service for the vehicle was done at dealerships & all of the invoices for the work done is in the glove box.

So, my question is, what kind of work should have been done on this vehicle so far? What recall parts should have been replaced? What should I make sure is taken care of before my 12/12,000 bumper to bumper is up?

Also, I checked the FAQs, but couldn't really find a guide to buying an insight. What should I be looking for during a test drive other than the normal stuff? What should I do to test the charging of the batteries & such?

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

Justin

 

[Resist]

The batteries are covered for 8 years or 80,000 miles.

 

[Insightful Trekker]

Re: Taking delivery of my 2k insight next week.. have a few

Hi Justin and welcome to the forum :!:

The owner's manual will have the maintenance schedule for you to compare the reciepts with.

else:

http://www.insightcentral.net/KB/faq-ma ... #Schedules
(missed this FAQ?)


There are a couple of recalls that are due a 2000 model. A good indication of the previous owners vigilance will be to see if these are due on this specific model and have already been done. Check with your local Honda dealer if you don't see the receipt. You should be able to do it over the phone by VIN.

Another potential good indicator is the LMPG. If its high for your area it will indicate _very_ careful driving to achieve. Which can usually be translated to well cared for.

HTH!

 

[Bjaardker]

The LMPG on the vehicle is 58.9. Not bad considering this car was probably used for all city driving & the owner before probably was not "playing the game".

Thanks for the info about the maintenance schedule FAQ. I had seen the top portion, but didn't realize that the recalls were listed there too.

Should I be looking at replacing the 12V battery right away on this? Is there a way to tell if it's needed?

Also, on the subject of a test drive. Are there specific hallmarks I should be looking for to tell me whether things are hunkey dorey, or if there are problems?

Again, thanks for the input everyone & I can't wait to "join the club".

 

[Resist]

Just test the car out like any other used car. The 12V battery should be fine, since it's not used for starting the car. But you could have the dealership test it out again.

 

[figgy]

I just posted to the battery thread, but here is the same question.

Can you get an idea of how much life is left (years, months) in your 12V by siimply plotting how fast the voltage goes down with loads running.

Turn on lights, stereo, etc. and plot how fast the voltage drops - giving you a kind of charge of the amp-hours in the old battery.

The idea being that if it plunges real fast, then your battery is really on its last legs, but if it declines slowly and you get good support, then you battery may be old but have a long life ahead of it?

One would not want to send a healthy horse to the glue factory, so why send an old but good battery to the recycling guys!

 

[Insightful Trekker]

Hi figgy,

I am looking for an answer to your good question.

FYI multiposting is _STRONGLY_ discouraged (asking the same question in different threads) and will be moderated.

There is a very accurate test that can be done if you have a VOM that accurately reads to the 1/100th volt and with a known load measure this value.

It may be Monday before I can find the information to post. Will reply in the battery thread.

HTH!