[rone]

I have a '02 Blue CVT bought new last Super Bowl weekend, it has 5,600 miles. Clean & smooth. Shortly after buying the CVT, I began wishing that I had a MT instead. For the pleasure/control of shifting and for the extreme mileage.

Well, about a month ago a friend mentioned that he needs to sell his '01 Silver MT with 20,000 miles because his wife won't drive it. She wants an auto-trans car.

So we have now driven each others cars. They like mine. I'm not sure about theirs. For one thing, it was less peppy than I assumed a MT would be. It's the 1st MT Insight that I've driven. While the CVT, especially in "S" mode, has a nice standing start pickup, the MT seemed sluggish. Maybe that's the way they all are?

The other thing is the battery meter. On my CVT it rarely gets below 3/4 and is usually near full. I'm in the Bay area, so there are hills, but even a 1,000 foot climb still leaves about 3/4 charge. And the battery recharges quickly.

On the other hand, this MT Insight's battery meter is usually between 1/4 and 3/4. It hardly every shows full, and sometimes fully discharges on that same 1,000 foot climb. Is that normal?

What do y'all think of trading these cars? I would expect to get some cash out of it. Does $2k seem like enough? $3k?

 

[Delta Flyer]

Rone,

You may be the only one here to have driven a Prius, Insight CVT, and Insight 5-speed.

Expect the battery meter on an Insight 5-speed to vary more. Since I'm in the Dallas area and most of my driving is freeway, it's usually 2/3 charged. I would expect the hills along with the stop-and-go traffic will give you frequent low battery meter reading. When I'm in extended stop-and-go traffic, the battery meter get hit pretty bad. Sometimes I just shift lower than normal in those situations.

I can only speculate about hilly terrain. My 1988 CRX HF had problems since it had a tight gear box. I suspect the same is true for the Insight. When I was going uphill west of Denver on I70, I had to downshift to third and was only going 50 mph. If it was tuned for high altitude it might have helped.

Most of the time my acceleration seems fine, but I think it has problems at full throttle. The electric assist seems more effective under 50 mph than over 50 mph.

The rollercoaster readings on your battery meter seem quite normal for a Insight 5-speed.

 

[Guest]

Hi Rone:

___One of the tricks that some 5-speed Insighter’s have used to keep their batteries charged closer to the maximum bars is by driving with their head lights on. I hope this works in your Insight’s case as well.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:1wjbwnyy][email protected][/email:1wjbwnyy]

 

[Guillermo]

To keep the battery from draining too much on long or even medium length hillls you need to downshift usually to 3rd gear.
We weren't kidding when we said the MT Insight requires more input from the driver! On hilly terrain unless you keep constant throttle and allow the car to slow right down on some uphills (not recommended in traffic) then you have to shift often.