Hmm... Well, I did have some things to look for there, but fortunately none of it came in handy as grounds for price reduction. I think one thing that should be underscored in that list from what I've read is the condition of the exhaust system. That is one PRICEY exhaust system, esp. the cat converters and o2 sensors. I made sure to get under the car and look at how rough all parts of the exhaust system looked, and it all looked pretty dern good on this car.
I bought it from the second owner. Original owner bought new in Philadelphia, and the guy I brought it from had it in upstate NY (beware - salty winter roads) since 09. (Pretty cool guy - he's going all diesel everything).
A lot of these things are a bit tough to judge being unfamiliar with the typical behavior of insights. I noticed the things I mentioned in my previous post, but I had nothing to measure them against. Were the things I sensed the "bucking", or can the activities of the electric motor interfacing with the transmission normally be felt? Tough to judge. I thought it might have felt a little rough moving the shifter through all the gears with the clutch in at about 10mph, but again, hard to tell because I've got my loosey goosey XFI motor/trans that shifts like a hot knife through butter with not much of a "click" into gears to speak of. Maybe the insight is supposed to be "clicky", but it didn't seem to be much of a problem at higher speeds.
I didn't end up looking at the pack itself or opening it since I took the advice of looking at how the battery life meter behaves. Again, I have nothing to compare it to but it seemed a little weak on hills - If beginning from a lower RPM and shifting at a lower RPM, it was extraordinarily weak on hills, and felt much like the XFi - very chug-a-lug-y even in low end 2nd gear. However, if I ran up a hill in 1st and brought it to between 4-5k rpms, THEN shifted to second, that seems to have "coaxed" the electric motor to help more and it felt fine and not as luggy, even if I reduced my speed enough to reach the same RPM I had been lugging in before. This might just be gearing too. This car seems to have been built for the highway and flat ground and can handle hills if it needs to... which is why I bought it
I got 68mpg on the mostly flat trip home. I hope this can help someone else or someone who knows what I'm talking about can chime in. That means you RobertSmalls!