So I finally took the dive...
A little history: I rebuilt my current daily driver, the 98 Dodge Neon, about 5 years ago now with hypermiling in mind. Went from DOHC to single, rebuilt high compression, longer geared transmission, etc. She did pretty well over the years and I plan to keep her around. In fact, I wanted a 2nd daily driver so I could have some dedicated sitting time with the ol Neon as it's hard to do some of my eco upgrades when I just can't have that down time! So, it was time to go shopping. I've eyeballed a few cars, but I kept coming back to the Insight, as it just made the most sense for me.
First, I test drove an 01 silver at a stealership... the interior was beat, right window wouldn't stay in the track, but the IMA seemed to work on a 20 minute drive without issue. They wanted $5K and didn't seem to want to wiggle that price (didn't try too hard, though). So I left and decided to keep looking. I found an Insight about 50 miles out that was in really good shape. My biggest reservation was 180k miles, but after reading enough, I feel confident that it shouldn't have been a deal breaker.
I went over and got to see this thing first hand and was very impressed. Couldn't find any concerning damage, interior or exterior. He showed me where he hit his garage/house when backing up, which scraped up the right tire cover, but that was really it. Sun fade here and there. Interior had a little damage to the dash... otherwise, extremely clean. Stock stereo, wipers in place, just about everything untouched from the factory.
Gave it a test drive and the IMA battery was very low. Did some regen braking and it went to fully charged real fast. Auto start and stop worked and some assist, but shortly after, IMA light came on and the battery gauge bottomed out. Check engine light came on as well. This was probably 3-5 miles on this trip.
I got it back and checked the blink codes. Engine light said IMA issue, IMA said deteriorated. I came in expecting that.
I did the carfax on it, seems to have a good maintenance records at mostly Honda dealerships. It did say it was rear ended at one point, but no airbag deployment or major damage. I checked under the spare and everything looked straight.
He was asking $3800/$3200, but I got him down to $2500 cash, paperwork signed, and drove it home (without any issues).
Problems & fixes:
-Drivers window switch went out. He tried to fix it and seems the whole switch itself is now missing (housing to the full assembly is there, but the driver's switch itself is completely gone).
--Will have to probably order full assembly... $150
-Trunk doesn't open from electronic button (but does with key). Motor mounts seem weak/done for.
--User on honda insight forum sells custom 3D printed ones, Paypal'd!
-Window tint on drivers side was partially removed and impossible to see out of (have to lean way back to see the mirror). Rear tint is pretty crummy.
--Take to local tint shop, see what they will charge to replace these.
-Trip buttons are shot.
--Digikey replacements ordered!
-Passenger mirror doesn't move, seems taped in place.
--Was planning to ultimately remove this mirror anyways... so... no loss!
-IMA is gone.
--Already contacted Bumblebee, I'll be in their hometown in a few weeks anyways... steep price, but seems it'll be worth it.
So it came with a lifetime of 61.8 and ~180,300 miles. In my short drive home, I got that lifetime to 62.0! lol.
I'm pretty happy thus far. I'm planning on changing all the fluids and checking out brakes, mounts, etc. this weekend. Any suggestions on other things to check out while I'm at it?
I'm going to give it a full tank and start the fuel chart after getting the battery in it (has about 1/2 tank right now). From there, tank by tank, I'll start doing some of the typical mods to it, as well as perhaps some untypical ones (who knows!).
I'll get more pics later, especially the interior... I'm pretty excited.
(said something about security trying to upload to the site, so I'll just link dropbox pics for now)