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OTOH, driving a reasonable hybrid like the Insight cut my fuel use to 1/2 - 1/4 that of the typical US vehicle. It can make the longest trip I want to make - coast to coast if I choose - and is driveable even with a seriously degraded battery. The only penalty (other than having to reset the IMA every week or two) is about a 5 mpg drop in my mostly highway driving. (Would probably be worse in city driving, though.)
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I dunno man,
Give it a few more years and there will be an internet full of aftermarket battery sellers with better than OEM batteries at half the dealership costs. The more of a market there is for them the more the competition will drive the price down, just like anything else that you buy.
I imagine by the time my Volt needs a battery (if I keep it that long) by then it will be at a more reasonable cost and they won't even be manufacturing ones with as little power as mine by then.
My operating costs are literally pennies a day now, so I'll spend less than 200 bucks a year on energy costs, with less maintenance costs, etc . . . and I can still drive it way over 300 miles at a pop when necessary, pull over and gas up and do it again and still get better mpgs than most people in an econobox. And I went from a SULEV to a ZEV, and one that I can put the grandkids' car seats in, so IMO it's still a win
If you're at 140k in the Insight, in reality you're already in the same boat and will eventually need a replacement battery for it, so tack a couple of grand onto your Insight's numbers, since from experience I'll tell you that car is NO FUN to drive with a dead IMA battery.