Civic stolen - What next? - Plug in Prius

[RedDevil]

Rear visibility in my 2011 Insight is a bit of an issue, as my rear bumper will attest. Despite parking sensors...
EX level trim brings driver seat height adjustment; I put mine as high as reasonably possible, which helps a lot. The 16 inch rims bring better handling than the 15 inches, so do 185 mm wide tires, with only a marginal impact on economy.

It is a pleasure to drive on twisting roads. I’m on holiday in the German Eifel region right now so I’m having fun with it.

Just don’t mind the revs.
It tends to keep the CVT maxed out when feathering the throttle at about 1000 RPM per 50 km/h, so 65 mph means 1950 RPM.
If you press the fun pedal the revs move up with gusto, and you’d tend to hold back as the revs go to 3-4K because that is such a sudden raise in revs. But of course it still isn’t anywhere near the limit. Boot it and it will do 6 grand in a jiffy and dart forward.

What more. Rattles, especially during frost. Headlights have halogen lamps but need HIDs. The horn sounds apologetic. Tire pressure needs to be raised well above the placard to get sharp handling and less sidewind sensitivity (and, who would have thought, noticeable better economy). The 12 Volt battery is a common weak spot and when a cell dies, it causes all kind of weird system errors. Some Insights have a burring sound at speed when the top seam on the windshield does not seal tightly and some Insights have a high-pitched whine from the dash. The engine is quiet, but there is a lot of tire and road noise. Some Insights do lurch or bump forward a bit when they switch to and from EV mode or under gentle acceleration or quickly changing throttle input. Some early Insights lose the light in a row of LEDs in one of the taillights.

But that’s pretty much it. I’d buy another one if I needed to replace mine and cannot afford an EV yet.
And yes, it is easy to do better than its EPA rating. Much harder to do worse

[j12piprius]

This 2001 Civic 5 speed for $2000 would have been ideal for me but was sold.
I'm interested to play around with a hybrid, provided that I could charge up the cells.

[RedDevil]

The hybrid battery in a non-plugin hybrid typically has a very low capacity, so there isn’t much to charge. The Insight has just 0.6 kWh capacity.

Furthermore, it tends to keep it 60-75 % full. As around that charge level it hardly suffers from high charging and discharging currents. The ions in the cells easily find gaps to move to. It can literally take hundreds of thousands of small high current charges and discharges without losing capacity, whereas two thousand full charges and discharges would kill it.

I tried to support it with a buddy pack, but it fights the help with a vengeance. Version 2 of my pack has more controls in it, but I haven’t had the opportunity or lack of laziness yet to build that yet.

[j12piprius]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

The hybrid battery in a non-plugin hybrid typically has a very low capacity, so there isn’t much to charge.

When a pack fails, is it possible replace failed cells, or would the pack need complete replacement? In that case, could I replace the full pack myself?

Maybe that $2500 looming is too much, plus the car would be stuck on the road when it failed.

[RedDevil]

On InsightCentral.net there are specialists and regular owners alike that have successfully repaired Gen 1 packs by replacing cells. But generally the cells in a pack age at the same rate, so putting new cells in throws it off balance which kills other cells at an accelerated rate.

On Gen 2 cells there is very little of the sort, as they simply don't fail; not even on 2009 Insights. OTOH, the 2009 Civic Hybrid has the same pack woes as the Gen 1 Insight and few still have their original battery, so it isn't age related. Somehow the 2nd gen Insight tends its battery much better.

So, if batteries are your worry steer well away from the Civic and buy an Insight.
Just be prepared to replace the 12V battery at the first sign of trouble. Rule of thumb: Once you had to jump it, dump it. At least they are cheap.
(my warranty replacement 12V battery wasn't much better than the original, but soldiers on in its 4th year. I think of adding a small PV panel to balance/top it off)

[j12piprius]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

if batteries are your worry steer well away from the Civic and buy an Insight.

I'm looking at Prius hybrids, not Civics. There aren't any Insights available at the moment. Also I'm looking at 5 speed manuals.

[RedDevil]

Priuses are generally good cars, there are a couple of years with typical problems but nothing earth shattering. You'd need a Prius expert for the details.

A 5 speed manual is an easy way to hand the user the tools to kill the hybrid battery. It may be one reason why so many Gen 1 Insights and early Civics had battery problems - owners milking out the hybrid battery way beyond its preferred range of operation, aggravating battery wear.

In a hybrid, you really don't need a stick shift.
I never had an auto, always had manuals except for the odd rental. And when a rental had an auto gearbox I hated them. Especially the CVTs. Couldn't live with them, minimized driving until I could return them.

So I test drove a Fit Hybrid (they did sell those over here) expecting to loathe it for its CVT. But the hybrid assist perfectly compensated for all the CVT's vices. It was an absolute gem in start-stop traffic and suburbia with its maze of speed bumps and T junctions... Completely switched me around.

So I went out to buy a Fit Hybrid and ended up owning an Insight, which shares the same platform. A bit heavier and less versatile but a lot cheaper in my case.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf

See if you can find a Yugo. NO ONE wants to steal a Yugo!

That's not a Yugo. That's a Fiat 126, a rear engine successor to the 500.

The Zastava Koral, the Yugoslavian equivalent of the Fiat 127, is what we knew as the Yugo.

[j12piprius]

I'm looking at a 2008 Civic 5 speed with less than 100k miles - not a hybrid.

The asking price is $5000, and it's 300 miles from me. I'm looking into ways to get there. The car looks good from photos and discussion with seller. It was kept in garage, as he has other cars. Does that price seem reasonable?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Price seems very reasonable with that kind of mileage, if the car is in good shape. Most cars like that in my area are priced $4995 to $6995. Manuals are typically less expensive than automatics because no one wants a manual.