Dreaming...lean burn manual taller transmission Civic sedan...or get an Insight

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Radar cruise control....sounds expensive. And all those other things too. I'll just stay with a feather foot, 'cause a hand throttle is illegal, right?

I have no idea what it costs, but it's not terribly refined. When you run 300-500 miles per day, though...you start to care a bit less.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

I'm assuming your company paid for it though, right?

I was putting 40-120 miles a day, 5 days a week on Silver Aero; only used CC because don't have a live MPG readout except for Torque and it's easy to unknowingly have a heavy foot in my car.

And I only used CC on highway because I can't EOC or regen in my auto Civic.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Radar cruise control....sounds expensive. And all those other things too. I'll just stay with a feather foot, 'cause a hand throttle is illegal, right?

I've seen hand throttles done in this car.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I've seen hand throttles done in this car.

But legality tho

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

I'm assuming your company paid for it though, right?

Came from Freightliner that way.

[19bonestock88]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I've seen hand throttles done in this car.

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

But legality tho

Is it actually illegal to do a secondary (hand) throttle?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

Is it actually illegal to do a secondary (hand) throttle?

Looking it up everywhere says you need a handicap license or something. I don't know really, but isn't exactly something you could easily hide if pulled over.

[19bonestock88]

Nor is it something’s that could be a primary offense... If the cop pulling you over wanted to he might tack it into an existing ticket but I don’t think it would be a huge deal

[jcp123]

If you have to worry about how the cop is feeling that day, I don't think it's terribly advisable as a mod.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

I've never been pulled over, even when a cop passed me while going 25 in a 55 during a traffic-free moment of P&G. Even so, I'd rather not risk it.

On the topic of my future Insight (hopefully), I read Ecky's entire original thread on his Insight prior to bypassing the hybrid system, and I came across a few questions to pose here.

1. When buying an Insight, what are all the things I should be looking out for when inspecting the car?

2. On his thread, and others, there seemed to be A LOT of maintenance required for the Insight. Compared to how worry free my Civic has been, this is slightly worrisome. Is this typical for Gen 1 Insights, or are y'all just buying beaters and restoring them?

3. A lot of these maintenance issues seemed to come from the battery/hybrid system. Looking at it statistically, say I could manage 70 MPG without the hybrid battery, and 100 MPG with the battery. I estimate roughly 10,000 miles/yr - roughly 143 gallons without battery and 100 gallons with battery. At approximately $3/gallon that's $300/yr with battery and $429/yr without battery. A new Bumblebee battery costs $1995 (not including installation costs). Even if I could make a battery last 10 years, my savings with the battery is only $1290, compared for over $2000 for new battery + installation. In order to make having a battery actually save any money, I would need to average 116.7 MPG with the battery if the battery lasted 10 years OR drive 15,555.6 miles/yr, again if the battery lasted 10 years. And that's with me installing it myself, which I don't know how to do, and most hybrid batteries don't last 10 years unless you spend $100s in maintaining the battery, which in the long run can't really be that much more efficient.

4. Another question, how much really does the IMA battery help fuel efficiency? Am I wrong or does the battery only come into play during acceleration and hill climbing? Regen benefits are negligible by EOC. I read in Ecky's thread that without the battery shift points at 3000-4000 RPMs were necessary during acceleration as opposed to 2000 RPMs, obviously burning...4x more gas in acceleration? But other than that, how much really does the IMA battery help fuel efficiency?

5. Without the IMA, does electrical load still affect MPG signficantly compared to other cars? I.e. radio usage, headlights, etc. AC will be deleted.