How many of you want me to buy this dubious 2000 Honda Insight from Tucson?

[MetroMPG]

I want to raise my hand!


But only if you agree not to blame me for encouraging you if it turns out to be a turd bucket.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I want to raise my hand!


But only if you agree not to blame me for encouraging you if it turns out to be a turd bucket.

Second. Only you can actually see the car. I'll again throw out that I'd avoid it if it burns oil. It's normal for oil to get very dark very quickly in these engines, but they rarely use much or any if driven gently. It's and indication of poor engine health.

[Xist]

I do not know how much I would usually trust a used car salesman, but one that is selling the car after two months? Was the car repainted before or after the fender was damaged?

Did I not share this originally?





It is 198 miles from my house to his area if I drive through a canyon, which I do not want to do again, particularly in the winter. It is 284 miles the other way, so I would honestly prefer that a mechanic inspect it first. I would be willing to pay a Honda dealership to check it out before I made the drive.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Xist

I do not know how much I would usually trust a used car salesman, but one that is selling the car after two months? Was the car repainted before or after the fender was damaged?

Did I not share this originally?





It is 198 miles from my house to his area if I drive through a canyon, which I do not want to do again, particularly in the winter. It is 284 miles the other way, so I would honestly prefer that a mechanic inspect it first. I would be willing to pay a Honda dealership to check it out before I made the drive.

I'll be honest, you probably already know more about these cars than a dealer would. They hate G1 Insight owners and don't want to deal with these cars.

There's no voodoo or hocus pocus under the hood. Check out mpg_numbers_guy's thread for specifics on picking one up, common issues etc.

[freebeard]

How many of you want me buying a project Insight from Tucson?

All of us.

[MetroMPG]

It is 198 miles from my house to his area if I drive through a canyon, which I do not want to do again, particularly in the winter. It is 284 miles the other way,

Holy cow, no way. My "beater radius" rule is 50 km = 30 miles.

I broke the rule and went 400 km / 240 mi. round trip for my current Metro winter beater, and it's still debatable whether that was a good move.

Summer beater MPGiata was 58 km away. Slightly over. (Not good at following rules?)

[Ecky]

Kinda looks to me like the damage to the fender happened after the paint job. Those headlights are both definitely new too, because in your part of the country they'd be hazy brown by this time otherwise. Might be that the owner hit something with the front bumper and it broke the plastic quarter panel, looks like some cracks there.

To my eye the tires look oversized. It's not nearly so fun to drive with heavy, overweight oversized tires, and most on Insight Central report a 5-20mpg hit by using oversized on-LRR tires on this car, which is to say, still better than anything else on the road.

[Xist]

It may have taken me a year to find my Civic in the Phoenix area. I live a town of about 10,000 truck enthusiasts, next to a smaller town of truck enthusiasts, and with a few other small towns where trucks are also popular. Here is a 2002 Civic in-town with 389,000 km (far too many freedom units) for $1,000 miles: https://showlow.craigslist.org/cto/d...781428063.html

They claim 40 MPG, but the butt says EX, and the EPA says 27/33, so I say "Shenanigans."



Fourteen people reported fuel economy between 2005 and 2015, with an average of 33.8 MPG. So, if I drive like the average owner, I would beat EPA (by 12.7%), and be in the neighborhood of my Accord--in a smaller car.

Where is the fun in that?

Edit: Where is MPG_Number_Guy's thread? I just read through this one: https://www.insightcentral.net/forum...yers-tips.html

However, I do not see anything of the sort here: https://ecomodder.com/forum/search.php?searchid=3435636

[mpg_numbers_guy]

I vote you check it out!

I made a checklist of things to look for when buying an Insight - a condensed version of everything I read and learned that I used when looking at my Insight. I can post it or send it to you if you want.

I think Ecky might be referring to my "Dreaming" thread that kinda turned into a Gen1 Insights 101 course - https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...dan-36742.html.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Holy cow, no way. My "beater radius" rule is 50 km = 30 miles.

But this is an Insight!

-

EDIT: Picture you posted shows the tires - 175/65R14s. Bad, bad, bad.

From pics, headlights are new, as was noted; the car originally was silver (see Honda logo on hood. Just learned recently from Natalya about that). Looks like the caps on the wheels were recently replaced as well. Not bad things, just things I saw from the other pictures you were given.

[Xist]

I have not checked OfferUp in a while and Facebook Marketplace is not working for me, but for some reason it shows me results in Idaho. Here is an HX for $1,200: https://offerup.com/item/detail/568511962/