RE: Can I put a Civic VX engine in Gen I Insight?

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Ecky, I'm just saying, you cannot get 70mpg with no effort. It takes a lot of effort to get 70+. I drive average and I get 65-68, but that's without A/C and avoiding short trips. With A/C I can get about 55-60 at 70mph. 50-55mpg lifetime (which can be reset anyway) is good, anything under 50 and the car was probably driven 75+ on the freeway with the wrong tires, or all city driving with A/C and wrong tires.

My wife regularly gets 70-80 on her drive to work.

As it is now, I get ~100mpg cruising at 50mph on level terrain on a warm day, and 75mpg at 65mph. Stop and go is where driving techniques really make a difference, but even an Insight missing all of its underbelly panels should be able to get 70+ cruising at 55.

I think the real trick is just learning to slow down a bit.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Ecky

My wife regularly gets 70-80 on her drive to work.

As it is now, I get ~100mpg cruising at 50mph on level terrain on a warm day, and 75mpg at 65mph. Stop and go is where driving techniques really make a difference, but even an Insight missing all of its underbelly panels should be able to get 70+ cruising at 55.

I think the real trick is just learning to slow down a bit.

Oh you're talking at 55, yea I can easily get 80+ at 55. However doing 70-75 my commute is 1 1/2 hours drive each way.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

What MPG do you get? Accelerating to 'leave most vehicles behind' means pulling a lot from the battery. When you have to regen that later, the tradeoff is usually not worth it.

Average 71.2 mpg over the close to 140K miles I've owned it. Much of that crossing the Sierra Nevada, or climbing into them. (I live just at the eastern base.) Not much time spent in city driving. And as I said, it's not that I accelerate so briskly - maybe half throttle, with a bit of assist for a few seconds - it's that just about everything else out there is either a) slow; or b) driven by people with the reaction time of a Brontosaurus.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Ecky

-Check to see what the lifetime fuel economy is on the car. This can be found on the same display as the car's total miles. If it's below 55-60mpg on a 5MT, it was probably driven pretty aggressively.

Though note that it's possible - indeed, quite easy - to reset this "lifetime" mpg. When I bought mine, it had amost exactly 50K miles, and showed about 50 mpg average. I reset it the week I got it home, and as you say, have averaged ~70 mpg, mostly driving in conditions not really favorable to good mpg. I think my worst trip was about 55 mpg, crossing an 8900 ft pass in a snowstorm.

That's another thing about Insights in snow country. When you try to drive in more than 4-5 inches of snow, you don't go very well, and stand a good chance of ripping off underbody panels. Similar cautions apply to fording creeks, muddy dirt, &c.

[hamsterpower]

Originally Posted by Ecky

But if OP's goal is to spend the least overall, I wouldn't recommend leasing a car.

Of course not, but the post I was replying to (can't seem to find it now) specifically said the least on "gas and repairs". I also see a post on needing reliable transportation, to me that means "I'm tired of dealing with rust and repairs".

[ecoboy]

Originally Posted by hamsterpower

Of course not, but the post I was replying to (can't seem to find it now) specifically said the least on "gas and repairs". I also see a post on needing reliable transportation, to me that means "I'm tired of dealing with rust and repairs".

For me it is really about TCO, total cost of ownership.

Purchase price + Gas Cost + Maintenance = TCO

TCO Jeep 153,000 miles most at $4 per gallon

Jeep purchase + Repairs was $16,400
Gas per year ran about $8,160 (over 5 years $40,800)
Repairs run $1,500 per year (over 5 years $7,500)

So around $57,200 to for 153,000 miles

[cowmeat]

Wow, that's a little over 37 cents a mile TCO for a pretty long distance!
That happens to be almost exactly the same as my TCO per mile on Ron Burgundy, but I've only owned it seven months, lol!

For a true TCO you have to add in your oil changes, insurance costs, toys, and some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. TCO is an eye-opener and most people can't handle seeing the true cost per mile, especially if they're paying on a car.

My current Insight Ron Burgundy cost 4500 bucks cash minus the 2500 bucks I sold Turtle for.

So 2,000 bucks plus 300 bucks to tag it up, a little over 400 bucks for gas, 420 for insurance (about 60 bucks a month for 7 months), 300 bucks for toys and two oil changes = 3,420 divided by the 9,115 miles I've driven it equals a little over 37 cents a mile TCO.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by ecoboy

TCO Jeep 153,000 miles most at $4 per gallon

Jeep purchase + Repairs was $16,400
Gas per year ran about $8,160 (over 5 years $40,800)

Humm... Unless I've missed a decimal, that's more spent on gas in one year than in the dozen years I've owned the Insight. 140K miles @ 70 mpg = 2000 gallons. At $4/gal, $8000, no?

I'd say my lifetime repair spending is about one year of your Jeep too, but it's kind of apples to oranges since I do all my own work, and live in a state where the only inspection needed is a yearly smog check.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Average 71.2 mpg over the close to 140K miles I've owned it. Much of that crossing the Sierra Nevada, or climbing into them. (I live just at the eastern base.) Not much time spent in city driving. And as I said, it's not that I accelerate so briskly - maybe half throttle, with a bit of assist for a few seconds - it's that just about everything else out there is either a) slow; or b) driven by people with the reaction time of a Brontosaurus.

Oh that makes sense. I drive about 20-25% of my tank city. I'm getting 69.2 this tank, with like 50 ish of the last 200 miles being city. It really kills me mileage wise.

[ecoboy]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Wow, that's a little over 37 cents a mile TCO for a pretty long distance!
That happens to be almost exactly the same as my TCO per mile on Ron Burgundy, but I've only owned it seven months, lol!

For a true TCO you have to add in your oil changes, insurance costs, toys, and some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. TCO is an eye-opener and most people can't handle seeing the true cost per mile, especially if they're paying on a car.

My current Insight Ron Burgundy cost 4500 bucks cash minus the 2500 bucks I sold Turtle for.

So 2,000 bucks plus 300 bucks to tag it up, a little over 400 bucks for gas, 420 for insurance (about 60 bucks a month for 7 months), 300 bucks for toys and two oil changes = 3,420 divided by the 9,115 miles I've driven it equals a little over 37 cents a mile TCO.

Your cost per mile is high now, but would drop like a stone if you did 40k per year. Also, got to figure in the cost of prozac and therapy I will need after adding up the numbers ha, ha,, ha. To me the perfect vehicle costs as little as possible per mile and gets me from point A to B.

In absolute numbers my 40 year old honda cb750 gets up to 50 mpg and I can fix everything, So for around $2k with just routine maintenance it cost just pennies per mile.

That is why my ideal perfect vehicle would be fwd, fully enclosed reverse trike like the eliomotors's one. Also my insurance would drop from $900 per year to $80 bucks. My payback would just be a few years.


Is anyone on this forum ordering an elio or working on to build a fwd, fully enclosed reverse trike?