Soon to own an Insight!
 

I went this past weekend to check out a 2000 Honda Insight I found on Craigslist. It was my first time being up close to one, so I was (beyond) very excited! Here is what I went to look at:

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Hmmm.... looks oddly familiar...

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Haha! :D:D

I wish I could have got y'all some video of my first time driving, but I didn't think of it till after the fact. Sorry guys :(

Overall, the car is in good condition, both mechanically and aesthetically. It has that 1-2 gear grind at times, and the IMA system is not working. That isn't a problem for me, and I'll soon have it back up and running to help out my city mpg. The battery was replaced within the past couple years (don't remember exactly when the owner said). It has the 165/65/14 Re92's at around half tread :thumbup:

My first impressions driving one: Wow. I was bubbling with excitement and my expectations were high, and the Insight didn't disappoint! He let it idle for 5-10 minutes to let me watch and listen to the idle. The mpgs on the screen feel from 55 to 43 in this time. I took it out on some back roads before hitting the highway. I wasn't exactly prepared for the length of the gears combined with a 3-cylinder's low torque, but all went well! It is a D-O-G after 2nd gear and if you're under 2000 rpm. It coast very well for it's lightness. I was able to keep the FCD over 75 mpg cruising 51-52 in a 45 zone. I'm not sure if lean burn was active, it didn't feel like it compared to when I went into lean burn in the ZX2.

I was sold!!!

As of now, I'm in the process of getting the money together, finding out insurance and DMV cost. Within the next week or so, I will officially have me a new-to-me Insight :thumbup::D:D

Is that bicycle sticker on the quarter window a kill marking?:eek:

Yep! With the title being clean, it must had been a drive-by :D

I approve of both the number of doors and the colour!

:thumbup:

Hey, congrats!

How many miles? Hope you got a good deal.

Yup, you were in lean burn. (Unless you were just going downhill!)

Hey Darin! It has 246,000 miles on the OD. More than I would like, but it is expected when it is a 17 year-old commuter car.

I got a super sweet deal! :thumbup: $1000!

That stretch was slightly downhill. There isn't much perfectly flat land out in Missouri! Well, towards the west and north, when you get towards the Great Plains. Not where I'm at.

I thought that when in lean burn, you had to apply MORE throttle to provide adequate power. I was feathering the throttle!

On my old Escort, going in to lean burn at say, 50 mph, would be a difference of almost no throttle to maybe 1/3 of full throttle. Load would go from 46% to around 60% having a 17.3 AFR, and the Insight is more than capable of passing 20:1. Is my thought process correct?

Also, the tire pressure was probably spec (38F, 35R) during testing. Definitely getting a boost before I drive it home!

If you have an ELM347 bluetooth dongle you can monitor AFR:

PID and formula for Air Fuel Ratio for torque pro - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

After driving it a few weeks you'll definitely not need to though.

Sounds like a fair price. Since these cars are getting so old, it will have issues to deal with almost guaranteed. I've had mine only bout a half year now and I've already fixed a fair amount. Nothing difficult, but there are quirks. Check out Ecky's build thread, its chalk full of awesomeness, lots of pictures, and its indexed as well which is super helpful.

Not bad for a grand! They're fun little cars, for sure!

I did a bunch of mods to my two Insights, the threads are on here somewhere if you want some laughs and a couple of legit pointers.
I'm not sure lean burn works without the IMA system. Mine quit when I had the IMA turned off, but maybe that was just me. Honestly, the only thing losing lean burn did for me was it made it easier to drive on the highway!

Enjoy!

Some IMA failures disable lean burn.

The car is MUCH -- I can't stress this enough -- MUUUUUCH nicer to drive with a working IMA. 2nd gear is fun gear. 3rd gear with IMA is high speed fun gear. 5th gear is cruising gear.

4th gear is... mostly unused :-P

Nice!!

It's much more subtle in the Insight than you describe in your Escort.

Looks good, the spare wheel looks heavy compared to a liquid tire repair cans. 0.2 mpg increase maybe.

Lots of replies! I've truly missed replying to threads and talking with y'all!

Ecky - Much thanks on the Torque info! But I have SG2, and I dug this up searching around on Insight Central

Scanguage Lean Burn X-Guage: Scanguage II - Xgauge for Lean Burn Mode - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

So I'll be set come Saturday :thumbup:

Daox - I already have a short list. Number one is getting IMA back up and working. I'm completely clueless when it comes to hybrid system. I've read and researched, but I will be relying heavily on everyone here.

Cowmeat - My test drive had me grinning ridiculously :D I followed up on Ron Burgandy's thread all the time! You best believe I'll be going back through them and glean more information.

I need lean burn!!! 106 mpg 90 day average isn't going to happen without it :)

Samwichse - Hopefully that isn't the case.

I can't wait to experience what you describe. Without IMA, 3rd gear onward was... pathetic, acceleration-wise

MetroMPG - Yes sir! Almost too nice. I have a story behind that that I'm sharing later.

I agree. What I've read confirms your words. My escort was forced into lean burn through MAF signal manipulation, apples to oranges comparison :p

RoadTripRob - Haha, you may be right! It'll stay there until I need new tires and get 3 more space savers. Then I'll have the ultimate tire/wheel package!

Here is the link to the original CL ad: https://springfield.craigslist.org/cto/6011006001.html

I spent an hour on the phone with him when I found the ad and became set on the red one. We began talking about efficiency and I talked to him about Ecomodder. I told him about the site, what it was about. He said that he had been here a time or two before (no surprise!).

We talked on and on about members projects, my Escort, his Insight and how I became a moderator on the site. After I got off the phone, I sent him links to my ZX2 build, MetroMPG's 100+ mpg Insight boattail thread and the aesthetic Insight boattail build (can't remember the name). He appreciated them and was going to check them out.

Couple days past...

Then he randomly messages me "$1000 and it's yours. I want it to have a good home."

I was blown away!

I have not asked him directly, but it seems that he saw my work and the work of others on here and decided to drop the price solely based upon the assumption his Insight would be absolutely cherished. My work would not be on here if I had not been inspired by others before me to record and have so much fun with increasing mpg!

I'm getting a $1500 reduction in price because of you fellow ecomodders! I want to say thank y'all with all my heart!!!

Very cool story!

Now... to find someone selling a Model S with the same heart towards ecomodding... :D

That's fantastic!!

Hm. Maybe we should start a forum about Caribbean islands. I want a discount on one of those. :D

We can all hope can't we gentlemen? :D

I'm headed to pick it up now!!!

So, how did the pick up go?

Sorry for the delay y'all. Life has picked up this week and kept me away from taking pictures and posting.

The pick up went extremely well! It took ~15 minutes at max to sign everything and exchange the money. I am now an extremely proud owner of a 1st Gen Insight!

Build/repair/fun thread to start soon :)

I got 60.6 mpg over 124.1 miles that night. This was driving it hard through Springfield, hitting 90% of the red lights and then back home on the highway. All the tires were between 32-37 psi BTW.

It was knocking down 75-85 mpg @ 60 mph!

Since then, I've been averaging 50 mpg around town. Driving to work and random errands, mostly cold starts and drives. This is without any hybrid assist in hilly terrain. Only "mods" are early upshifting and elevated tire pressure (60f/55r).

I find the Insight responds well when you keep it below ~2250RPM. I like to shift around 2000, dunno if that's what you consider early.

I am super envious. However, anyone keeping a Gen1 on the road despite it being old enough to drive itself and a quarter-million on the clock, I have to appreciate that.

Nice, nice find man. I'm looking forward to hearing about what you do with it.

Dude! You are making me jealous! 1st gen insight was right behind my accord in what car I wanted, it was a tough choice.

Also, don't count on space saver TIRES for being LRR, I think metrompg did a test of space savers and found that they have high RR. If you are going to use space savers, use the RIMS and slap different tires on them.

Traffic permitting, I like to shift before 2000, usually 1800 so my upshift lands around 1000-1200 rpm. As long as the grade isn't too steep, the Insight will get up to 25-35 in a decent amount of time.

Thank you elhigh! It might be crazy, but in my eyes, these cars deserve to be cherished as the jewel they are.

I look forward as well. One week of ownership and I already have a big list!

All this jealousy and envy! :D

It was a no-brainer for me. I've wanted one for many years, and the way my life is at the moment is perfect for an Insight.

I wouldn't dare run SS tires! I've seen Darin's post you mentioned and read it many times. I do plan on switching the stock alloys out with the 14x4 space savers when I get a new set of RE92's.

Congrats on the car! Sometimes I wish I still had mine, but to be honest, I didn't do or want to do the kind of driving that would make it anything more than a toy.

Wait til you get IMA working. I had assist disabled most of the time (clutch switch, battery was about toast), and while acceleration was good enough without IMA, IMA made it feel like a rocket at low RPM.