There was one here at my work before they returned it on lease, I'd have to say it was the shittiest car ever to drive, 2nd only to the old RAV4 all electric car. The car had absolutely no getup, your constantly in 1st and 2nd gear otherwise you felt like it was gonna stall. The car merged like shit, yet again due to the lack of power and torque. Don't gimme that BS that thats what its suppose to be like either. I've drive many Civic DX's, CRX HF, and Corollas that barely have, or just have over 100hp and I've never disliked driving those cars compared to this POS Honda.

I never felt safe behind the wheel of that thing. The interior was probably the cheapest quality of parts ever as well, from the super thin floor mats to the horrible choice of easily stained fabric used on for the barely adjustable seats.

 

Thus the reason that mainstream cars are still getting 20-25mpg... consumers think they need gobs of power and torque during their daily commute. In high school, I drove a Nissan Sentra w/ a diesel engine. It had approximately 55hp and 65lb-ft of torque, yet I somehow managed to get from point A to point B in it... all while getting 40+ mpg.

 

I am the proud owner of a 1999 Insight Automatic, here in the Uk. I have owned three sonce I bought my first one in May 2000. They are not everybody's taste but as you say they are cheap to run and more environmentally friendly than any other mass produced car. Performance is also magnificent considering its a 997 cc engine. Vtech technology. Glad to hear they are rising in price!

 

Yes and no.

If you drive 100,000 miles and average 25mpg, you use 4000 gallons of gas, or $16k at $4/gal.

If you drive 100,000 miles and average 50mpg, you use 2000 gallones of gas, or $8k at $4/gal + $5k for battery replacement = $13k, or a $3k savings.

 

^ Unfortunately, that math doesn't work for those that bought the car back in 99/00, since gas was below 2 bucks for a good portion of the past 8 years.

 

I understand that. My point is just that what may seem ridiculous is not necessarily so if you run the numbers. I was always a "don't buy a hybrid it's not worth it" believer, but as gas prices go up, that is no longer true economically. Not that I'm going to go buy one, but it isn't because of the math anymore.

 

I read an article on the Toyota Prius and they said the battery was designed to last the life of the vehicle (200K miles), as was the Honda Civic Hybrid. So, unless you are driving them way past that, you may NEVER have to replace the battery in the car. There was one guy that didn't have his battery go until more than 250K miles and there are a number of NY taxi cabs with hybrids over 200K miles that haven't had to replace yet, either.

Bottom line - I wouldn't worry about a battery too much. By the time it will need replacing, the car may be almost worthless either way.

 

On Wiki - they claim that you can change the Insight battery cells with one of the new civic hybrids cells. Cost is $300 - 500.

 

[QUOTE=scottrunsxc,Jun 11 2008, 02:23 PM] I've said it a million times, Honda REALLY needs to bring these things back.

 

My dad has a 60+mpg lifetime average on his Insight. Granted, most of his commuting is highway miles, and he is a conservative driver... but if you're actually trying to get decent mileage, then you should be a conservative driver.

Also, I think you may be mistaken on your comments about the road test. The road test that I'm aware of (where the Insight driver pulled a similar stunt, i.e. driving about 2 feet off the bumper of an SUV that had its tailgate raised at ~50mph), the Insight managed approximately 100mpg. I think they may have done some other cheater tricks, too, like overinflating the tires, but still... the point is that they didn't end up with 60mpg. Anybody that makes an effort can get 60mpg on the highway in one of those things, unless they're driving uphill into the wind.