lets throw sand on that gasoline article

[Tessie McMillan]

I'm a little late to this thread, and I seem to have missed the original 
post so I am not sure I saw the complete article. But I do want to clear 
up some misconceptions about the Honda Insight. While I am not a fan of 
the Insight, I want to point out that the statements I've read which have 
been attributed to the original post are false. I don't know who this 
"Honda representative" is, but he is misrepresenting the car completely.

My boyfriend -- a long-time car enthusiast and shade-tree mechanic -- gave 
up his 356 to buy an Insight. (I won't go into details about how this 
caused an enormous amount of strain in our relationship.) Anyway, said BF
maintains the internal and external Web sites for all of the U.S. Honda 
dealerships. He has access to all the parts and inventory information, 
sales data, repair shop manuals, and the like. Also, he participates in a 
digest much like this one (d'oooooh), where the Insight owners are every 
bit as horsepower-minded, cost-minded, and concours-quality conscious as 
the folks on this list. The participants include computer scientists, 
mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, racers, mechanics, the young and 
very young, and the old and very old. There are some fellows on the 
list who have performed turbo conversions on the cars (lord help me, I 
don't know why they'd buy a hybrid and drop a turbo into it), and many 
have performed the (now commonly available) rear drum brake-disc brake 
conversion. Some of the digest participants do autocross, some of them 
use their cars as daily drivers, many of them do their own repair work. 
In my boyfriend's case, he likes to bring his Insight to the track -- 
although it understeers like a pig and is quite boring (in my opinion) to 
drive. 

ANYWAY my point is, the guys who buy these cars are not stupid, joe-schmoe 
americans with poor taste. They have a reason for buying the cars and 
they've typically done a lot of research prior to the purchase. The 
cars are not built to deteriorate at all. In fact, the batteries are 
quite robust. Yes, they do wear out. But according to the experience 
of the digesters -- who admittedly seem to be abusing these cars as much 
as possible -- it takes 150,000 miles of use to put even a dent in the 
battery. Most importantly, the price of a new battery is NOT $6000 or 
$8000, it is $3000. If you have the dealer install the battery, that is 
what boosts the cost because of a high labor markup. Most folks reinstall 
their own batteries. Also, just like finding an Audi or VW junker to 
scavenge parts, if you find a car that's been in a wreck, that makes the 
battery even cheaper. And since you got a hefty tax-rebate on purchase of 
one of these cars, that makes the new battery effectively free. 

The car batteries are NOT the weak link in the car, it is the 12 volt 
battery -- that thing is a P.O.S. But even so, it is still a good car; 
when I drive the car (ahem) or when my boyfriend tracks the car, it gets 
about 43 miles to the gallon. With careful daily driving, my boyfriend 
gets close to 65 miles to the gallon. This is even after he removed the 
OEM wheels and low-friction tires and put on wheels that are more aggressive 
with a grippier tire.

That's all I wanted to share. Don't know anything about the Prius -- which 
I think looks stupid with those crummy 13" wheels -- but the Honda Insight 
is a GREAT car, relatively speaking, and you guys are way off base. The 
only problem that I see is that it's not German or Italian, and it doesn't 
have a Torsen differential &:-).

Tess
in Bellevue, WA USA