io_burn

Starting around September I'm going to be commuting to Chicago, which will put my round-trip daily commute to something like 80 miles a day. Before I owned my ITR I had a '91 CRX Si, which I absolutely loved. (More so than my ITR believe it or not.) Anyway, Insights are kind of rare in the midwest here, so it's not exactly like I can go out and test drive 3 of them. Does the car share any characteristics of the old CRX's besides body styling? My old CRX was just fun to drive, it wasn't fast, it was 'zippy'... and it handled... well, decent.

Looking at this from a purely economical aspect even if the Insight handles like *** and is slow as **** I will be saving so much money every month on car payments, gas, and insurance that it would be stupid not to sell my ITR and get a hybrid.

My main concern, however, that really has yet to be addressed in anything I've read is what are the maintinence fees going to be like getting anything fixed on the car? Driving around 20,000 miles a year I'm not going to have the luxury of a warranty for very long. Should I be concerned about the cost of replacing the electronics or batteries in the long run? My girlfriend used to have an RX-7 and that thing broke down every other week... Since it was a rotary engine, she pretty much had to take it to the Mazda dealership to get it fixed, and everyone knows that dealerships rape you in the *** with a dry splintered broomstick compared to taking your car to a local mechanic. ...Which is something I know I'm going to have to do potentially down the road with the Insight.

Anyway, any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated, I need some insight on the Insight. (Bahaha... get it?)

WuWarrior

For the amount of driving you do, the Insight would be the ideal car.

But have you considered the Civic Hybrid? Compared to the Insight, the Civic Hybrid is far more practical, has more battery capacity and the price difference is small.

As for maintenance on a hybrid, you can go anywhere for brakes or suspension. But I wouldn't trust anyone but a Honda dealership for engine work.

As with all batteries, they don't last forever. Capacity will drop over time. They are warrantied for 100,000 miles (I think).

I suggest you test drive the Civic Hybrid. There is also the Toyota Prius. A new Toyota Prius coming out this fall. If you can wait until then.

rcnacura

I would go with the insight. You can get up to 75mpg, whereas the prius and civic you only get about 50 max which is significant especially for your commute.

I work for the state and have rented the insight from my job and its great! Its surprisingly quick (for a 3 cylinder engine) and you will definately get lots of stares. I had it for the weekend and my best MPG was around 56mpg, but I floored the thing and redlined it.

The engine feels like a LX civic engine, but with the electric engine feels like it has a small vtec oomph. I had alot of fun with the car and I'm also assuming that you are usually the only one in the car when you do commute so no point in getting a civic hybrid. There are a ton of rebates for the car too if you buy brand new and tax credits too, so its always a bonus (well at least here in CA).

Downfall to the car is storage capacity. The "trunk" is a joke. It has like 1-2 cubic feet to store something. Not your usual home depot errand runner. IF you do get a insight, get the manual tranny. Its more fun to drive than the auto. I also didn't like the tires. They were too skinny for my taste. They need more grip for my driving style, but do well on regular commutes.

It also doesn't feel as small as it looks. I would try to get by big rigs to see if I had that "push me out of the way" feeling, and it really wasn't prominant.

Another alternative (But still not that great) is the Ford Escape Hybrid. Its promises 35mpg with its v6 I believe. Not good enough IMO.

io_burn

The Civic hybrid seems kind of silly to me, because it doesn't qualify for all the tax credits that the insight does for some reason. (As far as I know, in Illinois anyway.) I just wish I could somehow buy a brand new 1991 CRX Si, but one can only dream

CRVRX

I own 2 CRX's ( Both Motor swaps) And I recently bought an Insight for my wife.
I just used the car to go from Florida to Virginia including the mountains.
I was very impressed with the car, It is a little sluggish unless you floor it, but on the highway you can't beat it.
It will cruise quite happy at 75mph , wide open in 4th gear I got 118mph , It wouldn't pull 5th.
My trip totalled 2200 miles , and I used 28.5 gallons which is 77 mpg. The computer said the average was 75 mpg( Pretty close) I think if you hold it around 60-65mph you would get 85+mpg easy.

The thing that amazed me the most is it drives like a bigger heavier car , and it is very quiet with the coldest air I have felt.It has all the electirc options and ABS which I used too( Just to see if it worked)

After driving it for all that time, I would like to get another one for my self.


Modified by CRVRX at 9:25 PM 7/4/2003

seekerONE

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRVRX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I just used the car to go from Florida to Vaginia including the mountains.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
you drove it where?

CHILIBEANZ

Vaginia, Steve -Vaginia.

CRVRX

Thankyou, Vaginia is a small place just outside of Virginia.

Thanks for the correction.