What's It Like Living With a First Gen Honda Insight? | 6 Year Ownership Review
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- Join me class as we dissect the meaning of the 2001 Honda Insight, supposedly the first ever commercially available hybrid car, though that may also have been the Prius, who really remembers any more?
Is this a review, or is this just me gushing about a car I love for nearly twenty minutes while trying to avoid highlighting too many of its flaws and being somewhat oddly defensive of the gas mileage I get? The only way to find out is to watch the video and form your own conclusions. Where will your heart lead you?
Talk to your doctor to find out if the Insight is right for you, side effects may include dying of electrical shock when attempting to service the non-serviceable hybrid battery.
i want a first gen insight so badly. its so hard to find one in decent shape. i obsess over this thing and all my friends scratch their heads at me. everything said in this video is the perfect description of it. amazing job making this video super relaxing watch
Thank you! They're definitely not easy to find, but if you keep your eyes out I'm sure eventually you'll stumble across one that's im decent shape, but not too expensive! For the right people, this car is just incredible.
I love mine!
They're oddly fun. I bought mine a while back to save gas and just focus on my main project car, long story short I've modded the crap out of this little guy and it's just the most fun grocery getter that I have ever had.
Fantastic script writing! Really cool video, I've gained a lot more respect for the Insight.
Thank you! It's a pretty cool little car
In 2003 the technical school I was assisting for automotive technology was sponsored by Honda and we had one of these cars for practice in the shop I remember the teacher saying "this is the future" and punching the fender denting it and I kid you not that dent slowly came out and like nothing happened I couldn't believe it.
@@Adr_Jim that's awesome! I'm not about to test that dent story myself, but I'd believe it since pretty much all the body panels are plastic
@@negil 😂 yeah please don't. Nevertheless it was an amazing car for its time and for its purpose.
Just FYI it was around 2000 when Honda was switching to cable actuated shifters. Basically at that point all Hondas were cable shifted. It's just not the best shifting trans, it's like a proto trans of what they used in the Honda Fit. The shifter is pulled from the Honda Prelude, so it's not a bad shifter box, it's the trans synchros that aren't that great. It's not terrible, but not the best and it's not like the 90's Hondas with shifter rods.
There aren't really conflicting reports about which one was first. Prius was first in Japan, Insight was first in North America, it's not that complicated.
What an excellent video! Just bought a nearly identical spec Insight minus the leather seats, and it's so frickin cool. I feel like Doug Demuro overdosing on quirks. Also had no idea folk punk existed, you've turned me onto it
Thank you! I hope you enjoy your new car!
The leather seats and door cards were a custom touch by the previous owner, and while I generally prefer cloth seats, they did such an excellent job making it look OEM, that in this case I'm happy with it.
And Insights are a great place to listen to folk-punk 😉 another favourite of mine is HappyHappy
Well, in fact the Honda Insight was the first hybrid vehicle in US for commercial sale, while the Prius was the first hybrid car ever, with the exception that the car was only made for Japan.
Wow this video is super cool. I’ve always thought about how owning one would be
My G1 is approaching 300k miles and I commute 120 miles per day in it for work. I've gotten two solid years out of it so far. It's a love/hate relationship with that car, but it doesn't have any worse issues than any other Honda with the same mileage. I'm going to try to get another year out of it before I throw in the towel and pass it on.
Yeah, I can feel that. There've been moments where I'd thought about selling mine, but, over time, I've just grown more and more fond of it, and, since accepting that I don't plan on selling it, and therefore don't need to worry about maintaining "resale value", it’s become a lot easier to just enjoy it for what it is, and not worry so much about some of its flaws, because I know I'll have a lifetime to find the time and money to fix them now.
This is a really great video. Thanks! I am on my 5th Insight.
Holy! If those were all first gens, you might hold a record 😅
Calling 53mpg abysmal? Honestly, with how expensive gas is these days, that kinda mileage is a dream.
I was mostly being facetious, because, obviously, for most cars 53mpg is great, but it’s far from the Insight's best. I am definitely glad to have this car with how gas prices are these days though! Although it does make literally every other car feel like a gas guzzler
As someone who nerds out over fuel economy, these have always been near and dear to my heart, but they're just too impractical for me. I'm pretty happy with 51 MPG out of my 93 CX and it's just that little more practical and so dead simple and well built that's it's probably the most economical car ever, period.
Yeah, they're definitely not the most practical cars out there 😅
I don't tend to need to move more people than myself, so that's never really been an issue, but the limited cargo capacity and space for moving around stuff definitely can get in the way. A little base-model Civic is definitely gonna be much more usable, and not too far off in terms of fuel economy, especially for in-town driving, and, with each passing year, those Civics are becoming cooler and cooler too, so you've still got a special car at the end of the day!
Quality video. Not enough insight content on youtube. I need more validation for my purchase
What year Insight did you pick up? 5-speed or CVT?
I make G1 videos!
@ThatRedNismo I know lol. I've seen you on the Facebook group!
@@negil 2000 5 speed
Nice! It sounds to me like you made a good purchase 😁
If you are thinking about to get this car, you MUST have a (2000-2006 Honda Insight Hybrid EL-1 IMA Battery Grid Charger) Ebay item. Cost about $250. I been using them about every 2 months in the past 8 yrs . Restores IMA battery perfectly well. The author of this clip should have been telling you about this.
I mean, I don't have a grid charger and haven't used one during my ownership, so I can't really talk about something I don't have any experience with. I do want to get one eventually, but it is possible to maintain the battery health by being more deliberate in the way you drive.
@@negil Sometimes people replace the IMA battery, instead of using the grid charger. I am using it for the last 8 years, about every 2 months very successfully. I saved a lot of money this way.
I have a replacement GreenTek battery that is two years old. I have also never had to mess with any charging. The IMA systems handles it just fine by itself when the battery health is good.@@negil
If you need to grid charge every two months, your IMA is on its way out.
@@ThatRedNismo I own this car for 8 years, using grid charger from day one. The car runs like new today.
A better battery pack won't increase power on stock MCM/BCM. What you'll get is longer assist so it'll feel like there is more power. If you want more power you'll need to mod the computers to trick the MCM in calling for more power from the battery pack.
I’ve got six of the cars myself one is a CVT. I know of two different people who have had over 35. A friend of mine in Albuquerque New Mexico has 15 or 16 right now.
Took the battery out of my car. Along with the rider seat the muffler and a few other parts that’s not needed. My car weighs about 1700 pounds.
I redid the way the car burns gasoline too. Super heat the gasoline with copper tubing wrapped around the catalytic converter. That raises the pressure up to about 100 psi on the gas line. So then I put a regulator on before it goes into the injector rail. So I am burning gas vapor‘s I can turn the fuel .down to where the car will only go 50 mile an hour TopSpeed or I can turn it down to where I want to go 30 mile an hour. If I’m going to have to get on the interstate I will turn the fuel back up to where it will go 70. The car is always in Leanburn. I get about 100 miles to the gallon in the summertime and when it gets a lot colder in winter I get around 70.
I am guessing that I use about 30 hp because the fuel is turned down low
When the car is started first thing in the morning it has very little power until the gas gets hot which takes about 4 miles. After 4 miles car has more power and gets better mileage. The first 2 1/2 miles I drive is on country road so I’m not trying to go fast no way about 30 I’ll get on the highway I’ll go 50 after traveling 4 miles the car is warmed up and it really does good
That's pretty wild! I ran mine without a battery for a while when it crapped out on me, but I never bothered messing with anything since I knew I was wanting to replace the battery. I kinda like seeing how good I can do for fuel mileage while keeping things largely as they were from the factory.
I have thought about removing the resonator and potentially the muffler just to free up exhaust flow a little bit, but I'm not sure how worthwhile doing so would be on its own.
Thanks for changing my mind.
Very good video! Subscribed!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it 😊
I do love it, it is beautiful i would like to drop a K20 into it and have a 1800lb 200hp car that still gets 50mpg, this being said i just broke my passenger side mirror and it's ABSOLUTELY impossible to find.......Also mine is an automatic
Great review! If you bought a brand new battery & put it on a grid charger every day, how much life will you typically get out of it before needing a new one?
Really like this review. Although it is a slight misconception that this car was built as a testbed for honda when it was built. At the time California emissions had a law in place prohibiting any manufacturer who did not provide an option for a ultra low emissions vehicle to sell cars in the state. Chevrolet had the EV1 (which gets confused for the insight sometimes), toyota had the prius, and so on.
The mandate was to take effect in 2000 and thus manufacturers had been doing the necessary r&d to be compliant as California is a big market share to be excluded from.
Thanks for the info! I do kinda feel like, even if the car was made to meet mandates, it was still also being used to test and develop new technologies, so both ways of looking at it can be "right" in my mind.
Hey The Insight did not come with Leather factory seats. Do you know what seats are in your car? I would like to add some to my insight.
They are the stock seats underneath, but they were reupholstered by the previous owner. He redid the doorcards with leather as well. Unfortunately I don't know too much about who did it or how, but I'm pretty sure it was a custom job.
Great video
Thank you!
Good video man 👍
Hey, thanks!!
I really enjoyed this video
Thank you!
A great video. Ty. Living in the PNW it being aluminum, is enough reason to have one. However,are there obvious things you can do to make it quieter,and more comfortable?
Yeah, the aluminum chassis is definitely nice to have! You could likely install thicker sound deadening if you wanted to try and minimize road noise, but that would be quite labour-intensive, and probably not worth it. In terms of comfort, I find the seats to be quite comfortable, and I'm able to do long drives without feeling sore, but depending on personal preference, you could always install aftermarket seats with more bolstering or cushioning. And if you want to combat the stiff suspension, you could put in softer springs, but all of those modifications would (very slightly) negatively impact fuel economy, which kinda goes against the ethos of the car in my mind, but could still definitely be done!
You can get lean burn in 3rd and 4th, too.
Oh, huh, I'd always thought that it was just in 5th that it would kick in, but that does make sense. I can't say I'm ever in a situation where 3rd gear would really have a chance to enter lean-burn, but there's definitely been times it's felt like it entered lean-burn in 4th.
Hey i live on the island and i want to buy one of these but want to test drive one first. Let me know if you would be up for that
Possibly!
What's your review of the bumblebee battery? Thinking about getting a bew one
Overall I've been quite happy with it! I wouldn't say I've noticed any significant differences between it and the performance of the OEM battery (when it was still working properly). But, if you're looking for something OEM-equivalent that might be slightly better, I think it's a good option.
It's also really convenient that the battery pack is completely plug-and-play, and is really quite easy to install - it's the exact same as the stock battery in that sense. And Bumblebee have a really handy tutorial video on their channel going over the removal and installation process (It can be done in under a half-hour by one person with just basic tools, though I'd suggest having at least one other person to help out the first time you do it, and to go slowly because you are playing with high voltage).
I did run into some slight shipping hiccups, but I think that's more to do with customs and me being in Canada than anything with Bumblebee themselves.
Does the passenger seat have those 'prongs' for child seats?
There's a little hook in the hatch behind the passenger’s seat for a child's seat to be tethered to, but I don't think it's the best car for children since there’s no factory way to disable the passenger’s airbag.
Is the battery still good to buy on used cars ? Its gettung old now
I'd be very wary of any original batteries, though, if they've been maintained properly they might still have a few years left in them. But thankfully there are aftermarket options available for replacement (though they're not cheap), or you can fairly easily modify the car to drive without the battery and still get fairly good gas mileage, you just won't have much accelerating power.
@@negil price on after market battery option ? Bell park figure ?
@@user-xk4qv6lh5k between around $3-5k if memory serves correctly. There are cheaper options to recondition old battery packs as well, but the cost for shipping can make that tricky if you’re not close to a shop or person able to do that
@@user-xk4qv6lh5k About 2100 USD for NiMH battery pack
i found you from the lazy neighbors video new channel
like the old Danny Gonzalez channel? That's kinda neat!
LiBCM 😁
FoMoCo kits are awesome :D