Friday I picked up the Insight and drove it home. I took the train to TO, then a can to their house and away I went! I really think I got a good car here. This was the Insight owner's first new car and it was well taken care of. ALL of the maintenance was up to date, and it was even done at a Honda dealership. The interior is as new (with the exception of dirty floor mats) and the exterior is very good condition. Not flawless by any means, but it's very good with a few nicks and dings that you'd expect on a 10 year old car; the last 2 years the car parked on the street, but the previous 8 years were in a garage.
The drive home was fun. Fun because trying to keep the fuel economy meter in a "sweet spot" is a bit like playing a game. For the first half of the trip, I got 3.8L/100km (62 US MPG). I remembered reading that these low-rolling resistance tires were very sensitive to air pressure in regards to the Insight's fuel economy. So I stopped at a service station and they were low. So I put them up to 40 psi front, 37 psi rear. At the same time, I was on the stretch of the 401 from London-Windsor which is very flat. I also found the Lean Burn are of the fuel economy readout. Somehow this engine goes into a lean burn mode whereas under certain conditions, it drops itself into very lean A/F ratios..as much as 25.8:1 !! When experimenting, I was able to nail down 2.8L/100km (84 US MPG) mileage for a stretch of about 120kms. This was at about 110km/h. But depending on traffic, I would drop down to 100 km/h. My average for the trip from TO to home was 3.4L/100kms (69 US MPG). That's incredible IMO. This 10 year old car tops even the new hybrids in fuel economy. And this was with a good one hour plus stuck in gridlock in Hamilton. In the gridlock, I got to see how the "Auto Stop" works. If you put the stick in neutral and apply the brakes anywhere from 30km/h to a stop, the car shuts itself off. It feel kinda weird at first sitting in traffic without the engine running. But I guess it makes sense since you really don't need the engine running. As soon as you push the stick back into 1st gear, the engine fires up. You don't have to wait before leaving...you step off the clutch like you normal would and the engine is fired up enough so that you easily move. No wait or delay. It's pretty neat!
Ergonomics are good. The seats are a bucket type and bolsters are nicely snug (on me anyways with a sweater on.). Steering wheel is right out of the S2000 and it feels great! The nice seats, great wheel and automatic climate control and a surprisingly great sounding 2 speaker stereo make the interior pretty nice. It's quite a few levels better than the interior of say, my Echo. So you don't feel like your in a penalty box for settling with an economy car. Granted, this car was nearly $30K back in 2000, so in price anyways I guess it's not an econobox.
Handling is fine. I wasn't white knuckled at any point through the trip. And it was rainy and blustery. I not point did I feel as if I'd be blown into the other lane or anything similar despite the occasional buffeting from some big winds. Occasionally, on lanes with a hump or curvature in the middle the car would feel a bit like it was tracking that hump. The rear of the car is some 4" narrower than the front. Each instance I felt the back sorta squirm and track was for less than a second. Again..this wasn't disconcerting at all. It was just a fact that on some roads where big, heavy trucks had made like...indentations on the road, the narrow back end of the Honda would track on it every so often. I'd drive this car to Toronto in a blink. I was comfortable and actually having fun driving it. When the rains did come, I went through a wet corner at speed to see what it would handle like (pushed a bit, in the wet..but still safe). Because the car is FWD, you can feel understeer. But because the track in the back is narrower, the back feels a bit like understeer. It seems at times it does both...LOL. It's really hard to explain. I didn't experience this at all in the dry around the same corner.
I was annoyed when I did the licensing on the car. Because it's a hybrid, you don't need an emission test and you also get a tax credit for the sales tax. I thought it would be waved at the licensing bureau. But no...I had to pay the tax, then you apply to get it re-imbursed. Are you kidding me? The just couldn't have that model car in the computer saying "don't collect sales tax". I mean, I asked her if it said in the computer that the car didn't need an emission certificate and said it did. So WTF?? But noooo...you have to fill out a form with a letter from a mechanic saying the car is a hybrid. And then wait to get your refund credit. Suck. Bureaucracy at its finest!
Anyways...here are some pics....
