Hi Everyone;
I just talked to my local Honda dealer (Darrell Waltrip Honda) in Franklin, Tn. and he has a 2005 or 2006 (He-Is-Not-Sure-Which-Year) New Formula Red Insight W/A/C and 5-speed trans. on the way to his dealership (Arrival-Late-June) for me to see, drive, demo, and for me to make up my mind if I want one or not. If it happens to be a 2006 Insight then I will make the decision right then after driving the vehicle I hope for a couple of days, however if it comes in and is a 2005 Insight then I'm going to put on hold my purchase until I can get a 2006 Insight and that is the reason for this thread. Do any of you know if there are any changes to the 2006 Insight or will it as usual just be a carry over from the 2005 Insight? I also have read that there is suppose to be another Hybrid for 2006 called the, (Just-Went-Brain-Dead) can't remember the name of the Honda Hybrid vehicle. I'm sure you guys know the one I'm speaking of that is suppose to be released in Japan and may not come to the USA because of slow sells for the Insight here. Speaking of Hybrids, what about the new or should I say improved Honda Civic Hybrid for 2006 that is suppose to be? I have owned many-many Hondas over the yrs. including the Civic Hybrid and to be honest did not keep it anytime because I found out very quickly that if you drove it in a normal manner to keep up with traffic that the MPG were just a little better than a normal Civic. So, away it went. I have also tried out the new Accord Hybrid and it is "Very-Very" impressive but I passed on the purchase because it to me is pretty expensive. So, thats why the questions on the 2006 Insight.
Current vehicle is a 2005 Honda Civic EX SE Sedan W/Auto Trans. and BTW it just got 44.3 MPG on a 251 mile trip one way to KY. from Franklin, Tn. at a Hwy. speed of 65 MPG on cruise. Not bad, so the Insight will have to do alot better than that and be able to run A/C because it is "Hot" here in the summer months.
Look forward to hearing from all of you Insight owners out there if you have any thoughts or comments about the above.
tigerhonaker


Edit: Miles driven were exactly 252.6 and MPG was 48.6, found correct numbers in
Civic glove box today. This edit was done on 5/23/05 @4:37PM Franklin, TN.

I think I should have made my original questions much shorter and to the point.
Do you the "Insight-Owners" know, can you drive the Insight at Interstate speeds and in the city stop and go and get alot better mileage than the Civic I now own? Thanks ahead for your assistance and comments:
Terry

 

Hi TigerHonikar:

___First off, welcome to GreenHybrid. And now to the details …

___There may be a 2006 Insight but your local dealership will not be seeing one until early November at the earliest if one is ever released after the current 2005 MY. If that dealership was promised an Insight for June/July delivery, it is without a doubt a 2005.

___There are many possible hybrid combo’s Honda can create but only Honda knows what they will allow us in the near future vs. what they allow their own JDM to see, drive, and own.

___A hybrid of whichever type would kill your EX in the FE department if you want it too. Case in point, your EX will never dream of seeing 50 mpg given your driving description let alone 75 mpg like Lakedude’s HCH as of late. Did you understand the meaning of the last sentence? You will not see > 100 mpg in an Insight either if you drive like you are late to your own wedding. You might want to consider a somewhat Fuel Efficient non-hybrid. As it stands, 44 mpg on a road trip in a Civic EX doesn’t really mean much to anyone that hangs out here. I would suggest that you read, practice, and become proficient with some of the tips and tricks we use because a Civic EX w/ Auto is easily worth more then just 44 mpg when driven in a fuel efficient manner.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Terry,
Personally I think you already have a great car with the new Civic EX and as Xcel has suggested, take a little time to learn how to stretch your mileage.
Take my wife for example, who has increased our Grand Caravan from upper teens to mid 20's MPG with only a modest effort.

I bought my hybrid only after the current car became undependable, 10 years old and ugly. I needed a vehicle capable of transporting my entire family otherwise I'd surely have bought an Insight.

 

Perhaps you will have better luck than I did purchasing an Insight. Around here they are very rare and the dealer never did get one in with a Manual Transmission. I'm thinking that if you want one you better grab it up before it is gone no matter which year it is. Insights are being "bought back" by dealerships who can't get enough of them. With AC and MT is exactly how I would want mine to be so you might just jump on it if you are so inclined.

The reason I ended up with the Civic is in part because of how hard the Insights are to find. Also I wanted a magneisum, manual, 2005 (back in fall of 2004). The dealership had zero Honda hybrids in stock. They mentioned a White, CVT, 2004 model due to arrive soon and I was only slightly tempted. When they said "well you better take that one cause we arn't getting another one for at least a couple of months." I got to thinking about it being next year's model and asked a few questions and when it turned out to be exacly what I wanted I took it to be a sign from God. I'm very happy with my HCH, sorry you didn't care for yours. I was expecting to get 55mpg with some conservative driving Inverse Midlife Crisis is doing even better than expected.

 

Lakedude;

I over looked your comments on the Insight and HCH that you own "SORRY"
BTW; I thought I might mention this to you while on my mind before I forget. It was not that I did not like the HCH, the problem was that at the time I owned mine I guess I just was not ready to make any concessions on my (Driving-Style) at all. So, the HCH did not in my case get great mileage because I drove it not like a maniac but just like any other car and it (DID-NOT) believe it or not, but this is the truth so help me get as good mileage as the Civic EX SE Auto/Trans. that I now own. To make things worse I could not keep the battery pac charged up because I was using alot of power in the city stop and go all the time and that would not allow the system to recharge itself. I don't now or then think anything was wrong with the HCH vehicle but simply that I was driving it in a manner that I don't think it was really set up to do.

I can share this with you and I hope it will be of use to you and other HCH owners. I made contact with a Honda dealership in (CANADA)and talked to the parts mgr. and got him to ship to my dealership the "Heated-Mirrors) that come on the Canadian HCH cars and also at the same time ordered the Honda wiring harness that hooked up the mirrors to the Honda Factory in dash Switch. Anyway it was really cool and the Honda dealership that I purchased it from thought it was like "Just-To-Cool".
If your wondering how I new that the Canadian cars had heated outside mirrors, it is in your owners manual and says I think "Heated Mirrors Canadian Cars, So I thought that would really be cool to have it here in the good old USA.
Terry

 

Heated mirrors would be cool to have, thanks for the info.

 

lakedude
Your very welcome and BTW as soon as I read "Exactly" what Honda is up-grading on the new 2006 HCH I'll let you know. I think it said more power and better MPG.
Good to here from you.
Terry

Forgot to ask your first name is?

Also your correct Insights are very rare to say the least. I think that there are 4 or 5
Honda dealerships here and not one of them has on the ground a (INSIGHT) and if that is not bad enought I bet you want even believe this, none of them even have a Brochure on the Insight. Pitiful