I'm in possession of a 2000 Insight that was a salvaged vehicle (body damage), which my boyfriend fixed and it seems to drive fine. I'm new to manual transmission, but feel I've gotten rather good at it, but still only am getting about 38 mpg city driving (san francisco --hilly terrain). Is this outrageously bad? I don't quite get it.

 

Is there a battery pack in it? Maybe the pack isn't charged. Does the charge/assist bar indicator show it charging or assisting? Does the battery level show an indication of state of charge?

 

It is bad compared to the average but it may be fine for your local situation. Hills are hard on mileage and SF is known for being as hilly as can be. Stop and go driving is hard on the mileage as well. Tell us more about how you drive and your local conditions.

 

#1... Check your tire pressure. Increase it to the max stated on the tire. For my Civic that was a psi of 45. That increased my FE tremendously.

Oh, and stop by Calzones for me in North Beach for some awesome Italian Potstickers!

 

Sounds like your driving terrain may be killing mileage, but it can be improved.

Do you watch the instantaneous mileage readout at the bottom of the gauge cluster on the dash? Once you are out of pure stop & go and driving steady, pick a number on the bar (50, 75, or more) and work at holding it steady. If your driving conditions allow, try to push it towards 75 mpg or better. With a 5-speed, this should get the engine into lean burn, which will help your mileage.

Take advantage of those hills, coast down whenever you can (be safe about it).

And another tip, slow down ahead of each stop, let the car's momentum carry it to the last few feet. In another way of putting it, drive your car like it doesn't have brakes!

You will find that if the driver just chills out and slows down the pace, mileage will jump up. And the driver is much more relaxed, while driving and throughout the day. No more get from point A to point B as fast as possible.

Good Luck,

Regards,

 

Hey--thanks for the reply.
I've been resetting the trip meter, so i get a better sense of what my mileage is for each trip, but somehow on my newer trip segments i'm not getting the instant readout on the bottom. I definitely am in to coasting. I mostly coast downhills and anticipate my stops and put it into neutral whenever i see i'm going to need to stop ahead.
will keep you posted...
take care

 

Re: the battery pack: yep--thought maybe you were joking... it's all there... it's all happening--charging, assisting.

I didn't know if these replies went directly to people or to the whole forum...

Anyway, all this stop and go does make it hard. (And I'm wondering what kind of mileage people are getting with strictly stop-and-go driving). I coast a lot, and if I don't have to stop completely I try to shift directly into 2nd or 3rd gear, depending on how fast I'm going. I'm presuming that's the "proper" way to drive a manual transmission car! And I'm trying to drive routes now where I avoid the big hills. When the Insight wasn't warmed up the other day it couldn't even make it up a moderately hilly hill (40 degrees? more than moderate?) in first gear.
Being new at the manual trans, sometimes when getting out of parking places I stall repeatedly--reverse has been difficult--and I think that brings the average way down.

I will check my tire pressures. Also i do need to change the oil (not knowing when it was done previously). Do folks have an opinion on using the 5-20 or 30 versus the 0-20 weight oil?

thanks!

 

Are you talking about the horizontal bar that goes from 0 to 120 or whatever?

 

yes.

 

If thats not doing anything then theres a problem some where.

As for your oil question. I believe most people like 0-20 synthetic filled half way between the add and full marks.