Hi all,
My husband and I bought a new red 2005 Insight CVT end of July 2005. I've always had (and prefer) small two-seater cars so in some ways this car is 'bigger' than my usual set of wheels (this also means the 'noise' mentioned by others isn't an issue with me as it's normal from my point of view). I have a 40 mile commute (one way) but I work from home 2 days/week so it wasn't that bad. I ended up selling my beloved 2002 Toyota MR2 Spyder to get the Honda. I prefer stick shifts but my husband wanted the auto (I have to let him have his way once in a while ). The Insight is no comparison to the MR2 (fast, fun, fun, fun) but I still enjoy it (although I tell my him that the Insight is as "practical" as I am going to go in the car department).

Why did we get it? My husband's job has changed such that we can now commute together and so it's about 60 miles one way and he was going to use his 1998 Pathfinder while I take the MR2 (he didn't feel comfortable in it as a passenger plus it has no trunk). Paying $500+/month for gas in the Pathfinder didn't make sense so we decided to go for the Insight. We're both engineers so the 'nerdi-ness' of the car appeals to us and I'm willing to adjust my driving (a bit) to get the higher mileage. I consistently got 34mgp with my MR2 but so far our lmpg is 54 with an occasional long trip of 65+. I too wish it had cruise as I used that a lot and the stereo is ok by me as I guess I'm tone deaf and actually it gets a lot more stations than our Pathfinder does - we live in a mountainous, woody area.

I'm in CA and just read that the new rules for the carpool lanes leaves out the 2005 Insight because it's "not qualified due to lack of compliance with ATPZEV emission standard." (see http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm) I need to find out from Honda what they did to this car to make it fail when older models pass. This means I can't get the sticker to let me drive solo in a carpool lane. (This all came into being when the Fed gov't passed the transportation bill. I will do research on what the rules are for ATPZEV.

Deb