You're not kidding, either!



Yeah, I had a 1988 Civic Hatchback I used for autocross for a while. Great car, I had stiff suspension, huge sticky tires on 15x7 autocross wheels, 11.1" front brakes with GS-R calipers, slightly smaller diameter steering wheel, B16A engine, Quaife limited slip; the works. There was pretty much no time I drove that car that I didn't feel like I was going to die if anything ever went wrong. I had active safety like no other, sure. I could accellerate powerfully and surely thanks to the limited slip diff, awesome brakes, incredible, responsible handling and HUGE brakes for such a tiny car. It was still a tiny 2000 pound tin can on wheels that offered very little driver protection in the event of a wreck involving another vehicle.

Now the Insight unfortunately has little 13x4.5" wheels or something, bicycle size tires that are often overinflated, not to mention they're low grip LRR tires, the rear track is MUCH narrower than the front, so in order to keep it from oversteering like crazy, it has very low cornering limits compared to something like the Civic, for example. I still think the Insight is an extremely cool car, but it has none of the handling virtues that a similar weight Civic with equal front/rear track and big meaty tires has.

 

I had a 1988 CRX HF - the closest thing to an Insight. The HF had the narrowest tires of the CRXs and would be hazardous on slick roads. Strangely, I have not had that problem on the Insight.

Oh, and the Airbag Hazard....

A defensive driver instructor was trying to scare me into sitting as far from the steering wheel as possible. The first airbags deployed at 195mph - they now go at 110mph. I'm still not convinced that you need over three feet from the steering wheel.

He was telling the class that the airbag could tear your face off, so I might look like this.

....or maybe that would be cool.

 

On the topic of airbags, yeah, the original federal requirement is that they stop an unbelted person. You have to deploy REAL fast to do that. Now the requirement says belted passengers. I don't know if you've ever watched those NHTSA or IIHS crash videos, but you STILL get thrown pretty far in a severe wreck, even with belts, but the rate is far, far slower than unbelted, hence the ability to use less dangerous airbags with a smaller explosive charge. I'm blessed with long arms and legs, so sitting far from the wheel is easy for me, but I have plenty of female friends barely over 5 feet tall that I hope are never in a frontal car wreck, to be honest.

Back on the topic of skinny tires and Honda's high FE vehicles, that reminds me of why I stopped using my HX's original 14" wheels. I could never find any tires for them that gripped enough for me to be satisfied with. I realize that 195/55-15's on 15x6" wheels are not ideal for FE, but my safety comes first! I feel unsafe enough as it is driving a nearly 9 year old car that's been replaced twice by Honda now, so I like to at least know I have lots of available traction for braking and emergency lane changes. Tires play a big role in FE, but to me, I'd rather run an overinflated high grip tire than any LRR or all-seasons.

 

Well... The Insight *is* a pretty tiny car. If it gets hit by an H2, the car and driver are pretty much toast.

That being said, I personally have never seen an Insight actually involved in a car accident. I believe that the people who buy Insights are completely aware of the risks and benefits of their choice. Driving such a small car does require highly developed defensive driving skills -- which these drivers obviously have.

My observation of SUV drivers, on the other hand, tell me that these folk are either (but not mutually exclusively so) less skilled, less aware, or willing to take unnecessary driving risks. Most multi-car pile-ups I've seen involve at least one SUV -- usually a rear-end collision in which the land-yacht driver was tailgating and couldn't stop in time to avoid the accident.

 

It's sad that SUVs and pickup trucks can get out of the bumper height requirements... thus meaning that in a side impace their bumper goes straight into your face.

 

Hi All:

___Very interesting thread …

___I have been following the Insight for ~ 4 + years and for the life of me, I do not remember anyone getting killed or even seriously injured in one? I know there are less then a few thousand on the road but still … I remember seeing a site with driver death statistics and if anyone has it handy, please post so the rest of us can do some investigating of our own.

___Thanks in advance.

___Wayne R. Gerdes

 

Hi Wayne,

After this thread started I searched for the newspaper article I found where a woman had died in an Insight. This was about 8 months ago and I don't think the article was much older than that. They also had a picture of the car which didn't look all that bad, I don't remember the specifics, was the seat belt on? did the airbags deploy? If memory serves correct the color of the car was blue and the newspaper was some "small town" newspaper.

AL

 

Hi Rigger:

___Thank you … Sorry to hear about the Insight owner however

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

 

 

^^^AAAHH!!!



my dad wasn't too keen on the insight, because it's so small.