Finally found my commuting dream car!
 

2000 insight 5 speed manual 180k bought it for 2khttps://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...758cb9cf2a.jpg


Battery pack is shot, downshifting into 2nd or 1st grinds above a certain speed, but no leaks, suspension is new and tight, and still gets 55mpg.

I plan on getting a battery core, and doing the well documented self refurbishing process.

In the meantime, it came with a trickle charger and that should be enough of a bandaid to get me up the hills in my daily commute.

What's wrong with the maita as a daily?

Less than 30mpg at 60mph. I have a 130 mile round trip commute for one job, 12 mile round trip for my other two jobs. Its 5-20 dollars in gas per day (6-7 days per week) depending on driving style and jobs worked. Plus i drive to a state or national park a few times per month, usually 450-800 miles round trip

That shit adds up real fast.

Even before battery pack improving, this car will pay for itself in less than 6 months

I also wanted to be able to spend quality time working on the miata, like redoing the suspension bushings, installing the diff bushings, reclearing the drivers side panels, turbo kit install.... Without trying to squeeze one project into a single day, while still relying on it for transportation the next day.

Its a huge quality of life improvement. Ive also wanted an insight ever since I saw the concept car at the detroit auto show.

It makes the nut-sack tingle and gives you smiles. You are not supposed to enjoy commute - suffering and girls giggling while pointing finger at you is what's its all about.

I approve of this greatly.

I won't even try to tempt you with links to various Insight turbo builds such as this one or this one.

So basically.... commute with a Miata, is what i'm hearing?

55 MPG is 4.27 liters/100 km.

This thing is advertised in Turkey for its nifty gas mileage.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4d24ffdb96.jpg
It's a Peugeot 3008, has a gas engine, and it reportedly gets 52.26 MPG on the highway...

I will NOT get into details.

If you got 3 jobs and are balling enough to justify 2 money pits then no worries at all

High mileage rare Honda's, esp ones with a ton of proprietary parts, are a money pit just like anything else. When you're bored you should sit down and do the math of what this is all going to cost you. I did when we had our 2004 civic hybrid and I was commuting 90mi/day. it still wasn't worth it. (don't forget all the consumables, registration, insurance, all the maint, all the repairs, and all the repairs down the road). I have nothing at all against having a dedicated daily, with the minor caveat that money is not an issue, at all.

But if it makes you happy, then carry on :)

I know. But I still want one.
Let us know how much gas mileage is at 80

I get where you are coming from but wouldn't a Prius be more practical? They are dirt cheap. I've been getting around 50mpg. Its a total appliance, so get some 10% tint so no one knows who's driving lol.

You can probably get a VW diesel pretty cheap :D My wife was getting about 48MPG on her highway commute before we sold it back to VW.

UPDATE! Battery is GOOD! Holy shit I got a hell of a deal. Im so happy!

Ive been getting 58mpg city/short commutes on highway

And over 100mpg at 80mph downhills lol

Did you guys know the engine goes into a 20:1afr lean burn at any speed or gear if you are at low throttle inputs?

Duuuuuude!

Probably.

A Prius would also be more practical than a Miata for all conceivable purposes.

But there's an undeniable cool factor which attends a first-gen Insight. It's a purpose-built vehicle, designed without compromise, and with a minimum of complexity.

That's a fair point. I also heard (probably here?) Honda lost a ton of money on it because it was more to show off engineering capabilities than mass-produce a product.

This is true.

The body and suspension are almost 100% aluminum, and the finished car weighed less than 1,900 lbs. How many hybrids have more lightness than a 1.6 NA?

As a result of the insanely high production cost, Honda lost money on every unit sold, as is common for halo-cars. It was a technological tour-de-force, with a drivetrain which is the very definition of simplicity and yet produced the highest EPA fuel economy rating of any mass-produced car ever sold in the US. Ever.

Curious how they handle the NOx emissions with such a lean burn. If memory serves, NOx emissions is what killed lean-burn technology like that seen on the old CRX HF.

I love these things so much, congrats on the purchase. Keep us updated on how it's doing and what kind of mileage you get. I've wanted one forever, but just haven't been able to justify another 2 seat car (with 3 person family) and the crazy cost of IMA battery replacements. Also my wife hates them because "they look stupid".

^ Ive been getting 65mpg average, mixed city highway, lots of mild hills and all at 6000ft elevation. It required a major shift in HOW I drive, mainly using the LOOOONG gears properly. For steep uphills, i just go slower, stay in a low gear and putput along at 40-50mph, at 50mpg. Steep downhills, you are coasting/charging in lean burn the whole time, and essentially driving at over 150mpg.

One of the cool things about this generation insight is, most of your driving is without any electric assist. The IMA only helps for very short periods of time, it doesnt take over like a hybrid. Max assist length is less than 20 seconds, even with a bummblebee battery max pack.You can completely remove the battery pack, (or switch it off) and easily get 60 + mpg.

They had to reduce how often they go into lean burn in the US cars, and the cvt doesn't do it at all. JDM cars on the other hand do...

HOLY TITS! ANOTHER STUNNING UPDATE!

This whole time, the ecu has been in "limp mode" because of how often the previous owner reset everything (trying to avoid a bad battery code, which was only caused by leaving the grid charger plugged in for years) and has been charging the battery constantly in the background.

Well, the ecu finally recalibrated this afternoon, and WHAT THE FUCK this car just got a HUGE boost in performance. It feels like the car has a tailwind compared to before. (or as I was mouth agape with disbelief, I described it as a black hole sucking me forward) I am averaging 55mpg at 84mph UPHILL 3-5% grades, at 4-8thousand feet elevation and now have no issues keeping up with traffic! (or slipping past traffic with the most aerodynamic vehicle on earth, tied with the Tesla model s iirc)

Before, I could barely keep the car at 45mph on the same exact road, in third gear.

This is all at 38psi cold tire pressures. I just bumped it up to 48psi cold, I can't wait to drive anywhere and see what a huge difference it makes.

I'm also looking into small aero tweaks that the 90+mpg lifetime average guys are using. (side view mirror delete plates with cameras, partially dammed fascia...)

I am in so much love right now!

Interesting. Thats some pretty solid MPGs.

Lol I must say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so enthusiastic and excited about a hypermiling commuter. Good for you dude :)

I think it's pretty cool. I get the feeling of tweaking a car until it's perfect in a certain aspect. I guess for most of us Miata owners it's tuning their turbo setup, or tweaking the suspension until it's just right. But I can understand tweaking the car until you squeeze the most miles out of a gallon of fuel.

Shame the first gen Insights were never sold in the Netherlands.

I drove a LEAF electric car for the past year and a half or so and got used to driving like I was on a Top Gear economy run almost every day in order to make my 70 mile roundtrip commute. I ended up increasing my range by nearly 10% by doing some small aero mods and increasing the tire pressure. Pumping my tires from 40psi to 60psi actually made quite a large impact, though the LEAF is about 3400lbs so the Insight might not get as much benefit. My aero mods were just some tire airdams in the form of reversed mudflaps and a grill blocker. I also put some Airtab vortex generators on the back hatch area which I think helped too. In the end with my aero mods and tires pumped up like crazy I could get 5-10mph faster speeds when coasting in neutral in a few spots vs stock. I would much rather be in your position with a gasoline tank and driving efficiently for fun rather than necessity so I just sold my LEAF and bought a cheap Honda too :)

This whole thread has me looking at ways to tweak my Prius for more mpgs, stupid OCD

Why didn't the factory do this?

Add trubo to hybrid:

AutoSpeed - The Story of Turbo'ing a Hybrid Prius, Part 5

Haha! Right?

I am honestly more enthused about driving the insight than my miata. Im reaaally enjoying not wasting money at the pump anymore. Literally everywhere I drive, it is a 70or higher percent fuel savings. In the two weeks Ive had the insight, Ive driven 800 miles, and only put in 28 dollars for gas. The miata would have cost me 115 dollars. (Premium fuel, and 24mpg mixed)

Just kind of cool that Ive already offset the purchase cost by 5% in two weeks. (Bunch of short commutes and one 250mile round tripper)

Im also in this limbo waiting for my turbokit and ecu to show up, and turbo to come in. So in the meantime, driving the miata is sort of stale right now.

Grill block: car has to work in all climates for all people. In summer I needed to remove the grill block or my AC didn't work right.
Tire air dams: look goofy and rub on curbs and driveways. Also the car already did have flaps they were just smaller.
Vortex generators: look goofy and require sharp edges to work right which doesn't jive with corporate design themes, pedestrian safety, etc.

cant wait to post my new DD here when I get it.

should be able to squeeze 10mpg out of my commute...

Mine gets 12-14. It's my economy car :party:

I think I average about 13. Turbo I6 and all surface streets.

Don't care, still only fill up once a month.

Sheesh, what are you guys driving?

I drive a Tacoma like I stole it, and still average at least 18 on 50/50 city/highway.

4 banger Subaru on ethanol :D
In boost often. All city, zero hwy.

Buddy drives a bimmer iirc.

Anyways I won't derail this thread any more lol. I guess if I drove as much as Marcello (which to me is ASTRONOMICAL) I'd probably see benefits from an insight. I don't think I've ever met anyone that drives that much aside from truck drivers

Vlad knows all.

My 135 gets shit mileage. Basically if you press the gas pedal, it's in boost. 300lb ft at 1500 rpms is nice though.

hellcat power your insight:

262 miles on 12 dollars of gas, mostly uphill. That is all.

That's my Miata, back in 2001.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...64073a3d03.jpg

i am quite proud of this, a personal best. On the way to turbofan and his dads house.

Ended the trip at 45miles with a trip average of 106.2mpg some pretty good uphills, but an overall drop in elevation 6000 to 3500 iirc.

So basically all downhill? Lol

Well, I'd guess 70/30 and the downhills weren't super steep. Coming back the trip averag only droped to 76mpg, and I was going pretty fast up hill. (ok ok keeping up with traffic)

I hate you. Reading this thread made me start looking for one , which lead to me buying another car....

i have 5 cars now, and no garage

eyyyy what did you get?

Pretty much the exact same as yours, lol.

2000, silver 5spd, 260k, same clunk in 1/2, batt is fubar, and it leaks a bit of oil, for $1650.

It even came with a set of 14in miata wheels with snow tires on them.

haha hell yeah. Try to get the oem aero rims and bridgestone RE92 tires.

Don't even replace the battery, look up the proper way to remove it. Still get low 60's mpg You lose 200 pounds, so that alleviates the need for bat assist in most cases.

Here is a list Balto sent me about things to check/replace under new ownership... he was an insight mechanic iirc

1. spark plugs that match your head stamping, torqued to 17ft/lbs
2. Air Filter
3. Oil change with mobil 1 0w20 advanced fuel economy
4. Trans fluid change- fill trans when the car is level with the ground, otherwise you underfill
5. clean egr plate- this is really easy
6. Valve adjustment
7. Check firewall inside behind clutch, if wet, need to replace master cylinder soon
8. Get a hybridautomotive grid charger for your pack. (if you want to keep a battery) Extends the stick cell battery pack's life by 2x or more, and can even revive a "bad" pack with special deep discharge and trickle recharge cycle.

Or do what I've done so far... absolutely nothing lol. Just put gas in it every few weeks.

wait so you guys are just dumping the battery and ignoring hybrid altogether?

Piiissst,
hey buddy, wanna buy a turbo?

Look at the turbo off a one liter ecoboost. From what I understand it seems a turbo seems to promote more lean burn at normal throttle inputs.

I am not, my battery is still ok. It is an option, though. The battery is not integral, the car is still an extremely effective commuter because of the lean burn and aerodynamics. It has a starter, as well, so no modifications are needed after IMA (integrated motor assist) is removed. Usually the electric motor is used to start the engine.

Someday, but for now I will not spend any money, and continue to save.

But that turbo would help you hypermile even more!

First full tank... 674 miles with 10.3 gallons, driving normally, keeping up with or passing traffic.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...42195e56e9.jpg

The lifetime MPG of the one I picked up is 46.3mpg. It's been neglected for a while...

Balancing/cycling the battery now, new tires are on teh way too.

I've always wanted one of these and almost bought one to replace the vic. But I didnt because all the ones up here at 280k+ miles and most people seem to own like 2-3 with at least one parts car. Seems like another miata. I'd probably also K swap in boredom and still get over 40mpg.

Thats because they never rust... the engines run longer than just about anything thats not diesel. The parts cars get used for all the stupid popits and hardware that fail befor the rest of the car.

Maybe Balto will comment more on the topic, but they are quite cheap to maintain, 280k on the engine is less than half it's service life. Get one.

One of us. One of us. One of us.

Nice! Im sure it will thank you, and bring you that strange joy/pride/smugness of saving more money than anyone else on the road.

I was ready to move on a new car, then:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...00aea0e6b7.jpg