Love my used Insight

I bought a Honda Insight about two weeks ago and wanted to share my experiences with you.

I live in the Denver/Boulder area of Colorado. I had been driving a Geo Metro. I am used to driving a small car that is inexpensive to operate. The Insight appealed to me because of the gas mileage (currently ~57 MPG) and because of the pricing of the used models. I checked on cars.com and found three models between $6,000 and $10,000 that interested me.

I ended up buying a 2001 model with manual transmission. I chose the manual because of its superior mileage. My car is silver and has A/C. An aftermarket Alpine stereo was added by a previous owner. The car is in excellent shape and has 94K miles. I paid $8,200.

Pros:

Interior: The car is comfortable and I am 6 feet three inches tall. Much more comfortable than my Geo Metro. The interior is modern and nice looking. The seat fabric is a mesh/net type material that attracts sesame seeds, however.

Performance This little car scoots! It has plenty of pickup when needed. If you are a moderate driver, you will be pleased with this car. Another thing that is quickly noticed is the turning radius of this car. It can turn on a dime. To be honest, I haven't driven this car in the Rocky Mountains and don't plan to. I am concerned that the batteries will run out and leave me with little horsepower.

Also: This car is fun to drive. It is low to the ground and handles nicely. You will also have plenty of stares and questions. If you like to talk to strangers, this is the car for you!

Cons:

Performance: When the batteries run out of charge, this car is a dog. Running only on the gas engine this is the slowest car I have driven (remember that I owned a Geo). I have only actually run out of charge once. I constantly am watching the charge levels and adjusting my driving habits accordingly. This monitoring of the batteries may not be as important if you live in an area with flatter terrain. This sounds like a real pain, but it is kinda fun to monitor this and watch your mileage.

Stereo: I have an aftermarket Alpine in my Insight and the sound still isn’t up to snuff. There are only speakers on the doors. I have added some Pioneer speakers and the sound is still distant. The next step for me is to add back speakers. There is a kit available, but this sounds much more difficult than it should be.

Cruise Control: Cruise control was not available for this car from the factory. There is an aftermarket kit, but it looks like another pain. I don’t like pain.

Wheel skirts: The skirts on the back wheels freak me out when going through a car wash. Leave them on, take them off? I currently leave them on and will only use one carwash that is close to work. Also note that these skirts are held on with plastic bolts. This seems flimsy.

Blind spots: Check out the blind spots before you buy this car. The blind spots that bother me are important when you change lanes.

Overall: I love this car. The benefits are much more important to me than its flaws. If I won the lotto, I would keep it as an extra car. It is fun to drive and most people that you know will want a ride in it.