Hybrids...

I miss my Insight when I have to drive something else. In Flagstaff, however, Monet loaned me her car (also an Insight), so that was nice. I am renting a car in Reno. It is a Prius (my parents own one). Hurrah for hybrids.

2010 Honda Insight

By far, this blog gets more hits from search engines for the words "Honda Insight Battery" and "Wii Fit insults me." If you are a little overweight and have a Wii Fit, you can guess why. As for the Honda Insight...

Have you seen the new 2010 Honda Insight?

Have you seen Honda's new "This Little Light of Mine" commercial? Let it shine... I watched a "making of" feature on the commercial. No computer graphics. Nothing fake. All done with actual Insights and just their headlights. Cool.

Insight MPG

A couple people asked me whether having the batteries replaced has made any difference. Not that I can tell. These are pretty typical numbers while driving on the interstate. The left number is the MPG for the number of miles traveled, which is the number on the right. I reset the trip odometer for the trip from Omaha to Austin.



These are all quick iPhone shots. This was near the peek. I thought I could get 66 - 70 MPG since I have in the past, but I think 65.5 was the overall best after about 548 miles of driving. Granted, anything approaching 70 MPG is rare. 65 is typical.



After 600 miles of driving, I was back down to 65 MPG.



I started speeding more and it dropped to 62.5 MPG by the time I had driven the 920 miles to Tim's place in Austin. I must have unconsciously slowed down for safety each time I took a pic, because the first half of the trip I averaged 70 mph and I averaged about 75-80 mph the last half of the trip. Still, not bad.

Honda Insight Battery

At 121,000 miles, the IMA light came on in my 2000 Honda Insight, indicating there might be a problem with the battery. The warranty expired at 75,000 miles, so I was nervous. Before I even made it to the Honda dealer, however, I discovered Honda had extended the warranty to 150,000 miles or 10 years. With fingers crossed, I visited the dealer to have them run a computer check on the IMA signal. The result was the battery needed to be replaced (for the second time, btw) but I would pay zero dollars. Nice

I thought I would share images of the battery being swapped out.


The battery sits in the hatchback area just behind the seats.


Before you get to the battery, you encounter the casing...


...and this sign. I asked the mechanic why there wasn't a third option: "but if you know what you are doing, you should be fine." Only two options seemed overly forbidding and grim, to me.


To make things simple, all you had to do was toss this baby (which looked just like a light switch) similar to a breaker in your basement and voilà, you were ready to go.


With the case removed.


The battery was shipped overnight from a place in California...


...in this case...


...behold in all its geeky magnificence.


...and all its wires.


Although most of the wires were for the computer system.


and these were the only spots for the positive and negative terminals.


if you look closely, you can see that it is really an array of many separate D-Cell-like batteries all lined up. Pretty cool.

I drove it home the same day. Honda seems to want these 2000 Insights to last, because I am supposed to take it back in a week for an updated computer and a new adapter on the battery (all free).

So far it seems to be driving just fine, thank you.

Server down

If you are visiting this page and the images have disappeared, it is because the university suffered a serious power outage which dramatically affected our servers. Joel is on it and it should be back up soon.

For those Honda Insight fans, or just general hybrid fans, watch for a post about the Insight in a day, or so. The batteries started acting up in my Insight, but it turns out Honda extended the warranty, so they replaced it at zero cost. Niiiice. I took pics of the battery as it was taken out.

Stay tuned.

Insight issues

A handful of people have asked me what the Insight looks like without the wheel covers. Well...


Driving down the highway, the panel over the right rear tire came loose. This doesn't look all that bad, but it was actually bent all the way around and upside down when it happened. I straightened it before I thought to take a pic.

A few weeks ago, a new rear bumper was put on. There were bolts missing that held the panel on. Coincidence?


All I had with me was a Swiss Army Knife, but it was barely enough to remove the panel and drive to the nearest town where there was a Lowe's. I picked up some various bolts and washers that would fit.


All sparkly, again.

Honda Insight

The good news is that Honda is bringing back their best hybrid as the new redesigned Insight which looks eerily like Toyota's Prius (which, btw, my parents drive - two hybrids in the family. Wheeee!). The odd news is that the rumors put the MPG at less than the Insight I already own. It is rumored to be better than the Prius, but not by much. I was hoping if they brought it back that it would be a 100 MPG car. I don't get why they didn't shoot for the moon on this one.

Oh, well. I guess I will drive my Insight for a few more years. As long as I can still get 65-70 MPG on the highway, at least...