This thing is as hard to find and missing from the picture as the EV1. Although Honda actually sold these.

Made from 00' - 06' these little ~60MPG beasts are two seated with electric backups. running three clynders and all of 67HP. They use 0w-20 oil (kinda like WD-40) and the tires weight ~8lbs.

Why aren't they still making these through today?

Honda Insight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

InsightCentral.net - Knowledge Base - Honda Insight Comparison

My neighbor has one(dash reads 54-71MPG per tank, depending on where he drives), Lucky him, the closest one to me is in IL and I just might drive out there to get it.

I can't belive I haven't even heard of these, and I'm one of the only people I know that even heard of a EV1.

There's a couple of them here.

They are a really neat looking machine and I'd take one over a Prius any day of the week. The mileage that thing gets I could drive to and from work on a gallon of gas for more than a week.

But is it really worth the price you pay from your pimp-wallet? Id rather ride a bike, that thing is fugly

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex But is it really worth the price you pay from your pimp-wallet? Id rather ride a bike, that thing is fugly

It can go upward to 120MPH, it has 67HP. And I love it. I dunno man. The whole car is made to save you gas. I'm already talking to someone over 400 miles away to buy theres. I' talked to them about 10 mins ago. I'll be on my way to IL in about a month if all goes as planned, gotta talk things over some more though.

I'm seriouly going to get one of these....

I'd like to see an Insight get to 120, and even if it did, my car would be 4 miles in front of it when it did.

It's a hybrid economy car it isn't built for speed.

I did a project on hybrid cars for school a couple years ago. I think part of the problem with the Insight was that the battery units were large and expensive. Some died as soon as 9 months after purchase and the typical estimate for replacement was in the $5000 range. Somehow the battery isn't covered in the warranty so that's $5000 out of pocket.

I read an article that talked about 1 guy that had replaced the battery twice within 2 years. Finally he sold it and bought something crazy like a F350 Crew cab diesel which he runs on Bio-diesel.

A professor here has one. I see it in the parking lot all the time, wheel skirts and all.

Both the EV1 and the Insight were stopgaps by their respective manufacturers because they were afraid California [a huge car market all by itself] was gonna get serious about the whole emissions thing.

When Cali backed out, there was no longer a "need" so they pulled production.

Toyota had an Electric RAV4 as well...

Electrics just don't work well. Their range is limited. The battery packs are heavy, eco-unfriendly and don't last. Most people are just moving CO2 emissions from the tailpipe to the utilities power plant so you gain nothing.

We all know the problems with an internal combustion engine.

I'm rather hopeful about recent work I've seen with compressed air engines. You make carbon fiber tanks filled with compressed air to power the vehicle. If you run the compressors off solar [technically possible NOW] operation could be so cheap as to be laughable. Most folks might be willing to trade filling up EVERY trip if every fill-up was FREE [or say 25 cents].

-MF

FYI Insight at 1300 EST on I85-I285 interchange

How about fuel cell technology?
Honda starts selling the Honda FCX Clarity Hydrogen Fuel Cell car this summer, a test in 3 city's in southern California , Santa Monica, Torrence and Irvine.

Honda FCX Clarity - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle - Official Web Site

Quote: Originally Posted by BeetleMan How about fuel cell technology? Honda starts selling the Honda FCX Clarity Hydrogen Fuel Cell car this summer, a test in 3 city's in southern California , Santa Monica, Torrence and Irvine. Honda FCX Clarity - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle - Official Web Site

I wish I lived in one of those three towns. Not that I would have the $600/month, for three years but, would be nice to ride in one.

On the other habd the Insight has a 10 year warranty on the 144V battery for the electric half. Secondly on InsightCentral they have many mods to use two honda civic batterys or a prius battery. all which are much cheaper than the $1500 Insight battery.

My neighbor has had the Insight over 100MPH, It has a CVT automatic in it though. I'm looking at the five speed.

I was very amused when I found out that the Prius is actually worse for the environment than your average car.

The Recorder

Don't know what the Insight is like...Honda have a repution for some very good tech, so hopefully it's better.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux I was very amused when I found out that the Prius is actually worse for the environment than your average car.

Fortunately if you don't care about the environment and just want to save some money, the Prius is a great car!

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux I was very amused when I found out that the Prius is actually worse for the environment than your average car. The Recorder Don't know what the Insight is like...Honda have a repution for some very good tech, so hopefully it's better.

Thats a really interesting article, Unfortunaly the battery in the Insight is the same nickel that is in every other car. But most honda's use really tiny batterys. The civic and accord hybrids use about half the size of the prius battery.

And a chevy aveo is the best inbetween (ironically the honda dealer I went too had three for sale, one was new, lol.) I'm still going to find one of these Insights and drive it. 45MPG (aveo),50MPG(civic hybrid), and "60"MPG(Prius) still don't match near 70 that the Insight is proven to do in more than like 5000 of the ~13000 out there.

My Honda Civic does 36/45 a steady 67MPH for near 5 hours got me 45MPG, and I get 33-38 per tank around here everyday. But my honda is nearing the big 200k and I'm not looking forward to driving it much longer.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux I was very amused when I found out that the Prius is actually worse for the environment than your average car. The Recorder

As much as it pains me to say this, that article is not accurate, Hummer vs Prius Redux: This time to Hummer? I don't think so! - AutoblogGreen . The plant was an environmental disaster but they've changed a whole lot.