2001 Honda Insight from North America - Comments

Dealer replaced ECM, insturment cluster, primary and auxillary batteries and god knows what else they won't admit to in an attempt to correct non working shift indicator lights in dash. In this they had to have the car dismanteled and in shop for over 20 days of the first month I owned it. They finally had to call in one of two field engineers in the US to discover that the bulbs were burned out. Anyway, the car was never right. It would not start if left sitting for more than two days. Four seperate trips to the dealership and two more battery replacements. They finally decided that the radio was to blame!?!?!? For what it's worth, the starting problem was fixed after that.

I have also owned a Civic and an S2000. I like Honda's american built cars (and also the S2000). Unfortunately, due to the incompetency of the dealership mechanics, and uncooperative American Honda, I will never own another car new or used from this company. Also, this car depreciated faster than a new Cadillac. The MSRP was a bit over $19,000 new. I paid $15,200 for one that was less than 1 year old. Less than six months later, I was able to get only $9,000 for it. One of Honda's hallmarks is their reputation for good resale value. I guess with the Insight, everyone else knew what a dumpster chicken that car is. The biggest kick in the head is that I never drive anywhere. I took it to New York City a few times which is less than 60 miles from me. I bought it purely out of novelty. I have learned my lesson now.

The problems experienced by this writer with the Insight just proves nothing is perfect in this world. This is especially so when tinkered with by people with out the proper training or ability to diagnose a problem.

Sometimes because a vehicle is so different and unusual we go looking for more complicated solutions instead of the obvious.

One only has to read of the enthusiasm from owners on the "Honda Insight" website to realize these are top quality cars providing efficiency unavailable in any other car at present. There are no problems showing up to discredit the Insight and I would speculate the difficulties experienced by this owner were down to the fact it was disassembled and reassembled by inexperienced persons even though they worked in a Honda agency.

I run a three year old Insight and have had not one problem, although I would prefer a different type body configuration with the hybrid internals.

I had a similar experience with my Honda Insight.

First, I'd like to say that I drove that car everywhere. From LA to Alaska; from Alaska to New Jersey, to Florida and back. It withstood one Alaskan winter wonderfully. It had mostly highway miles on it. I loved this car, even though I could never get better than 70mpg on a trip. My average was 55 in town and usually around 65 on long trips.

Unfortunately, once I hit 29,000 miles on the odometer, there were lots of electrical problems. The headlight switch in the steering column was fried: it melted the wiring around it. Honda didn't know why. Then, if I didn't drive it every day, it wouldn't start, and it ran roughly. They fixed a vacuum leak that was supposed to make the ride smoother. Two batteries later they decided it was a loose grounding bolt. But the car still runs very rough.

I've always been suspicious of the radio ever since I bought the car, but I just thought I was crazy. What does the radio have to do with anything, right? But all the weird electrical problems my car has had seem to coincide with excessive radio use, and ever since I bought the car I noticed that when the radio was off, I would still hear odd little motor sounds coming from it sporadically.

I'm glad to have read your review, and I will talk to my Honda dealership about the radio wiring!

Hybrid technology is just starting to catch on, but it's still in its infancy. There are only a select few model hybrids to choose from including Saturn, Ford, Honda, and Toyota. I may be missing some, but those are the only companies I know of selling hybrids in the US. They are talked about by everyone, but no very few people own them. They simply aren't popular purchases yet, which explains why all hybrid cars on the US market right now depreciate so quickly.

I have been a mechanic for over 20 years and have experience in everything from engines, trannmissions, electrical, and even bodywork. I feel bad for anyone that paid their hard earned money for one of these silly looking gas/electric mixed cars. I charge cheap rates and guarantee anything that I work on. Sometimes it happens that a part is faulty even when brand new. Rarely though. I am afraid I would not even touch one of these test-vehicles. Buy one of these if you want to be taken for a ride. Good luck even finding a good mechanic willing to even touch it. Stick to a proven gas engined vehicle that is small and no frills if you want good gas mileage. The batteries alone cost as much as a good used car.

To the above comment:

While your right about the batteries being expensive, cars like this need to be used more often in this country. The worlds oil supplies are only going to last us another 50 years or so. That's a proven fact. So we really need to be conserving our resources. Not to mention the fact that whether you believe in global warming or not, you can't say this car isn't better for the environment than a regular car.