2001 Honda Insight Mk1 - The OG hybrid now joined by a CRZ

[TW]Fox · 3 Mar 2009 at 21:57

merlin said:
Don't work in Birmingham then, 50 minutes to cover 7 miles most days.

Thats what I love about Plymouth. On a bad traffic day it takes 15 minutes to do my 5 mile trip

merlin · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:00

This is why my 140bhp Diesel Passat does 26mpg.

Housey · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:03

Takes me nearly 2 minutes to get to the kettle and sometimes I have to put the bins out too!

Simon · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:05

Housey said:
Takes me nearly 2 minutes to get to the kettle and sometimes I have to put the bins out too!

You need a Hybrid Kettle.

Will Gill · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:22

or one with a vtec boiling element, doubtful low end boiling capability though

oh he didnt

Jonnycoupe · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:24

Simon said:
You need a Hybrid Kettle.

Nah just a Rover K-series will do the job.

Housey · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:24

Flat 6 kettle is de rigeur in my house!

merlin · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:25

Just want to say that my kettle understeers.

Housey · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:27

My kettle tends to be Ok when full but empty it is bottom heavy.

GSXRMovistar · 3 Mar 2009 at 23:44

No...just no.

spaz · 4 Mar 2009 at 15:01

Spotted one just like yours on the M1 today with the plate W5 UFO, it really isn't a massively bad looking car, some will probably think I'm mad but with a few subtle changes it could easily look like a modern CRX and not that dodgy del sol thingy they actually made!

Howard · 4 Mar 2009 at 15:08

Simon said:
Fox - your outlook on buying cars is very different to most though. You see them as a consumable item, others see them as investments that have a depreciation curve.

I don't think you can call the purchase of any car, with the exception of a 1920s Bugatti or something, an investment!

With regards to this thread, I quite like it

PiKe · 9 Mar 2009 at 17:41

Amazingly I'd never seen one of these before this thread and today I saw one IRL, everyone is buying them now

MikeHunt79 · 9 Mar 2009 at 18:01

What batteries does it use?

Lead acid = heavy

Lith ion = capacity will be half in a year or two...

I'm not sure which is worse...

Jonnycoupe · 9 Mar 2009 at 19:37

NiMh. There are 120 1.2v Panasonic autograde D cells in 20 rows. 6.5Ah each cell. Will assist the engine at 100A and regen to charge at 50A. Most 9 year old good packs are left with capacity of around 5.5Ah. The IMA system only actually uses 4Ah, so empty is really 20% State of Charge and full is 80%. Going okay so far, sucked up behind a lorry and did 106 MPG over 4 miles

The new Insight only carry over part is the battery pack and the NiMH was well understood from the Honda EV+ project.

1997 typical range of 100miles.

2005 EV+ also was the first FCX with a fuel cell pack

Fr0dders · 9 Mar 2009 at 19:42

Housey said:
Flat 6 kettle is de rigeur in my house!

you've got one of these ?

sorry couldnt resist !

Housey · 9 Mar 2009 at 20:09

MrLOL said:
you've got one of these ?

sorry couldnt resist !

No....I have the previous version

Does everything a good kettle should bar boil quickly and pour without spilling.

MikeHunt79 · 9 Mar 2009 at 22:22

Replacement battery pack

As of October 2006, Honda was paying the replacement cost of these batteries on cars with up to 150,000 miles (240,000 km) of use.[citation needed] As of 1 June 2008, the replacement battery costs US$1,968 and installation is around US$900.[10]

As of 2008, independent mechanics have been known to replace Insight batteries with either Prius sub-packs or Civic Hybrid subpacks. A US$300 used NiMH battery from another more mass produced HEV can be used to build a replacement Insight battery pack. Other independent mechanics have been reconditioning their old Insight battery packs to correct wear and tear issues. Reconditioning allows correction of some issues at lower cost than rebuilding a replacement pack from other used packs.

I wonder if Honda will pay for replacement batteries in the UK? A laptop battery is around £100 so I hate to think of how much replacement batteries would be on something like this! :eek:

That said, you can get 9AH D cells, so if you wanted you could upgrade your capacity by 50% or so. They're around a fiver each so £600 is a fair whack... At least it will last longer than Li Ion.

Jonnycoupe · 9 Mar 2009 at 22:34

MikeHunt79 said:
That said, you can get 9AH D cells, so if you wanted you could upgrade your capacity by 50% or so. They're around a fiver each so £600 is a fair whack... At least it will last longer than Li Ion.

What sort of charge rate will they deal with? Im not too worried about the battery at the moment but nice to have some options. The car would be a bit slow without assist!

One of the Insight guys has a 40Ah lithium pack in his.

Im just gonna do a few things with shutting assist off manually so i dont rape the battery going up hills which means forced regen on the cruise and kills lean burn, also gonna do a mod to force the auto stop for downhill sections. Shame you cant decouple the engine from the motor to remove the pumping losses, the new IMA car actually close all the valves so theres effectively no pumping losses just a big air spring.

beermonster · 9 Mar 2009 at 23:02

Just out of interest what sort of mpg do you get if you cane the bejesus out of it like they did with the prius v m3 on top gear?