Road Tests: Long-Term Test

Video highlights of this vehicle

It was January when our road test coordinator, Neil Chirico, last drove our long-term Honda Insight. Because of other vehicles we tested in January, he logged very little seat time in our gas miser, so he was looking forward to getting quality time behind the wheel, especially since fuel prices had gone through the roof since his last stint.

The first thing he noticed was that peoples' reception of the fuel sipper seemed to be much warmer this time. Sure, people still craned their necks to stare at the funny-looking bubble as he encountered them on the road, but this time, they were actually smiling and giving thumbs-ups as he drove by. Almost every time he stopped for fuel (which was not very often), someone would stop to ask questions.

The barrage of inquiries would go something like this. "Is that one of those electric cars?" "Do you have to plug it in?" "How do you like it?" Even while it was in for service at the local Honda dealer, people would ask about it. Interestingly, one of the lot porters at the Honda dealer told an inquisitor that it was electric and that you had to plug it in. Geez, people are confused about this car!

We weren't so confused when our service light started blinking its friendly reminder, so we set an appointment for its 22,500-mile service. According to the Insight's owner's manual, that service is what Honda lists as the "A" service. The A service list has only two items on it: replace engine oil (notice that it is not recommended to change the oil filter) and rotate the tires. Simple, right? Well, you'd think so. Off we went to our local Honda dealer for our scheduled appointment.

Upon arriving, Neil was promptly greeted by a service person who knew who he was and what the vehicle was there for (we had called ahead and made an appointment. The greeter, as we'll call him, politely directed Neil to the service advisor with whom he had made the appointment and checked to make sure that he had everything he needed out of the vehicle before it was driven away.

Inside the office, Neil waited a short time while the service advisor finished with another customer. When it was his turn, Neil sat down and explained that we wanted to follow the Honda-recommended service schedule exactly as described in the owner's manual. Neil even gave the advisor the page number for the schedule.

The service advisor listened and repeated back to Neil what he thought he wanted done to the vehicle, but basically the service advisor was trying to sell Neil more than he needed. Neil reiterated that we wanted the Honda-recommended service and nothing more. The advisor decided to type up the repair order as follows: "customer request to perform service as per owner's manual (by the book) page 150."

Later that afternoon, Neil went to pay for and pick up our Insight. He reviewed the bill and discovered that the price was in line with the original estimate, but the dealership had replaced the oil filter (it only gets replaced at the 15,000-mile intervals). So we spent an extra $9.51 above what the Honda prescribed service should have cost. Now, we are not objecting to the fact that they changed the filter, we are just trying to report accurately on the maintenance costs as recommended by Honda.

In addition to the normal service visits, we also had to deal with our missing rear wheel spat. Previously, parts had been ordered to replace and reinstall the missing panel. We had received a pre-painted panel from Honda right away, but other necessary parts were still missing. It was surprising how much difficulty the body shop was having sourcing these mystery parts. We had already waited almost two full months for them and finally decided to try another body repair shop.

We went to Paintless Dent Professionals in Irvine, Calif., to see what they could do to help us get this issue resolved. Rich Price, the owner, reviewed both sides of the vehicle to establish what parts were missing. All he could find was that we didn't have the attachment hardware for the panel. Rich didn't think it would be much of a problem. He asked us to leave him the panel that was currently on the car (with a nice-sized scratch dug into the black portion), the hardware for that panel and the other brand-new panel, which was still in its shipping box. He said to give him a few days, and he'd contact us once the hardware had been secured.

As promised, we were contacted and told that the hardware had been located, so we set up an appointment to bring in the Insight. We dropped it off not knowing if they were actually going to be able to complete the repair, since we were not completely sure that something else wasn't missing. A few days later, as promised, we received a call that our Insight was completed and ready for pickup.

Having dealt with Paintless Dent Professionals for several of our damaged Edmunds vehicles in the past, we have to say that the level of service we receive is exceptional, and this experience certainly lived up to this, especially considering the promptness of the repair.

Neil says he's going to miss the little economic two-seater. He liked the challenge of getting the most miles per drop of petrol while traversing California's roadways, keeping the batteries at full charge and running with traffic at full speed. At one time during the month, he had the estimated miles per gallon indicator reading consistently in the 70-plus miles-per-gallon range; if only he could have kept it there. Maybe he'll get another chance before it goes away, but if not, he'll fondly remember his time in Honda's mileage-miser.

Current Odometer: 22,130
Best Fuel Economy: 62.5 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 46.8 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 51.3 mpg
Body Repair Costs: $136.57 (Repair to the driver-side wheel spat attachment area and attachment hardware; repaint the black trim on the passenger-side wheel spat)
Maintenance Costs: $59.92 [22,500-mile service that included replacing engine oil (filter) and rotate tires]
Problems: None