2000 Honda Insight, mine. $1200

Hmmm, I have a crashed OBD1 E36 ///M just sitting here...

Duke wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: Clean Texas title not in my name or Vigo's name either.

I'm not calling you out specifically, but doesn't this always seem to create more trouble / expense than it saves?

Vehicle is quirky and cheap enough to interest me and in SWMBO's favorite color. Would not end up as a challenge contestant, but rather as a DD. My current problem is that I need to sell something to make room and probably couldn't get to Houston until summer. Could pay before then, but title concerns me so ???'s.

Is the title in the name of somebody you know/trust? As in are you certain it will be transferable? Just want to understand the status because my state doesn't seem to have a process for titling a vehicle with a lost/missing/whatever title. Went down this road with a truck I wanted to buy last year and my concerns got the seller to go to DMV to switch the title while I was driving up to meet him. Deal got called off because the person the truck was titled to went and got a duplicate title which made the old one he had that was signed a year earlier invalid.

Can't do PM's here because yahoo. You can email me at nanneys at yahoo DOT com.

In reply to secretariata:

Sent you a message.

Color me interested. Any chance you can get the title straightened out so I van get it titled in WA? They are sticklers for that. A battery pack with employee discount is cheap enough to make this a DD for stupid cheap...

I'm not calling you out specifically, but doesn't this always seem to create more trouble / expense than it saves?

It depends how often you buy broken cars and wish to avoid being taxed on them based on fully-functional-vehicle values. I'm on about my 60th car and probably about 45 were bought broken.

Is the title in the name of somebody you know/trust? As in are you certain it will be transferable?

I don't actually remember what is on that title, but i'm pretty sure it's the name and signature of the actual guy i bought it from. As long as you have a title with no un-released liens that has the signature of the named owner on the front and the back, you can 'produce' the title transfer application that also needs the current title-holder's signature, and you're good to go. In Texas, anyway.

As far as my own interest in the car, I would happily pull almost anything that wasn't wanted off and keep the spares for my own Insight. But, the car would have to be in front of me and I really cant justify paying much to buy back parts off a car i sold in one piece for not too much money in the first place, which sorta says that I already convinced myself i didn't need any of it then. So, While i'm happy to collaborate in anyone else's vision for this car, I can't offer much but to strip parts from the car and offer a pittance in return. Still, lmk..

Thanks to everyone who has messaged me so far and gotten to experience my 'worst salesman in the world' talking you out of it.
The line is officially gone again. If anyone else is interested, let me know.

What am I, chopped tofu?

Javelin wrote: What am I, chopped tofu?

Did you email me? This round anyway? I knew you were interested before but hadn't decided. If you want it we can make it happen. I'll do my best to talk you out of it probably.

Picked up the paperwork to do a title transfer without registration. I'll drop it all off Monday if nobody pops up here wanting it by then. That means the car is going to enter a several week period of Texas beurocratic hell while I wait for the new title.

I'm just going to put this here:

https://hybridautomotive.com/collections/store/products/honda-insight-ima-battery-bypass-kit

That would be very useful for someone who just wanted to run it, but I have emissions checks here and a CEL prevents me from legally driving it. For those of you who don't......

Ian F wrote: Hmm... a rebuilt battery pack is $1601 from Rockauto (plus core charge)...

One of my customers has an Insight with disconnected/disabled battery pack and he still gets 57mpg.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of buying Mazdeuce's car (he doesnt need the help, apparently!), but i WILL try to talk anyone out of buying it thinking they're going to drive it around with no IMA function and actually enjoy it. I've lost a stoplight race to a loaded semi in one of my Insights when the IMA was inop. It's so slow that moving with traffic becomes frustrating. You won't enjoy it.

One of the things i was tempted to try when i had 2 Insights was to put a normal Civic ring and pinion ratio into this red one and see how it drove. AFAIK the trans is essentially the contemporary d17-powered Civic trans with super tall gearing and a bellhousing made to accomodate the IMA motor. The Insight uses a ~3.0:1 diff ratio where a 'normal' honda uses something closer to 4.0-4.5:1. I feel like normal gearing would have a de-hybrid-ized Insight driving more or less like a normal tiny car and still get over 40mpg. Needless to say, i decided to sell the car rather than attempting it and since i only have 1 Insight left, I intend to fix and mod the IMA system rather than try to adapt to the lack of it.

I will allow that a de-electriced Insight feels way, way faster than my Quantum did.

I remember fondly dicing with traffic one time, driving at WOT, slowing down to 60mph going uphill and accelerating up to 80mph down the hill so that I'd be going 60 by the top of the next hill. The problem was the dang elitist pigs in their high-powered Corollas and Cavaliers who wouldn't let me pass going downhill. I swear, when the cruise control goes on the brains turn off, y'know?

This is why I refuse to reset the 103mph top speed on my GPS, or ever go faster than that with the GPS connected. I did 103mph in the Quantum, down an extremely long hill with no traffic, and I don't want to erase or overwrite that achievement.

OK, you guys now have 2-3 weeks to hatch evil plans and what not before the new official in my name Texas title gets here. When it does I'll let you know, give you another shot at it, and then throw it on CL. I'm not in a hurry to get rid of it, but now that I've decided I'd like to get it done.

So as a PF rallyx car it would be painfully slow? What price after you fix the batt pack?

As a PF rallyx car I hope you would invest in custom struts and shocks to cure the complete lack of suspension travel. And the 5spd gearing would suck unless your courses are slow enough to stay in 1st all the time.

I daily a 5spd insight. Decent commuter, horrible rallyx compatibility in anything close to stock form.

I assumed it would have similar travel to a civic of the same era. Yikes.

It has very little travel and you'll go through all of it on the smallest bumps. The gearing thing is really the killer. 2nd goes to 72mph but it's so weak at the bottom that WOT at ~30-40 mph feels like you're barely accelerating. Great cars, but not for that purpose until you substantially modify it.

Explain to me how this thing works with a manual trans and being a hybrid. Doesn't seem possible. Is it annoying to drive in traffic?