it's time for show off Sunday where everyone has a chance to show off their
own car and here's this week's winner, hey guys this is my 2001 Honda Insight
also known as the first hybrid ever sold in the u.s. being the Prius out by 7
whole months the Honda Insight was built in Suzuka Japan from 1999 to 2006 it
shared the same assembly factory as the Honda s2000 and the Honda NSX and like
the NSX it has a purely aluminum construction my car has the only
available option for 2001 air conditioning and my car in total weighs
1878 pounds at the time of its production
it was the most aerodynamic car ever made until this day remains the most
fuel-efficient vehicles sold in the US the EPA estimates in sight at 61 miles
per gallon on the city but many owners have been able to achieve upwards of 90
miles per gallon by making slight modifications for their vehicles ima
system but today I want to show you the highlights of the Honda Insight as it
sits many of which are overlooked by the car community and finally what it's like
to drive the aluminum panels of my car are finished in new formula red the
monte carlo blue and silverstone metallic were two other options if you
didn't want to stand out too much one of the insights most distinguishing design
features are these side skirts which almost completely cover the rear wheels
in the owners manual it says to take them off if you're gonna put it in the
automatic car wash but it's funny of them to assume that I'd be doing that in
the first place something else I find interesting is this Ridge behind the
rear wheels it's kind of basic and it's just the line but I find it interesting
nevertheless some of you watching might be thinking this car looks an awful lot
like a Honda CRX or cr-z it has a small size of the upright rear window and is
very low to the ground but this design has been streamlined into shape that
looks very early 2000s
under the hood lies a 1 liter naturally aspirated three cylinder engine it puts
out sixty-seven horsepower and 66 pound-feet of torque with the hybrid
system engaged it outputs a total of 73 horsepower and
91 pound-feet of torque this engine is also capable of lean-burn
which means it can run with a air-to-fuel compression ratio of 25.8 to
1 you might notice the conventional batteries sitting in the engine bay but
this car does not normally use a conventional starter due to the
start/stop system starting power comes courtesy of a 10 will kilowatt hour
battery mounted behind the seats and it sounds like this
as some of you may know this car has a manual transmission
unlike the CVT s and Priuses and automatics and Kia hind I products this
is possible because the hybrid system in this car does not work like those
systems it has regenerative braking and start/stop but the electric motor alone
cannot move the car because it is connected between the engine and
transmission so it can only help the engine this is why the system is called
ima or integrated motor assist the only other cars like it are the first
generation Civic Hybrid the Honda cr-z and second generation in sight although
you can't use electric power alone the main transmission more than makes up for
it even though this car is incredibly small people of all different shapes and
sizes can find it comfortable in this cabin I'm about 6 feet tall and I have
plenty of headroom plenty of legroom and I feel I could drive this thing for
hours without getting uncomfortable or tired if you take a look at the gauges
they are all LCD digital just like the Honda s2000 s it shows your speed in
huge numbers and has comprehensive readouts for your gas mileage
regenerative braking and electric motor assist amount it also shows you the
battery charge levels and would show the fuel level except mine broke after I was
rear-ended on the freeway another unordinary interior feature is this
steering wheel which is straight out of the Honda s2000 something you won't find
in the Civic from this era when I bought this car I was really blown away by all
the features this car has done my Toyota pickup did not include him power locks
power windows power mirrors air conditioning heating seatbelts working
horn working windshield wipers headlights hazard lights a safety rating
and finally an engine surprisingly even though this car is super tiny I haven't
found anything that doesn't fit in the trunk I've had seats coolers a full-size
cello heck even I fit back here
I'll be back in a little, there is also a secret compartment underneath the trunk
that can carry anything I would ever need such as my car gear supplies jumper
cables backpacks and more there are also storage pockets here here
and here so I never run into any problems with
holding my stuff then there are a few aspects of practicality that this car
has that really shouldn't be ignored for one the tiny size which basically means
in a crowded cities such as Los Angeles you will never be left looking for a
parking space simply because you didn't fit also due to its incredibly small
size the turning circle is miniscule meaning I can make u-turns in
residential streets and finally you have the option of taking advantage of hybrid
parking and the carpool lane if you spend $25 on a sticker which I didn't
because I hate it's incredibly fun to drive I mean the steering is super
responsive the gear changes are quick I mean little notchy it doesn't like to be
revved out much but it's fun very fun car I mean I can dart around these
corners and they're very little times where I feel bored driving this my older
car which was a 1986 outer corner he didn't have anything and they've got
really terrible gas mileage it would die all the time would break and at one
point I just decided I I was tired of spending so much money trying to get
every leak every seal replaced or fix the differential was leaking power
steering was leaking it didn't have brakes it was it was a little bit of an
expensive car to keep running every single time I drive this car is
something amazes me about it I'm gonna spend on it though how fun it is
everything about it is just pretty amazing and I hope you is buying this
car to be somewhat intriguing as well and not just another lawn more Honda
that you see driving around the street at 3 a.m.
like I mentioned before and like you probably know by now this is a hybrid
with the stick shift I'm not just moving this around for no
reason you can really feel the difference in power and the difference
in torque so right now it's just the gasoline engine running but as soon as I
drop it into second and give it some beans the IMA system makes up the
difference a second gear surprisingly can go almost a 60 miles an hour which I
don't even know if the Corvette can do that but I mean this is a lot slower
than a Corvette so one thing you might be wondering about as well is where does
the hybrid miss really kick in and that would be the start/stop technology so a
lot of cars have this now but this was the first one that did it and it doesn't
have a conventional started instead when I come to a Saab I put it in neutral and
then once you get under 25 - engine shuts off and it's completely silent we
put in first the engine starts back up again and now we can take off the system
actually scared me when I first got the car because I didn't really understand
how it worked I was used to putting a neutral engine stayed on obviously and
so when I was going up a hill put it in neutral the engine turned off and I
forgot to put it will actually have the clutch pushed in so it wasn't in neutral
and I started taking off again and the engine would not turn back on I was
stuck rolling down the hill wondering how does the engine turn back on again
so yeah put it in neutral again put it in first again and then you're good to
go, thank you so much Scotty for giving me
the opportunity to show off my car in front of all these people and I hope
everyone learned something about 2001 Honda Insight that they didn't know
before,
well that was this week's video and remember to have your car video
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