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Before:
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj31/3DollaBillz/Insightful/IMG_1799.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj31/3DollaBillz/Insightful/IMG_1793.jpg

After:
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj31/3DollaBillz/Insightful/Lowered/IMG_1824.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj31/3DollaBillz/Insightful/Lowered/IMG_1823.jpg

Really nice! How's the ride?

Wow, in profile like that it sure looks like a Prius.

Looks kinda' cool lowered.
Charlie

Looks much better. I have those racks on my HCH2, great rack:) H

Yikes, I can just hear the sound of metal crunching on driveway aprons, speedbumps, rocks ...

But hey it's a great looking car otherwise! We have lots of Insights around (white, silver, red, 2 different shades of blue), but for some reason we don't seem to be getting the black ones. Until I saw yours I didn't even know they were making it in black. Very sharp!

I'm not seeing the pic's, for some reason, likely due to my funky office connection, and will be remedied when I get home. But I too can hear grinding, see sparks flying ;)

Yikes, I can just hear the sound of metal crunching on driveway aprons, speedbumps, rocks ...

But hey it's a great looking car otherwise! We have lots of Insights around (white, silver, red, 2 different shades of blue), but for some reason we don't seem to be getting the black ones. Until I saw yours I didn't even know they were making it in black. Very sharp!

I only have one question.....When did the Insight become a rock crawler? :D

Seriously though, its not that low....it was only a 2 inch drop in the rear and 1.5 in the front. I havent gone over anything and scraped yet. Now I'm not saying that day will never come, but I'm gonna avoid that path if at all possible or at least angle my way across it :p

The ride is like being in a pickup truck/sports car as its pretty stiff. I'm able to carry more speed through the turns with no problem and body roll has been greatly reduced. Its no longer mushy, but I'm not bouncing all over the road by any means either. I hope that helps.

My MPG has improved as well as the ability to hold my MPH with more ease. I notice when being on a slight incline I can hold the speed at 55MPG (on the MID bar) vs 45MPG. My instant average MPG has picked up from 43-44 to 47-48. Once I run through a tank and get real world numbers I'll post them up but until then I'm just going to dare to dream.
My previous tanks were 43.109 and 42.989 MPG's so wish me luck.

I'm thinking of trying to run without the roof rack for a tank just to see how much of a hit I'm taking. Anyways, thanks for the kind words on the looks.

I only have one question.....When did the Insight become a rock crawler? :D

Seriously though, its not that low....it was only a 2 inch drop in the rear and 1.5 in the front. IMO anything with less than 6" of ground clearance between the front wheels is a rock crawler ... and even a 1" drop is HUGE! A car with 5" requires 4-5x more care to get down a rough gravel road than a car with 6". I'm old enough to remember when almost no one had SUVs -- and almost all cars had at least 6" clearance because many people needed it.

But I don't doubt your lowered Insight corners even better and gets improved mileage. I think eventually, as rising gas prices make SUVs off limits for more people, the automakers will finally start offering adjustable height suspensions more often.

Okay, so I went out into the garage and measured the absolute lowest point on my car with was the plastic underbelly pan which sagged down to 4 inches but when pushed up went to 4.5 inches so yes its low. I'm on my way to the dealership to say hi to Kasey Green and I will measure a brand new stock height car to make sure the difference is really just 2 inches because now I'm kindof curious myself. Not that I plan to raise it back up, but I'll just be mindful of the large speed bumps.

Hi, Jeff -- sounds like it is still higher than my stock gen 1 Insight.

Well my visit with Kasey was fun as usual, the stock ride height is 6 and maybe 1/8 inches. So the over all drop was pretty much 2 inches. I then cruised to the mall in search of the local speed bump lanes. As I was approaching them I watched other people go over them and noticed they were not as large as I thought. For the most part they were no larger than the standard sidewall so I slowly went over it with no problem. The next one had scrapes ALL over it so I was a little nervous but had no problem getting over it. Now I didnt get out and look at the clearence but there was no rubbing scratching or anything so I feel pretty safe in my travels. There is one set of speed bumps that I know of that are even higher that I will investigate next week. They are HUGE by any standard so I'm not sure if its going to happen but I'll keep you all posted.

Just checked our '06, our stock underbody clearance is 4.5", that at the engine compartment plastic shield. There is one small area that's maybe 4.0", the size of a deck of cards.

It's handy to have a tape measure with a body that's some round length, for this sort of thing.

One trick if you are approaching a bump that you think you will scrape is to mash fairly hard on the brakes to get the front end to dive (this will also help slow you down) and then, just before you get to the bump, let off the brakes so the front end will be rising when the front wheels meet the bump.

Obviously you shouldn't be going fast enough in a parking lot for this to work well, but it can be useful for on the open road for speed bumps, railroad tracks, and other bumps. And even potholes.

I used to do this a lot when I owned a car with a low oil sump that was finned alloy ($$$$$). The manufacturer sold a steel shield to mount below it. The shield was welded up of steel strap, looked a bit like a fireplace grate. Once I hit a speed bump that I didn't see because it was unpainted and unmarked (!!) and had to replace the shield due to bent and broken welds, but the sump was OK.

Jeff, speedbumps aren't going to be a concern unless your car is so low you risk scraping them with the front bumper, at least if you hit them straight on with both wheels at the same time. Even at 4" you're very unlikely to have to worry about speedbumps. If you don't drive in snow and don't leave the pavement, your biggest concern would probably be driveway aprons/exits/entrances and accidentally bumping curbs.

Jeff, speedbumps aren't going to be a concern unless your car is so low you risk scraping them with the front bumper, at least if you hit them straight on with both wheels at the same time. Even at 4" you're very unlikely to have to worry about speedbumps. If you don't drive in snow and don't leave the pavement, your biggest concern would probably be driveway aprons/exits/entrances and accidentally bumping curbs.

True story! Driveway enterences where I live are curbs that slope up around 45º and the only time I scrape the front lower air dam is when I back down the drive way leaving the house. When I pull in, I'm coming down the hill and havent had a problem. Its not a violent scrape or anything but more like a brush, I just need to find the sweet spot in the driveway and all will be good. Kasey drove it around and seemed to be grinning the whole time :woot: