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Hello all - I've been lurking here for a while, and have been an IC.net member since I purchased my Insight in July of this year...

I think I got a pretty good deal on it considering 120k mi, almost flawless exterior for $6k. My wife thought I was insane, as soon as I realized a hybrid could be had at this price point it was a no brainer for my commute and our normal trips around town, as we have no children yet. Compound this with the fact I can take every piece of a Civic apart with my eyes closed, I feel fairly comfortable performing all my own maintenance on it. I'm also a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, studying Electrical Engineering, so it appeals to my hobbies there as well.

The car seems fairly well setup, I believe the alignment is at factory 0 deg toe. The tires are, unfortunately, not OE, but 175 width Aquatred 3's at 50 psi. I'm working on getting a OE set for the Insight and transferring the AQ3s to my wife's Echo.

I live in Antioch, TN. My commute is a 15 mile hike down I-24, around 440 to Vanderbilt. Getting to the interstate is pretty abysmal - the entrance to our apartment complex is an enormous hill - my best record for the 1.5 mi trip is in the low 50 mpg.

The interstate and surface downtown roads are another story, however. Using DWL techniques on the interstate, my personal best is 83 mpg from parked to parked. Another hot summer day I pulled 89 mpg segment from interstate (after accelerating) to parked at school. I think the 6 mpg difference show how much is lost getting over the hill at the complex.

The route down I24 and 440 is not at all flat. I tend to accel to 60ish downhill and decel to 47-50 going uphill trying to maintain 75 mpg in lean-burn. Occasionally background charging will force me down into 3rd and ~40ish mpg to climb hills. I'd need GPS to confirm, but I'd say the elevation changes are 150-200 ft up and back down every 2-3 miles.

My commute is fine, but our frequent trips to church (2.5 mi!) tend to kill my tank averages, and I have been winding up around 65 mpg to the tank.

I plan on installing a FAS switch soon, although my initial experiments with key-based FAS haven't been too promising. I can pull some 70 mpgish segments around the city if I catch lights, but nothing terribly spectacular. The flat places are too far between, and generally if I am going down a hill, I'm going to hit a light, so regen is more in order to maintain SoC.

I appreciate all the help, I've cut my monthly fuel bill to less than half with this car...

My old 97 Civic Hatch was doing around 28 mpg due to aggressive tires and frequent trips for the redline. My driving is much slower and relaxed now. :)

One thing I've noticed about my Insight is the regen is killer. Without some way of manually controlling the regen in this car it has an uncanny ability to start when it is least beneficial and other times when it would be great to regen it simply refuses to do so... :(

Until I get MIMA installed on my car I've been trying to avoid assist as much as possible, but like you I have a hellish hill I have to climb to get to work, and with my daily commute being only 4.1 miles (I work 24 hour shifts) it doesn't leave much room for me to get great tank averages. One way I've found to work around it is lots of times I think I'm in too high a gear for the car to pull a hill but in fact if I just back off the throttle a bit I don't really lose any speed yet the assist stops and my FE goes 20-30 higher.

The throttle on the insight is amazingly fine. Miniscule differences in pressure that don't affect speed at all have profound impacts on FE.

What are your tank averages? I know when I first got my insight back in july I could barely stay in the low 60 range but I recently had a light bulb moment and my last tank was just shy of 70 mpg... this tank will be mid 80's.

Just play with the throttle and learn your commutes where you can find places that you can stay in 5th pulling over 100 mpg, those sections help out tremendously when trying to pull up the tank average.

Sounds like your commute is somewhat similar to mine: rolling hills, though apparently more rolling than mine. I've been running the Insight for about a year with reasonable results. Mine has MIMA w/FAS, stock tires at just under 50psi, Mobil 1 0-20W. Yes the throttle is very delicate on the thing. I really like the big digital spedo, very easy to see what is happening.

FWIW, here is what I do:
(1) I usually let the stock level of assist just happen. The reason is that using MIMA to prevent assist results in lower mpg for that period because the ICE is doing all the work. However, I mash on the accelerator to get the speed up briskly rather than drawing a lower level of assist over a longer period of time.
(2) I FAS whenever possible, though I may skip an FAS if the battery is low and feed in regen instead. Remember that during an FAS you are not getting any regen and that the electric steering (and other stuff) are draining the battery, not to mention the bit of power used to restart the ICE. I try to FAS just over the crest of a hill before the car has accelerated to my target top speed, let the speed build up to the target on the downhill, and then restart the ICE before hitting the next uphill, to pick up a few mph while the road is level or slightly descending. BTW, I strongly recommend the FAS module with MIMA because it puts the car into a safe mode with a minimum of fuss by the driver.
(3) I use MIMA to feed in more regen than the stock system would. Choice spots are downhills that are either not steep enough or too steep to maintain my target speed (50-53mph) while coasting. On gentler downhills I may sacrifice a bit of mpg if regen is needed by feeding in regen lightly so as to stay in lean burn, say at 100mpg if possible. On steeper downhills, I use more regen to keep the speed down to my target top speed. Letting the car coast to high speeds sacrifices energy to wind resistance, plus the speed decays quickly when you hit the next uphill. So I grab regen instead, even if it is only 30% efficient. Without MIMA, gently applying the brakes might do the same thing (less controllably) because they use regen at first.

That's the basics of what I have come to on my rolling commute. These methods consistently net about 95-100mpg in the summer but I take a BIG hit in the winter, down to 80mpg presently. I'm not very good on more level roads. And others here have had success with other methods on the Insight. It's been a >1 year learning process for me and I'm still learning.

I agree that assist is annoying at times, wish the Insight had a bigger battery.

Fine throttle control is something you almost have to pick up immediately, especially in this car. I'm a long time driving / racing enthusiast, so it was fairly easy to pick up the throttle control techniques. I can fairly easily adjust the iFCD by 5 mpg up or down at will by simple foot adjustment, even while wearing thicker soled tennis shoes. It's very cool being able to put it in 5th and immediately get the load at a particular mpg with no adjustment, I used to just push down and then adjust.

My tank averages are generally around 65mpg at this time. Folks at IC say that OEM tires are good for a 13% FE improvement, so that puts my average over 70 with a tire change. I've got a friend who works at Firestone looks for a set for me, I think he said the closest set is in NC, and we can have them first week of December.

I find that when I try to FAS I drain the SoC much faster than otherwise. Generally I would be just coasting with light pressure in 5th (150 mpg+), just enough to keep it out of regen, and then releasing pressure / regen braking to slow when needed. When I'm in a FAS, I hate to break out of it to stop or do regen, because key off / on is such a pain. So I find myself losing opportunities to charge.

I think a lot of it will come easier once I get a MIMA style FAS switch and assist / regen disable switch installed. I feel like I'm close to the limits of DWL / DWB techniques around town. I could probably do a bit better job timing lights, but that's about it... I rarely ever slow to less than 20 mpg for a red light before it changes.

The cold weather is also starting to take it's toll, and I generally forget to account for the fact that my tank mpg generally continues to improve even though temps are dropping. I put in a radiator block and I'm working on a hot air mod. I do have a block heater, but no opportunity to use it in my apartment complex, it's a shame.

shifty35,

A belated welcome to CleanMPG!

The more I use MIMA, the more I use FAS.

I use the Assist lighter and lighter, as you quickly realize the Insight has a small battery pack.

Small battery pack eh...

I get recals at about 2/3 SoC.

Even smaller than usual. :)

Small battery pack eh...

I get recals at about 2/3 SoC.

Even smaller than usual. :)2/3 SoC is about right when it happens.

Have you checked into the recall on the IMA software fixes for the early Insights - be sure to do so as it will help your battery life considerably! They let the SoC do down to 15% - the fix changes that to 40%. Hot weather and mountainous states get fixes too.

I've seen references to that fix around. I've registered on Honda's Owner Link, and it shows only two valid recall campaigns for my car - one for a headlight harness, and the other to have the ECM replaced for emissions purposes. The ECM replacement has been performed.

Anyone know what I have to do to get the IMA electronics redone?

Really I'd just like the IMA light to pop soon, as I'm only around 130 k mi... a free new battery would rock.