Wow, that is pretty awesome. 2k for that car was definitely a great buy. I would lean on the optimistic side of things myself, concerning the battery pack. Drive it until the batteries are dead. While you are waiting for that to happen, call around to different junk yards near you. You might happen upon a smashed up Insight that has a mint low-mileage battery pack in it.

Congrats though. It should be nice to be able to just about quadruple your FE overnight!

I'm not exactly sure what the warenty is on the battery pack but so far I have not heard of anyone spending any money out of pocket on the battery pack, just try to find a price, there is none.

Really? Any reason why Honda keeps it manual? I had thought that in general that had all been phased out with a hydraulic setups.

I'd think a little worse then what a Metro might get just to weight alone. From my read of Insightcentral, the electric motor is mostly there to lower the load on the engine in high demand situations. Acceleration, hill climbing etc. The Insight doesn't have a pure EV mode like a Prius has.

I need to get a service manual for it, but I think the battery pack is part of the DC-DC converter that powers the rest of the car. It might still need it.

Thanks Erdrick :D

Supposedly the pack is warrantied for 10 years and 150k. I'm beyond the mileage mark but I figured I'll stick check with Honda if they would replace the pack or be willing to work out some kind of compromise for it.

warranties liek that are either/or. combined with you buying it from an auction they'll probably just give you the brush off.

manual lifters are cheaper by far and more reliable in a way. sure you get some valve ticking over time but they don't collapse or sieze if they sit too long or don't have enough pressure

I just know that a year and a half back I checked into the cost of the battery, and was told by the a dealer that specilized in hybrids siad that no one pays out of pocket for the battery, and when I checked online, the honda parts list had a part number, but no price.

Red -

Sounds like you found the pot of gold at the end of the Police Auction Block.

An OBDII compatible pseudo-CRX!!!!!

CarloSW2

And valve ticking isn't a big deal - check for clearance every 30 or 60K miles - shim as necessary :p I had a '97 Mazda 626 with hydro lifters... The ports were too small and they'd collapse if there was too much crap in the oil (among other reasons). The 98+ 626's IIRC have solid lifters... Not sure what the new Mazda6 has though :p

Ih8u1! ;) :)

I don't have any insightful advice but I have to say I am a bit envious. :)