She needs a name! She's little, spry, and terribly cute. The FAQ is coming, but in the meantime I'll answer everyone's first question: I absolutely adore her. After years of admiring Honda's extraordinary innovations in engine technology, I've finally been unable to resist. They've done something really fantastic with a bunch of lightweight materials, a little electric motor and trunk[ette]load of batteries.
After nearly five years and 90,000 miles, I've averaged 62 MPG. I've got very nearly all the receipts for the gas I've put in the car, and I'll export that data to these pages one of these days.
My little wish-list:
Want dated pictures? Or something less head-turning than the Citrus Yellow Metallic? Check out a couple of other Insights that I've managed to run into.
Clearly I need work with the digital camera. Or at least I'll blame it
on the camera, but I'll admit that there's probably more improvement to made
with the composition. Those feathers on the back not part of the car, but
are solar hot water heaters on the building across the street. Sorry! I'm
hoping, at least, that the solar panels and pile of dirt give me points for
suggesting an environmental or "earth" theme.
I really need an animation of the dash booting up. Of course all the
elements in the display light up when the ignition's turned on, but they turn
off in a sequence that's akin to an equalizer display after a loud pop. While I'm a
fan of analog gauges, I've grown accustomed to this excess. And it's like
a lot of things in the car: I figure the whole display is a plastic sandwich
2mm thick and doesn't weigh much. Clearly, here, form follows function, and
some big servo to give me my familiar needle would be out of place. Note
that the speedo appears capable of reading in excess of 100. Though I suspect
the car may be capable of this speed, I should point out that just to the
right of the "trip" button there's a "mile/km" button, which renders the
third digit much more relevant.
What's really problematic about the dash is the distraction all this interesting information provides. I'm constantly monitoring the instantaneous mileage so I know how kind I'm being; then I check the average mileage to see how well I'm doing on this tank; then I check to see how much my gentleness has pulled up the lifetime average; and I spend a bit more time concerned about my speed since I don't want to suggest to other drivers that my little car won't do 85, and knowing that too much hot-dogging costs me in my effort to stay above 60 mpg.