10/6/16

In November 2013 I bought a brand new Honda Insight with an extended warranty. I’m a working musician and I wanted a car that got good gas mileage or wouldn't need any major repairs for the foreseeable future, and wouldn’t leave me stranded on the road somewhere. I traded my 10-year-old paid for minivan for a car payment, good gas mileage and reliability. I had done research, Honda was a well-regarded company and the Insight offered nearly as good gas mileage as Toyota’s Prius for less money. I took the bass player and his upright bass to the dealer to make sure it would fit. The car was intended for touring and gigs. There was from the start some engine lugging. I was told that it was the electric motor and the gas engine transitioning back and forth. There are a number of things about a hybrid car that are quite different, such as the gas engine stopping at a red light, that take some getting used to. That same lugging is much more pronounced now.

I took the car to the dealer for regular maintenance, including oil changes during the coverage period of the warranty.

After the warranty stopped covering the basic maintenance (Odometer 36,230) I began taking the car to Meineke. It was then I learned that the car was using a lot of oil. Until that point I had no idea the car war using much more oil than any car I had ever owned, including one from 1955 when it was 25 years old. (Odometer 44,324)

At this time, I began keeping a quart of oil in the car and topping it off whenever it got low. I spoke with Swope Honda in Louisville, the dealer I purchased the car from, and was told that 1 quart every 1000 miles was considered normal by Honda. This figure is to me unbelievable, as I have never had a car in my life that would use that much oil. I couldn’t find a leak, so the only other conclusion was it was burning the oil. Swope said I would need to do an oil consumption test, which meant I had to pay them for an oil change and then take to a Honda dealer every 1000 miles to have the oil level measured. This was the only way to determine if the Honda would fix the problem. So I agreed. (Odometer 53,980) The first leg was a road trip from Louisville to Providence, I took the car to Herb Chambers and they measured the oil consumption. It was very low, approximately ¼ quart. (Odometer55,068) I was instructed not to add any oil during the test. Due to work schedule and travel I was not able to get to another dealership until more than 1000 miles of mixed city and highway driving had passed. I took the car to Majestic Honda in Lincoln RI, they told me the test was now void and I would need to buy another oil change and start over. They also informed me the car was nearly out of oil. I had not budgeted for an oil change at dealership prices and dared not drive the car until it had oil, so I purchased 3 quarts of oil and poured it in myself, the car required nearly all of it. As I depend on the car for my livelihood, it was not possible to stop driving it. I began to check the oil as much as twice a week, adding more when needed.

It was during this time that I first noticed puffs of white smoke in conjunction with the now worsening engine lugging. After noticing this behavior on the highway I checked the oil at the first available opportunity and found it to be low. I believe there is a correlation between the lugging that I’ve experienced from the moment I purchased the car and the oil consumption problem.

On September 16 I had Swope Honda in Louisville initiate another oil consumption test. I again drove to Providence and took the car to Herb Chambers. The result was ½ quart. I explained my previous experience and was told to check the oil and call if it went below the bottom mark. I noticed the oil level dropping after 500 miles, and after 750 it had dropped just below the lower marking on the dip stick. I took the car back to Herb Chambers where they found it had used 1 ¼ quarts.

Honda has offered to pay 80% of the repair. This is potentially a $1000 out of pocket expense for me that I do not have.

I believe the car had a preexisting problem and I was unaware of precisely because I took it to the dealer for regular maintenance and was not advised about the amount of oil the car was consuming. I tried to work with Honda before the drivetrain warranty expired but was unsuccessful due to the consumption test being declared void by an unwilling dealer. I don’t understand what I could have done differently and therefore can’t understand why I should pay for any of the repair.

I bought this Honda Insight in October 2013. I had not noticed any problem with this car until few months ago. I used to take the car to Honda dealer only for servicing. A few months ago, I noticed the oil consumption is too high ago. I took it to the dealership, explained them the problem and asked them to take a look at. They actually changed the oil and said everything else is fine with the car. So, I kept driving this car thinking everything is fine with car, which didn't end very well, as last month as I was going down the highway, my car came to stall suddenly. So, I got the car towed to the nearest dealership. I have been charged about 2,000 dollars already to find out what's wrong with the car exactly. Only thing they can tell me the car has over oil consumption issue for now, but not what caused it.

Since its above the 3 years/36,000 miles cap for warranty, my car won't be covered by warranty technically according to them. While driving this car around, I had been approached by many people who used to own Insight asking me how is the car driving because all of them had problem with the engine when they used to drive this car. Honda Insight does seem to have technical issue with its engine that is linked with manufacturing. It ended up costing me dearly by buying into the notion that Honda are reliable cars and deciding to purchase a Honda. All I can tell, my experience with Honda is nightmare. I paid about 20,000 dollars for this car and spent more than 2,000 dollars, trying to repair this car. At the present condition, this car has almost zero dollar value. So, I lost over 20,000 dollars by choosing to buy a Honda.

I talked to Honda service about if Honda can help me with the repair, since all Honda Insight seem to have problem associated with manufacturing. Even though this car has a little more mileage than the 36,000 mileage cap for warranty, it would have been nice if Honda had owned up to their mistake and at least share the cost of repairing this car.

Overall, what I can say for now is, I used to believe that Honda are reliable cars, it looks like it is just the opposite, I would not recommend any of my family or friends to get a Honda.

I have a 2013 Honda Insight EX that I bought from the dealership brand new in January of 2013.

In the late summer of 2015 the check engine light came on and stayed on. I tried to have the OBD read by several auto parts stores but none of them could get a reading on their machines because they said it was a hybrid and that I would have to take it to the dealership.

Before I had a chance to take it to the dealership the oil light flashed on an off as was taking a hard right turn. This led me to checking the oil level and there was absolutely no oil showing on the dipstick. I had to add 2 quarts of oil just to get it to register on the very bottom of the stick. Granted, this was not two months after just having had an oil change at the dealership.

I then took it to the dealership to start the oil consumption test. The dealership did a fresh oil change and told me to drive for a thousand miles and bring it back. Unfortunately, due a lot of traveling at the time I was unable to bring the car back in the 1000 mile time frame so I decided to try it again after the holidays when I had more money and did not need to travel as much.

In January of 2016, I started the oil consumption test again and have successfully completed the three thousand mile consumption checks that were required. At the first 1000 miles I was down a quart and the dealership top of the oil. After the second 1000 miles I was down 1.3 quarts. Again the dealership topped of the oil. After the third and final 1000 miles I was down 1.5 quarts.

Incidentally, when I first started noticing the oil consumption in the summer of 2015, the car had roughly 38,000 miles on it. When I started the second oil consumption test it had 56,662 miles then 57,670 miles , then finally 58,780 miles.

I was told by my service representative after the third 1000 miles that he believed that everything was still covered under my 5-Year/60,000-Mile Limited Powertrain Warranty and that I should not have to pay anything to have it repaired. Five days later, he called me to tell me that it was not covered under my warranty and that he discussed it with one of his managers and they were willing to pay for 90% of the work but I would have to pay at least $500 to have the piston rings replaced.

It was also implied by the service tech that it was my fault because I went by when the car told me it was time for an oil change and not by the mileage that was on the sticker that the dealership placed in the corner of my windshield (granted that I never went more than 6000 miles at the most before an oil change and I always took it to the dealership for service).

I feel that first, I should not be having this problem with a car that at the time the oil consumption started was less than 3 years old and had less than 40,000 miles on it, and second, I do not fell that I should have to pay anything to have this problem fixed.

Are there any other 2013 Insight owners out there that have had or are having a similar problem with excessive oil consumption?

EXCESSIVELY BURN ENGINE OIL. DEFECTIVE PISTON RINGS

Car was stalling on Freeway with "CHECK ENGINE" "CHECK BRAKE" " "CHECK HILL START ASSISTANT" "CHECK VSA" light flashing. Towed my car to Honda World Downey. Dealer service rep says repair costs $2,500 for replacing piston rings, and $6,500 if whole engine needs to be replaced.

I researched and found exact same symptoms which was filed for 2012 Honda Insight. Refer to NHTSA ID Number: 10747250. He has described what I'm experiencing word by word. On carcomplaints.com, there are 27 same complaints on 2012 Insight model (4 NHTSA complaints filed).

In 2013, Honda settled class-action law suit with same problem on different models, but 2013 Insight has same defects, excessive oil-burning, faulty piston rings, etc.

I was lucky enough not having accident on Freeway, but sudden stalling may cause crash, injury, and fatality.

THIS IS SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE.

This repair must be made free of charge.