Eric Bangerter.com

2010 Honda Insight--the final numbers

2012-02-03T14:39:00.000-06:00

The final numbers are in as I'll be turning in my 2010 Honda Insight today. As you can see from the chart, I averaged 41 MPG over the three years of ownership. I didn't really try very hard to achieve that mileage, but I didn't push the car either and did coast and try to use the regenerative brakes as much as possible.

What you can also see is how much worse the mileage got in the winters. The cold means the batteries don't perform as well and since I'm running the heater more, the engine does not shut off when the car stops. That performance would make me nervous buying a pure electric at this time like the Nissan Leaf.

The Insight is a fine machine, but the near future is plug in electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and the upcoming plug in Prius. I've recently taken delivery of the Volt and will report back more here in the future.

Honda Insight review -- two years of mileage data

2011-03-31T16:18:00.000-05:00

Two years in with my 2010 Honda Insight and the overall average mileage has stayed virtually the same. As you can see by the chart, the highs aren't as high, but the lows aren't quite as low. This means I've maintained the 40+ mpg I got in year one. You can also see the pretty sharp rise in gas prices over the last six months.

You can see the summer months still give the best performance by quite a bit. This can be attributed to needing to run the engine more in the winter to heat the cabin and the fact that the engine doesn't shut off at stops. Also, battery performance is degraded in colder temperatures. If I were buying a Nissan Leaf, I'd want to understand what a Wisconsin winter will do to the overall range as the Leaf has air cooled batteries like the Insight (albeit at a much higher capacity).

Overall, I'm still relatively pleased with the mileage numbers. The car is by no means fun to drive and I wouldn't recommend it for longer highway trips. But, it is an excellent city car and I haven't had a single issue with it.

One more year to go before the lease is up. I'll most likely be moving on to another car. I've driven the Chevrolet Volt and like the package. Since I drive mostly in the city, I'll benefit from being able to drive electric nearly 100% of the time. However, I like the flexibility of being able to drive longer distances and I think the gas generator is nice insurance against the reduced cold weather performance 100% electric cars will likely see in Wisconsin (at least in the short term).

One year of gas with the 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid

2010-03-26T18:40:00.000-05:00

I filled up the tank today to mark one year of ownership of my 2010 Honda Insight hybrid.

As you can see in the chart, I've averaged 40.65 miles per gallon in travelling 5,913 miles (it's a city car, thus the low miles) using 145.46 gallons of gas for a total cost of $372.52 or $0.066 per mile.

What's apparent is that it doesn't perform nearly as well in the winter (Wisconsin winter) as it does in the summer. I'd attribute this to two factors. One, batteries don't perform as well when it is cold, two, I had to run the heat, which meant I didn't get to take advantage of the idle stop functionality much.

Overall, I'm happy with 40 mpg. However, I was really loving the 47+ mpg I got in August.

If you are curious as to my driving habits, I did the entire year in Eco mode, but didn't drive much differently than I normally would. I did try to use hills to coast and never slammed the gas. I won the Eco Challenge game back in February so I guess I'm a master hybrid driver.

Cold weather battery performance is a huge issue for me as I look for my next car to be 100% electric. I know GM just finished a ton of cold weather testing for the Chevy Volt and they were pleased with the results. I hope other electric car makers are taking a similar approach.

When was the last time you laughed at an order confirmation e-mail?

2009-12-31T15:36:00.005-06:00

It is winter in Wisconsin and I was in need of a nice, warm hat. A stylish, classic is the Stormy Kromer. I ordered directly from their site and here's the order confirmation e-mail I received:

Just thought we would let you know that in just a few minutes, your order will be carefully removed from our Stormy Kromer shelves, placed into some sort of container, and sent on its way to you. And if it's cold where you are, then you are correct in feeling pretty darn good about that. If it's warm where you are, keep it to yourself... no point in rubbing it in.

Prior to its departure, a semi-qualified team of almost 50 inspectors (actually, it'll be just one person, but she's really good) will check your order to make sure it passes muster. Our "packing specialist" will then ask for a collective moment of silence, and a reverent calm will fall over the entire factory as we all watch her place your order into some sort of shipping thingamajig.

Of course, all of this excitement will give rise to a big party afterwards, resulting in the whole factory taking the remainder of the day off to walk your package to the local post office, where most of our town will show up and join in to wish it a cheerful Bon Voyage!

Once your order has shipped, the party is over and everyone’s back to work, we’ll be in touch with your tracking number.

I hope you enjoyed shopping with us. As you can tell, we sure do. In fact, we are considering nominating you for Customer of the Year! We'll see.

Really clever and something not all companies can pull off. Hopefully, I can pull of the hat in a similar fashion.

Hybrids have their privilages

2009-08-26T07:35:00.002-05:00

Trying the new Posterous iPhone app. It lets you post pictures in real time. Unfortunately, it looks like only the first picture gets added to my blog.

Posted via web from Eric's posterous

That's better--2010 Honda Insight mpg update

2009-06-16T19:58:00.008-05:00

Almost three months into ownership of the 2010 Honda Insight, my last fill-up finally met with my expectations--45+ mpg. Ironically, I acheived this without trying to drive maximizing mpg (however, there were about 100 highway miles on this tank).

I had been averaging around 41 mpg on my first three tanks of gas and was somewhat disappointed. One, because the trip computer was reporting over 47 mpg, but doing the actual calculation, it was significantly lower than that. The other reason was I was driving in ECON mode and trying to keep the speedometer indicator in the green (which isn't the most fun driving I've ever done).

This time around, I did keep the car in ECON mode, but drove it with more aggressive accelleration than I had been. Maybe I was getting the benefits of the hypermiling technique of "pulse and glide."

In any case, I hope 45 mpg is the worst mileage I get for the rest of the summer. When the weather cools off, I'm expecting the battery performance, and therefore mpg, to suffer a bit.

So far, so good. The car has all the tech comforts I wanted (GPS, iPod integration, Bluetooth), but I gave up RWD, manual transmission performance to get higher mpg. 45 mpg makes me feel better about the decision.

One note on mpg--it really isn't the best way to measure the fuel efficiency of a vehicle (in an easy to compare way anyhow). Gallons per mile, or gallons per 100 miles makes the math much easier to do in your head when comparing vehicles. See the MPG Illusion for more information.

I'm using 2.38 gallons per 100 miles so far. To put that in comparison, my old car (a 2002 Lexus IS300) was using about 6 gallons to go the same distance. A 2.38 gpm means I can commute to work all week and back using just over 2 gallons of gas. That sounds good to me.

Calculate your own GPM

One year's worth of Twitter

2009-05-20T00:00:00.002-05:00

I joined Twitter one year ago today. Here's a word cloud of my first year of tweets:

Earth Day pledge

2009-04-22T11:57:00.005-05:00

I posted a comment over at good.is regarding an Earth Day pledge. I thought I'd also post it here:

I have invested in CFL light bulbs, paid extra for my electricity to be from 100% renewable sources, stopped buying water (and most other beverage types) in plastic bottles, and went from driving a car that gets 18 mpg to one that gets 50 mpg.

I’d like to do more, and will over time. I like the idea of eating more locally and will try to do that more. I’d like to better understand the implications of what we eat and where it comes from on our environment.

First fill-up 2010 Honda Insight

2009-04-18T18:39:00.002-05:00

Well, 41 mpg is very good, but I know better mpg numbers are coming. The colder weather kept the mileage down for the first tank. I've been getting over 50 mpg more recently as it has warmed this week.

More to come including some videos when I get a new camera.

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

The photos of my Honda Insight

2009-04-08T20:13:00.002-05:00

Fresh from a detailing (thanks Zimbrick Honda)--photos of my 2010 Honda Insight.

So far, I'm liking it a lot. I'll post a review and more info after my first tank of gas (it could be a while).

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

Cool Honda Insight ad

2009-03-30T15:45:00.002-05:00

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Going green with lawn work--the Epic Electric lawn mower

2009-03-19T18:15:00.006-05:00

So my current mower is 10 years old this year and I could really use a new one. I was thinking of getting a prosumer type mower with a larger mowing deck. This would give my lawn a more professional look. However, most of them out there are at least $1,000 and I wasn't looking to spend that much.

After a bit of searching online, I started to notice some electric mowers. Many of them are under-powered, with small mowing decks (they are made for very small urban lawns). That would not due for me. Then I started to find newer ones that had larger decks and more power. One that caught my attention was the Epic 21-Inch Cordless Rear Wheel Drive Self Propelled Lawn Mower available on Amazon. It features a brushless electric motor that is supposed to be much more efficient and powerful compared to older electric motors that use brushes. I liked the idea of this mower so I ordered one from Amazon. It arrived yesterday and I had a chance to fire it up.

Because I have a larger lawn, I also went ahead and ordered a second battery set so I wouldn't run out of power before finishing (they say it can go about an hour on a charge which is typically how long it takes me to mow).

I like the idea of not having to handle gas and oil any more. It is also very low maintenance as there isn't an air filter, spark pug or oil to change. Not to mention it is zero emissions and very energy efficient overall. And, it starts with a simple push of a button.

Why I ordered a 2010 Honda Insight

2009-03-16T15:36:00.002-05:00

I don't like to waste things, and right now I'm wasting a lot of gas. I can easily use half the gas with an Insight.

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

Amazing images from AP for 2008

2008-12-23T14:28:00.001-06:00

From the AP's best pictures of 2008. This one is particularly amazing to me.

"In this Sept. 15, 2008, file photo, fish remain stuck in a fence as flood waters recede caused by Hurricane Ike in West Orange, Texas."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-bestofapphotos2008-pg,0,7539328.photogallery

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

Giving Chinese Democracy a real try

2008-12-01T22:39:00.001-06:00

So, I'm listening to Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses' new album and in some ways I sort of dig it. However, when the song Street of Dreams comes on, it almost makes me laugh. The opening singing by Axl is pretty awful.

This is also my first time trying out Posterous (http://posterous.com/), we'll see how that goes.

Street Of Dreams by Guns N' Roses (6723 KB)
Listen on posterous

Posted by email from Eric's posterous

Can Rahm Emanuel fly?

2008-11-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

Barack Obama's newly named White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel bears a striking resemblance to a certain flying congressman on NBC's Heroes. Adrian Pasdar plays the flying politician, Nathan Petrelli and looks just like him (to me at least).

Emanuel left, Pasdar right

Wisconsin election results by county

2008-11-04T12:56:00.004-06:00

Hulu video player let's you watch just the funny parts of SNL

2008-10-20T07:02:00.002-05:00

Hulu is NBC's video player service. It launched about a year and a half ago. I believe I remember reading that it didn't work too well back then.

Now, it works great. It is the best way for someone like me, who doesn't make an effort to watch Saturday Night Live, keep up with the latest political comedy they've been doing so well this season (mainly due to Tina Fey). It is the easiest (and legal) way to watch Sarah Palin be made fun of straight to her face:

Watching the most popular clips helps me keep up with popular culture without having to dedicate as much time. Full episodes of shows are available too, in case your DVR missed them.

Investing in the stock market is fun

2008-10-08T15:31:00.006-05:00

I began investing in individual stocks in October 2005. By October 2007, I had doubled my money and felt pretty good about the choices I'd made. Now, less that one year later, I'm right back where I started in 2005.

I do own more total shares of stocks than I did then (due to selling shares at a profit and buying into other companies).

I am in for the long haul, so I'm not overly concerned yet. However, it would be nice to be at the end of this soon. I'm not in a position to buy at this time, but if you are, there are some real deals out there in some very good companies.

Rock Band 2 first impressions

2008-09-16T23:36:00.007-05:00

I was able to play Rock Band 2 for a solid three hours tonight and here are my first impressions:

Importing songs from RB1 and downloaded content is very nice. I doubt I'll ever put the RB1 disk back in again. However, it cost 400 Microsoft points to buy a "license" to download the songs to the hard drive. I had not read this anywhere and thought this could have been included in the cost of RB2. It takes 10-15 minutes to download all the songs off the RB1 disk.
I only played guitar so far. Overall, it seemed easier (a little more forgiving) than RB1. However, it could be from starting at the beginning (on hard) and, therefore, playing easier songs.
Being able to do the World Tour alone is very nice. While my wife enjoys playing with me, she isn't able to put in the hours to complete the game. I look forward to being able to on my own. It will also be nice to be able to switch instruments during a longer session but stay in the same band when we are playing together.
The battle of the bands is cool. Through Xbox Live you can take on other bands to post high scores.
It looks like you can download an additional 20 songs for free, but they won't be available for a few days. I'd guess they aren't from very well known bands.

Overall, it is more of the same. It looks like they fixed many of the small annoyances and added better online support. The song list is strong and I'm sure there will be a ton of downloadable content coming every week. I need to do some drumming next time I play. I want to check out the new Drum Trainer feature to see if it will help me get any better.

Further signs Chrome isn't just a brower, but a platform

2008-09-02T10:57:00.004-05:00

While the included screenshot from Google Chrome is blurry, you can make out that there is a "task manager" built in to the browser. This is another sign that Chrome isn't just a Web browser, but is poised to become a platform (OS even?) for Web-based applications.

I can't wait to kill a tab that isn't behaving properly.

Official post: Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Download Firefox 3 in June

2008-05-28T17:10:00.000-05:00

I'm really looking forward to Firefox 3. Firefox is already a great Web browser, but version 3 promises to improve performance with faster page loading speed, memory usage and innovative user interface techniques (like smart prefilling when typing a URL).

They are trying to set a record by creating a download day when the public version is released. Do your part to get Firefox 3 in as many hands as possible.

So I start using Twitter yesterday and it's always down

2008-05-21T17:10:00.004-05:00

I like this blogging and social networking thing. However, I really don't have the time or energy to keep it up. So I link to a lot of things that automatically update themselves like my Last.fm account, my recently viewed Netflix movies, etc. Many times I have something quick to make a record of and after hearing the guys on Twit and Diggnation go on and on about Twitter I finally decided to give it a try yesterday.

I managed to create my user name (ericbangerter) and customize the page and do a few Tweets yesterday before the site went down. I had something to post today and can't because it is down again. Pretty unbelievable that a company that gets so much press doesn't have its act together. What really surprises me is that the folks talking it up have never mentioned its unreliability.

At least they are posting some updates about it: Twitter Blog: Not True

Who says you never win anything

2007-07-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

This week, I won a complete Coleman camping set. A rather inconspicuous letter came in the mail saying I won a prize (in fact I almost tore up the envelope without even opening it thinking it was junk mail).

At first, I was immediately skeptical that it was some kind of scam. Then, after reading it more I realized the company who sent the letter represented TDS Telecom (my phone company). I vaguely remembered entering their rewards program and the associated contest.

In any case, I had my choice of a few prizes, many of which I already had. Candace really wanted the rolling cooler so she convinced me to get the camping set. Along with the cooler, I got a huge three room tent, a camping stove and four high quality sleeping bags--all from Coleman. Looks like now we'll have to go camping! Thanks TDS.

Music site Last.fm bought by CBS

2007-06-18T23:34:00.001-05:00

Social music site Last.fm has been bought by US media giant CBS Corporation for $280m (£140m), the largest-ever UK Web 2.0 acquisition

read more | digg story

After reading this story a few weeks ago, I started using last.fm. You can see my weekly music tastes on the right side of the page.

I really liked the idea of being able to have a way to see how my listening habits compare to others. And, now that all the music I listen to is via my iPod or iTunes, that is possible. What sealed the deal for me was that with the CBS acquisition, the site should be around for a while (nothing like investing time in a site only to have it fail).

I'm not really into the "social" aspects of the site, but I really like seeing what other people who have similar tastes (called neighbors by last.fm) are listening to.

The key to making it work for me was not using their standard software, but instead iSproggler so my iPod tracks are uploaded along with my iTunes listening history. It can be a bit tricky to get going. They key to having your iPod tracks upload is to always sync your iPod before listening to something in iTunes. iSproggler compares the last updated date with the current date. If you listen to a track in iTunes, the date is updated and the older iPod tracks are disregarded. The discussion group on last.fm has some other help and tips if you get stuck.

Now, I just wish they had this kind of thing 20 years ago so my lifetime of music listening would be accurately represented.