Somewhere I read that Honda's engineers actually paid special attention to the sound that the doors make when shut, and tuned the little rubber door dampeners to make that noise on the new Civics. Its these little details that make me love Honda.

 

I also had an 04 HCH CVT (now for sale) before my 06 and there is no comparison.

The 06 HCH is like a Camry!
Smooth, solid, quiet, the handling is tight and firm, BMW-like.

No Comparison!
They could raise the price $10,000 and I still think it would be a good deal.

 

Ok wow, lots of replies so going down the list.

As far as sound deadening in the Insight the only real bits of sound deadening I found was a thick slab of it at the base of the firewall that goes down a little way under the floor carpet. I suspect this is more for heat rejection than noise, then there are a few little pieces under the rear carpet, but that's it. The main source of noise is in the doors and the rear "well" makes a nice oscillating harmonic road noise. I went the cheap and easily removeable route by using automotive carpet padding, which was something like $4 a yard at the local supply house. For $20 I was able to line the rear well, do under the front floors and put some inside the door panels. The door panels alone made the single biggest difference. I bought a cheapy Radio Shack sound level meter and I was measuring a 3dB difference, which is half. It was much more tolerable to drive, and I do seem to have super human hearing.

There is a fellow Insight owner here locally, Dennis who I think visits these forums occasionally, but he stays more on Insight Central. He ordered up a bulk pack of dynamat xtreme and did essentially the same areas I did and it made a HUGE difference. He gave me a demo ride out on a nice concrete freeway near me (not the quiet rubberized stuff) and you could carry on a conversation at 70mph without raising your voice, I think we measured something like a 12dB drop! If you really wanted to make it quiet this would be the route to go, however, once that stuff is in it's in forever. I was a bit cautious about going for something permanent in fear of them trying to deny warranty. And I did end up using it because in December I got the IMA light finally and had my pack and control modules changed out, so all I had to do was pull out the carpet padding which took maybe a half hour.

Pricing an Insight. I use the value www.kbb.com gives, and then of course it depends on the condition of the car as well. In my case I know I'm priced a bit high, but I'm giving my Honda Care warranty with the car, it has all service records, I've kept it showroom clean (seriously if I traded it in it would go straight to their front line), it has a custom leather interior, plus all new IMA components. Your results may varry. And yes there are quiet a few people trading in their Insight's for 06 Civics. I always say, it's they're car of the year for a reason.

Really though, you will like the car. I've given many people rides in it and they're impressed at the quality, ride, smoothness etc. My mother, who drives a 07 GMC Yukon Denali (which btw, has much better build quality than the previous ones... for any comparison purposes here) even likes it... a lot, and has stolen it from me on several occasions. Trust me here, it's hard for a car to impress her.

And yes, they did engineer the doors to make that nice clunk of quality sound.

 

I have 8600 miles on my 2006 Civic Hybrid. There is one rattle that only happens occasionally, rarely, and it's coming from within the CD disk drive, which I never use. But again, it doesn't happen often and it may not be a common problem.

Other than that, everything is totally solid.

 

I have had my '06 since early December.

I have about 15,000 km (9300mi) on it.

It is very solid. No squeeks or rattles. Nice and quiet.

Get one you'll be glad you did.

 

I actually LOVE that sound that the door makes. To know that Honda actually DELIBERATELY made it makes me smile =)