I took the car in to the dealer when the emissions light came on and I realized there was no oil on the engine. I brought it to the dealer and they acted like they had never heard of the issue and they said the valve cover gasket was leaking so they replaced it. About a month later it happened again light came on and the oil was low. I brought the car back in and they started an oil consumption test. I brought the car in after a 1,000 miles and it was 2 quarts low. Drove another 1,000 miles and the oil was almost 2 quarts low.

Then I didn't hear from them for about three weeks I called left messages and no one called me back. Finally I got an appointment to bring it in and there were no loaner cars available so they told me to come back next week. I left the dealer and drove out onto the highway and all of the sudden all my dash lights came on and the engine light was flashing. I pulled over shut the car off and turned it back on to try and get back to the dealership but when I pressed the gas the car didn't have any power. I got the car towed to the dealer (now I'm 2 hrs late for work) and they amazingly found a loaner for me.

The car was there for 4 days and finally They called me they told me that they need to replace the pistons and the rings but its not covered under my warranty. They then said they will replace it at no cost in good faith. Good faith my ass! the car needs new rings and pistons at 70,000 miles!!! I'm not happy at all!! As these 2012 insights get older this issue is going to surface and hopefully end in a recall.

This 2012 Honda Insight was my very first new car and I am 51 years old. I have loved this car and have had not one problem until Dec 2014 at 48.000 miles the check emissions light came on. My husband checked the oil and it had no oil in it. I had noticed it was hesitating and missing a little for just maybe a month. I have had the oil changed an a regular basis. This care was getting 48 to 50 mpg. Now it gets 35 mpg. We took it to the dealer and they said they were not aware of this problem. I printed off the complaints I have found on the internet and gave the dealer. They told me to bring it in every 1000 miles and they would check the oil. I hope that Honda will make this right. I really love this car and researched the insights before I bought this car. I have found that there is no other complaints other than the 2012 model. Anyone with the same problem should contact Honda so maybe there will be a recall on this problem. Any other suggestions?

I don't normally do this, but I'm fed up.

I'm a hard working single mother putting myself through school and was finally able to buy my first new car. Well after hearing good things about Hondas, I decided to get one. Not just anyone but the 2012 Honda insight. It was great on gas and roomy for a little car, everything I wanted.

I started to notice that I was putting more oil into the car than normal. Didn't think much of it till I started to notice blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. I talked to a few people and they said you need to bring it in. Last Friday I put in one quart of oil, then had to put another 2 quarts that Monday. Wednesday, after getting off of work at 11pm, all these lights started to go off on the dash. It took me so long to baby it home.

The next day I took it to Honda of Middletown, they told me the car had no oil! Four plus hours after being toyed around with what's going on with my car. They give me a loaner. Finally they get back to me and tell me I need a new engine and they need to tear apart the engine for Honda care ( holder of my warranty) to inspect it. They would decide if it was under warranty. Mind you my warranty is 100,000 miles or 5 years. My car is just over 2 years old with 61,000 miles on it. Still under warranty right? I thought so.

Now they inspect the car and tell me that the piston rings are carboned up and it's on me. Well how did the carbon get in there? What's the blue smoke? Why so much oil? Could the oil going through the engine and out my exhaust cause more carbon to build up or at least cause it to build up faster? Honda of Middletown and Honda care have had me calling each other back and forth. Honda care has made it sound like Honda of Middletown isn't willing to help in my case. Honda care called the tech line when it should have been the dealer service manager to make that call. What the heck is going on? Any opinions? Any solutions?

At about 55,000 the engine light came on for the first time. Oil was low. Honda topped it off and within 3,000 miles the light came on again. Honda said that I wasn't burning enough to qualify for a fix under my 60,000 warranty. I came back a total of 4 times with the same problem before they acknowledged it and finally agreed to do something about it. They replaced the lower engine, under warranty. Said it was a $4500 fix. If they hadn't agreed to fix it, I probably would have sold the car. Once they agreed to fix it, my Honda tech rep started telling me that it was likely this would end in a recall. He is hearing more and more cases of excessive oil consumption in Insights. My advice? Tell Honda that you know that it's a known issue. Honda knows, but isn't very willing to disclose it.

AT 84K I found the oil was more than 2 quarts low! I had changed the oil less than 3000 miles before!

At present I have 143K and am using a quart of oil every 983.11miles! At about 123K I replaced the plugs, PVC valve and the valve stem seals! This had no effect on the oil use. All four cylinders are burning oil! I saw no scoring of the cylinder walls. I am not sure where to go from here! The plugs are already fouled again! My millage has dropped from 46-49 mpg to 38-42!

I have a 2000 Honda Insight 330K and it still does not burn oil!

What have they done to these engines?

Under normal driving conditions the car generated a check emissions code . The code turned out to be a result of low oil . This was the first time I noticed the car burning any oil . Did lots of routine maintenance on the car including valve gap adjustment, pcv valve replacement and spark plug change . The car now has 126,000 miles on it and is still burning through a quart every 2000 miles . Still getting 45-50 mpg but oil is expensive these days too . Very disappointing for a Honda and I have owned my share of them .

I purchased the Insight to commute to work – a little less than 100 miles a day. So in two and a half years, I've driven 70,000 miles. At about 65,000 or so, it started using a lot of oil. Fortunately, I’m able to drive to work without using highways and to this day I still get 50+ miles per gallon. We are a Honda family (over the years owning two Civics, an Accord, Odyssey van, a CRV and the Insight) and this Insight the only vehicle that has had any major issue. Fingers crossed that Honda will make things right. :-)

Owned 10 Hondas over the past 25 years, 8 used and 2 new. We still have a 1994 Honda Civic with 600,000+ miles, uses no significant oil between changes. Purchased new by my daughter in 1994, survived 2 teenage daughters, 120+ mile round trip commuter drives daily for years. Car still gets 36 MPG and has seen 43 MPG.

To be told it's normal for any engine, especially a Honda that it's normal for an engine to use a quart of oil every 1000 miles is ludicrous and totally unacceptable.

Purchased this Insight because of past loyalty to Honda and the wife needed reliable transportation to commute to work.. Appears it may be the last one we will likely purchase. She may have to start driving the 94 Civic again....

Update from Apr 8, 2016: The wife was left stranded twice. The first time she had the car towed to the dealership and they started the car and pulled it off the flatbed wreaker. I had to plead with the service rep to check the car out because he was convinced the car was fine. After $175 of diagnostics, the conclusion was that it had some fouled spark plugs. I asked how much to replace the plugs and was told $750. I only let them to start the oil consumption test and stated I would replace the spark plugs myself. When I removed the sparkplugs about half of them were detonated. I took pictures and sent them to the dealer ship and called a Honda Rep. The car went through another set of spark plugs before it left her stranded the second time and this before the oil consumption test was complete at 1K miles.

After talking to a Honda Rep about this issue the wife simply refused to allow Honda to do anything further.

We had the Honda (Don't) Care warranty and we were told that they would investigate the problem and determine what our portion of the bill would be once they determined what was covered under warranty. I was told by the Honda Rep at the time that an engine rebuild was considered an improvement not a repair.

We paid the car off, canceled the Honda (Don't) Care warranty which we only received about $500 of the $2500 back on because the warranty begins with mile 1, not 40K+ to 100K miles. I purchased a used engine with 30K miles on it and replaced it myself. The original engine had 70K miles on it.

I still think that if you get a good Honda you will love it. But if anything goes wrong, Honda will only make you jump through hoops, make excuses and soak your pocket book.

I have a 2005 Civic NGV with over 200K miles that uses no oil between changes. My 2012 Insight with 33,000 miles is already showing excessive oil consumption. Something is radically wrong. The windshield was incorrectly installed at time of construction. I fought them for several months before it was finally replaced under warranty. Then a bulletin came out on the subject, because it was not only my car having the same problem. I subsequently talked my son and daughter into buying two new 2014 Hyundai Sonata Hybrids, where as they might have followed my footsteps into Insights of their own.

Honda, Nissan and Toyota stole the U.S. auto industry, Now they are heading in the same direction, ironically to the Koreans. That is a huge cultural situation, besides car marketing problem.