2001 Honda Insight manual 5 speed, cold A/C, hybrid battery on last legs, sharp!

A clean reliable classic with one of the best mpg ratings of all time. The original EPA estimates included 70 mpg highway for manual transmission equipped cars. I have owned this car for several years and it has proven to be a highly reliable vehicle with only a few issues. as outlined below. The Good:A beautiful. brilliantly designed vehicle with cutting edge features including extremely light weight building techniques including aluminum and magnesium parts to minimize weight. It still draws attention at the (rare) gas stops. where the slippery shape. which still looks futuristic. has people asking about the car. Highly reliable. with cold A/C. a perfect commuter car. and my daily driver. Runs and drives excellent. Just serviced at dealer (2/23/15). extra key made. see photos of report. Nearly new (under 15K miles). original equipment Bridgestone high efficiency. low rolling resistance tires. with built in tire pressure monitoring system. The display is hard wired. For those interested in hypermiling. tire pressures can be a critical factor in performance. but are an important safety factor for everyone. Hardwired GPS power cord and dash mount. Added 2 USB ports to dash. Bluetooth receiver for radio mounted in the glovebox. Overall good appearance. with a few minor exceptions. as below. The Bad:The hybrid battery probably needs replacement. This is an expensive item to have done professionally. This problem manifests itself in the following way. The car runs fine. but after some time. which can be 5 minutes or 5 days. the dash lights will come on for IMA and engine problem. The car continues to run fine on the gas engine. but the electric motor no longer charges or boosts performance. The car can run "forever" like this as far as I can tell. but it gets slightly worse mileage (about 50 mpg rather than 55 mpg). and has slightly less spritely performance. since the electric boost motor doesn't turn on in this situation. When this happens. the error code gets reset if the battery is disconnected (it will not reset with just turning the car off with the key). After removing power for a few seconds. the car again runs perfectly with the IMA funtion working for a time. with charging and boosting from the hybrid battery. To make this "reset" a quick and easy thing to do. I installed a battery cut off switch in the glovebox. There may be other ways to achieve this. for instance with an OBD-II code reader. but this has been working fine for me since I bought the car. It may be possible that battery "reconditioning" or "re-balancing" would resolve this issue. or perhaps replacement of some of the individual battery pods. A google / you tube search implies that this can be done for a few hundred dollars. but I haven't really looked in to it. as my current work-around has been adequate. and again. even if you don't do this "reset". the car runs fine. There are a few minor paint chips and minimal parking lot scratches. as would be expected of a vehicle of this classic vintage. No dents or rust. No accident history or damage that I am aware of. Pictures include close ups of blemishes. The paint on the roof of the car is very faded and sun bleached. which oddly. doesn't appear to be the case on other surfaces of the car. again see pictures. This would be fairly easy to respray. but I have not done so. The windshield has some wiper scratches. but no cracks or chips. I tried to get a good photo of this. but it is hard to see. It is not particularly noticeable when driving in most conditions. but sometimes can be annoying under certain lighting situations. The interior is in very good shape overall. but the driver's seat has a few burns in the seat upholstery. I use seat covers which nicely match the factory upholstery. Again. see photo with seat cover removed to demonstrate the blemishes. Passenger seat. headliner and trim are in good shape. The GPS mount is epoxied to the dash. and doesn't hold the GPS as well as I had hoped. I'll throw in the GPS unit with sale. which works fine. It's a Garmin Nuvi. nothing special. Also mounting TPMS head. which shows tire pressures. required a couple holes in dash to mount. Unit is included with sale. These all look fine as is. but might be a negative if you are planning on preparing the car for a car show. or parting it out (which would be a tragic. but likely lucrative endeavor)The glovebox is hard to close with the wiring behind it. I usually leave it open to "reset" the car with the battery cut off switch when needed. There is hole in the door in the little dashboard cubby to the left of the steering wheel. It looks like a previous owner may have used this as an ashtray. that ended up burning through the plastic here. The power windows work. but can be slow. especially in cold weather. I usually help them along to minimize any strain on the motors. The car has cruise control. but it only works intermittently. At the recent dealer service (again see photo of report) they told me that the oil pan drain plug was nearly stripped and the oil pan needs to be replaced at some point. I think the original oil pan is made of magnesium (or solid platinum). and would be $800 to replace. The vehicle does not leak oil. Also at the recent service. they told me that the clutch cylinder and a rear shock / strut were leaking. I have not noticed any problems with these items. and again. I see no sign of leakage of any fluids in the driveway. The clutch and transmission seem to work perfectly and easily in all gears. Overall. this is a very good opportunity to own this classic machine at a great price. The "Buy It Now" price is a very reasonable $3000. The reserve price is very low. but confidential. Inspection of the vehicle (at my house in Sebastian. FL 32958 ) in person or by a surrogate is encouraged. Any questions or inspections that you need to have performed / answered must be completed prior to the end of the auction. Please do not bid on this item if you are not prepared to complete the purchase. A non-refundable deposit of $500 by Paypal is due within 48 hrs of the end of the auction. Full payment is to be received within 7 days of the end of the auction. The vehicle will not be released until full payment is received. Cash (in person). Paypal. cashier's checks or personal checks are acceptable. but all funds must clear prior to release of vehicle. The vehicle has a clean title in my name. The vehicle is sold as-is. where-is. Pick up or shipping arrangements (again. from my house in Sebastian. FL 32958) are the responsibility of the buyer. but I will try to accommodate reasonable requests in this regard. Thanks for reading my post and good luck bidding!