Hybrid Battery

I have a Honda Insight.  A first generation Insight.  It's a small 2 seater and is 13 years old now.  It is a wonderful car for me. I get 80 mpg on the highway if I drive 55mph, and about 65 in town.  This, of course, is without air conditioning.  AC costs about 9 mpg.  My battery started going downhill about 4 years ago.  With help from the Insight community and installing a battery grid charger, I have been able to maintain it reasonably well.  A couple months ago, I ordered a new battery from Hybrid Battery Repair and paid a $1000 deposit. At that time, they were the only company who built new battery packs from you old case. Less than 2 weeks later they said they couldn't get batteries anymore and were closing.  No notification, no money returned, nothing.  In my research, I discovered that they had scammed over $60,000 from people like me, and even collected deposits on the day they cut off their phone and website.
It appears they were spending money faster than it was coming in and quit paying the battery manufacturer which was why they couldn't get batteries anymore.
I wish I had paid with a credit card instead of using my debit card as I had recently deposited my tax refund.
My bank says they can't get it back, but are trying to back charge their account.
Ron and Diane Hansen of Staten Island New York are the crooks that stole my money.  IC3, the FBI Internet fruad division, has been notified, but since HBR was a corporation, they can't do a whole lot.  I thought the Insight community would rally together and we could do something as a group, but nobody wants to throw money away on a lawyer who probably can't do much either.
So, my $2,000 battery is now up to $3,000 as a reputable company from Denver is now making the battery packs from the same source as HBR did.
At least I will be able to drive my car another 200,000 miles or so.

No one will believe this, but I still have the original brake discs, and pads with 224,000 miles on my car! Regenerative braking and a lot of coasting between lights has been aggravating to people behind me or my passenger on occasion, but I and my brakes like it.

December 25th 2011

That was the day my mother died. I was not as upset as I was when my dad died, as his was unexpected. Mom lasted several years longer than I thought she would. I still feel guilty for not spending more time with her or talking on the phone, but she was in California, and I ame here in South Carolina. I did see her and talk to her before she went to the nursing home, but the last 8 months or so, she didn't know who I was.
I still feel guilty, however.