Honda Insight Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Honda Insight
Prices: £16,325-£20,215 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 6
Emissions: 101g/km
Performance: 0-62mph 12.5s / top speed 113mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 61.4mpg, (extra urban) 67.3mpg, (combined) 64.2mpg
Safety: Front, side and curtain airbags, VSA, ABS, EBD.
Dimensions: length/width/heightmm 4396/1695/1425

SECOND SIGHT

Our Rating: 7.6 / 10

Hybrids need to get more affordable if enough people are going to drive them. Honda’s improved Insight is leading the charge. Steve Walker reports.

It’s an interesting idea that a large part of the problem of harmful vehicle emissions could be solved not by incredible new propulsion technologies but by adjusting the attitudes of us, their drivers. Instead of getting in and launching ourselves from point A to point B in the shortest time possible, what if we could install efficiency as our number one priority on a car journey? Honda’s Insight is a car that tries to encourage just such a paradigm shift. Yes it’s a high-tech hybrid but the way it employs its technology also gives pause for thought.

The car has recently had its suspension tweaked for a more comfortable ride and benefitted from a smarter interior but the essential recipe remains the same. This actually isn’t the first Insight Honda has sold in the UK. There’s a very good chance that you’ll have no recollection whatsoever of the original 1999 Insight which introduced hybrid engine technology to the UK market. It was a quirky economy coupe with back wheels half hidden beneath its bodywork and a claimed 83mpg combined fuel economy. It looked as you’d imagine a car of the future might – weird. Almost nobody bought it.

Despite the lack of commercial success, Honda had set the hybrid ball rolling and its follow up, the 2003 Civic IMA saloon, was more palatable for the public. Not as palatable as the Toyota Prius, however, the car which stole Honda’s thunder with its star-studded celebrity endorsements and got people talking about hybrid cars. With the latest Civic IMA continuing to battle it out with the latest Prius, Honda is positioning the Insight as the affordable hybrid. It’s a move which could easily find favour amongst the large numbers of people who are more interested in saving money than the planet but would be delighted if they can do both.

So can the Insight change the way we drive and if so, how’s it going to do it? The obvious answer is that with just 87bhp, a CVT automatic gearbox and a leisurely 0-60mph sprint of 12.5s, owners can attempt to drive as fast as they like but their efforts are likely to be thwarted. Eventually, drivers should get the aggression out of their systems and settle into the Insight’s way of doing things. The central instrument read out is the key to all this. Drive in a relaxed manner, tickling the throttle underfoot like it were a giant over-ripe strawberry, and the dash glows in a calming green light. Get a bit over enthusiastic and the green hue fades, eventually turning blue if you’re really getting carried away. At this point you can picture the family of polar bears falling through the hole you’ve just made in the ice cap. Maintain a green approach and a little plant symbol illuminates on the Insight’s display as a reward, it’s possible to get up to five of these sprouts lit but you might need to fit a sail to achieve this. At the end of your journey the car will give you an average rating to show how eco-friendly you’ve been on your journey.

The car doesn’t rely completely on sedating its drivers into an on-going battle of environmental one-upmanship against themselves. It also has Honda’s clever IMA petrol/electric drivetrain to fall back on. The engine is a 1.3-litre unit based on the one in the Civic Hybrid and featuring a series of neat innovations. During deceleration, the cylinders are closed off by the VCM (Variable Cylinder Management) system to boost efficiency and numerous modifications have been made to reduce friction inside the engine. The petrol unit might only have 87bhp but it is assisted by a 14bhp electric motor driven by power from a bank of nickel hydride batteries under the boot floor. These are recharged by energy reclaimed from the wheels when braking or coasting.

This Insight is a massively less challenging vehicle to look at than the origin