2009 Insight

[Erdrick]

Just passed a truck hauling a bunch of new Insights this morning when I was driving through the southwest part of Aichi Japan. I also noticed that all of the Honda dealers that I passed had one or two on display. I am going to have to drop by and take a closer look at one.

The specs are up on the Honda Japan website.

The base unit (G) is rated at 30km/l on the 10-15 scale and 26km/l on the JC08.
That converts to about 70.5mpg and 61mpg US.

As a reference point, the third generation base unit (S) Prius got rated 35.5km/l on the 10-15 scale and 29.6km/l on the JC08.
That converts to 83.5mpg and 69.6mpg US.

Of course, the Insight costs about $4000-$5000 less than the Prius at current exchange rates. Let the battle begin!

I personally think, with gas prices being where they are, and the world economy being in the shape that it is currently in, that the Insight could very well take a decent size of the hybrid-specific market away from the Prius. Either way, the end user wins.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

What I saw was that US it's only rated to 43mpg when the Civic hybrid is 45... that made me wonder why they're bothering.

[aalb1]

^^Yea... there may be different ways of testing MPG between the US and Japan. I know that Canadian numbers are usually higher than US numbers.

But that is really disappointing if the insight will be getting less than the Civic Hybrid. I couldn't believe it for a second but I just checked honda.com

City/Highway/Combined
Insight - 40 / 43 / 41
Civic 40 / 45 / 42
Prius - 48/45/46 <-----how does the prius get better city mileage?

WTF?!?!?

[theholycow]

The Insight may be designed to produce real-world results without having put much effort into testing well.

The Prius probably gets better city than highway mileage because it can regen well.

[trollbait]

The Insight2 has a higher gear ratio than the Civic to make up for having less power. The Civic is also in the Prius price range with less usable cargo space.

The Prius is a parallel/series hybrid and can propel itself under electric power alone. Particlarly at lower speeds, which is why it gets better city milage. Honda's IMA is an assist hybrid. While the current generation can EV the car, it isn't to the extent of Toyota's system. So Hondas end up with the usual city to highway spread.

Wayne Gerdes has a pretty indepth review over cleanmpg.com.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

aalb1,

in canada, they use imperial gallons where as we use US gallons. (I think it is 5 quarts vs 4 quarts)

also, in other parts of the world, they don't have to adhere to EPA regulations or have all the safety equipment that we do. that may also make up for the difference.

they may not have a standardized way of measuring MPG like we do in the states either. they may just be posting the highest possible numbers they can get. that is just a guess there thoug.

[aalb1]

^^ just as I thought... so it sounds as the US has the most unbiased way of testing.... no?

[GasSavers_BEEF]

the way I look at it, it's just a standard. if you compare anything to a known standard, it should be unbiased....I think.

I know I always kill the EPA numbers as most of us on here do. I can usually do the highway mileage as my average and usually beat that by several miles to the gallon during the hot summer months.

[R.I.D.E.]

I read an article in Road and Track (I think). Thye averaged 46 MPG in the new Insight. I am averaging 58.2 in my old Insight. Not a fair comparison, but my old Insight costs a lot less and has only 38 k miles. I have seen 71.2. All of my mileage is since December, when I bought the car and its been cold here, probably averaging about 36 degrees.

regards
gary

[trollbait]

Other countries do have fuel economy testing, but they use different methods which leads to different results. I've heard Japan's testing is more optimistic than US. The OP states 83.5mpg and 69.6mpg under Japan's method for the Prius3. Toyota's US press releases are claiming 50mpg combined.

R.I.D.E., is your Insight a MT? The reason Honda no longer offers a MT on their hybrids is because drivers in early ones were able to over draining the battery. This lead to early battery death.