Insight

March 2006: Not much has been happening with the Insight for the past few years. New Insights now use the same windshield wiper blades as the Civic and cruise control is finally available, but the Insight's reason for being, high gas mileage, has not advanced since the car was designed in 1999. Indeed, many owners have seen their gas mileage actual... ly degraded by Honda's updates to the Insight's engine control module. The rest of the automobile industry has failed to come up with a serious challenger for the Insight--many Insight owners living in warm climates with flat terrains have managed to keep their lifetime averages above 70 mpg. So year after year, the Insight maintains its top spot in the mileage charts, eliminating any reason for Honda to make any changes to it's lowest-production automobile. So the advances in gas/electric hybrid technology that Honda has developed for the Civic and Accord hybrids has not been extended to the Insight. Toyota is probably the only company with the technology necessary to develop a competitor for the Insight, but they're content to have far and away the best selling hybrid with the Prius. Even though Prius owners are often disappointed when they realize it's impossible to match the EPA's mileage figures for their car, they're happy to be doing their part to reduce the damage they're causing to the environment. The Insight's death knell may have been sounded by the arrival of a Honda Fit hybrid. The Fit has been sold in Japan and Europe as the Jazz since 2001 and, as the Civic has grown with each new version, Honda decided to bring the Fit to the US to take the Civic's place as its entry-level offering. But with an EPA rating of 33 city/38 highway miles per gallon, the Fit falls short of the larger Civic's 38/40 EPA estimates. What's up with that? The obvious fix is to add Honda's IMA hybrid technology to the Fit. CNet's news.com reported that the Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai claims that Honda is developing a smaller motor and battery to reduce cost and weight. ...Read More