HONDA INSIGHT | Small, Light, Simple, and Inexpensive

HONDA INSIGHT (Part 2)

Small, Light, Simple, and Affordable

Before the original hybrid car, Toyota Prius, Honda introduced the Insight. With a reasonable price of 1.89 million yen, it has recorded strong sales. Does this car truly offer value beyond its price? Can it be a bridge to the future? Esteemed automotive journalist Satoshi Watanabe investigates its true worth.

Text by Satoshi WatanabePhotos by Kenta Yoshizawa

A Car Without Any Dissatisfaction

As a car for four to five passengers, the Insight is compact in size and light in weight. From this perspective, one could argue it belongs to a different class than the new Prius. While the interior design might be a matter of taste, its functionality is deliberately kept simple. However, most essential features are standard, and the optional extras are well-chosen. Small, light, simple, and affordable. Its uncompromised purity, aimed at leveraging the added value of hybrid technology, is commendable.

If there's any drawback to its compactness, it might be rear-seat comfort. While the fore-aft distance is adequate, the headroom, in particular, is somewhat tight for larger adults. Considering it's sold in Japan, the US, and Europe, this seems strict... but Honda explained that this was a compromise at the very limit, balanced against fuel efficiency gains from improved aerodynamics and enhanced driving performance from a lower center of gravity. Regardless, it shows how meticulously it was designed.

Test driven in daytime city conditions, a situation unfavorable for fuel economy, with some traffic jams on both regular roads and the expressway. The Insight is a car that causes no dissatisfaction whatsoever. Its rolling resistance is close to that of the Fit, giving it a slightly lighter feel in ride comfort, but its steering feel and quietness are a notch above that class. Stability at high speeds is not an issue, and the power is more than adequate. Overall, it can be said to offer driving performance comparable to the 1.3-liter Fit.

City Driving Yields 17 km/L

Incidentally, the Insight is equipped with various gimmicks to assist fuel-efficient driving, allowing even ordinary drivers to fully benefit from hybrid technology. The area around the speedometer uses indirect lighting with three colored LEDs to intuitively indicate driving conditions, encouraging fuel-efficient driving through color changes. Daily driving patterns are evaluated with a 10-level leaf-shaped icon, providing a goal of improvement for the driver. These features, which make fuel-efficient driving enjoyable like a game, are likely inspired by the Prius.

Driving for about an hour in daytime city conditions, with minimal attention to fuel economy and adapting to surrounding traffic, the Insight achieved a fuel economy of just over 17 km/L. This is certainly better than compact cars with similar displacement. However, under the same conditions and driving style, the current Prius would likely achieve slightly better figures. The Prius, with its wider electric-assist range, excels most in fuel reduction in such situations. On the other hand, at highway speeds, the motor's assistance is less effective, and its complex system becomes a burden, hindering fuel economy. For this reason, the new Prius aimed to improve highway fuel efficiency by increasing the engine displacement to 1.8 liters and boosting low-end torque.

The Prius and the Insight. Although their appearances are similar, their underlying philosophies differ. If these two cars together were to achieve a monthly sales target of 10,000 units, it would mean competing with top-selling minicars and compact cars. Their significance is immense. While opinions on the current, perhaps somewhat hysterical, environmental consciousness may vary, the energy consumed for the luxury of personal mobility should indeed be minimized.