1st Apr 2013, 18:35
I love my Insight. Getting close to 50 MPG average since I have owned it. Don't know why it's rated at 41/42 MPG. It's a cheap, no nonsense, decent, commuter, everyday family car - like others have said here. Granted, yes it's kind of slow, but it's still decent on the HWY and good for city driving. I am hoping to do a consistent 53-55 MPG this summer with the careful, economical, pulse and glide driving that I have observed with Prius drivers.
I can say it's better looking than the Prius, and certainly affordable. Wanted to get that car, but dealers everywhere were asking for above or close to MSRP. Then, decided to drive the Insight, and I was sold. The dealer took off almost $3000 off of the MSRP, and got me a good deal, and I haven't looked back since. The car is a pleasure to drive.
Thanks Honda.
2nd Jun 2013, 11:15
I have now owned an Insight for two years now, and I am afraid that I do not use the vehicle daily, since I commute on a mixture of cycle and public transport. Unfortunately this means that although I drive weekly, unless I happen to travel a distance (i.e. not just going shopping) the very small starter battery cannot always get charged fully. This was fine for most of the first year, until Winter came along, which reduced the charge capacity further, and mid winter I found that I was having to take out a secondary battery unit to jump the car to start it, because over the week the alarm would simply drain too much. Subsequently I believe this likely damaged the capacity of the battery, and over the following year, even during summer, the jump start became much more common. To the degree that I have now replaced the battery.
The Honda manual does suggest that if you are likely to leave the car for over 4 weeks, you should disconnect the battery, but as noted above, I believe that this would only be if you in fact use the vehicle more regularly than for instance me. Ideally there could be a separate battery to start the vehicle different to that used by the alarm, and I do understand from the Honda car dealership that this is in fact normal for all modern cars.
Otherwise the vehicle gives me an easy 50MPG +-3MPG depending on type of journey, and once started is very reliable.
31st Dec 2018, 23:40
Totally true. They are so ubiquitous that I hopped into the wrong silver Prius at a grocery store, and the owner must have been short because it took a few seconds to unwedge myself in panic and realize I was one row over! I drive for mileage and reliability. Anonymity is just fine by me, but in parking lots look inside first to make sure that's YOUR dog waiting for you!
23rd May 2012, 13:48
At this point the Prius has been out for well over 15 years, with the first generation released in Japan in 1997, and the first batch arriving in the US in early 2000. Yet people act like they're still these crazy, mysterious, newfangled machines only driven by hippies and tree huggers.
These and other hybrids are now so common and plentiful, that they're more or less common. People have long moved beyond the initial early adoption and uniqueness aspects of these cars.
In the end they do what they do well: They're excellent no-nonsense economical commuter and everyday family cars. The current Prius is pretty big, and you can also buy a smaller hatchback- the "C" model. The fact that you can buy one of those for around $20k and get close to 50MPG all day any day is pretty decent.
So beating the drum about what a fad hybrids are, or that they're bought as status symbols, is about 10 years outdated.