Honda Insight IMA ES 2010 Pictures 
Generation Game
Our kids now have the awful responsibility of carrying the planet on their shoulders and ensuring any fragile pieces don’t get further damaged. But what are their views on the previous generation’s efforts so far?
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Charlotte has never cared which car I collect her in. Her sisters, on the other hand, have become full-blown car snobs. More so since they both passed their driving tests. In all the years I’ve been testing and writing about cars Charlotte has never taken any more interest in the wheels I’m smokin’ around in other than to ask how the on-board TV system works (if applicable).
On this occasion, though, she was very vocal about the Honda Insight. “This car dad”, she said resolutely, the way only eighteen year olds can do, “is rubbish”. Now, considering she has never passed judgement on the Ferraris, Bentley’s, Range Rover’s or any of the other bejewelled automobiles which have graced our driveway, this was quite a statement. She did have a very valid point: it is rubbish.
Yes, yes, it is a hybrid but do we really need to suffer the indignity of such dross to do our bit to save the planet?
As a machine to move people from the proverbial A to B, it is perhaps the most awful car I’ve ever driven. Just writing about it makes me want to go outside and take a sledge hammer to its tinny metal body and pulp it into the next millennium.
From the outside it looks acceptable enough; it’ll never win any design awards yet it won’t make small children gag on their alco-pops either. There is small savour on the inside, either. Except for the dashboard which glows green when you’re driving really economically, blue when you’re ragging the living daylights out of it, the interior is sparse and foreboding. Even in the basic Honda Jazz the cabin is a cosseted and pleasant place to be sat. Sitting in the Insight, though, is akin to parking your bum on a plastic bench in a windswept 1970’s shopping mall.
And then there’s the drive. The CVT gearbox may be mated to the 1.3-litre petrol engine but it never feels as though it is even in the same time zone let alone unionised under the bonnet. You accelerate, the engine whines, and not a lot happens. So you put your foot down a little more, and still nothing happens. Eventually the digital dash displays 28mph, but it’s taken four hours to get there, and a tank full of petrol. And while on the subject of mpg, even trying really, really hard there was no way I could get anything other than mid 30’s miles per gallon.
You see, although it has two motors - one electric, the other petrol – the battery powered engine piggy-backs the petrol one to give it extra power. So, unlike the Toyota Prius which runs solely on the battery at lower speeds, the Insight never runs on just emission-free power. Now, call me old fashioned, but isn’t that the whole point of hybrids?
And there’s not too much to write positively about its ride and handling, except to say that’s rubbish as well. This car is painful in so many ways. The biggest pain is that it has a unique ability to make even the shortest journey seem like a trek over the Himalayas on a lame camel. The suspension has been striped to the barest of essentials to reduce weight – like most of the car really – and running over the smallest of road flotsam will entail a visit to the chiropractor.
If you happen to be weighing-up the difference between the Insight and the Prius with a view to buying one or other, the only reason why I can see why you would chose the Honda over the Toyota is price. The Insight is cheaper by the best part of three grand. And that, dear reader, is its only saving grace. Personally, I’d have a Golf BlueMotion 1.6 TDI which is about the same price, more frugal and emits less CO2 emissions.
Saving the planet as far as Charlotte is concerned doesn’t mean putting more rubbish back in. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!
Honda Insight 1.3 IMA ES / ES-T Technical Spec:
Engine: 1339cc petrol electric engine
Maximum Engine Power: 88@5800
Maximum Motor Power: 14@1500
Maximum Torque: 121@4500Nm
Top Speed: 113
0-62mph: 12.5
Combined Driving Mpg: 61.4
C02 emissions: 105 g/km
CAR MAKE & MODEL
Honda Insight IMA ES 2010 Pictures
CAR REF NUMBER
25734
VIEWS: 43
TOTAL VIEWS: 2,056
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