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Honda Insight car review

02/04/09

Price15,490
We like...Price, cleverness
We don't...Noisy and harsh when pushed

New eco-car delivers a petrol-electric hybrid set-up at an everyman price. But is it good enough to make you swap?Do you like those video games where you play a character that dashes around collecting things? You do? You’ll love the Insight. Though, since the game’s all about driving as economically as possible, you won’t be doing much dashing.

The car ‘watches’ how you drive and awards you between one and five green ‘trees’, displayed on the instrument pod. The greener you drive, the more trees you get. It records every journey and builds a picture of how you drive and whether you’re becoming more or less eco-friendly. We can see that it could – like video games – become oddly addictive.

The Insight is Honda’s newest petrol electric hybrid, a five-door hatchback that comes in as a head-to-head rival for Toyota’s Prius, while undercutting it heavily on price. At a sneeze over £15,000, it costs the same as a mid-level Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf, and is over £2000 cheaper than the Prius.

Like the Toyota and others of its ilk, there’s much cleverness under the bonnet. Here there’s a 1.3-litre petrol engine as you’d find in Honda’s Jazz superminis, inked in with an electric motor. Where it can, the electric motor ‘helps’ the petrol one and, now and then, it will take over completely. The petrol motor in its turn charges the batteries that supply the electric power. These are stored under the boot floor. For Honda, it’s not new stuff because you’ll find a similar set-up in its Civic Hybrid that’s been available for some years.

And, indeed, the Civic will remain in the line-up for the present, even though the Insight costs less, is more versatile and also trumps its fuel economy: it manages up to 64.2mpg to the Civic’s 61.4mpg. Its exhaust emissions levels are better, too: 101g/km plays the Civic’s 109g/km.

Honda Insight To look at, the Insight is neat and modern but, viewed from the side, it’s a ringer for the Prius, with the same heavy pillar between the side door and tailgate. Inside, the two-deck dash and digital speedo will make anyone who’s driven a newish Civic feel at home. There are two trim levels, SE and ES. We chose the SE as the cheaper. It’s plain inside and there’s not the high-tone, squidgy plastics on the dash that you’d find in a VW Golf or even a Ford Focus but it’s pleasant enough and looks durable.

To drive, it’s an undemanding car that corners securely and sponges away the worst effects of urban pot holes as it crosses them. Transmission is auto-only and there’s also an ‘Econ’ button if you want to travel as far as you can between fill-ups. Press this and, unless you kick the throttle to the floor, power is limited and the transmission shifts more smoothly. It also turns the air conditioning off while the car is at a stand-still. Talking of which, the car switches itself off whenever you are at a halt.

And, if that’s not enough, the background to the car’s digital speedo glows a soft green whenever it is being driven most economically. Accelerate or brake suddenly, and the background turns blue. All the while, the instrument display grows ‘trees’ or not as you drive. It’ll give hours of fun.

Honda Insight So long as you drive gingerly, the car’s undemanding, the engine quiet but with a fair amount of road noise and wind rustle to notice. But if you push it, the engine and transmission bellow protest until the desired speed is reached. It’s not at all a happy sound, which is surprising because the transmission has a ‘sport’ setting that, to our minds, encourages press-on driving.

Should you buy one? At £15,000 or thereabouts, it’s strong value. But you’ll need to love its gadgets and not mind the compromises in driving style that it imposes. It’s intriguing and clever – but not convincing.