Test drove an Insight today

I was having a similar dilemma before I purchased the Prius a few months back. Here is a thread I started that has some more "Insight"....

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/79210-prius-ii-vs-insight-gen-ii-ex.html

Seriously though....if price is a really big deal, and you can't spare a couple extra grand, get the Insight. If you can swing the Prius, it is much nicer of a car in so many ways. I was on the fence for a couple of weeks myself, but I am very glad I didn't end up buying an Insight.

 

The Insight doesn't hold a candle to the Prius, in my opinion. Prius is the best, at least right now.

 

My wife has owned nothing but Honda Civics for the past 20 years. Last year I sold my previous car (a Santa Fe) and got a Prius. We test drove an Insight at the time too but didn't really care for it.

I had to go back east last fall for a few days shortly after getting my Prius, and rather than leave a practically brand new car in the parking garage at the airport I took my wife's Civic and she drove my car while I was gone.

Long story short, she didn't want to give me my Prius back, and a few months ago traded her Civic in for a Prius.

 

I guess people have different standards about good acceleration. See Best & worst cars review, best & worst acceleration.

To bring in some reviews/comparisons, many have given the Insight bad reviews. Here are some reviews and comparisons:
CR Faults Honda Insight for Its Ride, Handling, Noise, and Rear Seat: Consumer Reports http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/
Honda Insight versus Toyota Prius: There's No Comparison | Car News Blog at Motor Trend
2010 Honda Insight EX: Who Needs Passengers - not a review, but a comparison of rear headroom
Fuel Sipper Smackdown 2: Which Car Gets the Best Fuel Economy?
http://www.insideline.com/toyota/pr...-2010-honda-insight-vs-2010-toyota-prius.html

There have been a few comparisons between the 2010 Prius and 2010 Insight where the Insight won.

 

The difference between the Prius III w/Nav I purchased ($22,086) and the Insight EX w/Nav we test drove (USAA Price: $21,710) was only $376.00! I feel it was worth the extra for the Prius!

 

Lets put it this way. I didn't even know/notice the a/c issue with Insight when I test drove it. I test drove Insight and Prius back to back and was immediately sold on the Prius. Insight felt and is a low power car. Prius is a techie car with lots of cool features going for it in and out. Its a bigger with 10 mpg more than Insight. The price difference wasn't worth to me, considering all of this and 10 yrs of testing that Prius has undergone.

The only thing I liked in Insight was that the seat cloth material looked better when compared to my Prius

 

dont forget the insight LX has only 4 speakers while the prius II has 6.

oh and here's the #1 reason the prius is better than the insight: SMART KEY

 

Man you got a solid deal! When I was looking the top of the line Insight was around 20, and the Prius II pre-rebate was around 22,400 in the Chi-town vicinity.

 

To the OP, the Prius across the board beats the Honda Insight. It's quieter, smoother, more roomy, and better mpg.

People who have driven both almost always choose the Prius. You should try it too.

 

I am and have been a longtime Honda fan--they do so many things so well, even if they might not be the 'best' at any one particular--and I did test this car and liked many aspects of it. From my POV, the ergonomics are just plain better than in the Prius. It felt very solid and handled well. BUT: there were some deal-breakers.

- No adjustable lumbar support. Dealbreaker right there.
- Cannot fold the rear seats down--major bummer for carrying bikes and the like
- Slow off the line, and then some.
- Mileage, while good, can't compare to the Prius
- Price ( when I was shopping, anyway) at least as much as a Prius Gen III, package IV

Still, there are many things about Hondas that I really like--fun, avilable with stick shift--I know,not the HCH-- but yeah, I still miss my good ol' RSX.

But, all in all, I went with the Prius and am happy. If your needs are primarily for hauling people, the HCH deserves a serious look--though the Prius is quite good at that as well. Since I'm a dedicated hatchback fan (oh, and the Insight felt like a major cheap disappointment...), I now own my first Toyota. Like it, a lot, but it is kinda numb. If Honda could put together a hatchback that drives like a Honda and gets Prius mileage, I'd sign right up.

Tradeoffs, I suppose...
That's life in the big city...
~T

 

You may be interested in Lexus CT200h. State of the art suspension with low NVH and 47 MPG (better than Gen2 Prius). It appears to start under $29k.

 

I test drove both the Insight and the Prius, and I just wasn't impressed with the Insight. Of course the big obvious to me at the time was the MPG difference, but otherwise, the interior of the Insight seemed "cheap" or something to me. Aesthetic of product matters a lot to me. I never uncovered the A/C problem, but that would've been a real issue, had I bought it.

 

You have to feel a little sorry for Honda's hybrid program. I suspect that the reason Toyota has beaten Honda (and everyone else) so badly in the hybrid race is simply that Toyota's pockets are a whole lot deeper than everyone else and they could take the huge hit on the cost of hybrid development over a longer period of time. It's really paid off handsomely for them, but they took a huge risk in doing it.

Toyota simply spent a lot more in the development of an unproven technology (it's long been rumored that Toyota has taken a loss on each Prius sold for years). I doubt Honda could afford that kind of long-term, strategic thinking and just couldn't invest the amount Toyota could. So, Honda's less complicated (but less efficient) hybrid system is simply the best Honda could come up without mortgaging the company.

 

Honda brought the first hybrid to America. But they got lazy and complacent after that and didn't further their hybrid technology. I think they are giving up actually. They stopped making the Honda Accord hybrid... Acura doesn't have any hybrids i believe either, while Lexus is getting a whole line up, and even Infiniti is joining the club as well.

 

I think Honda closely worked with MPG extremists. As a result, they lost focus on the mainstream buyers. IMA seems to give good MPG when taken to extreme, sometimes dangerous practices.

 

That sounds about right. Honda initially seemed to have a hybrid ideology of aiming for the highest possible MPG 'at any cost'. That cost turned out to be the price of a new battery when it eventually wore out due to the deeper discharge rate.

Toyota's HSD system compromised by sacrificing some MPG for a much longer battery life. It turned out to be the more palatable of the two systems to consumers.

 

And yet Toyota's hybrid beats Honda in terms of MPG. I think the only reason the first gen insight dominated the prius in gas mileage was because it was lighter. And this is the manual no a/c model we're talking about. Throw in the CVT and the a/c and the two mpgs are comparable.

 

I'd say the 3 cylinder engine and a low drag coefficient helped too.