Should i buy honda insight

How many automatic cars will do fifty mpg driving in local traffic. Even small cars have job getting 30 mpg in city traffic.!

It is hard to see out of the back of most modern cars , if you drive a van or lorry you have only the side mirrors to rely on! Version Average annual mileage 5, — 9, Owned 1 - 2 years. Average annual mileage 10, — 14, Totally reliable - no problems at all.

I have never had any problems whatsoever. Version eas-t cvt, 1. Mpg not as good as it should be. Version , 1. Good, but ride could be a bit softer. Great car to be honest. It's my first car and the insurance was cheap. Compared to the Euro i would have to pay with any other car.

I also got a three-year extended warranty for free. Honda is not doing so great in Holland, but I like their cars. Its just something diffrent on the road than the usual BMW and Mercedes stuff. Waiting for the Honda Accord Plug-in to come to Holland. Had a few problems but the Honda dealer didn't charge me for it, and I had a free Accord for the five-hours' maintenance they had to wait for brake blocks. Difficult to assess, but no issues so far. My previous Honda was reliable. I changed to my present car to achieve lower running costs.

Second Insight I have had with no problems I could speak of. As expected, it's a Honda. Version es, 1. Version EX, 1. A lovely car, seems to have undue criticism about the ride quality, and honda have recently revised the suspension set up to address this.

However, i've found no such concerns. Would certainly have another insight. If honda gave it majic rear seats like the jazz, then loading would be perfect for me. Owned More than 5 years. Great Car no issues since new. Version gls, 1. Easy to drive comfy and economical. Version ES, 1. Wonderful, all that we expected, economical, roomy, easy to drive and totally reliable. After all it is a honda! Lives up to all my expectations. Meets all our needs economical and totally reliable. Well it is a honda, what else would i say.

Version SE, 1. This is the 2nd ihonda insight 2 hybrid i have owned. I rate it as the best car i've owned. I loved this car ever since I bought it! By far the best car I have ever had! You see, I get 52MPG, they get if lucky. Although, the electric motor is a bit 'noisy'. The Insight does a better job than most hybrids of balancing spry acceleration with miserly fuel economy. It's about as quick as many conventionally powered compact cars—and way quicker than the hybrid competitors we've tested.

Its combination of a gas engine and electric motors provides a combined horsepower, which motivates the Insight from zero to 60 mph in 7.

It can run on its electric motor alone for roughly one mile at lower speeds but request brisk acceleration and the gasoline engine will kick-in seamlessly. You might notice the engine getting loud under hard acceleration, but the Insight's powertrain is otherwise quiet and refined. The Insight is an exceedingly pleasant vehicle to drive.

It is quiet, comfortable, and refined, and it handles confidently. That's no wonder, considering it's in many ways mechanically similar to the Civic sedan, which shares those attributes. Although it's not overtly sporty, the Insight has a nicely controlled ride and solid handling. Its supple suspension soaks up bumps well, and its quick steering helps it change direction responsively. The predictable and progressive brake pedal in the Insight suffers from little of the clunkiness that plagues the brakes of other hybrids.

The Insight's brakes feel just as confident as a traditional, gas-powered vehicle's. Honda provides two EPA ratings for the Insight: 55 mpg city and 49 highway for the lighter EX trim and 51 city and 45 highway for the Insight Touring, which is better-equipped and comes with larger wheels-and-tires. But the Insight Touring achieved 47 mpg on our real-world highway test , 2 mpg better than its EPA rating.

Drivers who spend more time in stop-and-go driving can expect even better results; hybrids typically are more efficient in city driving conditions than on the highway. For more information about the Insight's fuel economy, visit the EPA's website. But that's okay, because while the familiarity of moderately paced city driving may breed contempt in some of our staff, the Insight mostly acquits itself with crafty tech, comfortable seats, and decent fuel economy.

The Insight's droning engine, which we covered previously, is the main reason staffers shy away from taking the car on long trips. But those who have done so have returned with a better respect for the Honda. The seats prove more than adequate for an extended voyage, which is something the Insight's tiny, The meager fuel supply means we've had to stop for refills every or so miles.

It is worth noting that a similar Insight beat its mpg EPA highway estimate by 2 mpg on our mph highway fuel-economy test. Our Insight's roughly 14, miles thus far have not been completely uneventful. After a quick look, our local dealer found that the condenser a heat exchanger that looks like a radiator in the front of the car had been damaged by what we assume was road debris.

On the upside, service is practically pocket change. In addition to contributing to the car's droning highway character, the winter tires we fitted in January, a set of perfectly fine OE-size Bridgestone Blizzak WS80s, hampered the Insight's fuel economy a bit. At about a third of the way through our test, we're now averaging 38 mpg, up 1 mpg from the initial miles set on winter tires.

One comment in the Insight's logbook noted that the engine's startup was uncharacteristically lumpy, so much so that passengers could feel the 1. It smoothed out in a few miles yet has since been noticed on more than one occasion. While it's not so rough as to warrant a separate trip to the dealer, we'll be sure to ask the service techs to take a close look at the Insight's engine mounts when it goes in for its next scheduled service. Such is the life of the loneliest long-term car in our fleet.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. From feet it may look like we got another long-term Civic sedan in Cosmic Blue hue and Touring trim, just like the one that left our office months ago, but a Civic this Insight is not. Not that there is anything wrong with the color; we just prefer a little more differentiation among our fleet cars.

But it so happens that Honda has positioned its third-gen Insight to be a lot more like the 10Best-winning Civic than ever before.

No more is the Insight an ultraniche product that looks different from anything else in the showroom. The Insight essentially takes the place of a Civic hybrid by sharing its architecture and Indiana assembly facility with the Civic sedan. Gone is the Integrated Motor Assist IMA hybrid system—a motor sandwiched between engine and transmission—which Prius owners turned up their noses at. Fun fact unrelated to this Insight: the term "mild hybrid" was coined by Toyota marketers selling the more complex Prius to poke at the relative simplicity of the first Insight.

This new Insight, however, has adopted a version of the hybrid transaxle from the Accord hybrid, and it isn't really even a transmission because it never changes gears—both engine and motor drive the wheels via direct drive. It is simple in that sense but complex in its control strategy. As in a Prius, there are two AC motors and an Atkinson-cycle engine. At lower speeds, the hp drive motor provides propulsion through a 2.

The second motor is primarily a generator driven by the 1. Maximum thrust is achieved through a combination of the drive motor and engine, which provide at most a combined horsepower. It was this transaxle's combination of macro simple and micro complex that drew us to want 40, miles with the car. Interestingly, this is one of the few vehicles in which we have evaluated every generation with a long-term test. In the first-gen Insight test , we learned that you had to work very hard to get less than 40 mpg.

The second-gen test confirmed the Insight was infinitely better to drive than its contemporary Prius. While we haven't been able to replicate the 43 mpg we averaged in a test last year, driving the Insight is a wonderfully pleasant thing. All signs point to the third-gen combining the experiences we had with the previous two Insights, albeit with a few caveats—the first being the 37 mpg we've averaged.

That's more than 10 mpg worse than its EPA combined estimate, and there may be a totally understandable reason. When the Insight showed up last month, we immediately put winter tires on it. And as far as pleasantness behind the wheel, that only applies to "normal" driving.

Hustle the Honda hybrid outside of a gentle cruise and the buzziness of the 1. The first time you need max thrust when merging onto the highway, you're taken aback by the uncouth drone; once up to speed on the freeway, the Insight settles down and feels like a grown-up Civic. On its initial trip to the test track, our long-term Insight performed as expected, accelerating to 60 mph in 7.

That's quick enough to earn the Insight rocket-ship status among its peers— the Hyundai Ioniq is more than a second in the rear, and a Prius needs more than a 10 count to hit The Insight stopped from 70 mph in feet and stuck to the skidpad with 0. Neither of those chassis scores are anything to brag about, yet somehow the Insight exudes a sense of sophistication and refinement from behind the wheel—that is, as long as you keep the engine out of the noisy trawls of maximum power.

We doubt we'll stay out of that noisy range too much as we solider toward the 40,mile finish line, but we'll try. New Cars. Buyer's Guide. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. Brad Fick Car and Driver. View Photos. More Insight Insights. Michael Simari Car and Driver.