Drive Report: 2010 Honda Insight

By John Voelcker

John Voelcker

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2010 Honda Insight - front three-quarter

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The 2010 Honda Insight was eagerly awaited before its launch, but reviews have been mixed. Some laud it for overachieving on the fuel economy front, while others (most notably the influential Consumer Reports) have slammed it.

Our half-hour drive in a new Insight left us with mixed impressions. But one thing we're clear on: The 2010 Honda Insight may look somewhat like a 2010 Toyota Prius, but they're two very different cars.

Appearance

Our electric-blue 2010 Insight looked good, and much less "otherworldly" than either the outgoing or the new Prius. It has elements of Honda's FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle, which is a much larger car but gets good marks for its styling.

Our only quibble with the lines is that the standard 15-inch wheels and tires just look too small on this fairly tall subcompact. To be fair, though, the Prius suffers from the same small-wheel spec.

Inside the car, the Insight feels larger than it actually is, helped by the steeply raked windshield.

Gas mileage

We were curious to see what kind of economy we could get from the Insight if we babied it a bit. That didn't endear us to surrounding traffic, but even on our hilly course north of New York City, we got a very respectable 42.2 miles per gallon.

Early anecdotal evidence says it's almost impossible to get less than 35 mpg in the Insight. The EPA rates it at 40 miles per gallon city / 43 mpg highway, for a combined rating of 41 mpg.

We found Honda's driver information to be simple and self-explanatory, despite being mostly monochrome. More expensive hybrids, including the 2010 Toyota Prius and the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, have full color displays--so the leaves are green, not white.

Behind the speedometer is a color band that lets drivers know when they're driving more or less efficiently for the conditions. The green end is most efficient (logical), but the blue end is thirtiest--which is confusing since so many cars from other makers use the prefix "blue-" to indicate efficient models.

The "i" button on the steering wheels lets drivers cycle through three dashboard information displays: instant and historical gas  mileage, operating history from three previous driving cycles, and an EcoGuide that awards leaves (from 1 to 5) to reward thrifty driving.

2010 Honda Insight - side

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Performance

The Insight isn't particularly fast, but its small 1.3-liter engine isn't very large either. While the electric motor adds some oomph in certainly situations, the entire powertrain puts out only 98 horsepower at its peak. That's low, these days.

Using the big green button to put the car into Eco mode knocks 4 percent off the performance, says Honda, by shutting down the air conditioning more often and modifying the engine software to accelerate more gently.

Eco mode feels slower, for sure, but in any mode, when you floor it, the engine howls. And, presumably to save weight, the Insight doesn't seem to have much sound insulation.

The result is a inbuilt incentive to drive smoothly and economically; it hurts your ears less to do so. On the other hand, we were impressed with the regenerative braking. Downhill roads quickly and noticeably recharged the small 0.6-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

The ride is hard and jiggly, not helped by tires with low rolling resistance to wring every last drop of mileage out of its gasoline. They're pretty noisy too.

And when thrown through corners, the Insight isn't much fun: Its body leans a lot, and the front tires start to lose their grip on corners, understeering at speeds that other Honda products don't break a sweat over.