2012 Honda Fit Vs 2012 Honda Insight Hybrid: High Gas Mileage Battle
More Toyota FT-Bh Concept Teasers Emerge Before Geneva
Toyota's last teaser image of the FT-Bh was, frankly, not that helpful. More a collection of... Read More
- #6LEADERBOARD RANK
- 685ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
- 4COMMENTS POSTED
Also See
-
2012 Honda Civic Hybrid: Green Car Reports Best...
-
44-MPG 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid At NY Auto Show...
-
2013 Honda Accord Coupe Concept Previews...
See more video »
If you're in the market for a fuel efficient vehicle your choice is better than ever.
Virtually every manufacturer now offers a high-mpg vehicle, but Honda could lay claim to being one of the first. Since the Civic arrived back in the 1970s, the Japanese carmaker has made fuel economy a high priority in its cars.
These days cars like the 2012 Honda Insight and 2012 Honda Fit are Honda's main contenders for inexpensive, fuel-efficient vehicles. But if you're looking to improve your gas mileage, reduce costs and go greener, are you better off with the hybrid, or the efficient gasoline option?
To help you choose, let's take a look at the numbers...
Economy
Ultimately, whether you're looking to reduce your environmental impact or simply save money on gas, economy is the most important factor.
Here, it's an immediate victory for the hybrid. Using a 1.3-liter variant of the 1.5-liter gasoline engine found in the Fit, and hooked up to Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid system, the Insight's 42 mpg combined rating soundly beats the 31 mpg of the automatic Fit.
The Insight's hybrid advantage can be seen in city mileage, with a rating of 41 mpg. The aerodynamic shape also helps the highway rating of 44 mpg. In comparison, the 1.5 Fit manages 28 city, 35 highway. With a manual transmission, those figures reduce to 27 city, 33 highway - so you're certainly better buying the auto.
Performance
Here, the Fit strikes back. There's not a lot that's "green" about higher performance, but it's still an important consideration. After all, you appreciate a little extra power every time you join the flow of freeway traffic, or need to overtake.
The Fit's 1.5-liter makes 117-horsepower, to the Insight's 98-horsepower. Along with lower weight (2,617 lbs plays 2,747), that helps acceleration, with 60mph available from rest in shortly over 8 seconds. By comparison, the Insight covers the same sprint in around 12 seconds. Both are easy enough to drive, with CVT transmission in the Insight, and a 5-speed auto in the Fit.
The Insight does counter with strong torque from low revs, thanks to the electric assistance. It makes 123 pounds-feet from only 1,000 rpm, where the Fit needs 4,800 on the clock to make its peak 106 pounds-feet.
Equipment and practicality
Surprisingly, given the extra length of the Insight, the Fit actually has greater interior passenger and cargo volume, mainly thanks to its high roof-line.
The Fit also noses ahead on equipment. Though the Insight is available with many of the same options as the Fit, initial purchase price is higher so you can get a higher-specified Fit for an Insight of the same price. A base-spec Insight costs around $600 more than a high-spec Fit Sport with the auto transmission option.
Price
As hinted above, you need to spend extra on the Insight to bring it up to the same equipment levels as the Fit, and it's already a more expensive car.
A base-spec Insight starts with an MSRP of $18,350, and the Fit Sport Auto from our comparisons comes in at $17,760 - though if you're prepared to put up with less equipment, you can take another couple of thousand off that.
The Insight will begin saving you money on fuel though. The EPA estimates that over 15,000 miles, with a mix of 45 percent highway, 55 percent city driving, the Insight will cost $1,207 a year in gas. The Fit adds another $400 to that - and you can keep adding to it if your annual mileage is higher, or if the majority of your driving is in the city.
Conclusion
On the face of it, Honda's Fit seems to be a much better bet overall than the Insight. It performs better, has more space, and more equipment. To top it all, it's also significantly cheaper to buy. This could be why the Insight has so far failed to match Honda's sales expectations - turning in around 20,000 units a year, rather than a hundred thousand.
However, if economy and low emissions are your main concerns, then it can't get near to the Insight, and if you regularly drive longer distances the shorter tank range of the Fit - by more than 100 miles - would soon start to irritate.
Data on the EPA website also suggests that Insight owners are averaging comfortably over the EPA estimates - up to 50 mpg in some cases - so the fuel you save could be even greater.
If ourtight cost is your main concern, then the Fit offers a lot for your money and is still an economical vehicle - but the Insight is definitely the greener choice, and could save you more in the long-term.
+++++++++++
Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter.
Related Articles
-
Bricking A Tesla Roadster Battery: Today's Electric Car Meme
-
2012 Fisker Karma Plug-In Is Real, But Will Company Survive?
-
Helsinki Electric Car Owners Test Cold-Weather Capabilities
-
Irate Investor Sues Fisker: A Little Lesson In Venture Capital
-
GE Employees Get Chevy Volt Electric Cars, All-Gas Use OKed Sometimes
-
Follow Us
On Facebook
Most Popular This Week
More »
GE Employees Get Chevy Volt Electric Cars, All-Gas Use OKed... 
2011 Nissan Leaf: One Year On, How Healthy Is The Battery Pack? 
Top 10 Most Economical Small Cars You Can Buy In 2012 
Irate Investor Sues Fisker: A Little Lesson In Venture Capital 
Forbidden Fruit: 60 MPG BMW 1-Series Due At Geneva Show Find Green Cars
Photo Galleries
More from High Gear Media
- Follow Us
Have an opinion?Join the conversation!
2010 Honda Insight was billed as a Prius for thousands less when it came out. The Insight falls short of the Prius in almost every way imaginable, fuel economy, space, dash layout, etc.
Might as well check out the Civic hybrid while you are at the dealership. 44 MPG, $24,000.
Full hybrid is always more fuel efficient than partial hybrid.
Your average miraculously increased from "just over 50" to "54" in two consecutive postings! That is amazing!
Anyway, a more fair comparison is using 2010 EPAs, 50 vs. 41. Assuming the average gas price is $4.00 per gallon during the life of a car, say 200,000 miles, you save 878 gallons, or $3512. The $3120 price difference is more than offset.
Still, it is not quite a fair comparison. Prius and Insight are not even in the same category. You can not really compare two cars in two different categories. If size does not matter, would we compare with that dirt-cheap Nano?
What’s shown on the dash in both cars is about 3 mpg higher than actual. "54 is actually more like 51. Same goes for your "57".
A fair comparison is the EPA website owner reported logs which show the 2 cars neck and neck in mpg.
I have a lot of respect for e-journalists. They have to patiently put up with trolls who can’t read.
A mild hybrid is considered to be one that has a separate high-voltage battery pack and an electric traction motor that contributes to propelling the car (neither of which are present in start-stop systems), but cannot propel the vehicle solely on electric power alone.
That's why the Insight and CR-Z are a) based on the Fit and b) not as thoroughly-engineered, as it's just too expensive to do so if you want to make money off them. Much as we'd love to see another Mk1 Insight (with modern developments I could see 100mpg being achievable), making money is still priority #1 for carmakers.
First, the original Insight was a two-seater. In the U.S. two-seat cars have never captured more than about 1% of sales. That alone severely limited the number of people who would even consider buying it, never mind the looks and the rest.
Second, the first Insight was MUCH lighter, because it didn't have to meet far more stringent U.S. crash-test & occupant protection rules now in effect. Compared to the CR-X from 2 decades ago, today's CR-Z is 700 pounds heavier (both are two-door hatchbacks). Some of the gain is due to its hybrid system, but most is from a stronger safety cage, beefier door intrusion beams, and more airbags.
I realize that mileage may vary, but I routinely get 35mpg in my 2011 Fit doing everything from commuting to hauling groceries for my family of 12 to sacks of feed for our goats, chickens and horses.
Have an opinion?Join the conversation!