Car Review of the Honda Insight

[RPTroll]

This is, quite possibly, the best panning of a car ever.

"Much has been written about the Insight, Honda’s new low-priced hybrid. We’ve been told how much carbon dioxide it produces, how its dashboard encourages frugal driving by glowing green when you’re easy on the throttle and how it is the dawn of all things. The beginning of days.

So far, though, you have not been told what it’s like as a car; as a tool for moving you, your friends and your things from place to place.

So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more. "

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/drivin ... 2604714984

[Orchard]

His conclusion is most telling perhaps. He gives it ONE star out of five then says this: "Good only for parting the smug from their money."

OUCH!

I have to say that I'm highly aligned with the writer regarding global warming & the need to find alternative fuel sources...I'm not 100% convinced on the man-made climate change arguments, but I am 100% behind efforts to reduce pollution and find better, more renewable fuel sources for our cars. Gasoline won't last forever, and neither will any other resource that we have to yank out of the earth with large machinery. It needs to be something that we can grow or produce from biological agents. It also needs to be extremely efficient. However like the author, I'm not about to drive a car that's a TERRIBLE CAR just to save the planet when it's questionable how much resource savings there are in the production of the car.

I'd LOVE to have a VW Jetta TDI!

[torstan]

That's hilarious. Thanks for posting it.

[RPTroll]

I have a spreadsheet I use to determine when to buy a hybrid. It tracks the actual expense and how many years you must drive it to make up the cost difference between it and its gas burning brother. So far we're still about seven years out.

What I don't understand is why the evivrons switched from pollution to C02. I think they have a much better pollution argument. I'm also skeptical of the man made global warming and believe the output of the Sun has A LOT more to do with climate change than any human effect. However, oil has become the favorite tool of dictators and there is a limited supply so it makes since to move to other fuel sources as soon as we logically can.

What I appreciated most from the article was the sense of humor. Sure he could have just blasted the thing but the way he wrote the critique had me laughing all the way through.

[Orchard]

I have a spreadsheet I use to determine when to buy a hybrid. It tracks the actual expense and how many years you must drive it to make up the cost difference between it and its gas burning brother. So far we're still about seven years out.

What I don't understand is why the evivrons switched from pollution to C02. I think they have a much better pollution argument. I'm also skeptical of the man made global warming and believe the output of the Sun has A LOT more to do with climate change than any human effect. However, oil has become the favorite tool of dictators and there is a limited supply so it makes since to move to other fuel sources as soon as we logically can.

What I appreciated most from the article was the sense of humor. Sure he could have just blasted the thing but the way he wrote the critique had me laughing all the way through.

Oh absolutely about the pollution argument. I can't imagine how anyone could argue that pollution is 'not bad'. Perhaps 'not an immediately life-threatening case' or 'justifiable at some levels', but I think it's pretty easy to get almost everyone on board with the idea that pollution is BAD. But the abstract nature of CO2 is a much more difficult argument in my mind, and I don't know why anyone would choose that route over something more concrete and universally acceptable.

But yeah, the sense of humor in this article really serves to drive home the message: if you want to make a care that is enviro-conscious, fine, but it still needs to serve its primary function well: transportation.

[jfrazierjr]

I'm also skeptical of the man made global warming and believe the output of the Sun has A LOT more to do with climate change than any human effect.

I wonder if that's why at least 2 other planets in our solar system have had recorded warming trends over the past 20 years.... At least as far as I know, there are no humans driving around those planets in big honkin SUV's spoiling up their atmosphere's....

[Orchard]

I'm also skeptical of the man made global warming and believe the output of the Sun has A LOT more to do with climate change than any human effect.

I wonder if that's why at least 2 other planets in our solar system have had recorded warming trends over the past 20 years.... At least as far as I know, there are no humans driving around those planets in big honkin SUV's spoiling up their atmosphere's....

Oh yes there are! The Martian's have had mega-SUV's for a long time. This is a well-known fact. It's the reason their planet looks so red. It's not a natural desert at all, but the result of global warming from driving monster trucks everywhere. I thought everyone knew this!

Why are you all looking at me funny?

[Rumble]

A couple years ago, I commuted 120 miles per day, every day. I drove a Mazda 6, and the gas costs were murderous - refilling about every 2.5 days.

So I bought a Prius. Even with the higher car payment, the savings on gas were immediate. It was stunning. I felt incredibly smug.

And 6 months later, I moved to a house a mile from work. And gas prices went down. And now I'm thinking, "You know, this Prius is a pretty cool gizmo, but I really want my Mazda 6 back."

Sigh.

[Orchard]

A couple years ago, I commuted 120 miles per day, every day. I drove a Mazda 6, and the gas costs were murderous - refilling about every 2.5 days.

So I bought a Prius. Even with the higher car payment, the savings on gas were immediate. It was stunning. I felt incredibly smug.

And 6 months later, I moved to a house a mile from work. And gas prices went down. And now I'm thinking, "You know, this Prius is a pretty cool gizmo, but I really want my Mazda 6 back."

Sigh.

Yeah, like I said, I'd love a Jetta (or Passat or pretty much ANY VW) TDI...they get insane mpg, without the smug factor. Never mind that diesel is more expensive...even when gas was $4.50/gal and diesel was over $5.50/gal, the cost savings would have been very apparent. In fact...the MORE gas costs, the more important it is to buy diesel or hybrid, even if it means paying more per gallon. When you have a car getting 45+ mpg, and you are dring 60+ miles/day, then you compare that to a car that only get's 28 mpg...well $1/gal difference in price means very little. Especially as prices go up and that gap remains about the same, but the percentage difference in price starts to drop a LOT. The difference, in terms of ratio for $1.99 gas/$2.99 diesel vs. $3.99 gas/$4.99 diesel is important when talking about operating costs and mpg. And since the diesels get better or equal mileage...well it's kinda of a no-brainer (less fuel is less fuel)!

[RPTroll]

I spoke of my spreadsheet above. In it is miles driven per week so that's going to be different for each person. At the time both of my cars were paid off but I had a big honkin' SUV. So I wanted to see if it made sense to trade in the SUV on a new hybrid and, if it didn't make sense to by a hybrid then at what price would gas need to be for it to make sense.

The computation came to $25 a gallon.

Now that's a bit unfair to the hybrid since any new car would carry a similar (but lower) number. Needless to say i drove the wheels off the SUV.

Also, on C02 emission vs. pollution: I realized that there's a lot of money to be made in the Cap and Trade marketing scheme. I suspect that's why its the big push now since the ability to make billions off pollution alone is relatively low.

[tektonik]

its harder to market a hybrid in America since we tend to drive farther.

[snikle]

LOL I was laughing all through this article (side note: expect to see some weird-beards show up in a coming game, that is just too funny).
I have seen some calculations on how long a hybrid takes to repay you for the added expense of purchasing one and that was one of the primary reasons I did not buy a hybrid car about a year and a half ago. Almost all of them were in the range of 5-8 years, and since I am retarded and trade cars about every 4-5 years, I figured why.

I looked up that Honda Clarity, very interesting. Says you can go about 240 miles between fueling, I wonder how much the hydrogen production process costs compared to oil.

[Orchard]

LOL I was laughing all through this article (side note: expect to see some weird-beards show up in a coming game, that is just too funny).
I have seen some calculations on how long a hybrid takes to repay you for the added expense of purchasing one and that was one of the primary reasons I did not buy a hybrid car about a year and a half ago. Almost all of them were in the range of 5-8 years, and since I am retarded and trade cars about every 4-5 years, I figured why.

I looked up that Honda Clarity, very interesting. Says you can go about 240 miles between fueling, I wonder how much the hydrogen production process costs compared to oil.

I'm not sure, but when I was interning at the US Postal Service they were investing heavily into hydrogen-based cars. Their goal is to convert the entire fleet to hydrogen as soon as they can, so someone there must think it's the way to go vs. hybrid or electric.

[RPTroll]

Well, it costs money to produce hydrogen but, as I remember, it was fairly cheap (I forget the equivalent cost per gallon but it was close to the current price for gas). The main problem is the distribution network needed to make it commercially viable which has to run parallel to auto makers producing the cars. It truly is a chicken and egg problem. But, since the post office can short circuit that by maintaining hydrogen fueling stations at the hubs that issue goes away.

[jfrazierjr]

Almost all of them were in the range of 5-8 years, and since I am retarded and trade cars about every 4-5 years, I figured why.

One thing that many people forget to factor into even the above is the cost of the battery (not saying you did... but many just go on gas savings).

We purchased a used car a few months ago. On the lot, we noticed what I thought was a high number of used vehicles. Soo... we asked the sales person about it and he noted that a ton of people are selling the 4-6 or so year old Priuses because they don't want to dump the expense into a new battery. Now... I am NOT saying I have any measurable data as to the life expectancy of a Hybrid battery, just the information from one sales person that they have a large number of trade-in's of late model hybrids because of the perception that the battery may be dying and need replacing...

The tiny amount of research I just did seems to indicate that at least some have been getting 150000+ miles and have not had to replace a battery as of yet. To me, this seems to indicate that if the battery can last for 10+ years of normal driving(say 15000 a year), then they might be marginally worth having. Given that quite a few people have to replace their engine or transmission in a ICE vehicle around or before this time period, which costs about the same as a new Hybrid battery....