Honda Insight - Can it live up to the hype?
Too little too late?Sure, it looks sort of like the Toyota Prius, yet the Insight's design lines are still a bit more sleek and refined than the Prius. But consumers don't buy the Prius for its looks - or do they - they buy it for its fuel economy, right? How will the Honda Insight compare?
Without a major hybrid powertrain upgrade, it seems far-fetched to believe the Insight will beat the Prius in city fuel economy, but if the Insight pummels the Prius on the highway, will that give the Insight an edge?
Or, is it purely price that will give the Insight a chance against the Prius? Will Honda really sell these new hybrid cars for less than $20,000? What do you expect from the Insight?
Labels: honda insight hybrid, Hybrid Vehicles, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
6:26 AM
9 Comments:
Hi! In this article, you said that hybrids are really good. For example, the range is limited. Also, and nick said, bio-diesel may be more efficient. Please consider other cars. Still, I think your blog is good and I like the way you write! :-)
P.S. Please visit my blog Best Plus Hybrid Car
Thanks for your support!!! :-)))
The Insight will do well. Honda has a great reputation for releasing quality products. I love our Prius, but I'm a bigger Honda fan than I am of Toyota. Considering the mark-up dealers can put on other hybrids, I don't see how this one can fail.
kp-
I don't think the Insight will fail, although I do see the possibility of dealer add-ons, something many Honda dealers did with the Civic hybrid.
I think many are just desiring something other than the Prius, but when push comes to shove the Insight won't be an equitable Prius contender.
In particular, I really don't expect the Insight to compete with the Prius in city fuel economy. For city drivers, the Insight might be cheaper, but it might be cheaper because its just less efficient.
Today, the Civic hybrid isn't considered a great deal versus either the Prius or the conventional civic. I think the Insight will be a much better deal than the Civic hybrid, but it might still be a better highway hybrid than city hybrid.
Indigo Incarnates
I can see Honda offering a $20k Insight *if* they have multiple trim levels. I can see an Insight DX for $19k, an LX for $21k, and a higher priced EX model with every conceivable gadget. If Honda really does plan to sell 100,000 Insights per year, then it would make sense to offer multiple trim levels since the elite units are invariably more profitable (there's no way a Navi costs Honda anything close to the $2,600 the customers have to pay).
I suppose that's why the Civic Hybrid never got offered in a DX or LX trim, since Honda never produced enough hybrids before to get the economy of scale discount. But 100k units per year would do it.
toyota has used the multiple trim levels of the Prius quite well. when demand was lower, it was easy to find a package 2, even some package 1s.
Now it seems the only thing to hit dealers is package 5 or 6s.
so, it would make great sense for Honda to do the same. of course, for consumers, it might mean finding a base, sub-$20,000 Insight might not be easy.
Let's just wait and see exactly how much of a rip-off the pricing of this vehicle will be with dealer markups.
For it to be a "cheap vehicle," it's going to have the overall quality of a Fit...which to me is not particularly impressive.
Add to that the dealer screwing the customer as most Honda dealers do, I'll probably count myself out of the rat race to buy one.
As you can all see, I'm not holding my breath as far as dealer and consumer behavior goes. I think they'll both screw it up royally for people like me who genuinely would like a hybrid are not stupid enough to get ripped off.
Kind of like the housing market..so I'm used to it already.
chances are that dealer and consumer behavior is hedged against fairness with only 100,000 units making it to market, especially if gas prices don't drop seriously. unfortunately, there will probably be a certain percentage of buyers at first whom will buy regardless of markups.
Yeah, but I think I'm with Noz, in that more and more people are going to be willing to wait before HAVING to buy a hybrid. I know I am totally content waiting for the Volt at this point, or just a really good deal on a low cost hybrid.
That was not the case 6 months ago, when in my myopia I was literally anxious about how and when to purchase a Prius. If I may make a bold statement, I think the Prius bubble is going to burst in 2009. In Los Angeles, Hollywood-types will finally get out of the Toyota dealerships! :) And sometime that year, hybrids will be considered normal options on many models, not some exotic Prius-only technology.
I think that's a little optimistic, especially with the 3rd gen prius coming out later next year. The only thing that is going to stymie demand for the Prius is a crappy economy, not the Insight nor any other hybrid or combination of hybrids until at least 2011 I would guess, maybe even longer. There simply won't be the numbers.
According to analyst reports that I've read, economies of scale have finally caught up to the Prius and its becoming a very profitable car for Toyota. So, even if there is a slow down, Toyota will be able to afford hybrid incentives.
Post a Comment
<< Home