Honda Insight Driving ExperienceIntroductionAs Promise, here is my driving experience from the 2 test drives I did. I am going to reference a lot on Honda City(test drove many times) and Myvi(My Car). Going to split the review to 2 section, section one is The Car, which is all the look, style, comfort, built, features and design of the car. And second is The Drive, related to the handling, performance ..etc of the car.
The Car First the look of the car, it's not the slickest car, nor the best looking one. But it does look good. Some may not like the tail design, but it's an sero dynamic design that reduces wind drag. The car design is very slick and sort of agressive look. So no complains from me in the looks department.
The built of car is good, there is no loose parts or weird sounds when driving it. It's MADE in JAPAN. It's a known fact that Japanese goods/Car have very good QA. Altough there may be still a few "bad" ones but the chances are lower compared to CKD cars. The downside is this is still a low cost car, and there is still alot of plasticky feel, the door and dash used hard plastic. The seats are well built and comfortable( At least in the front.). Other cheap material is the styroform in the spare tyre area....:-(
Overall built quality is still reasonably good.
The Comfort of the whole car however has a major downside. The roof line is really low, the rear seats have adequent leg room, but the head room is very limited. I am 6 feet tall, and when sitting upright at the back seat, my head is touching the roof. It's the same for City, and surprise surprise. ...Civic. For Myvi..Ican't touch the roof with my head even if I tried hard. It's still ok if the from seat is not push back all the way, as I can sit lower, and there is still a CM of space. For the middle Back seat.... it's one of the worst seats in any car... I tot that WV Jetta's middle seat was bad. This is even worse... The seat is lifted up about 3 CM and the width of the lifted up portion is quite small, and bigger bottom will find it very uncomfortable, and person taller than 5.5 feet will have trouble sitting there. I for one, can't fit into that seat, end of story. It's a good 4 person + 1 child car or 5 person short distance car. I can accept this as I will be driving this, and won't be fetching 4 ppl for a long distance anyway.
For an 98K car, it's not the most feature pack car around, Forte/Fiesta has more features than this car and at a lower price. But this is a Hybrid, and that extra "Feature" need to be counted as well. So if counting all the Hybrid tech and feature, this is one of the more feature packed car around. It has all the basic features. Take a brochure and read it for the features.
Overall it's feature list is extensive.
The Dash Design is futuristic, the speedometer is big and easy to read. There is a lot of information in the Dash. One downside is that this is a tech savvy car, and too much button and information may be too much for some people... No problems for me.. me more the better!
Lastly the boot space is big considering this is an hatch back , it's has one of the biggest boot for an hatch. Should be enough for a weekend away for an family or a week away for a couple.
Few things I do not understand, Why honda will not include an auto lock feature when you press the brake? as i always forget to lock the door once i start driving... maybe it can be done...
4/5 for the Car.
The DriveAcceleration is pretty decent. At lowest speed/rpm, it has plenty of torque to move the car. It's a breeze to go to 80KMh. It accelerate slightly faster than a City and was faster than my Myvi. Even when I step full trottle suddenly, the CVT is smoother to pick up than the 4/5 speed auto of the MYVi/City, the 4/5 auto will drop a gear.. or two and there is a massive jerk and lag(Engine revving high... but car not moving forward). I did not feel the same with the CVT, the power transfer is better. Just my experience with playing with the trottle. Turn of ECON mode and performance improve slightly. And even more performance can be obtain in S mode. One thing to note, When i am driving this with my normal driving style. It's always Light or DARK blue in the speedo.... until i reach cruising speed. But to maintain it up a slight slope.. it will turn light blue again need to lift trottle and lose speed to keep it green.... So it's pretty hard for me to keep it GREEN all the time. I need to really be gentle on the trottle. And if you want all GREEN, the performance sucks.. BIG time. Handling of the car is good, the steering is reponsive a light. MAybe too light for some. Braking is decent too.
Overall I am statisfy with the performance as I will not aim to get all flowers and be GREEN all the time.
The Dash has all the information in view and will not distract you from driving. But one thing will distract... The rear window... it's bad. visibility is low, and the middle split is ditracting. Add in 3 person at the back.. it's pretty much.. a useless rearview mirror. I depend on the rear view a lot.. so it's a letdown.. guess i have to use the side mirrors more now.....:-)
Auto stop function is good but in a hot day.. the AC cutoff is unbearable... duno if there is a way to disable Autostop in ECON mode..... it's a hassle to turn of econ every single time you feel hot during a stop... heard that if the AC is turned on high and low temp.. it may stop the auto stop....
The starting of the engine after an autostop produces a slight jerk.. it's totally acceptable for me.. Coz I drive a manual old car.. jerks happen all the time...:-)
The ride is smooth... really smooth..suspension is soft and comfy..... and surpisingly really quiet on a normal drive... All the review's from US says the car is noisy.. seem like the have not sit in a MYVI or ISWARA before.. Insight feels like a library.. compare to a wet market of ISWARA.
No complains here...
I checked my test drive unit.. it only shows 11.2 km/l it's not really a lot.. but the ave speed is 22kph. that's low. From my test, i could see during normal accleration i get about 12-15KM/L instant. Hard Accleration is 5 - 10KM/L ... but during cruising it's 15-25. so i guess a normal drive will be arount 16- 19KM/L.. ECO drive... maybe 20 - 22 KM/L??
So the score for the Drive is... 4/5
OverallIt's 4 stars of of 5... means it's a BUY for me... I have book a sliver Insight last month.. and I have decide to get it.....:-)
Pros:
Nice design
CBU Japan!!
good performance.
Nice ride experience.
Saves fuel..if you drive it right.
Cons:
Back head room...:-(
MIDDLE BACK SEAT!!!
REAR view....
Really really hard to maintain all GREEN...
Hope you enjoy my review.....:-) my 1st ever...
Feb 14 2011, 08:13 PM, updated 15y ago
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overall - honda done a good job
tot we jus go there look look nia
Get the Insight NOW and enjoy the ride NOW !!! 
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