Clarkson on the Insight

[LTC8K6]

Pretty bad, but funny, review...

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/t...son/article6294116.ece

 

[LTC8K6]

And the sound is worse. The Honda?s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else?s crying baby on an airliner. It?s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you?d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.

 

[Gibson486]

do not know, but i saw it on a commercial last night and I thought it was a Prius....they look the same to me.

 

[StageLeft]

Great flourishes in his writing, but not a substantive review. His criticisms of CVT reek of something from a decade ago. Is this one's much worse? I've driven three cars with CVTs, one 15 years ago (kind of sucked), and two recently (Altima and Camry Hybrid) and frankly they grow on me very quickly. I am an impatient person and the CVT buys me fractions of a second more time to not be driving, as the acceleration is immediate, if not peaked for a second or two, whereas a car that has to downshift leaves me wanting for that fraction of a second with no acceleration at all.

I imagine he wanted to hate this car from the get go because really this is not a review of an Insight as much as it is of hybrids in general. But we've done all that, we've heard the arguments about Hybrids. If we're in the market for one, how is this vs the other ones? He's a bit light there, except for a quick compare to the Prius.

 

[markgm]

I test drove one and if it had the same room as my Accord (I'm 6'5") I'd have seriously considered picking one up.

 

[iamwiz82]

lmao

The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he?s doing the world a favour.

 

[MotF Bane]

And the sound is worse. The Honda?s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else?s crying baby on an airliner. It?s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you?d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.

:laugh::laugh:

Edit:

In engineering terms, you really can?t have ?brilliant, apart from ...? whether it?s a nuclear power station, a motorway crash barrier or a car. I mean, the Titanic was brilliant, apart from its crappy rudder.

 

[evident]

what else would you expect? clarkson and jalopnik hate hybrids

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Great flourishes in his writing...

I imagine he wanted to hate this car from the get go...

that's classic clarkson. he is so predictable, even when he acts surprised, you can see it a mile away.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Great flourishes in his writing...

I imagine he wanted to hate this car from the get go...

that's classic clarkson. he is so predictable, even when he acts surprised, you can see it a mile away.

He dislikes eco-mentalists so you're already behind. 😉

 

[dud]

I despise Clarckson with a passion ... but I find it hard to disagree with him on this one.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
lmao

The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he?s doing the world a favour.

The thing that always makes me laugh about this is how ridiculous it sounds. As if his Range Rover is made from raw materials all sourced locally.

I like Clarkson and Top Gear but I agree with Skoorb, he wanted to hate this car before he even drove it.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
lmao

The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he?s doing the world a favour.

The thing that always makes me laugh about this is how ridiculous it sounds. As if his Range Rover is made from raw materials all sourced locally.

I like Clarkson and Top Gear but I agree with Skoorb, he wanted to hate this car before he even drove it.

Point is, these dumb hybrids aren't near as "eco-friendly" as they are played out to be.

 

[zoiks]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
lmao

The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he?s doing the world a favour.

The thing that always makes me laugh about this is how ridiculous it sounds. As if his Range Rover is made from raw materials all sourced locally.

I like Clarkson and Top Gear but I agree with Skoorb, he wanted to hate this car before he even drove it.

He probably did but he does point out some nuances in the car such as its accelaration, noise, build quality etc. He's rather colorful in describing all of these.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
lmao

The nickel for the battery has to come from somewhere. Canada, usually. It has to be shipped to Japan, not on a sailing boat, I presume. And then it must be converted, not in a tree house, into a battery, and then that battery must be transported, not on an ox cart, to the Insight production plant in Suzuka. And then the finished car has to be shipped, not by Thor Heyerdahl, to Britain, where it can be transported, not by wind, to the home of a man with a beard who thinks he?s doing the world a favour.

recycled almost verbatim from top gear a couple years ago. getting lazy, clarkson.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
do not know, but i saw it on a commercial last night and I thought it was a Prius....they look the same to me.

same here. but that review is flawless, lol.

 

[TehMac]

Clarkson and Top Gear did like the Honda FCX Clarity, so they are for clean cars that work.

This does not, except compete with Toyota's Badge Competition in America where guilty white middle class 'liberals' can show off how environmentally friendly they want to appear to be.

 

[imported_Imp]

Not sure if the guy is kidding or serious...

Anyways, I actually saw my first Insight today. It was parked on a "rich person" street. The light blue colour looked like ass though. Still prefer the Prius look.

 

[Mermaidman]

It appears Clarkson may be on to something:
From Autoblog, Consumer Reports ranks Insight 21st out of 22!

(That Elantra Touring is intriguing, but it looks so bland.)

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: evident
what else would you expect? clarkson and jalopnik hate hybrids

Jalopnik wasn't to harsh on the 2010 Prius, surprisingly. They did say that if you got one you had to have the 17" option.

 

[Aikouka]

I do agree with some of his later sentiments that the current hybrid trend is really nothing more than a stepping stone of where we need to be in alternative fuel. Frankly, I'm waiting on Mr. Fusion.

 

[SSSnail]

If you say the Prius looks better than the Insight, then your bias veil is a bit thin. Then go on to complain about the color? Give it a break fanboi, you're not fooling anyone.

They both look like ass, except the Prius looks like the more hideous ass, and worst in its puke green color.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: SSSnail
If you say the Prius looks better than the Insight, then your bias veil is a bit thin. Then go on to complain about the color? Give it a break fanboi, you're not fooling anyone.

They both look like ass, except the Prius looks like the more hideous ass, and worst in its puke green color.

Except for 2k more, the prius is a much, much better car period. Higher quality interior materials than insight, planetary gear CVT v.s. a Band type CVT, better engine, better, muvh more capable electric motor, better ride... There is no competition, if you want a hatch hybrid, the Prius is light years ahead of the Insight, even the Gen2 is much better than the Insight.

The insight isn't a cheaper prius, but everything that make a car a car was cut rate as far as the insight goes. It's a cripple Honda Civic powertrain with a higher .cd than the hybrid civic (and Prius, and old Insight) despite the kammback, a crippled motor, crappy seats, stupidly designed interior, the oft lamented band type CVT (planetary gearset CVTS behave much more differently), a bad ride, I mean there are no redeeming features the Insight has as a eco-hybrid over a prius which isn't that much more expensive.

honda really screwed up with the Insight and it shows in sales numbers. New prius orders are pouring in, surging above expectations, Insight is not meeting expectations, slashing projected sales 30-40%.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: MotF Bane

In engineering terms, you really can?t have ?brilliant, apart from ...? whether it?s a nuclear power station, a motorway crash barrier or a car. I mean, the Titanic was brilliant, apart from its crappy rudder.

The rudder was fine... it was the bulk heads and the momentum.

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: SSSnail
If you say the Prius looks better than the Insight, then your bias veil is a bit thin. Then go on to complain about the color? Give it a break fanboi, you're not fooling anyone.

They both look like ass, except the Prius looks like the more hideous ass, and worst in its puke green color.

Except for 2k more, the prius is a much, much better car period. Higher quality interior materials than insight, planetary gear CVT v.s. a Band type CVT, better engine, better, muvh more capable electric motor, better ride... There is no competition, if you want a hatch hybrid, the Prius is light years ahead of the Insight, even the Gen2 is much better than the Insight.

The insight isn't a cheaper prius, but everything that make a car a car was cut rate as far as the insight goes. It's a cripple Honda Civic powertrain with a higher .cd than the hybrid civic (and Prius, and old Insight) despite the kammback, a crippled motor, crappy seats, stupidly designed interior, the oft lamented band type CVT (planetary gearset CVTS behave much more differently), a bad ride, I mean there are no redeeming features the Insight has as a eco-hybrid over a prius which isn't that much more expensive.

honda really screwed up with the Insight and it shows in sales numbers. New prius orders are pouring in, surging above expectations, Insight is not meeting expectations, slashing projected sales 30-40%.

I haven't driven the Prius Gen III or the Insight Gen II, but the only thing that I've heard car reviewers say is that the Insight is more fun/communicative to drive. Barring that, it seems that the Prius is really a bargain compared to the Insight for what you get for a minimal amount of extra money. And lets be honest...if I'm buying one of these...it is not for the fun to drive factor. It is purely for utility/efficiency.