CAR GAZING
Insight into the future
Small, efficient Honda meets Obama's 2016 standards
By Derek Price
President Obama announced new federal fuel economy standards last week that are going to revolutionize what Americans drive.
These aren't going to be small, incremental changes. In order to meet this new government mandate – changing from today's 27.5 mpg average to a whopping 39 mpg average in 2016 – cars are going to be dramatically different in just a few years. They're going to be smaller, lighter, less powerful and more expensive than today's vehicles because that's the only way carmakers can achieve such drastic changes in fuel economy.
It was serendipitous, then, to find myself driving an Obamamobile at the same time those changes were announced.
Honda calls it the 2010 Insight, but make no mistake: this is the kind of car the president thinks we should all be driving. It's a small gas-electric hybrid designed entirely to get good mileage, from its tin-foil doors to its little screaming-hamster engine.
It's the cheapest hybrid car you can buy, starting at $19,800, and it feels like it. Unlike the more expensive Toyota Prius, which basically feels like a regular gas-only vehicle, the Insight drives like a battery-powered bath toy with its Styrofoam body, toothpick suspension and herky-jerky electric power.
But really, no one buys a car like this because they're looking for refinement and comfort. No, people buy hybrids because they're environmental elitists, and the Insight is custom built to stoke eco-snobbery.
The Insight's body has the same sleek wedge shape that has come to define today's hybrid cars. That shape helps it get 40 mpg in town and 43 mpg on the highway, but more importantly, it tells everyone else that you're driving something "green."
The interior won't let you forget it, either.
Above the digital speedometer, a band of light constantly adjusts to tell you how efficiently you're driving. The bluer it gets, the more fuel you're wasting. The greener it gets, the more Earth-friendly you're driving.
Isn't that cute?
If that's not hokey enough, you can also check out your "eco score" on a digital display. The more efficiently you drive, the more leaves show up at the end of your trip, just like scoring points in a video game.
To keep the weight and fuel consumption down, the Insight is powered by a small 1.3-liter gasoline engine that gets help from a 10-kilowatt electric motor, boosting acceleration without using more gas. Batteries for the electric motor are recharged every time you hit the brakes, so you don't have to plug it in.
As an environmental badge of honor, the Insight clearly excels. But how is it as a regular car?
Aside from the mediocre acceleration you'd expect from a fuel-efficient vehicle, it's actually not much different from any other economy car. It has a stiff, Civic-like suspension and small back seat, but the front seats are roomy enough.
Despite its sub-$20,000 price and complex drivetrain, the Insight comes with quite a bit of standard equipment. No-cost features include a continuously variable automatic transmission, automatic climate control, a steering column that tilts and telescopes, power windows and a CD player.
For an extra $1,500, you can get the Insight EX, which adds traction control, alloy wheels, cruise control, a better stereo with USB audio input, heated mirrors, and paddle shifters on the steering wheel. A navigation system is optional on the EX.
Overall, even though it's a dinky little car with a dinky little engine designed for people with eco-guilt, I still like it for one reason: it answers my biggest gripe about hybrids.
Up to this point, hybrid technology has been too expensive to truly help people with their bills at the gas pump. To subsidize the cost, carmakers have typically only offered hybrids with a bunch of high-end options that drove up the prices to the point that it didn't make financial sense to buy one except as a status symbol. If the hybrid cost, say, $8,000 more than the cheapest gas-powered version of the same car, it would take years and years of driving to make up the difference in reduced fuel costs.
The Insight, though, is a car most people can actually afford. It puts hybrid technology into the hands of people who need the most help with their gasoline costs.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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