Insight off to a flying start

What I find absolutely amazing is how similar the Insight looks compared to the Prius. If you were to ask ANY car buying consumer they would SWEAR that the Insight is in actuality the next gen Prius. I know that Honda makes great cars but the similarity of the design compared to the Prius puzzles me greatly. At any rate, I would never consider the Insight because to me it is just a mild hybrid. The HSD is purely genius.

 

Today, this minute, I would lay out $500 - $1,000 to have the Insight front seats and telescopic steering wheel in my Prius, while saying goodbye to the Pri seats.

Hate to burst your bubble, but the Gen2 cloth front seats are virtually carbon copies from a $12k Yaris hatchback, but with airbags.

Sit in a Camry to find out what decent car seats are like. The Insight front seats are not bad at all either.

 

This is great, I really don't care who outsells who, as long as people are starting to move towards better solutions, it's all good. Soon there will be so many people with hybrids, automakers will have no choice but to make EV's mainstream and affordable. Hopefully it's soon. Personally, I prefer the prius because it gets better MPG without compromising interior space.

 

with sales of 2000+ Insights for April, that is a flying start compared to any other time in the history of the Insight... heck, 2000 isnt that about the total sales for the last 2 years it was offered?

 

Yeah, you're right.

The Gen2 Prius and Gen1 Insight aren't even comparable in shape or form.

 

Completely agree with you. It'd be nice if some Honda & Toyota hybrid fanboys could focus their attention on the big picture. HSD & IMA are both a start in the right direction, even though the HSD is much more advanced.

 

LOL. You can transpose a two door to a four door. How much did you resize the Prius. Did you keep the same horizontal to vertical ratio?

You can do that to any two cars actually.

 

I believe a tow car is called a tractor.

Tom

 

Hahaha I fixed the typo.

 

Honda's sales goal for the Insight is 200,000 per year worldwide with 100,000 of those sold in the US.

Honda's new Insight doubles first-month sales targets in Japan - [2009 Honda Insight] - MotorAuthority - Car news, reviews, spy shots

We won't be able to really get a gauge for how well the Insight is selling for a couple of months yet. The Insight when on sale 22-April so it was only on sale for 9 days in April.

 

[]...The Insight when on sale 22-April so it was only on sale for 9 days in April.[/quote]

More like March 24, so it was on sale the entire month of April, though I don't know how well they were able to stock the pipeline.

 

Yes, the aspect ratios kept the same.

 

One can certainly argue that both follow the natural form dictated by physics. I still think the Insight looks even more like the Gen 2 Prius than the Gen 3 Prius does.

 

I stand corrected. For some reason I thought the Insight went on sale on Earth Day.

 

So the Insight is selling at 1/4 the rate they expected? I wonder if it is the production / availability issue.

 

That was one of the announced plans, but they managed to get started earlier.

 

That's simply not true. There might have been an Insight somewhere on 3/24 (like Japan), but they are still pretty rare at US dealers. To compare April Insight sales (partial month, pipeline just starting) to April Prius sales (excess inventory of Gen 2's and discounts everywhere) is meaningless. Until both pipelines are full again, Insight and Prius Gen 3, you can't conclude much.

Frankly, I hope they both do well, like many others here.

 

October 2009 sales will be the tell. We'll know first week in November 2009. Everything else is wishful thinking.

Bob Wilson

 

Why is October 2009 so special in your opinion?