21 Oct 2011

What a miserable piece of @$&!

Posted by:  Harvey Xiao

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I joined Zip Car recently. $9 / hr to play around with so many makes / models was too good a deal to pass up. Last night, I booked a Honda Insight for an hour and a half and took a spin around Boston.

First impressions were good. It's nicely sized for a city car. The hatch makes it rather practical as well. Also, with respect to what else has rolled off the Honda assembly lines either, the Insight isn't bad-looking. 

But then things started to go wrong. Inside, the Insight cocoons you in rental grade fabric and cheap, hard, black plastic. The instrument cluster is weird, and the center stack is confusing. 

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Then there's this: The Honda Insight is hands down the WORST car I have ever driven. And yes, I've driven the last-gen Kia Rio.

Why do people buy Hondas? Well, from my experience (after owning 3 Accords, a Prelude, and an Integra), it's because they have:
  • Great fit & finish 
  • Highly efficient
  • The smoothest, best sounding, most engaging naturally aspirated 4-cylinder engines in the industry
The Insight has none of this. Fit & Finish? Average at best. Efficiency? The last Ford Fusion Hybrid I drove humiliates the Insight on MPG's. The Ford is bigger, heavier, and faster. 

But I want to focus on the engine. To say that it's coarse, rough, and nasty-sounding is an understatement. My 2-stroke Honda lawnmower sounds smoother and more refined than the Insight does at 4000 rpm. 

Speaking of 4000 rpm, that brings me to my next point. The Honda's CVT seems to have only 2 modes. On & Off. It either takes its sweet ass time rolling the Insight away from a stoplight, or goes gangbusters and shoots the motor to 4000 rpm, which sounds like my blender making a smoothie. At the end of the night, I still hadn't figured out how to drive  the Insight smoothly along with the normal flow off traffic, but I was somehow craving a Jamba Juice.

You get the point.

The original Insight was a engineering marvel, and one of the coolest cars Honda ever built. This one only tarnishes its predecessor's name. Honda, if you're going to build something, build it right. This car drives and feels like what it is - a half-assed attempt by Honda to build a Prius. 

After 30 minutes behind the wheel, I gave up, and spent the rest of my time with the Insight away from it. I parked it by MIT and walked around to take some pictures instead. Not of the car. 

(download)

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