The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid

The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid

Car news from The Automotive Car - The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid gains a new entry-level model and expands standard features elsewhere to mark its second season as Honda’s answer to the Toyota Prius. Insight hasn’t been the sales or critical success Honda had hoped for when it debuted for model-year 2010 promoted by the automaker as the first “affordable hybrid.” This aerodynamic four-door hatchback rates a laudable 40/43 mpg city/highway, but its five-passenger cabin is cramped and noisy, and overall performance is tepid, even by hybrid compact-car standards.

 The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid

Moreover, Toyota stole much of the value impact Honda had banked on with the 2010 Insight’s $20,510 starting price by pricing its larger, faster, more fuel-efficient Prius at $22,750. Honda hopes to retake some value ground by adding the 2011 Insight base model at $18,950 while at the same time filtering such essentials as cruise control and a USB iPod interface from the top-line Insight EX model down to the less-expensive midlevel LX version.

The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid

The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid  Interior 

The 2011 Honda Insight styling is unchanged. Its low nose, swept-back windshield, and long, gently arched roof reduce mileage-robbing wind resistance. They also let onlookers know that Insight is a gas-electric car. That message is important to many hybrid buyers, as evident from the success of the distinctively styled Prius.

2011 Honda Insight Competitors

2011 Toyota Prius: The obvious hybrid alternative will cost you slightly more than an Insight to start – $23,810 for a stripper version, and will easily nudge $30,000 when ordered with options Insight doesn’t offer, such as leather upholstery and a solar-panel roof to help cool the car. But Prius is a larger, quieter four-door hatchback than the Insight. With 134 net horsepower, it’s faster, and with the ability to run longer on electricity, is more fuel-efficient, too, though it earns its own driving demerits for numb handling and indifferent steering. The current Prius was introduced as a 2010 model and is likely to gain a plug-in variant for model-year 2012.

2011 Honda Fit: We would counsel you to consider the Honda Civic Hybrid, but the Civic is due for a full redesign in model-year 2012 and details about the return of its gas-electric model are sketchy. In the interim, you can sample Honda design efficiency and waste-no-resources engineering in the remarkably roomy Fit. This subcompact four-door hatchback takes up less space on the road than the Insight, yet has more usable passenger and cargo volume. It’s got front-wheel drive, surprisingly sporty handling, and a 117-horsepower four-cylinder gas engine rated at 27/33 mpg with manual transmission, 28/35 with automatic. Prices are a treat, starting under $16,000 and topping out around $20,000. Fit won’t see any major changes for several more years.

2011 Volkswagen Golf TDI: Widen your definition of alternative fuel to include diesel and you’ll be impressed by this oil-burning version of VW’s compact hatchback. Golf was restyled inside and out for model-year 2010. It dropped the Rabbit name but returns as a front-drive two- and four-door hatchback with an available four-cylinder turbodiesel of 140 horsepower and a stout 237 pound-feet of torque. It comes with a six-speed manual transmission or with automatic shifting via an automated manual gearbox. Either way, ratings are an impressive 30/43 mpg. Diesel fuel prices fluctuate from less- to more-expensive than gasoline, but the Golf TDI delivers a decisively better driving experience than the Insight – and any compact hybrid we can think of. Compared to those of just a few years ago today’s diesels are quiet, relatively odor-free, and meet gas-engine emissions rules. Golf TDI prices start at $24,205.