TEST DRIVE: Inhabitat Tests the Real-World Mileage of the 2012 Honda Insight Hybrid

The <a title="Honda Insight hybrid" href="http://automobiles.honda.com/insight-hybrid/" target="_blank">Honda Insight</a> hybrid preceded even the <a title="Test Drive: Inhabitat Transportation Editor Laura K. Cowan takes the Plug-in Prius for an extended drive" href="../test-drive-inhabitat-takes-the-plug-in-prius-for-an-extended-drive/" target="_blank">Toyota Prius</a> in the U.S. market as the first widely available <a title="Inhabitat: hybrid car" href="../index.php?s=hybrid+car" target="_blank">hybrid passenger car</a>. Back then the car was allegedly achieving a fuel mileage of 70 miles per gallon, and it quickly became a favorite of early adopters interested in the <a title="Inhabitat: green automotive design" href="../index.php?s=green+automotive+design" target="_blank">green car scene</a>. Then, the vehicle was pulled from production, reinvented, and attempted to make a comeback, but the new Insight only boasted 40 mpg fuel economy ratings. What happened? That's what we set out to discover during our week-long test of a 2012 Honda Insight hybrid - the next generation of Insight.

The first thing we noticed about our test car was the Prius-like shape. Many journalists have criticized this as an aerodynamic knockoff, but the truth is that the Insight was the originator of the hybrid wedge shape, 7 months before the first Prius hit the U.S. market.

From the outside, the new Insight looks like a Honda from the front and a hybrid from the rear, but loses all its original radical styling, including the dead-giveaway covered wheel wells.

The vehicle remains close to the ground, however, with a low-riding seating position and low ground clearance for maximum fuel efficiency.

Unlike the Chevy Volt, which uses slippery low-rolling resistance tires to help fuel economy along, the Insight uses tires that can, say, handle driving off into a field of sunflowers for a photo shoot.

Braking, handling, and traction were also an improvement over the Volt and the plug-in Prius. The Honda Insight is now the most normal car of the bunch in terms of everyday driving ability.

Adding second-row seats has changed the shape of the Insight, but the rear hatch door remains steeply raked--almost horizontal.

No exterior badging or stickers to show off the green credentials of this car. It is designed to blend into its owner's modest lifestyle seamlessly.

The rear window is so steeply raked, in fact, that the driver sees a lot of reflections of the road or sky in the window while driving. Slightly distracting but not a big deal.

The Insight's trunk is very similar to its Prius and Volt cousins. Long, shallow, and convenient for basic everyday storage.

The doors have less insulation in them than the average car, presumably to save weight. This gives the car a slightly hollow tin can sound when you close the doors.

A thoroughly modern cockpit, with every convenience that was missing in the original Insight.

The ECON ASSIST button allows the driver to automatically pull maximum fuel efficiency out of the car by pushing a button to throttle the gas and air conditioning.

Meanwhile, the speedometer at the top of the dash gives real-time feedback about the efficiency of your driving, glowing green for economic driving, fading to green-blue for moderately fuel-efficient moves, and turning royal blue for aggressive starts and stops.

The one thing we couldn't figure out was why the vehicle loved to go into EV mode so often at a stop when we were first driving the car, but by the end of the week kept the engine on as pictured here (it would have faded to green if the engine turned off at a stop). Was the Insight learning that we were a tad aggressive?

The Insight's instrument cluster is a combination of traditional tachometer, odometer, and fuel gauge, and an advanced power monitor that tells the driver when they are operating in power-assist mode or recharging the battery.

Same blue-green scheme for the power monitor keeps things simple. The green light at the top of this photo indicates that ECON ASSIST mode is engaged.

Automakers actually have custom colors they use across vehicle lines for everything from badging to electronic displays. We're happy to see the traditional Honda blues and reds on the instrument cluster here.

The fuel meter seems to indicate that you're driving like a fool, until you realize that half a tank of gas is only 4 gallons.

The HVAC system is split into a small digital display and an LED-lit knob, while all the audio and navigation controls are operated via the nav screen. It's a very well-organized way of dividing things up, at least compared with most other current vehicles.

The navigation screen beeps every time you start up the car and the nanny screen demanding your agreement to terms of use switches over to this clock. We do love the large but subtle clock display design, though, which never left us hunting for the time.

Nice digital HVAC display. It takes a little getting used to that the up-down buttons here are for fan speed and the knob below controls temperature, but we love the unique design nonetheless.

The blue LED-lit center knob controls temp, while surrounding buttons select HVAC mode.

Of course the new Insight has a traditional power outlet and an AUX input. USB plug for iPods is located in the center armrest.

This is a pretty standard setup for an automatic transmission gear lever. We were hoping for something a little more futuristic. Maybe next year.