The review clearly shows the same kind of thinking that I have seen in all car reviews... they always seem to miss the fun I have seen and have in my insight.... they would rather spend 100 pages talking about getting from 0 to 60 as fast as possible and almost never more than a one or two sentence line about anything from a FE and advanced technology point of view....
The things that has made the insight a modern classic is not the 0 to 60 times.... not the forced high RPM reeving of the engine... not any of those things the car was not built or designed for... but in the elegance and brilliance of how and what the car was designed and built for....
Aerodynamics:
In order to get another production car in the Aerodynamic performance range the Insight has you are spending well over $60,000 ... you could easily spend a full 300 page book going over all the subtle things and thier effects that Honda did to achieve this level of aerodynamics....
Weight design and aluminum:
It is very light weight... not just because of the aluminum but because of some of the methods Honda took to exploit the aluminum ( Thixotropic Die Casting ) and the G-Force Control Technology .... "The resulting body structure has 13 percent more bending strength and an impressive 38 percent more torsional rigidity than a comparably-sized steel body, despite weighing 40 percent less." (
http://www.insightcentral.net/encyclope ... minum.html ) ... again you could easily spend a full 300 page book describing and discussing what Honda did and why.
Engine:
This little 995cc 3 liter engine in the insight has won engineering awards every single year it was in production ... car magazine reviews always focus on what the engine is not... instead of focusing on what has made it revolutionary and ground breaking ... it has been recorded on the road operating in lean burn at up to 25.8 to 1 fuel to air ratio... which by itself is amazing for so many combustion engine design reasons... it is smaller and weighs less is more efficiency ... has new technology all over the place in part production and part design ... again you could easily spend a 300 page book talking about what Honda did in this little engine.
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The Insight Engine won the International Engine of the Year award for 2000.
The Insight Engine won the International Engine of the Year Award subcategory for Best Fuel economy / Green engine in 2000,2001, & 2002.
The Insight Engine won the International Engine of the Year award subcategory for sub 1.0 L Engine every single year it was produced 2000, 2001 , 2002 , 2003 , 2004 , 2005 , 2006
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IMA:
Most car reviews will only give the IMA 2 or 3 sentences from their muscle car thinking before moving on... the IMA is another excellent design ... if you went out to buy a 10kW electric motor drive system for an EV that had regenerative braking you would easily find yourself spending over $10,000 ... but the IMA does this and does it lighter and smaller than what you could find... and it also at faster than a 6,000 rpm engine will switch on and off and directions in order to act as a dampening system to negate some of the issues one might have otherwise had with having a 3 cylinder engine.... and even given the environment it is in it is so robust and durable it will almost never need anything for maintenance.... again you could easily fill a 300 page book about the IMA drive system.
Batteries:
People always seem to focus on the limited Ah of the "D" cells in the insight.... these little batteries are worthy of another 300 page book all for themselves... Very few batteries of any kind could you buy that can take 7.7C charge rates and 15.4C Discharge rates... especially 9 and 10 years ago when they were designing and building the Insight.... I have my original NiMH pack for over 118,000 miles and more than 8 years... and there are others out there with more on an original pack than me... and these little batteries are 10 year old technology now.... in Aug of 2007 when I pulled the battery from my insight and did cycle tests on it I found my pack was out of balance , but after some cycles to get the sub-packs rebalanced they still showed over 92% original capacity after over 7 years and who knows how many cycles and how many 15.4C discharge hits.... I think that is pretty impressive for 10 year old technology... sitting out in the cold every winter ... in the heat every summer.
Safety:
This little car has safety features all over the place.... some very uninformed people have attacked the electricity in the car... HV Lines clearly marked... HV lines disabled the instant the system detects a ground contact.... even if the system fails to detect the ground or isolate the battery with the HV relay ... the passive component fuses will trip as a backup layer of isolation... Each Battery has it's own containment enclosure... the battery pack as a whole has a containment box.... the containment box sits in another containment box... which is further protected on all sides by crumple zones built into the frame.... The electricity in the Honda Insight is better labeled and better isolated and better protected than in any house hold running 120V lines or 240V lines.... the Honda HV system in the Insight is safer than a GFI outlet.... and still the car has many other safety features separate from the electrical side.
I could go on... but the Insight is a classic even to those who only seek to ridicule it ... it is an icon for the few who see it for what it is and was built for and ... it is a marvel to the few who see the design and technology that went into it ... and it is a piece of art and beauty to those who see the elegance and grace of it and its design.... Is it perfect of course not ... always room to be improved , especially as newer technology becomes available .... can it fit all roles and life styles, of course not ... sometimes in war you need a tank ... sometimes you need a hover craft ... sometimes you need a space craft.... but for the role it was built for the Insight is still king.
but... I've ranted enough...
.... I'll go back to my corner.
Insight - Magazine Review - New!
I've had my 2000 Insight for about 6 weeks now and I'd agree it's a modern classic!
