2012 Honda Insight at Car Show

[russellc]

Today I went to the Connecticut International Car Show at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, CT. It's going on this weekend. Tomorrow on Sunday is the last day from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Anyways, I had the opportunity of seeing the 2012 Honda Insight EX in the Honda section and I took pictures of the car.

What is clearly different than the 2010 Honda Insight (which I have) is that it has a better interior with cloth and leatherette seats, silver edged vents and better quality dashboard plastic. Outside the car, I noticed that the car had BridgeStone Ecopia 185/60 R15 tires, instead of the Dunlop tires, which I wish I can replace with my own car. The grill and the back of the car looks different and the car was equipped with a rear view camera.

I'm somewhat dismayed that they could only improve the highway gas mileage by one mile and the city mpg doesn't change at all. The trunk had noticeably less room, probably because they gave a little legroom to the rear seating area. There were also little things that I noticed that were different than my car like the navigation system (buttons and FM traffic feature) and a compartment in the center console, next to the drink holders that you can store small stuff like loose change. Also, the steering wheel and shifter are wrapped in leather, a feature I liked.

If you are thinking about buying a brand new Insight, I would get the 2012 model. Unless you can get a better deal for a 2011, which I think might be a better option.

[russellc]

Here's three more pictures I took...

[Zwolfe]

I got a question about the headlamp assemblies.

The 2012 uses some sort of blue tint film. Is the blue chrome on the projector portion of the headlamp assemblies gone in its place?

[alam99]

I'm looking forward to checking out the 2012 when the auto show arrives in my neck of the woods. BTW, I believe the city MPG also improved by 1 mpg, from 40 to 41.

[russellc]

Originally Posted by alam99

I'm looking forward to checking out the 2012 when the auto show arrives in my neck of the woods. BTW, I believe the city MPG also improved by 1 mpg, from 40 to 41.

You're right... my mistake... I thought it hadn't changed.


Sent from my Autoguide iPad app

[russellc]

Originally Posted by Zwolfe

I got a question about the headlamp assemblies.

The 2012 uses some sort of blue tint film. Is the blue chrome on the projector portion of the headlamp assemblies gone in its place?

I don't know... I guess I really didn't really notice it. I took a picture of the front of the car and come to think of it, it does look somewhat different.


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[Cobb]

They stoled my idea about putting a chrome trim piece between the reverse lamps. Still 1 mpg improvement w wider tires is impressive.


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[russellc]

[QUOTE=Cobb;208837]They stoled my idea about putting a chrome trim piece between the reverse lamps. Still 1 mpg improvement w wider tires is impressive.
If I put the same tires on my car, would I lose gas mileage? How much do you think I would lose?

[jcbesq]

going from a 175/65/15 to 185/60/15 isn't that big a tire upgrade - the amount of tread is only about an extra .4 inch and 8 extra revs over a mile ... ultimately it will come down to tire selection, compound, etc. ... and obviously, since the '12 insight realized an extra 1mpg, with quite modest changes all around, bigger tires don't neccesarily equate with LOWER mpgs

[CraigCA]

These have been at the car dealers her in LA for a couple of weeks.

I have to say, they look much more substantial than my 2010. They look wider from the back because the taillights are a bit different and that chrome strip across the tailgate. Oh, btw, that same chrome strip design showed up on the plug-in Prius in late 2010. My neighbor had a plug-in Prius in his driveway. I heard he works for Toyota.