US EPA ratings for new Insight 40/43 mpg (city/highway)

[ibjeff]

The epa gave the new Insight 40/43 mpg (city/highway) which is 2 mpg less than the Civic hybrid and it trails the Toyota Prius by 8 mpg in the city and 2 mpg on the highway. Here is the official artical just placed on the MSN homepage. I was very disappointed.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article. ... rt=hybrids

[budomove]

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article. ... rt=hybrids

When you click on the engine bay shot, you notice that the intake only pulls cold air from above the radiator (coming in from between the hood, and top of the bumper), as opposed to ours that draw air from below, near the wheel well, and also from the exhaust manifold. I guess this was one of their cost reductions.

[joecvt]

Originally Posted by budomove

When you click on the engine bay shot, you notice that the intake only pulls cold air from above the radiator (coming in from between the hood, and top of the bumper), as opposed to ours that draw air from below, near the wheel well, and also from the exhaust manifold. I guess this was one of their cost reductions.

In an un-modded Insight, the intake air only comes from the black plastic tube that runs across the front of the plastic engine cover as shown here:


The tubing that goes down to the front wheel area is a resonator chamber for reducing air intake noise. No intake air comes from the exhaust manifold unless it has been modified for the warm air intake mod (not from Honda).

JoeCVT = Just your average CVT owner

[budomove]

You got me, I had a feeling that's what it was, but wasn't sure.(resonator, I mean).... I meant to say intake manifold, not exhaust. On older hondas the engine was mounted the other way, with the exhaust manifold up front, i forgot.

[joecvt]

Your right I've owned an 84 CRX, 87 Integra, 90 Integra and 92 Integra and all the engines had the exhaust facing the front of the car. Seems backwards now that I think about it a bit...

It would have been nice and perhaps a much easier sale of the new model if the MPG at least matched the current Prius. From the specs, it looks like Honda is using less cells in the battery pack only totalling 100.8V 5.75Ah instead of 144V 6.5Ah. That would help cut costs...I'm not sure why Honda went with a 2 valve per cylinder setup instead of 4 valve per cylinder like the "vintage" Insight.

JoeCVT = Just your average CVT owner

[budomove]

Yeah, the new pack is 7 subpacks of 12, whereas the vintage had 20 subpacks of 6, so it is 84/120= .7, so th enew pack is 30% smaller.

I noticed it was an 8 valver too, like the old HF (d15b6) and CX (d15b engines. Those motors were almost as efficient as the vx (d15z1) 16 valver without all the fancy VTEC.