[Nagorak]

They made the Insight more fun to drive and they kept the cost artificially low. What other car manufacturer would sell such a low-production vehicle in the US for less than $20,000?

This is a fair thing to point out, but keep in mind that Honda isn't doing this completely out of generosity. The fact that they take a loss on each insight is balanced out by a few factors:

1) Every Insight owner is basically a moving bill board, providing free advertising for Hybrid cars. The Insight is there to raise the profile of hybrid electric cars. Meanwhile the Civic Hybrid is there to show that they can look just like every other car (not sure why that's a bonus, but eh...).

2) The Insight gets the best gas mileage of any car on the market, so Honda can use that for PR purposes (makers of the "efficient" hybrid drive system). It also increase their "green" image (although I notice they have plenty of SUVs for sale too, but I guess they do have to make money).

3) Insights also allow Honda to field test their hybrid technology and work out any of the bugs, as well as improve on it and reduce the price for when they're ready to move the technology into the mainstream. Yes, we're guinea pigs, but at least with Honda it's a more or less cruelty-free testing facility, unlike what you'd experience with Ford or GMC.

4) The Insight also demonstrates just how far behind the times the American and European car manufacturers are (5 years+ years?) and prevents them from trying to attempt a PR cover-up. Since the Insight and Prisu have been on the market for 4 years now (longer in Japan), they can't claim the technology is "too difficult" or "unproven".

I've always been impressed by gas guages.

As long as I don't run out of gas, I'm impressed.