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2019 Honda Insight

WES ALLISON

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2019 Honda Insight

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2019 Honda Insight

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2019 Honda Insight

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2019 Honda Insight

WES ALLISON

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2019 Honda Insight

WES ALLISON

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2019 Honda Insight

WES ALLISON

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2019 Honda Insight

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2019 Honda Insight

WES ALLISON

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As car manufacturers race to come up with the perfect hybrid, or perhaps even an all-electric automobile, Honda is making a statement with a hybrid that looks just like a normal sedan with 50 plus miles per gallon fuel efficiency.

We lost track of how many people asked us which new Honda we had, the Civic or Accord. We had to chalk one up to the designers of the hybrid Insight. There was nothing about it that shouted hybrid. Instead, it appeared for all intents and purposes to be a normal 4-door sedan.

On paper, the Insight is said to get 51 mpg around town and 45 on the highway, with a combined total mpg of 48. For our test week of driving, it quickly became apparent that it would be very hard for us to go through a whole tank of gas.

On a normal week of driving, we don’t have a problem getting through a whole tank with just our normal driving and perhaps a longer ride on the weekend. However, with the Insight, we ended the week after 350 miles of driving and still had over one-quarter of a tank and 150 miles to go till empty.

How did we do? Well we ended up with a 51 mpg average that included a lot of Utah Valley driving, and about 30% being on the freeway. This is a fantastic number and is very hard to ignore if mpg is what you are considering. It truly stands out among the competition. Add to that the “normal looks” of the Insight sedan and it adds up to be the perfect combination.

Honda makes all this happen with some extra wizardry in the engine compartment, utilizing not only a gas-driven engine, but and electric motor also, and there is no transmission involved in the deal. This is the third generation of the electric/gas combined hybrid technology for Honda, and they seem to be hitting the sweet spot with this one.

The Insight will run on electricity if it can. It has a large 60-cell ion battery pack that drives the electric motor. The gasoline engine will, for the most part, only produce electricity, feeding it straight to the electric motor through a generator set up or recharging the batteries. It can even do both at the same time.

Also, when circumstances demand, a lock-up clutch connects the gasoline engine directly to the electric drive motor, providing the most efficient operation for highway driving. The combined electric/gas hybrid system put out 151 horsepower and 197 pound per foot of torque.

There are also four different driving modes available, Eco, Normal, Sport and EV Electric. By turning off the gas engine completely in EV mode the Insight will drain the batteries in a mile or two depending on the driving conditions.

Eco mode tries to seek out every last little bit of extra mpg possible, with normal mode being about the same with a little more pep. Sport mode really just allows a little more power into the experience, again the Insight is not designed to be an extra quick sedan.

It did struggle when we put the pedal to the floor, wanting as much power as we could get, so there is a learning curve to getting used to how the Honda performs. It would go 70 on the freeway with no problem and maintain that speed with other traffic. Getting there just take a few extra seconds than other, more powerful sedans.

This is where the tradeoff comes into play. Would we rather have the extra acceleration or extremely high gas mileage? When looking at the window sticker, annual fuel consumption comes in at $800 annually, or $67 per month. We would have to think the only way to do better would be to go completely electric. The problem there is it is hard to find an all-electric vehicle in the same price range that sports the same interior features.

The inside of the Insight was everything we would have expected from Honda, including leather trimmed seats that were heated. We could run them all the time, unlike an all-electric where you have to give up mileage to have warm buns.

The drive system was like all other Hondas, being taken from the Acura NSX, made up of all push buttons. We really like this system, although it does take a couple of days to get used to where the buttons are, and how to go from reverse to drive to park. It is very innovative and futuristic, more so than any other part of the sedan.

Dual climate control, push button start and a great phone interface that included Apple CarPlay and Android Auto were also part of the interior package. The Insight also came with Honda’s Driver Attention Warning that will alert the driver audibly if the vehicle thinks the driver isn’t paying attention to the road.

Also standard on the Touring trim was Honda Sensing. This has been one of our favorite safety packages over the past couple of years. It includes adaptive cruise control that will stop and go at low speeds, collision mitigation and braking and a road departure mitigation function that will try to keep the vehicle safely on the road.

Our favorite feature, lane keep assist, does a fantastic job in conjunction with the other safety features of keeping the Insight centered in the lane, almost driving the vehicle by itself. Honda makes one of the best systems of this kind that we have driven, and at a much lower price point than most.

After a week with the Insight we were convinced by its good looks and great gas mileage that it is a fantastic option in the hybrid world. After all, how could one go wrong with 50 plus mpg every day?

Base Price: $28,090

Price as Driven: $28,090