Drove this as a hire car today...

[GrazReed]

I gotta say, I quite like it!

Automatic, efficient, spacious. Ok it doesn't have much guts, but if I had another car, something family, i'd give it a thought.

EDIT: Picture didn't upload right... Honda Insight '61

[DPG87]

Am I missing something?

[geemac]

drove what?

[speedwing]

Erm, so what car was it then?

[GrazReed]

See edit above... sodding picture didn't upload. Insight '61 plate

[Stevo!]

Still not there??


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[robbo51]

I had one as hire car in Spain last October ( No choice given)
The most dreadful car Ive driven in recent years..Totally gutless....an annoying and unpredictable gearbox and zero rear visability....Oh and......crappy interior plastics too

[Chambo]

i thought it was ok...

[Uriel]

I like them but I'm kind of biased. Have owned a 2010 Insight ES for about 10 months now.

Not too popular around these parts are they?

At the time I was coming away from two old money-pit Skodas - a Fabia then Octavia. When I bought the Insight I was looking to control costs so Honda's reliability plus the tax and fuel consumption were appealing. I had an offer of an interest free loan from a family member on condition the car was relatively new and fairly low mileage.

The shortlist that I got as far as test driving was Mk2 Prius (soul destroyingly boring to drive), Hyundai i30 1.6 Diesel Estate (not bad but boot no bigger than the Insight), 1.6 Octavia tdi (too similar to my old car) and the Insight.

I'd also been hearing stories about DPF problems on various newer diesels and having had turbo problems on one of my old cars I was increasingly getting put off diesels in general.

Were it not for the paddle shifters I would have never considered an Insight. I live in a hilly area and not being able to engine brake easily would do my head in. My decision was made by negotiating with a dealer over the phone on the basis that it had to be worth my while to bother with a 300 mile round trip to see a car. Around £3k under the What Car price guide and cheaper than any other non-repaired Insight I could see for the age and mileage in the country swung it for me.

I will admit to my driving style having evolved in the general direction of fuel economy prior to getting the insight. As such I've not had much of a problem with the high revs engine noise that some have complained about. With good anticipation you can keep up with 60 or 70mph traffic on hills at under 3k rpm.

Annoyances? Well there are a few more dash squeaks and rattles than I'd like (although I recently rented a 12 plate Golf TDI and that was just as bad). Putting the windows down and back up again doesn't clear mist from the outside like every other car I've ever owned - plus if you drive with the windows part way down they rattle. Also one of the rubber roof strips popped off in a car wash. Otherwise the car has been trouble free so far. As usual I've not made the official combined figure. Best tank was 56 mpg - worst was 39 mpg and I'm averaging about 47 mpg. By comparison I was previously averaging around 29 mpg in my 1.4 MPI Fabia and 48 (briefly and summer months only) in a 1.9 tdi Octiavia.

Service wise it had a CVT fluid change at £90 (every 25k or two years according to Honda) and is coming up for my first AB service on Friday (How's £127 at a main dealer sound?).

I miss driving a proper manual car though.