If you have heard of the Honda Insight at all, you can't possibly be unaware that it's the latest hybrid car to arrive on the UK market. The benefits of its petrol/electric powertrain on fuel economy and CO2 emissions (and, by extention, tax) form the cornerstone of Honda's marketing campaign, and the message is rammed home every bit as insistently by the car itself: the instrument panel is largely devoted to telling you how efficiently you are driving by means of changing background colours, animated diagrams and even slowly-growing tree figures.This friendly nod towards Gaia is likely to be the main reason why anyone would buy the car, and it's perfectly sensible of Honda to emphasise it.But if the Insight - or indeed anything of the same type - is to become part of mainstream motoring it needs to have a broader appeal, so I propose to refer you to Jim McCauley's launch review (where you will find as much technical information as you need), ignore the whole hybrid business almost entirely and concentrate on the Insight's abilities as a competitor in the C segment, which in the UK is dominated by the Ford Focus.The first thing to note is that the entry-level SE tested here costs £15,490. That makes it much cheaper than any other hybrid on the market, and you'd have to restrict yourself to the bottom of the Focus and Vauxhall Astra price lists to find anything similar. But while its immediate competitors make do with an engine and a manual gearbox, the Insight has a petrol engine and an electric motor and a battery pack and a CVT transmission. You can see how all that can add up, and it's equally clear that Honda has therefore had to save money in other ways.That tremendously informative dashboard, for example, is by far the most impressive thing in the passenger compartment. There seems to have been no effort made to integrate it with the rest of the interior, leading to a shocking contrast between it and the door trims, which appear to have been intended for a different car altogether. And most of the trim consists of cheap, thin plastic which makes the Insight feel quite low-rent and even - no doubt unfairly - rather flimsy.The sense that this is not a quality car is increased by a lot of wind noise (most of it, I think, developed by the windscreen wipers) and a similar amount of road rumble, though I may have been more conscious of this than normal because in most conditions there is very little mechanical sound. In that respect the Insight does feel like a quality product, and there are further contributions from the steering, accelerator and brakes, all of which operate outstandingly smoothly.You can, however, generate quite a lot of mechanical noise simply by deciding you want to do some hard acceleration. Among cars of similar size the only ones which can approach the Insight's official figures of 64.2mpg combined and 101g/km CO2 emissions are fitted with diesel engines, and if you need to get a diesel moving quickly you can do so by using the power it generates at low revs.This can be a relatively quiet process, which puts it in sharp contrast to achieving the same effect in the Insight. Because of the way CVT transmissions work, a heavy application of the throttle sends the engine spinning well beyond 5000rpm and keeps it like that until you no longer have to accelerate.The Insight's problem here is that at these speeds the 1.3-litre petrol engine makes a dreadful strangled cry, not unlike what you would expect from Mr Punch in his less relaxed moments, and the only advantage I can imagine to this is that it promotes economical driving, since if you've heard it once you won't want to hear it again.The Insight's shape is based on aerodynamic requirements, particularly at the rear: the gently sloping roofline culminating abruptly with a sharp cutoff is just the sort of thing to brighten the morning of a fluid dynamicist.But it does lead to practical problems. The most serious of these is that the Insight has two rear windows - one following the gentle slope and the other dropping down almost vertically - and they are separated (as they have to be) by a bar which, though not particularly large, blocks out a significant proportion of the view all the same.The vertical window doesn't have a wiper, so it will become almost impossible to see through in bad conditions. The sloping window does have a wiper, and its motor is mounted on the left of the central bar, reducing visibility even further.Between the windows and the rear doors there is no glass at all, adding two more blind spots for the frustration of the driver.At least he or she has a decent amount of room. Likewise the front passenger. Space is considerably more limited in the rear (partly because of that sloping roof) but this won't be much of an issue for anyone under six feet tall.Luggage volume with all the seats in place is 408 litres, an impressive figure barely approached by most rivals. Fold down the rear seats, though, and the capacity increases only slightly to 584 litres, which is nowhere near what many other C-segment cars provide. And there's another problem in that the luggage space the Insight offers is at the expense of a spare wheel: instead Honda provides a tyre repair kit whose effectiveness, like that of all tyre repair kits, depends entirely on the reason for the puncture. If you have damaged a wheel beyond repair, or ripped a sidewall, the kit will be as useful as a walking stick in a swamp and you'll be stranded until someone comes along to help you.I've come this far without mentioning that the Insight is much duller to drive than almost any other car in its class (which probably isn't important) and that its ride quality over less than ideal surfaces is unpleasantly jiggly (which is), but you'll have got the general point by now.The Insight is in some ways technically clever and interesting, and it is certain to appeal to people who want to make a point about their lifestyle choices, but as a car it just isn't much good. Engine 1339 cc, 4 cylinders Power 98 bhp @5800 rpm Torque 89 ib/ft @4500 rpm Transmission 1 speed auto Fuel/CO2 64.2 mpg / 101 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 12.5sec Top speed 113 mph Price From £16286.00 approx Release date 04/04/2009
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