Honda prices Insight at $20,470

[DainBramaged]

That price includes shipping. The Insight is scheduled to go on sale March 24, said Dick Colliver, American Honda's executive vice president of sales.

The Insight's main competitor, the Toyota Prius, sells for a base list price of $22,720, including shipping.

Despite a weak economy, Honda aims to sell 90,000 units of the Insight in the United States in its first 12 months, said company spokesman Chris Martin.

The Insight has an EPA fuel efficiency rating of 40 mpg city/43 highway.

The Insight is the sole hybrid-only Honda vehicle. Honda sells hybrid and gasoline-powered versions of the Civic compact.

From 1999 to 2006, Honda produced a three-door hybrid called the Insight.

Honda dealers say they are excited about the new Insight.

"I think we will see pressure returning to get better miles per gallon and lower greenhouse emissions," said Peter Hoffman, president of Sierra Motor Co. in suburban Los Angeles. "The car is a great answer for those concerns, and I'm looking forward to seeing one."

Said Eric Kahn, owner of Friendly Honda in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: "The key for the Insight is the pricing. There should be a price difference between the Insight and the competition."

Last year, Toyota sold 158,884 units of the Prius in the United States, down 12.3percent from 2007.

William Walton, manager of automobile product planning at American Honda, said the Insight's target buyers are single young professionals in their 20s.

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090310/ANA05/903109989/1186

[ogneopasno]

1. But...it's still ugly.

[Believing Is Art]

4. I don't know, it's not bad

It basically looks like a Prius. I'd drive it.

[ogneopasno]

7. "It basically looks like a Prius." Which is also ugly.

:spank:

[Believing Is Art]

10. Really? I like them.

To each his own?

[ogneopasno]

14. Indeed. :)

[damntexdem]

21. But will the Insight be outa sight?

Well, if it is, it won't matter if it's ugly.

[mikelgb]

18. Brown skies are uglier

[ogneopasno]

19. Good thing the Prius isn't the only thing with decent mileage!

[DainBramaged]

22. A-E-R-O-D-Y-N-A-M-I-C-S

Coefficient of drag, the lower the number, the better it slices through the wind.

[ogneopasno]

25. Yeah, I know,

but...ugly.

[DainBramaged]

27. Personally I don't like Honda styling

but if they can get the mileage they claim, good on them.

[ogneopasno]

28. Yeah, I can't think of any Honda I've ever liked, either.

[NewJeffCT]

2. your link requires a log-in

at least when I clicked it

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

9. Log-ins suck...but their is a good storie at Honda's blog

http://automobiles.honda.com/insight-hybrid/blog.aspx

[DainBramaged]

23. It is a paid subscription site, the article is posted in full

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. two things

GOOD, but

We own a civic, a hybrid... it HAS the same MPG as my dad's 20 year old BMW 325I

At least on the freeway.

Now read that again

Twenty years ago, we had the same MPG as we do today

There is a problem with that

[Fumesucker]

15. Hybrids get far better economy in traffic than conventional cars..

On the highway a hybrid doesn't have much of an advantage in mileage over an efficient conventional drive system in a similar size car and the late 80's BMW six cylinders like the 325 were quite efficient.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. That's the point, we had those levels of efficiency back then

so we need to ask... why did that drop instead of continue to go up?

CAFE standards... that is why

Oh and we do love that car, actually both of them

[Fumesucker]

24. The 80's 325 is a fairly small car, I used to have a 325e of that era..

The average car has grown by about a thousand pounds since then, that is why efficiency has not improved, there is simply more avoirdupois to haul around.

Edited to add: Also, most cars are capable of getting better than the EPA estimates for mileage when driven conservatively, the EPA highway mileage figure actually figures in quite a few stops and starts, it's not pure interstate driving.

[TlalocW]

26. My 1994 Nissan Sentra

Still gets upper 20s on the highway, and I've driven that thing into the ground. I'm sorry but lower 40s mpg makes me yawn. When the Insight first came out with mpgs in the upper 60s/lower 70s, I was excited, but no, we're back to adding on a lot of extras that destroy what a hybrid is supposed to be about and jack up the price. Which brings me to the next part of my bitchfest - I can't see ever paying $20,000 for a car.

Even in this crappy economy, I could afford to buy a new car, but it still seems like everyone is still producing un-innovating crap. Right now, I'm thinking my next car will be the Fit since it still seems a relatively no-frills vehicle with a clever hook with the way the seats work and has good gas mileage for a non-hybrid, but I'm not excited about it and can just as easily stay happy using my Nissan for long trips and for in-town uses, driving around my side-business' cargo van which, while it does get horrible gas mileage, runs on natural gas and is on a par of being as green as any hybrid out there when you look at the big picture.

I still think that a large part of America is like me and is crying out for relatively cheap, no frill cars that SHOULD be able to get over 50 mpg. The car companies, for whatever reason, don't want to give them to us and keep tossing us these bones like this new Insight. I've been pissed at the Big 3 American companies for a while, and the way things are going, it's going to spill over to companies like Honda and Toyota, who at one time looked like they were going to step up to the plate.

TlalocW

[musiclawyer]

5. That's a good price

and a likely success IF Honda keeps its dealers in line and prohibits overcharging and demanding more than sticker, regardless of demand. Otherwise price/value advantage is lost, and perception is everything. This is a critical launch. Honda can screw it up big time or really get primed to be the Prius Killer. It's up to their management.

[EnviroBat]

6. Why are hybrids such a yawn-fest when it comes to styling?

Even the original Insight looked better than the new one... Geeze Honda. Get with it!

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Because of aerodyniamics

personally my civic is nice looking, but I don't care about the styling when it comes to that

[rollingrock]

12. American vanity

who gives a crap what it likes? the most important thing for the hybrid market is reliability, comfort and economy.

if you want something more stylish, then be prepared to pay thousands more for it. there's always the hybrid Civic, for example.

[Zywiec]

11. Sweet price

Maybe it will be worth the time for a test drive.

I wonder what the availability will be like?

:shrug:

[LisaM]

13. More than $20K for a new car is still pretty expensive

Though a lot of people will pay that without blinking an eye.

It's true that a lot of cars from the 1980s were more fuel efficient. I had an 87 Chevy Nova that consistently got between 40-50 mpg (combined), and I drove it for 20 years, and it never got worse gas mileage. Our newer cars (we bought them used) don't get near that. We bought a used 94 Honda Civic that can't get any better than 26 mpg. And it has no pickup. My Nova was very zippy.

[rollingrock]

17. That's just the MSRP

I bet many buyers will pay well under 20k after haggling with the dealer.

[flvegan]

20. Flappy-paddle shifters w/98 hp?

How F1 of them.

As with any hybrid, I wish them much luck and many sales. The Fit is still a better looking car.