If you really want to do your part to reduce
green house gases and air pollution, then ride a bike and take
public transportation. The next best thing is to drive the Honda
Insight. (After all, you might need a car. It’s America.)
You’ll certainly be hearing a lot of exciting things about
the new set of muscular and flashy hybrids coming out in 2005.
They’ll each offer their own exciting new bells and whistles:
luxury features, enhanced performance, three-prong outlets, and
so on—but
wasn’t the point of hybrids supposed to be great gas mileage?
If saving the atmosphere and reducing our foreign oil dependency
is the reason that you’re thinking about a hybrid—and
you can live with a two-door car—the Insight may be
just the ticket.
Released in 2000 as the first hybrid car to hit the mass market,
the Honda Insight is the undisputed king of fuel efficiency and
low emissions. How would you like to boast 70+ mpg to your friends?
Honda expects to sell more than 50,000 hybrids in 2005: 20,000
Accord Hybrids, 30,000 Civic
Hybrids, and only about 2,000 Insights. With these numbers,
the Insight and its 1.0 liter, 3 cylinder gas engine with a thin,
lightweight electric motor, might not be around forever. Honda
Spokesman Chuck Schifsky told the Chicago Tribune, “We’re
not dropping the Insight yet. We’ll still build it in ’05
and then decide to continue it, replace it, or drop it from
the lineup.”
If you want to have an absolute blast on the
road by driving the hippest (tear-drop futuristic design) and
smartest (ultra-light body with super efficient engine) hybrid
on the road, then think about giving the Insight a try—before
it exits completely from the hybrid stage.
