I will just wait and see, There are diesels on the horizon as well. Some with manuals.

Surpise me Honda and I will buy. My cars is a 99 and I am getting ready to buy.

“The mid70s CVCC hatchbacks (1stGen Civics to hit U.S. shores) offered a CVT”

No the “Hondamatic” trans used from ‘76-’79 in the Civic/Accord/Prelude was a two speed “automatic” trans with a torque converter. Not at all related to a “Continuously Variable Ratio” transmission.

The mid70s CVCC hatchbacks (1stGen Civics to hit U.S. shores) offered a CVT. The shifter read:
P
R
N

L

Many Honda ATVs feature CVTs too. I wonder if the 90s difficulties were related to ATV CVTs pressed into automobile service.

Toyota has the formula: make the car practical, and people will buy it. The Civic is not as practical, the GMT900s aren’t as practical, the Insight really isn’t practical.

But for one or two people commuting to work everyday the original Insight was a better and more unique car and focused on it’s fuel economy mission. It was a much more pure car which I like.

I spend about an hour and a half a day commuting at an average speed of 28-30mph. The original Insight was the perfect city car for the purpose it was designed for. A purpose now filled by Smart and there are plenty of Smarts running around here in my city.

If they offered a fully electric version of this vehicle, count me in.

The Prius’s system acts like CVT (and is pretty much indistinguishable while driving it) but it’s purely done with electric motor/generators working against a planetary gear set (epicyclic gear set, in British English).

Yeah, the Prius is way complex.

I’ve owned two Prius’s and I’ve driven the Civic Hybrid and I’d have a Civic Hybrid (or this new as yet unnamed Honda hybrid). All are good.

At least Honda were smart enough to not dream up some other name – though the rumor wagons were such that they were NOT going to use the Insight name, they’d have been fools not to use it – since there is name recognition, and the original 2 seat Insight actually was “first” on the market (by a few scant weeks, I think) ahead of Prius.

Efficient? Not really and definitely
Not fun. The theory of “keeping it on perfect boil,” is just that. a Theory.
Most “fun” engines don’t have the torque curve overlaying the HP curve. The “Fun,” in my world, is launching on torque and peaking at full song on HP. ICE’s are mostly this way, especially the smaller 4V versions and ESPECIALLY Hondas 4’s.

Maybe there are some that see it this differently? I’ve been weaned on motor sports and that’s the universal philosphyy

Only 100K per year? Damn. I predict a waiting list. I was hoping for 200K or more.

As ugly as the Prius is, any improvement is better! :D

But really, a great thing about another car in the market like the Prius is another UAW killer car. Go Honda!

CVTs can be fun to drive, in that they could be programmed to stay right in a powertrain’s zone without losing time during a shift, or climbing back to peak power after doing so. Most CVTs aren’t programmed this way, but it’s not that they couldn’t be.

Take any car with a narrow powerband (the old Celica GTS, Mazda RX-8 or any diesel). Now, imagine them equipped with a transmission that kept the engine on perfect boil, rather than dropping out of or climbing past it. There’s some useful fun, there, even if it’s less involved.

I agree, though, that CVT (of one kind or another) is pretty much the only way to go for a really efficient hybrid. (Note that I say “really efficient,” rather than, “fun to drive.”)

Then bring it on.

Yes, but it only fit two people, not a lot of cargo and was really, really slow. It’s about as misguided an attempt as the GMT900 hybrids are.

Toyota has the formula: make the car practical, and people will buy it. The Civic is not as practical, the GMT900s aren’t as practical, the Insight really isn’t practical.

Honda has been using CVTs in certain vehicles since at least 1995. The current Civic hybrid uses a CVT and it is optional on the non-US market Jazz (Fit).

And while the design is more polarizing than I expected, at the moment it looks like the most attractive design that Honda has put out in quite awhile. I mean, the Accord just left me cold.

It’ll be a CVT, not an auto. Hybrid powertrains (well, good ones) are all about keeping managing the powertrain to maximum efficiency, and you can’t easily do that with fixed gear ratios.

The Prius’ big trick is decoupling generation from motion: the software decides gear ratio, power source (engine, electric motor) and reclamation. You can decide to go slower or faster, but you get no say in what the car does to accomplish that.

Depends on how you define hybrid; it comes in many flavors. It uses a refined version of the IMA hybrid drive and 1.3 engine from the Civic hybrid. Technically, it is a true hybrid, because it does deliver (brief) situations of all-EV mode drive. In reality, it’s best called a (strong version) of “mild hybrid”). For more info, see:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toyota-prius-vs-honda-fit-hybrid/

I predict EPA (Combined) mileage of about 46.